The reservation page was simply laid out with not a lot of distracting elements. Basic questions.

Naturally, after filling out the form, I received an automated email thanking me for the reservation..etc. What I didn’t realize is that someone would actually pay attention to the details of the form. This impressed the hell out of me and prompted me to write this blog post.

To provide a little backdrop. I’ve been email marketing for 14 years. Yes, before there were 8 million email marketing systems to choose from there was Excel and Microsoft Outlook (and plenty of copying/pasting). I started by simply sending out basic emails to an Excel (manual) database. Later, I would test multiple systems as they came out, build our own custom systems and continue to send out hundreds of thousands of email (yes, opt-in) for our clients every year.

More often than not, spending the amount of time I do with various digital marketing practices, I am highly critical of corporate Internet Marketing practices as they are often poorly constructed, lack an effective blend of design and usability and are (at best) minimally effective. Should I tell you how I really feel? Anyway, Ruth’s Chris paid attention to detail and made sure that the little radio button that said “Anniversary” next to it was attached to this reservation.

So we show up the restaurant at 7:15, right on time. I had completely forgotten about the form I had filled out and was a little confused when the hostess said Happy Anniversary. I thought to myself, ‘umm, were we radiating some kind of love aura that she picked up on?’. Anyway, we said ‘Thank You’, but didn’t think much of it. So next we arrived at our table and there were Rose Petals laid out all over the table. Me, being a master of detail and fine points, had no idea that this was the only table in the restaurant with rose petals all over it. My wife noticed however and (I later found out) she was quite proud of me that I took the time to do something a little extra for our special night.

Shortly thereafter I realized that it was simply the result of a newsletter and a click of a radio button that had created these ‘romantic extras’. I haven’t yet revealed to her that these comments and rose petals did not originate from yours truly, but she will see this blog post.

So, Honey, I love you and Happy 10th Anniversary, but I have to pass some credit to Ruth’s Chris for paying attention to detail and effectively blending their digital efforts with customer service.

Our objective is to dramatically increase the quality of information in the world, via the feedback loop of crowd-sourced peer review. Think: Inverting Wikipedia and taking it out to the rest of the Internet (but with a better reputation model.)

We think this is humanity’s biggest challenge and that solving it is within our collective grasp.

The model of Hypothes.is is further explained in Dan’s intro video.

Note how Hypothes.is differentiates themselves from WikiPedia which Dan refers to as a, “Top-down editorial Bureaucracy”. Separating themselves from WikiPedia will naturally be a challenge for them – even if what they are doing is fundamentally different. Perception is still reality.

Nevertheless, Dan is an experienced Silicon Valley elite. He booked the first travel reservation in his living room – the software he built would eventually become a part of GetThere – a company that was purchased by Sabre Corporation in August of 2000, for 757 MM.  Why do I know all this you ask? Well, that’s where ‘yours truly’ had his start. In fact, GetThere is the reason that I was able to start my own business.  Do I have faith in Dan the man? Absolutely, as he – by way of fate and circumstance – allowed me to start Jivaldi.

So what does a startup do when it needs money and doesn’t want to be tied into Venture Capital right away? Well, it uses a service like Kickstarter. Kickstarter describes itself as the, “World’s largest funding platform for creative projects”.

Kickstarter allows companies to move away from investment or lending – allowing project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Sounds nice eh? I guess it then just boils down to having a good idea – one that will get family, friends and beyond to make a donation.

How can anyone argue Free money?

Good luck Dan & Team!

Probably one of the more amusing ads we’ve seen in a long time.  An ad from John Nolan films that went viral in Europe in 2010 but is making its way throughout the US now.

Apparently Nolan trained said mouse for the opening shots but used animatronics for the rest. “The rat was actually a robot I made covered in silicon. It still had its real hair and nails of a dead rat, but I had to punch this in individually into the synthetic skin, a bit like how hair transplants work.”

So what’s really cool about this video is that they feature their in-catalog products within the video and turn it into a little story. Slightly corny perhaps, but why spend tens of thousands on a in-studio shoot? The video does its job and it does it well. Turn it on full screen while your young kids are around and you’ll see what I mean. And they won’t think it’s too long.

Next up, the product pages. (see live example)

Notes:

• Simple interface with key product info.
• They don’t bombard the user with too much description.
• They cross-sell with other related products (fog liquid in this case)
• They provide audio and video examples of individual products! (see product video below)

So why go through all this effort for Halloween? Well, first the US Candy Industry is worth $20 billion. $6 billion of that comes from sales of decorations, candy, costumes, cards…etc leading up to Halloween.

The point here is that GrandinRoad just gets it. They know the market. They know their customer. And most importantly they know how to effectively blend their direct marketing (Print) efforts with their online efforts.  Though I see things that I would like to adjust that would further refine their efforts (i.e.  redesign their Halloween Haven landing page),  this website is a very good example of how to support offline efforts with relevant and engaging product info and story-telling. Oh and they also have their Twitter and Facebook accounts in support as well.

Well done GrandinRoad! Though I’m not sure if it’s me or my 3 kids who are getting more enjoyment out of this catalog and website.

For a bigger picture view of the Candy & Halloween industry in the US, check out the infographic below from CreditLoan. The only thing I question is the Candy Corn info – 20 million pounds consumed per year? How can this be given that it is the worst candy ever created!

Certainly, not all terms are this expensive but gone are the days where you pay in cents. You can pretty much bet that to compete in your industry you’ll be paying a couple dollars per click at minimum.

Can you afford advertising?

We recently had a client at Jivaldi paying upwards of $32 per click in the law industry, but it’s easy to get over-focused on the cost regardless of what industry you are in. In the end, advertising is all about the return. If you can generate a return on investment, the cost isn’t so painful anymore.

A key take-away point to remember is that you can tackle advertising yourself but 9 times out of 10 businesses do not have the time or resources to do it right. And this is where the agency comes in.

Suzanne Choney, MSNBC (Via WordStream)

Click on the image above or read it and weep (below).

1. Insurance, $54.91
2. Loans, $44.28
3. Mortgage, $47.12
4. Attorney, $47.07
5. Credit, $36.06
6. Lawyer, $42.51
7. Donate, $42.02
8. Degree, $40.61
9. Hosting, $31.91
10. Claim, $45.51
11. Conference Call, $42.05
12. Trading, $33.19
13. Software, $35.29
14. Recovery, $42.03
15. Transfer, $29.86
16. Gas/Electricity, $54.62
17. Classes, $35.04
18. Rehab, $33.59
19. Treatment, $37.18
20. Cord Blood, $27.80

And on the sharing site we have AddThis – which has an obscene amount of options for people to share (way too much in our opinion).

All of these tools are great, but what happens when we become sharing obsessed? See below.

The irony here is that Mashable is probably one of the most shared and followed sites in the digital industry. But this just goes to show that we can all get a little too obsessed in our quest to become a sought-after source of information.

Mashable, you are in no danger of losing readership, just simplify and make it a little easier for your readers.

1. Cost = Advertising spend + Volume of work

You and your business partners have probably put in an enormous amount of time and effort into building your website or app. And utilizing good old-fashioned hard work, you may have accomplished a lot with minimal expenses.

So the first thing to understand here is that even though we’d all like to see the project go viral, the reality of the situation is that it will take a while to build up a user base. So if you are looking to build this user base with online marketing there will be costs associated with this.

And while the holy grail of marketing is when users start to share your application or service with their friends – reaching a mystical critical mass where ‘the people’ end up marketing the app for you – the fact of the matter is that you’ll need to work hard (and spend money) to get the first generation of users in your door.

So what does that cost?

Let’s just break it down simply. Here is a list of typical services that digital marketing agencies charge for:

1. Consulting
2. Creative Deliverables
3. Development Deliverables
4. Advertising Fees
5. Retainer

So keep in mind that there are different ways that an agency will get paid so it’s important to choose the right team to ensure that your spend creates a strong ROI. No one wants to spend money for the sake of spending; however, when you select the right agency (one that is well aligned with your goals) you will benefit greatly in the long run. Aside from their hourly or project rates, if there is advertising involved the agency will typically charge either a percentage of your advertising spend (plus any consulting or creative services they provide) or offer a monthly retainer.

It will help both parties if clear objectives are laid out and there is a solid understanding of what needs to be done, what will be charged, and the overall goals of the project. Maintaining focus on key objectives and measuring this performance will allow both sides to determine how the campaign is performing and make ongoing adjustments to the campaign.

2. Offering a Piece of Your Business

Some start-up clients want to offer a ‘piece of the pie’ – or the agency’s work in exchange for profit share. The agency may consider this if they think you are the next Facebook, but in most cases the firm you are speaking with have already been down this road before and will not be open to this scenario. Don’t be discouraged however when they look at your product objectively. They may not be jumping up and down screaming when you ‘reveal’ your product to them but if you have a good product and develop a solid relationship with the agency they will want to perform for you and make you come back for more.

Though you’ve poured your heart and soul into this project, it will come down to business when working with the advertising firm. They naturally will need to turn a profit and the ultimate goal is a win-win situation for both client and agency. There is another payment scenario referred to as, ‘Pay per Performance’, but that is a topic that goes beyond this blog post.

3. Who is the Expert Here?

Most companies will want to know whether the agency has ‘worked within their industry before?’ – and are concerned with how much experience the agency within this industry. Fair enough, but the agency will tend to view this from a different angle. Conversely, they agency will want to know if the company has worked with a marketing firm before and whether they have experience in this regard. This is equally as important to the agency.

The client knows that if the agency is familiar with their industry they won’t have to explain how things work and that this inside knowledge will help them be more effective when reaching out to prospective customers. This is a logical mindset, no doubt. But digital agencies feel that whether they are promoting a person, product, service or idea, the fundamentals of marketing remain the same. So to the agency, the idea and practices involved when promoting a financial product is very similar to, say a clothing line. The important part is knowing who to reach out to (the customer) and getting them to either purchase a product or fill out an interest form. Both sides are correct.

Education goes both ways.

The client needs to bring their expertise to the table as it pertains to their industry while the agency brings their specific knowledge and experience. When these two experiences are efficiently married, good things happen. It is important that both sides defer to the other when it comes to their specific body of knowledge.

4. “Willing to spend, but after we see results!”

Oftentimes, the client is seeking an agency after they’ve already built their site or application. After much work, they realize that they need traffic and users. Yet, the client is very hesitant to spend advertising dollars when they don’t know what the return will be. This mindset is perfectly understandable, but it won’t necessarily fly within the advertising world.

The first thing to understand here is that the process of driving traffic, leads and conversions is not a linear process. Think of an Internet advertising and marketing strategy as a fluid and dynamic game that changes constantly. The ability to make adjustments during the campaign is crucial. As the agency moves forward, the results will tend to get better over time, building and creating success. The company hiring the agency needs to understand that traction could take a few months. For example, Facebook advertising could be very effective, or not. PPC could yield positive results while display advertising falls flat (or vise versa).

It is during this period of time where the company (and agency) becomes more familiar with the target demographic, the competition, what it will cost to get the traffic and most importantly, how much it will take to convert the traffic. This takes time to understand and is typically why agencies will offer a test campaign.

The beauty of online advertising is that in many cases you can turn it on or off at any time. This is both a blessing and a curse. Turn it off too soon and you won’t have the data needed to make adjustments, learn patterns or tweak the campaign. So if the company is spending $xxxxx dollars the first month and bows out because of a mediocre performance in the first month, they could be missing out considerably on a natural rise in performance from fine-tuning that the agency can provide.

Understanding consumer behavior within a given market takes time and this is what we refer to as an absorption process for both the client and agency. Necessary adjustments, testing (a/b) and ability to course-correct throughout a campaign is crucial to performance. This means, that the client will need to be patient and watch closely for improving results even though they may not see the ROI they are looking for the first month. This is why test campaigns are set up to monitor performance so the client doesn’t feel locked in to a long term contract.

If the company is expecting to sell tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of product each month, a clear understanding and realistic ROI will need to be established. In other words, if you are trying to sell $30k of product each month, you may want to reconsider that budget of $1000/month you’ve been thinking about.

5. Preparation and natural project evolution

The project requirements, direction and scope will change over time. You can count on that. With this comes fluctuation in what you will need to spend to get the product out the door and market it. It can be difficult for an agency to forecast expenses until they have a clear understanding of what the finished product will be, especially if we are involved in the creative or development process.

Agencies will often field questions like, “We have a website and an iPad app that we want to build. How much will this cost?”. The agency then asks the client for a project overview document or detailed outline and they are told that nothing is on paper yet.

Do take the time to put your ideas down on paper even if they are in a bullet point format.

Not having any documentation or plan in writing is a red flag for an agency because it tells them that the client isn’t yet ready to hire an agency. It is important that the client has a clear understanding of who the app is for, how it will be built, the value that it brings to the consumer, the target market, how to get the user to keep coming back, the competition..etc. The agency can certainly provide consulting services as well to help create this project game plan, but it is important that some general information is provided to help the agency familiarize themselves with the project.

6. Function vs. Design

If the user needs instructions on how to use your app or website, it may need to be rebuilt. And while the site and or application doesn’t need to win any design awards, it needs to be intuitive and easy on the eyes. Design is way too often overlooked – cast off as being an unnecessary ‘bells and whistle’ approach to a good app.

Handing a poorly designed website or product off to an agency and then asking them to advertise and market it will put the agency in a bad position. They may be reluctant to tell the client that it needs to be redesigned. And even if they do, the client will simply think that they are trying to add $ to the project.

Beautiful, usable or both?

MySpace had the social networking world at its finger tips, and yet it was an utter mess from the start (both design and usability) which played a key role in its demise. Facebook on the other hand isn’t exactly beautifu, but it is usable. And Apple products?…well they seem to get it right all of the time. Beauty + Design + Usability = Apple products.

It’s not that a website or app has to be beautiful to be usable, but if it lacks in design and usability then it will be very challenging to keep people using it – even if we’ve gotten them to install it or try it out. This is an all-to-common scenario for businesses and start-ups that are entering into a new arena. They may have a good product and a market that has a need for said product, but they can’t get people to use and adopt it. And this is exactly the point where engineers (albeit reluctantly) must hand off their product to designers and usability experts.

Underneath the face of the application there are two very important attributes to design. They are User Interface (or GUI) as well as the User Experience (UX) – both of which are close in relationship to design. To an agency, the lines between design, development and user experience are very narrow. All must be working harmoniously together. Agencies will expect this and hence their push towards a good design. Remember the point above though, if you ask a marketing agency to advertise a poorly designed product it can make them look like the bad guys when they come back and suggest that you should re-think the structure, layout or look and feel of the app. So just remember, the agency wants the product to do well. Be sure and let them have their say.

7. Getting traffic, new users & keeping them.

This is probably the most common of all oversights that we see. Despite having seen the movie the ‘The Social Network’ and realizing the vast potential of the web, you’ll need to work hard to get users unless you have a lot of money to throw at this. Furthermore, you’ll need users that ‘continue’ to use your application. So you may want to devote some time to this strategy before you spend a lot of money building the app.

• To gain visibility you’ll need traffic.
• To gain market share, you’ll need users.
• To gain loyalty you need users to adopt your app.
• To make money, these users will need to tell their friends about it.

Outside of getting users to ‘try’ your app, the toughest part of all comes next. You’ll need them to *adopt* the service, application or tool that you have built. Having lots of initial users are great, but until they use your product on a regular basis and start telling their friends about it can be tough going and many months of work will be needed. It can take up to two years or more to acquire enough users to gain steam. Don’t let this discourage you – it’s just that it takes some time.

• First, if your site sucks and this is evident in the preview – you won’t be able to hide it.
• Design and Layout become even more important (First impression).
• Simple, clean layouts may be rewarded with this feature.
• A Landing Page will, in many cases, have an advantage over sending a user to a home page.
• Showing up #1 for your PPC ad may not mean as many clicks as before.
• Increases relevance of  PPC Advertising

On its Inside AdWords blog, Google says: “By allowing potential customers to preview your site before they arrive, Instant Previews helps you get even more highly qualified traffic to your site,”

Me wonders if this PPC Preview will remain FREE??

Google tags was a means for a small business to stand out a little bit by paying an extra $25 per month to have a little yellow tag next to their listing as seen below. When other competitors didn’t have it, your ad would most likely stand out a bit.

Google Places is so competitive and important for small businesses, this comes as a bit of surprise especially given that it served to monetize a product for Google that was otherwise Free. We had an earlier post about some big changes that occurred in local search – this seems as just another step by Google in the ever-changing search market.

I’m sure that Google will find a way to monetize Places if they want to. In the opinion of a humble agency such as Jivaldi, Google Places is a very significant product for small businesses. According to the email sent out to Places users below, Google seems to be placing more emphasis on their Google Boost product.

In any case, Google owns the local search market and will continue to dominate this realm for the foreseeable future. Stay tuned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Google Places user,

At Google, we’re always working to innovate and improve ways for small businesses to get online and reach more customers. At times, though, we have to decide where to focus our efforts and which technologies we expect will yield the most benefit to users and businesses like you in the long run.

In that spirit, we are retiring Google Tags for all users on April 29, 2011. No action is required on your part, and your Places account and listing will continue to work as usual. Effective today, no new tags can be created, but all active tags will keep running to the end of April for free.

In your Places account, you’ll be able to see billing history until July 31st. If your tag is active, performance data will be available from now until May 31st. Historical performance data of inactive tags will be available in your dashboard starting May 2nd until May 31st.

You can visit our blog post and our Help Center for more information. There are still a number of options for you to reach more customers online, including our latest product for local businesses, Google Boost. Through the month of May, we are offering Tags customers like you $100 to try out Google Boost. Call 877-503-0841 Monday to Friday 8am-6pm to redeem your credit.

Thank you for trying Google Tags.

Sincerely,

The Google Places Team