Anyway, where was I…uh, yes, so I was about to try and create an analogy between poker and marketing. I’ve heard some poker stars say that, ‘Anyone can learn poker, but it takes a lifetime to master’. The same goes for online marketing. Anyone can jump in this space quite easily. They can become a marketing manager and direct a design, hire a team to build an application or even be an ‘SEO Consultant’. But the ultimate question is whether they are driving revenue?

Though I’ve only dabbled in poker myself, there are a few things that stick out in my mind about the good players.

• They are good with numbers
• They know the game inside and out
• They’re very atune to patterns within the game
• They have good instinct (and understand human behavior)
• They’ve got a serious amount of hours logged on a table

With the web, it is very similar. Those who are really good in the online space:

• Know the (online) game inside and out
• They have intimate knowledge of how people use the web
• Very atune to patterns & trends
• They understand the importance of analytics (numbers)
• They have an obscene amount of hours spent online.

In the end, good poker players end up blending their instinct and ability to read people with their grasp of statistics. Some lean towards the ‘feel’ side while others lean towards the ‘numbers’ side. Whether they realy on their intellect or perception, they’ll move towards their stregnth. But the point is that ALL of them have these two primary pieces in common.

The same goes for the web, but online this comes in the form of analytics, and a variety of metrics, whereas with cards it boils down to statistics & probability.

If you are a marketer that isn’t embracing analytics there is a problem. Sure there are a lucky few who have launched a great product at the right time, spent no time measuring anything and become a zillionaire. But if you are an Ad agency, creative design shop or Interactive group you’ll have to embrace the numbers to make a difference.

(Note of caution: As with anything else, too much of something can be bad. Be careful not to get lost in the numbers. This can lead to paralysis by analysis.

While many of us have had great ideas over the years, we have also lost a lot of opportunities for improvement by not paying enough attention to user behavior. Google Analytics, Yahoo Web Analytics and HaveaMint just happen to provide us with these tools free of charge. Despite the fact that analytics is a deep & dark tunnel and has the capability to consume an enormous amount of hours, there is some very valuable information within.

In the end though the equation is simple. You need to get your website visitors to do what you want them to. If you do this on a consistent basis, you will never lack of clients.

The key is to effectively blend your intuition with data.

Yes, I realize that in some cases the store might have to pay for certain transactions and not the other (but this begs the question, ‘why ask the question in the first place?’). There are also consumers that will freak out about typing in their pin # for their debit card and would prefer to validate their identity with the person behind the counter checking their ID. Still, this strikes me as a great example (albeit a small one) of a non-digital study in user experience.

Here’s some random thoughts that come to mind:

• My guess is that more than 50% of people don’t care (i.e. ‘ just swipe the darn card’ mentality)
• This question, to me, gets annoying after a while.
• The store would be better served by instead asking something customer service oriented. (How’s your day going?)
• People don’t like to think during a routine purchase.
• Neither do consumers like to fiddle with non-standard buttons, touch pads, little plastic pointers, finger or no finger, green button or ‘yes’ button.
• By just swiping the customer’s card and not asking, the store is simplifying the purchase.
• At the end of a Starbucks purchase, I’m relieved that it was so quick and painless.

I guess that what I’m ultimately getting at here is that little things count. And I know that Starbucks spends a LOT of time focusing on these little things. Speaking of which, have a look at Starbucks’ customer-focused idea site: mystarbucksidea.force.com. Another small customer-service gem is how they personalize the process of selling a coffee – where they call you out by first name when your drink is ready.

Anyway, I think Starbucks has it right. And I think this applies to all things online or offline. That is, if we don’t need to ask a question, don’t. If we don’t need to add that page or section, don’t. If we don’t need to add a graphic…don’t.

Just ‘swipe the card’ and instead focus on customer service.

Both Ken and Barbie are very similar in nature. Each possesses a natural propensity to succeed, have a strong work ethic and want to grow their businesses. In the past, both have worked with and had less than desirable experiences with web designers and developers, so as they look to enter the online environment with their new projects, they are trying to be more efficient.

In any case, they both need:

1. A solid Internet marketing strategy
2. A website that is built around their online strategy
3. to Drive traffic
4. to generate online sales

There is one major difference between Ken & Barbie’s mindsets. Ken thinks that he needs to exercise greater control over his next project because of his experience with less than stellar web designers and developers in the past. With this control, he’ll ensure that the website is built, designed and laid out exactly as he wants it. He understands that conversions and sales will translate to online success – especially if he is intimately involved with each phase.

Ken knows that he can build his new vision on the cheap and is reaching out to ‘find a coder’ type websites and understands that he can easily get in touch with an offshore team via Craigslist to keep his costs way down. After all, his niece is 14 years old and had designed her own website so why not keep costs to the bare minimum?

Barbie on the other hand, believes that she can become successful online but only if she has all the right people in place. She knows that she’ll need a designer and developer to build her website, but that she also needs a team that really understands the online space to make her idea work.

Here’s why Barbie stands a much higher chance of succeeding than Ken though they both possess the same skills sets.

• Barbie is more likely start her questions with, ‘What is the most effective way to…” versus “Here’s what we’re going to do…”
• Barbie doesn’t care if she doesn’t understand terminology or all the latest trends, but she’s determined to learn as much as she can whilst forming a relationship with a good Internet marketing team. (Ken won’t ask questions about what he doesn’t understand. Ken’s the man with the plan, so why would he need outside consulting?)
• Barbie wants to bring in someone who has a thorough understanding of the online space, is willing to take the time to understand her business vision in order to reach deeper into the US market.
• Barbie believes that in order for her online business to succeed she needs an effective blend of creative design, web development, online marketing and analytics. Most importantly, she understands that all must be given equal weight.

1 Year Later

Ken has actually been faster to launch his program. He hired a team in India for $12/hr and got his new site up fairly quickly. He’s already started some pay-per-click efforts and driving some traffic to his new site.

Barbie launches her site a few months later and feels comfortable with the Internet agency she hired. Her site has little traffic but she’s already generating consistent online sales and is about to start her traffic driving campaign once her team shores up various bug fixes and improvements.

18 Months

Ken has double the traffic than Barbie’s site but is getting nervous because he has few online sales. India can’t keep up with Ken’s requests so he fires them and switches back to a local web designer and developer in the U.S. Ken is now re-thinking the entire site and isn’t very happy that he may have to re-do his entire website, content management system and online strategy.

Barbie at 18 months is starting to see significant results. Her team had challenges of their own but were able to come up with solutions on the fly given the increasing number of online sales. Not only is she happy with her web team, she’s turned over much of the consulting and management of the website to them, given their familiarity with her business goals. She’s adding more players to the mix and ramping up additional online marketing spend.

Paying close attention to analytics and cost of conversion, she is able to make accurate spending decisions. Additionally she’s making enough money and realizes that she won’t need a second round of investment. Her customers are starting to spread the word about her products via Social Media and her online business is taking off.

Two Years Later

Ken ends up firing his web team in the U.S. (again) – much to their relief. He spends the next six months trying to assemble another team to manage his current site but no one is willing to do it for the price he wants to pay. Ken is a trooper though and despite difficult lessons learned he realizes that he needs to do more homework and really immerse himself in the online industry.

Ken pushes on but it is becoming evident to him that he’s spent triple the amount he thought he would and that he could have hired a seasoned US team from the start, and for less than he’s already spent.

On a whim, Ken attends and Internet Marketing Conference – where Barbie Roberts is the featured guest speaker. Ken has heard of her online boutique figures it wouldn’t hurt to hear a little more about Barbie’s success story. (not to mention he thinks she is hot after seeing a picture of her in a popular magazine recently)

Meanwhile, Barbie has a full ‘online staff’ and is still using the original team that built her site and constructed their online marketing plan. The business has gained enough traction and is confident with her team so that she’s able to have more time to herself. She dreams of meeting the right guy and settling down one day…

We all know what happens next. Ken and Barbie meet at her web conference and fall madly in love. Barbie gives Ken the contact information for the agency that helped that get her company off the ground. The rest is history. Ken gets the girl, Barbie is no longer lonely and the agency gets a new client.

The moral of the story you ask?

“Just do the damn thing right from the start.”

You’ll save time, resources, money and have a better product.

So often, we tend to focus on the end results before we even start; be it a website, campaign, online marketing…etc. Clients tend to pay less attention to the process and the many small variables that a good designer, consultant or developer brings to the table. But this is a very difficult concept to get across to the a prospective client. You’re essentially trying to sell them on your experience and it ends up sounding like something that Chris Farley might have said in the movie Tommy Boy.

This came to light recently when a client insisted that a Facebook Ad look a certain way. They insisted that the itty bitty ad that they wanted have writing on it, i.e. name of company, website..etc. I tried to tell them that this wouldn’t be readable for the user and they’d be much better off with something simpler and that they should rely on the text below the add for any details. I mean, what would we know – we’ve only been doing this forever.

So, the we placed their ad up. But the story doesn’t end there.

To prove a point, we kept the other ad to and served it as well without the client knowing (and we paid out of pocket to see how our ad would perform). Lo and behold, our Ad returned 700 percent higher click-through rate than theirs. We mentioned this to the client and they said something to the effect of oh, yea..we wanted ‘our’ designer to do the work because they ‘understand’ our style and brand. Huh?

Every time I think about this my heart starts beating just a tad bit faster until I calm the mind with some ‘Buddy The Elf’ truisms that I keep handy. All kidding aside though, I come across countless small experiences where experience can help a client, increase campaign performance, drive online sales, increase leads for websites but most of them tend to fall into the ‘intangible’ category – things that aren’t easily tracked and things that are done without the client even knowing.

This concept of  ‘many small things’ become evident when working with a good developer who understand usability. A good developer will create small elements, enforce logic and simplify based on experience that eventually enhances the user experience (and eventual success of a website). Nearly all of these things will go unnoticed by clients.

So how do we compare how a site is built, versus how a site would have been built if the client moved in  a different direction?

I guess it really boils down to good communication with the client and in making sure that we focus on analytics. In the end, success online comes from the proper execution of many small elements. If we can show companies results at the end of the day maybe the details should remain the intangible things that make up a good marketing team, dev or design team?

Produced by Scofield Editorial, Inc.

Casting Agency: Artistic Enterprises
Casting Director: Michelle Moore