What the Heck is "Web 2.0"?

Chances are you've heard references to Web 2.0 and either ignored it ("my CIO will tell me if I need to know about it") or researched a bit and found mostly more confusion couched in bleeding-edge jargon.

Here's a "mind map" created by Markus Angermeier that may shed a little light on things for the geekier sorts out there (click to see larger version you can actually read). If you're really geekin', you'll want to explore the version annotated with links.

Web 2.0 is usually employed as a sexy label to stick on some new (or seemingly new) web service or product.

It's used to refer to a bewildering variety of new (or newly-buzzworthy) websites, applications and internet user behavior, most of which have something to do with "social networks"(LinkedIn, MySpace, Friendster) or "cool stuff you can do with only a browser" (Google Maps, Flikr, WebEx) or "easy ways to publish my thoughts to the world" (blogs, wikis, podcasts).

Many of these are being touted to marketers as new ways to directly or indirectly reach consumers who have learned to tune out advertising. For retailers, it's often as simple as realizing that they need to leverage the power of their consumers' voice if they want to stay competitive.

The Power of Unexpected Context

This is a great article on MarketingProfs.com that you must read. Want to stand out from the clutter? Delight customers in unexpected ways.

SEO Sweatshops

Here are a few things to keep in mind the next time you get a call from someone who says they will get your website to the top of the search engines for only $52 a month.

If it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is

Getting your website to appear near the top of searches for terms that actually matter to your business is generally a time-consuming process. Of course, I could wave my magic marketing wand and get your site ranked #1 in Google for "Iberian Bamboo Dining Table Set From China", but will it do your business any good? No.

If the approach is high-pressure, and you hear lots of other telemarketers pitching in the background, run away.

SEO is too important to make a snap decision based on pressure tactics from some poor slob reading a script from a bullpen in some office basement in Florida.

If they try to buffalo you by throwing around jargon like "paid inclusion" and "metatags", get them to send you something that describes their offering in detail.

If the description they send is as filled with vague description as their phone pitch, don't do business with them. These kind of outfits prey on the insecurities of small to medium size business owners with their aggressive telemarketing approach. They may not do damage to your business, but it's unlikely they're going to help it much, because most of them focus on discredited approaches or on "selling" you things you can get yourself for free or at a lower cost.

Dayparting For The Rest Of Us

I am loving the newly-introduced Google Ad Scheduling feature. In typical Google fashion, it was easy to set up and I had one of our clients up and running in about 15 minutes.

What is it? Dayparting means bidding different amounts at different times for paid search ads. If you know what days and times the most sales happen on your website, you can move your spending around to ensure your ad is front and center when most customers are searching, and conserve your funds at other times.

This is a feature previously available mostly through high-end SEM firms with the resources to develop a custom application through the Google API. Now even small advertisers can do it. It'll be interesting to see how popular Ad Scheduling becomes, and how it will change the PPC dynamic over the next 6 months.

Don't Tell Me, Show Me!

Verbs are much more powerful at persuading someone than adjectives. Many of my clients think that the logical next step after you've gathered basic product data is to "flower it up" with a lot of adjectives. This column from today's GrokDotCom newsletter (How Verbs Help You Convert) clearly describes a better way.

Thinking Big

Great column by Al Ries on AdAge.com called Why Small Marketers Need to Reach for the Stars. I especially like Al's admonition to keep a narrow focus. Worth reading.

Are You Speaking Your Customers' Language?

Give customers the information they need using their words, not yours.

It's easy to fall into the trap of assuming customers will understand you because your co-workers do. Customers aren't interested in how things are done your company or your industry. Customers just want know know "what's in it for me". Ignore this and you WILL lose sales to competitors.

I just gave a development company an RFP to redesign a client's website. I'd spoken with them at length about what we wanted, and I included further detail with my RFP.

Yesterday I got their proposal and was surprised to see that none of the key features I'd specified were mentioned in it. Instead of moving me closer to buying, the proposal left me doubting if they could in fact deliver what I'd asked for.

I'd just started the search for another developer when they called. 30 minutes later I was comfortable that they could in fact do the job. The rep admitted that he'd simply plugged their standard descriptions of features into their proposal document, descriptions which were useless to me.

That's a second chance you don't often get. Are you telling your customers what they need to hear in the words they'd use themselves?

When You Assume...

Are you putting yourself in your customers' shoes? If not, you're throwing away sales every day.

Here's a good example. Yesterday I purchased an upgraded subscription to an online service I use. I noticed that they offered the ability to turn off the "auto-renew" feature, so that my credit card wouldn't be automatically charged for another 6 months at the end of the term.

I thought that was a good and ethical thing to do, and so I chose that option. Next thing I knew, I was seeing a page that said they were sorry I'd chosen to end my subscription, and that I'd still have access for the next 6 months.

I thought I was simply choosing a payment option that appealed to me, and they were automatically assuming I wanted to cancel, minutes after I upgraded my subscription!

Instead, they could have shown me a page thanking me for changing my payment preference and assuring me that they would send a reminder email when my 6 months was nearly over.

Look at your site and make sure you aren't making similarly bad assumptions about your customers' intentions.

Transfer of Enthusiasm

It's been said that successful selling requires the transfer of enthusiasm. Genuine enthusiasm is infectious, like laughter. Make me enthusiastic about your product and chances are I'll want to buy it from you.

Mainly you do this with your copy. After I'm pretty well convinced that this is the product for me, what's the final bit of persuasion you're dangling in front of me?

Add to Cart
Add to Shopping Cart
Put in Shopping Bag

Woo-hoo, I'm jazzed! Uh, not really.

Maybe you should try something else to see if it has an impact. I tried unconventional "add to cart" language for a client recently and it's working very well indeed. Today Nick Usborne is recommending the same idea in his Marketing Profs column The 'Tail' of the Headline: Rethinking the Call to Action.