We have all seen those offer pages online which include some kind of deadline. “Save 25% if you buy before midnight today!” Or, “Only 15 remaining...buy now!”

Adding urgency to a sales page works. There is no doubt about that.

However, using urgency to increase conversion rates should not be used as a blunt instrument to drive sales.

When your purpose is too obvious, you can lose of a lot of credibility.

In our next teleconference call, on July 5th at 4:00PM, we’ll be sharing some data on the use of urgency, and offering some advice on how to use this approach with forethought and care.

You can sign up for the free call here.

In a recent New York Times article new figures are in on projected spends across the major TV networks. The figures are down again, and everyone seems to be pointing the finger at new media.

It’s understandable that budgets are being moved over to the web and associated media. The web is a direct response medium and companies like to be able to measure the return on their marketing dollars.

However, whenever I read about less money being spent on broadcast media, I ask myself this question: Why aren’t more TV ads being used to drive traffic to online landing pages?

To date there have been numerous attempts to use commercials to build awareness of site home pages. But how about using 15-second spots to direct viewers to a specific landing page with its own, easy-to-remember domain name?

I have seen this tactic used from time to time, mainly by smaller companies at off-peak times.

But if more large companies tested and tracked this approach, they might be persuaded to maintain their network budgets...to support and complement new media.

As online marketing becomes more and more complex and competitive, so too does the need to test.

If you don’t test, how do you know how much money you are leaving on the table? How can you know the true potential of your business online if you never challenge the performance of the pages you have right now?

With just one of our research partners, a major publisher of e-newsletters, a series of tests led us to increase their subscription rate by several hundred percent.

If we hadn’t tested, we would never have known how best to optimize that subscription pathway. And our partner would have a site that would be underperforming to an astonishing degree.

The more we talk and write about testing, and the more students we enroll for our online certification course, the more we see that a major concern for many marketers is the issue of test validity.

It seems that many online marketers shy away from testing simply because they are not confident in the results, and don’t want to make mistakes.

Their fears are well founded, because the worst scenario when testing is to generate a set of results and act on them...without realizing that your data is invalid.

We are working to address this concern in a couple of ways.

First, we will soon be publishing a research brief on the topic of validity, and sharing the results in a teleconference call.

Also, for marketers who are serious about planning, implementing and analyzing online tests, and want to be 100% confident in the validity of the results, we are running our next online testing certification course beginning on July 20th, 2006.

Over the last several months we have gone through our research data and found that offline support of web sites can make a significant impact not only on site traffic, but also on conversion rates.

In one set of results we saw how press releases and mentions in major media can generate a very noticeable spike on site activity and sales. You can find out more about this in our Press Releases Tested research brief.

More recently we have seen how offline publicity can give new life to sites which are otherwise seeing a steady decline in conversion rates.

While occasional mentions in the media may not reverse an overall decline in the performance of a site, their impact is a reminder that online marketing plans should always involve offline support. (More on Conversion Erosion here.)

Please download the Essential Metrics dashboard tool here

These are the notes for our interactive May 10 clinic on Landing Pages. The recording of the event will be posted here in a few days.

If you are participating in the live teleclinic, we will ask you to refresh your page several times through the call as we add data and other notes.

In this clinic we cut through the clutter and show you how to:

1. Understand where and how your current metrics could be misleading and result in flawed marketing decisions.
2. Identify and track the metrics which are essential to reducing your costs and increasing your revenues.
3. Use a simple, Essential Metrics Dashboard that will enable you to track the metrics that are most important to achieving your goals.

KEY POINT: Relying on inaccurate metrics can give you a very misleading picture of the performance of your site and adversely effect future marketing decisions.

To ensure you are seeing accurate metrics, follow these simple guidelines:

• Don't rely only on metrics from a PPC engine or any other third-party provider. Always use a back up web analytics solution to verify the data.
• Choose an appropriate tracking solution based on your site technology. And, if your cart resides on a different server, make sure you use a tracking program that can follow the link.
• Run and compare results from tracking solutions built on different technologies. (For instance, compare your log file analyzers vs. a javascript solution.)

KEY POINT: In spite of enormous advances in all areas of online technology, at this time there is no single service, product or solution that can be relied upon to give you totally reliable metrics. By using two or three different solutions, you can compare results and at least identify where you have problems.

>> Step 1: Establish a baseline by calculating both the cost and yield of each desired action on your site Calculating cost and yield per interaction on your site can be achieved very simply by answering the following questions:

1. How much does it cost to get a single desired interaction at your site - be that a visit, a sale or a subscription?
2. What is the value to you of each interaction?

This can be expresssed with a short formula:

• CPx is the cost per desired interaction
• YPx is the yield per visit

YPx-CPx then gives you a revenue figure for each visit to your site.

X is the variable, representing the desired interaction, which might simply be a visit, or it might be a sale, a referral, a phone call or a subscription.

To calculate the cost per interaction you need to list all the difference sources of your traffic, as each source will have different costs associated with it.

These traffic sources include:

• PPC Advertising
• CPM advertising
• Paid Directory listings
• Affiliate relationships
• Other partner relationships
• Search Engine Optimization
• The publication of one or more newsletters

It is important to remember that although some sources of traffic may not appear to have a hard cost in terms of price per click or exposure, they will likely cost you in time spent by your staff or in fees from outside suppliers. This will certainly be the case for search engine optimization, for example.

>> Step 2: Identify those metrics that are most likely to impact both the cost and yield of your visitors.

Once you have a clear idea of your cost and yield per desired interaction, you need to start tracking those metrics which can help you identify where improvements can be made.

For instance, if you track from the source of traffic all the way through to sales, you will be able to identify the traffic sources that gives you the highest ROI and look for ways to get more of the same quality of traffic.

The exact metrics you focus on will vary according to your business. A site selling hard goods may find their key metrics are different from a company selling subscriptions, for instance.

:: When you cut through all the confusion, there are really only four elements you can measure:

• The AMOUNT of activity on your site - page views, visitor sessions, returning visitors, etc.
• The SOURCE of that activity - referrers, search terms, languages, countries, organizations, etc.
• The NATURE of that activity - entry pages, exit pages, browsers, platforms, JavaScript versions, cookie support, screen resolutions, page refreshes, page load errors, average time per page, etc.
• The RESULTS of that activity - click trails, most requested pages, number of page views, signups, orders, etc.

Based on the metrics described above, the tool records CPx and YPx in three areas:

Past Performance, Current Performance and Goals.

Learn from the MEC Research Team How to Test and Optimize Your Website Become Professionally Certified in Online Testing! The next certification course is starting on July 15. If you have not yet enrolled, and are planning to, you may do so here.

As online marketers we often pay lip service to “meeting customer needs”. In fact, we have a whole slew of jargon to describe our apparent efforts to serve our prospects and customers.

Now compare your own emphasis on what customer want to that of Craigslist.com

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Brian Carney asked Craiglist CEO Jim Buckmaster why he didn’t make a few tens of millions in extra revenue each year simply by adding some banner ads to it classified listings pages.

Buckmaster replied, "It's not something our users have asked us for."

That’s something of a quantum leap when you compare it to what the rest of us consider "listening to what our users want".

Most online marketers will serve and listen to their visitors on one condition: the service provided must lead to enough additional sales to deliver a positive ROI.

It is tempting to say that the Craigslist model is unique, and that the lessons they learn cannot be applied to most other businesses.

But then again, Craiglist is the seventh most popular web site in the world. And it’s not enough to say that being big is easy when most of what you provide is free. There are many, many sites that have tried and failed while offering a service free.

To address the issue of what your “users have asked for”, you can tackle it at two ends.

The first is to make sure you have a strong and genuine value proposition. That is to say, make sure your business and site are built on a product or service that people really do want or need. And make sure that you offer what they want in a way that can be truly differentiated from what your competitors offer. Finally, take the time to articulate that value in a strong and honest way.

The other end? At the other end there is an opportunity to keep asking your visitors and customers what they want. Many sites ask for feedback in a half-hearted way. But that’s not the same as making user-expressed wishes a major driver of your business.

In a way, this is the tail of any good value proposition. At its inception, a value proposition is your best guess at what your customers want. But as your business grows, you can strengthen and adjust your original proposition based on what your site visitors and customers ask for.

The trouble is, few of us have the courage to do that.

As I mentioned a couple of posts back, we are putting the final touches to the content for tomorrow’s teleconference call, Essential Metrics for Online Marketers.

Late yesterday we added some new data for the call, based on an experience we have had with the metrics from a third-party reporting tool.

On one line of data, if you attend the call, you will see that one of the figures reported to us was off by 900%.

The most disturbing element here is that we were already preparing changes to the site based on the figures from the third party.

Had we not decided to double-check the figures independently, from the raw data, we would have gone ahead and made some very damaging changes to the site.

The moral of this story is that you always need to verify data from third-party sources.

We will be covering all this in full detail in the call tomorrow. We have also prepared an Essential Metrics tool which you will be invited to download at no cost.

Sign up to reserve your place on the call here...

We are working right now on our next teleconference clinic. It’s on the topic of web site metrics.

As we study the various PPC reporting tools, and a variety of web analytics services, it becomes more and more apparent that inaccuracies are not uncommon.

For instance, if you track a PPC campaign through both the PPC engine reporting tool and your own web analytics program or server logs, you will likely see some inconsistencies.

This can become a significant problem if you base future marketing decisions on flawed data.

In addition, we will be looking at the problem of being overwhelmed by too many metrics. Analytics services are differentiating themselves by offering more and more features and reports.

We address this problem by stripping away all the metrics you don’t need, and focusing just on those that are fundamental to your business model.

In other words, we are isolating the metrics that matter.

If you would like to take part in this free teleconference call, please register here.

During the call you will be able to download a simple dashboard tool to help you identify key metrics for your own business.

A recent article in AdWeek shows just how slow most online marketers are to catch up with the potential of emerging media.

Here, in part, is what the article says:

While in-game advertising and advergaming has received much attention, 72 percent of marketers do not plan to use it in the next year. The story is the same for mobile marketing, which is used by 11 percent of respondents and 57 percent of whom say they do not plan to try it in the next year. Just 13 percent reported using blogs or social networks in marketing, and 49 percent said they had no plans to do so in the next year.

Right now it appears that many online marketers are still catching up with the potential of blogs, RSS and podcasts as marketing tools.

Meanwhile, billions of eyeballs, particularly young eyeballs, are focused on their cell phones, MySpace.com and YouTube.com.

In this fast-paced online medium marketers appear to be very slow at climbing the learning curve. You have only to look at blogs as an example. It has now been years since people started blogging. But if you read the marketing press, many marketers are only now becoming excited about blogs, as if the opportunity were brand new.

A MarketingExperiments.com we are doing some research on these emerging media. Right now we are collecting data on how video clips on sites can help increase conversion rates.

Even so, we remain very much aware that the learning curve online marketers are following is not of the bell curve variety. It appears to be a straight line, and almost vertical.

According to Steve McKee in a recent Business Week article there are five words that you should never use in an ad.

Here is his list: Quality, Value, Service, Caring & Integrity.

He makes some reasonable points. He reminds us that these words are usually lacking in credibility. And they are over-used by all your competitors. Everyone is going to say they offer quality products or services, deliver great value, really care about their customers, and so on.

If everyone makes the same claim, then the words become entirely generic and meaningless.

That said, we think he’s wrong in his assertion that these words shouldn’t be used at all.

However, if you do want to use them...provide proof of your claim.

- Include a third-party validation that confirms the “quality” of your products.

- Prove and quantify “caring” in some way. Maybe offer a far higher quality of customer service, with real people on the phone, 24 hours a day.

- Use Bizrate or some other shopping comparison service to demonstrate that you do offer better “value”.

McKee is right when he says, “Those that win the hearts and minds of consumers don't talk the talk, they walk the walk.”

But that doesn’t mean you can’t use words like “value”. It simply means you have to validate or quantify your claim in a credible way.

You’ll find an example or two of how quantifying a claim in a site headline can increase conversation rates in our recent Headline Tested brief.

We have spoken about the need for transparent marketing a number of times in this blog.

Then yesterday a surprise mention in a different blog raised the issue of transparency and authenticity with regard to the home page of one of our own partners’ sites.

The site is for Hansen’s Clothing, and the mention was in Seth Godin’s blog. Seth mentioned it because the Hansen’s site has a genuine and authentic feel to it.

While we would love to take full credit for designing and writing such an authentic page, the real story lies in the company itself.

The secret of the authenticity and transparency of this site is not built on design and copywriting...it is built on the nature of the business itself.

In other words, the unique value proposition of the site is simply an expression of the truth about the company.

The company really is different. It really does have a unique story to tell.

The lesson here is that great design and copywriting may be able to give expression to a unique value proposition, but for that value to have depth, authenticity and credibility...it has to be part of the company and its story.

This is why we place such great emphasis on the value proposition when we talk with people about starting a new business or web site. If the story and value are real and unique, then the expression of that value on a web page is simply a matter of telling the truth. Which is exactly what we did with Hansen’s Clothing.

But if there is nothing particularly unique or valuable about the underlying product, service or company, then your attempts to create value on a web page will always be superficial and lack the ring of true authenticity.

We have written before about the importance of identifying and communicating a unique value proposition for your business and web site.

Having a strong value proposition is usually the most important factor in determining the success of any web site. (See our research brief on value propositions.)

However, you’ll have a tough time identifying and articulating your value proposition unless you first conduct a formal competitive analysis.

How can you identify your own strengths and weaknesses without first finding and grading those of your competitors? Do you even know who all of your primary competitors are?

Conducting a competitive analysis shows you gaps in the market, and may also show you weak spots in your own strategy. For instance, you may be focusing too much on a topic or angle that is already well served by too many other companies. Or you may be missing potentially profitable gaps.

Keep in mind that while others may be serving the same customer needs as yourself, they may not be articulating the value of their solutions in a way that connects clearly with their prospects.

In other words, after conducting an in-depth competitive analysis, your most valuable findings may not be about actual gaps in the market...but about your competition’s failure to communicate value clearly.

You will find a great deal more information, and a free spreadsheet you can download, in our competitive analysis research brief.

In a previous post I talked about our research findings on choosing a strong product or domain name.

In general we found that you are better off choosing a domain name or product name that is descriptive and, if possible, includes at least a hint of your core value proposition.

As an example, MarketingExperiments.com is both descriptive of what we do...we conduct marketing experiments...and also carries the implied promise that we have data to share based on the results of those experiments.

This approach to naming products, services and web sites in a simple, descriptive way is probably the best advice in the majority of cases.

However, in a recent post to his blog, Seth Godin makes some interesting points about the naming of products and services that break new ground.

He uses the example of the word Podcasting.

It is descriptive? Not at all. What kind of “pod”? And how can you broadcast a pod anyway?

For someone who has yet to be introduced to Podcasting, the name is of no use to them at all.

Does that make it a bad name? Not necessarily.

It’s a new word, it’s easy to remember, and easy to spell. These are important strengths if you want your new word to travel virally.

It also targets itself quite nicely. “Podcasting” self-identifies itself as being of interest to the iPod generation.

In conclusion, if you offer a product or service that is simply an improvement on what exists already, use a descriptive name and imply value.

But if you are launching something utterly new, invent a new word that will find its way into the world’s major dictionaries within five years.

In previous post I have talked about the proliferation of trash-content sites – typically sites with skinny content designed to make money by hosting PPC ads, or by making a percentage on affiliate relationships.

The web is awash with millions of these sites and pages. Few of them have any original content, and they play havoc with legitimate SEO work by hugely inflating the “results found” on major search engines. (This figure helps SEO marketers determine the relative strength of their site keywords.)

For instance, if you do a search on Google for “marketing” you get over a billion results found. How many of those contain legitimate and useful information on the subject of marketing?

Well, it seems Google in now taking some steps to rid its search results of some of the worst trash-content offenders by first targeting affiliates who create doorway pages or pages of no real value to visitors.

You can read the Google guidelines here, but the two sections which will impact affiliate marketers most are these:

- Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

- If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

How Google will tweak its algorithms to identify pages that don’t “add value” is, as always with Google, something of a mystery.

While on the one hand legitimate marketers can look forward to a lot of trash-content pages being relegated to page 50 of results found, on the other they may want to take a close look at some of their own pages.

There are plenty of legitimate sites which have affiliate links on some of their pages. So while these new guidelines may effectively target trash-content pages, legitimate sites may also find some of their pages being dropped from search results.

The moral of the story is, if you want good organic search results, every page you put up should add value.

In previous post I have talked about the proliferation of trash-content sites – typically sites with skinny content designed to make money by hosting PPC ads, or by making a percentage on affiliate relationships.

The web is awash with millions of these sites and pages. Few of them have any original content, and they play havoc with legitimate SEO work by hugely inflating the “results found” on major search engines. (This figure helps SEO marketers determine the relative strength of their site keywords.)

For instance, if you do a search on Google for “marketing” you get over a billion results found. How many of those contain legitimate and useful information on the subject of marketing?

Well, it seems Google in now taking some steps to rid its search results of some of the worst trash-content offenders by first targeting affiliates who create doorway pages or pages of no real value to visitors.

You can read the Google guidelines here, but the two sections which will impact affiliate marketers most are these:

- Avoid "doorway" pages created just for search engines, or other "cookie cutter" approaches such as affiliate programs with little or no original content.

- If your site participates in an affiliate program, make sure that your site adds value. Provide unique and relevant content that gives users a reason to visit your site first.

How Google will tweak its algorithms to identify pages that don’t “add value” is, as always with Google, something of a mystery.

While on the one hand legitimate marketers can look forward to a lot of trash-content pages being relegated to page 50 of results found, on the other they may want to take a close look at some of their own pages.

There are plenty of legitimate sites which have affiliate links on some of their pages. So while these new guidelines may effectively target trash-content pages, legitimate sites may also find some of their pages being dropped from search results.

The moral of the story is, if you want good organic search results, every page you put up should add value.