New iPhone... new interest in mobile browsing. With more and more emphasis being placed on capabilities among mobile devices, it has become increasingly important to make sure your mobile web site presence is up to snuff.
iPhones and iPads are leading the way as usual and we are seeing new highs crest up for mobile use. Many of our clients are within or exceeding 20% mobile users among their web visitors. That number got here fast and it continues to grow. Sure, sales of these devices is driving this wave but what is really behind this surge in use?
1) Convenience. The more socialized you are to using your smart phone, iPad or tablet, the more ways you adapt to using it. An increasing number of people are using their mobile devices for their casual use and leaving the bulkier laptops and desktop computers behind on desks for the heavy use.
2) Streamlined use. Smartphones, iPads and tablets all have one thing in common: you can’t do a lot of “heavy lifting” on them. You can write, do some basic excel and use apps for some program-specific functions, but any really sturdy work has been delegated to laptops and desktop computers. This has created streamlined use of mobile devices, which of course includes quickly jumping on the web.
3) Better mobile sites. The early adopters are setting the bar, especially on iPad sites. This is a place where one can make a major image of difference because of the extreme visual nature of the iPad presentation.
So, for the last two months of the year, Dog Star Media wants to give you a chance to join that early adopter group. In November and December, we are offering 15-page iPad web sites for only $1000 (a savings of $500). If you are interested in this special offer, please email me for more information at donald@dogstarmedia.com.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Understanding Modes Online
This year, we noticed an interesting trend that has re-ignited new discussions about establishing brands and making first impressions vs. putting yourself directly in front of apparently ready shoppers.
Several clients tried advertising on Facebook. I already documented how all of them received an unexpectedly high amount of traffic for what they were spending. However, when we measured the actual conversions from those clicks, hardly any resulted in calls or contacts. As this was widespread, we reached the conclusion the clicks from Facebook were kicking tires. Meanwhile paid search clicks recorded consistent results in terms of clicks, calls and emails. The conclusion there: people using search engines were in a more active shopping/buying mode.
So, what about all those clicks from Facebook? Are they worth it since they come at such a low expense. And, what about the exposure, as people are spending so much time on Facebook? It raises the old question about the value of exposure.
We all just came out of a time when economy in marketing meant we got to survive another day. And, in some places around the country, times are still lean. The days of spending just for exposure and awareness seem like a distant memory but Facebook has brought the conversation back with a digital twist. In many cases. $300 means 200-300 clicks. Those are site visits, not just logo views.
Most of our clients have elected to keep the Facebook ads, paying for cheap exposure. And, then one of my oldest and wisest clients reminded me of an old axiom she was taught years ago. It is thought that it takes 11 exposures before most people are moved enough to make first contact. And, these 11 exposures can take place over a short or long period of time. Although I have always questioned that theory, I can’t ignore the importance of being “out there” and visible. The recommendation that I would make is: If you are going to spent simply for branding, do it on the web where you stand a chance to make the best impression. The key to this, of course, is having a great web site. But that is another conversation...
Several clients tried advertising on Facebook. I already documented how all of them received an unexpectedly high amount of traffic for what they were spending. However, when we measured the actual conversions from those clicks, hardly any resulted in calls or contacts. As this was widespread, we reached the conclusion the clicks from Facebook were kicking tires. Meanwhile paid search clicks recorded consistent results in terms of clicks, calls and emails. The conclusion there: people using search engines were in a more active shopping/buying mode.
So, what about all those clicks from Facebook? Are they worth it since they come at such a low expense. And, what about the exposure, as people are spending so much time on Facebook? It raises the old question about the value of exposure.
We all just came out of a time when economy in marketing meant we got to survive another day. And, in some places around the country, times are still lean. The days of spending just for exposure and awareness seem like a distant memory but Facebook has brought the conversation back with a digital twist. In many cases. $300 means 200-300 clicks. Those are site visits, not just logo views.
Most of our clients have elected to keep the Facebook ads, paying for cheap exposure. And, then one of my oldest and wisest clients reminded me of an old axiom she was taught years ago. It is thought that it takes 11 exposures before most people are moved enough to make first contact. And, these 11 exposures can take place over a short or long period of time. Although I have always questioned that theory, I can’t ignore the importance of being “out there” and visible. The recommendation that I would make is: If you are going to spent simply for branding, do it on the web where you stand a chance to make the best impression. The key to this, of course, is having a great web site. But that is another conversation...
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Email Marketing and Blogging
All I had to do was miss a few blog posts and I was quickly reminded of the importance of email marketing. For more than five years now, I have consistently posted good marketing info into my blog, only missing the odd date here or there over holidays and vacations. Over the past few months, we have had some transitions in the email marketing department. We changed email marketing programs, which has caused us to be unable to email to some addresses and I have simply missed a few weeks as I have been working on a very time-consuming project.
And every day, someone has asked me why they had not received my blog recently.
This reminds me of the first thing I tell clients about email marketing. Offer good information and be consistent. This is how you build a following. You don’t have to offer a lot but, if it is good, people will follow you, expect your contact, anticipate receiving it and miss it if it does not come to them. This is exactly what I experienced.
So, here is my recommitment. Every Tuesday, you will see my marketing blog. We will complete our transition to our new email program and give our email data a good scrub. In a few weeks, the Dog Star Media blog will be back full strength, going out via email but also from Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. As we work on this, let me know from which medium you prefer to receive your blog notifications.
Why not join me? Let’s all be regular in building a good audience for our blog and social network communications.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Lifetime Value
For my 250th blog, I thought I would write about one of the more accessible 1:1 Marketing strategies, that being Lifetime Value modeling. Under the right conditions for a large organization, Lifetime Value Models can be extremely valuable. And, if you understand the principles, you can simplify this method of evaluating your clients/patients so you can grow and refine your business all at the same time.
The basic principle here is the recognition that each customer is more than a transactional value. So many times we get caught up in cash flow that we don’t take time to look at the big picture, where we can begin to see a customer for the total value they are worth to your business in a lifetime. This includes the transactions they make with you and the referrals they bring to you. If you set up your data management properly and take the time to sort and examine your data, then you can determine who has been of the most value. From there, you can look for similar characteristics and use that profile to seek out customers who are of higher value.
That is a basic application of Lifetime Value. A more sophisticated way of using this strategy that can affect the entire trajectory of your business is to use this method to eliminate the low value customers from taking up your time and resources. In a great book on 1:1 Marketing, Enterprise: One-to-One, they make reference to the Below Zero customer (BZs) who actually cost you money. The following method of marketing helps you identify and eliminate the BZs as well as stabilizes your business for long-term success.
Say you have 100 customers. You divide them into 5 groups of 20, ranking them 1-100 in terms of how much they have spent with you for as long as you have been in business. Then, if you can quantify who referred who, add the value of that referral to the the referring party’s value. This will give you five groups (quintiles) that list all 100 customers in order of the value they have yielded with a gross value, grouped into 5 groups of 20. Now graph the quintiles according to the percentage of the total value of all the customers combined..
The first quintile will have the greatest percentage of the total value and will therefore be the highest on the graph. The second will likely be the next highest but will likely be a significant step lower than the first. Same with the third. The fourth and the fifth will likely be much lower. Now, here is where the business stabilizing effect comes in: Our goal is to equalize the percentage of value in each quintile.
Think about what this means. If you have more customers with higher value, the total value will be distributed more evenly across your quintiles. Seeing your customer value like this has the tendency to make you realize how much you rely on a core few for your business’ survival. It is great motivator to broaden your base of higher value relationships.
Think of the strategies needed to do this. If you identified people in Quintile 2 and 3 that are good customers but could be better if you were able to sell them more value, focusing on improving their value would redistribute the percentages across the model. In doing this, you are not devaluing your leading value customers, you are just focusing on an area of improvement that stregthens your entire model. By simultaneously doing this and identifying your BZs and eliminating them from your customer base, you can achieve a more evenly distributed value model.
This is not a strategy that can occur over night. It is a long-term process but working the process keeps you focused in many ways on things that can make your business healthy. If you have any questions about Lifetime Value Modeling or 1:1 Marketing, please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com.
The basic principle here is the recognition that each customer is more than a transactional value. So many times we get caught up in cash flow that we don’t take time to look at the big picture, where we can begin to see a customer for the total value they are worth to your business in a lifetime. This includes the transactions they make with you and the referrals they bring to you. If you set up your data management properly and take the time to sort and examine your data, then you can determine who has been of the most value. From there, you can look for similar characteristics and use that profile to seek out customers who are of higher value.
That is a basic application of Lifetime Value. A more sophisticated way of using this strategy that can affect the entire trajectory of your business is to use this method to eliminate the low value customers from taking up your time and resources. In a great book on 1:1 Marketing, Enterprise: One-to-One, they make reference to the Below Zero customer (BZs) who actually cost you money. The following method of marketing helps you identify and eliminate the BZs as well as stabilizes your business for long-term success.
Say you have 100 customers. You divide them into 5 groups of 20, ranking them 1-100 in terms of how much they have spent with you for as long as you have been in business. Then, if you can quantify who referred who, add the value of that referral to the the referring party’s value. This will give you five groups (quintiles) that list all 100 customers in order of the value they have yielded with a gross value, grouped into 5 groups of 20. Now graph the quintiles according to the percentage of the total value of all the customers combined..
The first quintile will have the greatest percentage of the total value and will therefore be the highest on the graph. The second will likely be the next highest but will likely be a significant step lower than the first. Same with the third. The fourth and the fifth will likely be much lower. Now, here is where the business stabilizing effect comes in: Our goal is to equalize the percentage of value in each quintile.
Think about what this means. If you have more customers with higher value, the total value will be distributed more evenly across your quintiles. Seeing your customer value like this has the tendency to make you realize how much you rely on a core few for your business’ survival. It is great motivator to broaden your base of higher value relationships.
Think of the strategies needed to do this. If you identified people in Quintile 2 and 3 that are good customers but could be better if you were able to sell them more value, focusing on improving their value would redistribute the percentages across the model. In doing this, you are not devaluing your leading value customers, you are just focusing on an area of improvement that stregthens your entire model. By simultaneously doing this and identifying your BZs and eliminating them from your customer base, you can achieve a more evenly distributed value model.
This is not a strategy that can occur over night. It is a long-term process but working the process keeps you focused in many ways on things that can make your business healthy. If you have any questions about Lifetime Value Modeling or 1:1 Marketing, please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
So now... video
Just reporting in on a trend we are seeing rising up. It seems every September there is a consistent item that is requested from us and this year... it’s video. We have had more video requests come in over the past few weeks than we have in the last six months.
For cosmetic surgery and dentistry sites, video can be the best way to create an image of difference. I was explaining to a prospective client just yesterday that elective medicine comes down to trust. Does the patient trust the doctor to perform the procedure? A lot of factors go into trust, ranging from first impression to the subjective evaluation of your mannerisms. Traditionally, the patient does not meet the doctor until the end of the process, in the consult room. Thanks to video and the web, cosmetic doctors and dentist can get a jump on this process by speaking to prospective patients directly with video on their web site. Most doctors who have this “web drop” style of video (a Dog Star Media specialty), report that patients say they feel like they know them already when they meet in a consult. This is because they have seen video that was prepared just for a first greeting and web site welcome. All in all, the web drop gives you advantages over competitors who just have flat pictures.
Here are some great examples of web drop video:
http://www.goodsleepseattle.com
http://www.instituto-orbitofacial.com
http://drjackpeterson.com
http://www.dreamsmile.com
If you are interested in learning about how to add web drop video to your web site to begin building trust as early as possible with prospective patients, please email me today at donald@dogstarmedia.com.
For cosmetic surgery and dentistry sites, video can be the best way to create an image of difference. I was explaining to a prospective client just yesterday that elective medicine comes down to trust. Does the patient trust the doctor to perform the procedure? A lot of factors go into trust, ranging from first impression to the subjective evaluation of your mannerisms. Traditionally, the patient does not meet the doctor until the end of the process, in the consult room. Thanks to video and the web, cosmetic doctors and dentist can get a jump on this process by speaking to prospective patients directly with video on their web site. Most doctors who have this “web drop” style of video (a Dog Star Media specialty), report that patients say they feel like they know them already when they meet in a consult. This is because they have seen video that was prepared just for a first greeting and web site welcome. All in all, the web drop gives you advantages over competitors who just have flat pictures.
Here are some great examples of web drop video:
http://www.goodsleepseattle.com
http://www.instituto-orbitofacial.com
http://drjackpeterson.com
http://www.dreamsmile.com
If you are interested in learning about how to add web drop video to your web site to begin building trust as early as possible with prospective patients, please email me today at donald@dogstarmedia.com.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Finding a balance among marketing tools
As most of you know, Dog Star Media loves measurable strategies. You can take for example our insistence on using tracking telephone numbers to measure where calls specifically originate. And, although nothing is better than the certainty of knowing facts like that, the truth is that it is a cocktail of efforts that create a critical mass of exposure and call to action that ultimately results in contacts being generated. And, with that, it is important to understand the value of each part of the cocktail.
A common situation that has arisen over the summer is good evidence of this. A large handful of clients (both cosmetic surgeons and cosmetic dentists) decided to run ads on Facebook this summer. The cost was low at $10/day and the click rates were very high. Some clients experienced more than 300 web site visits in a month from those ads. After seeing this, we redirected the Facebook ads to proxy web sites with tracking telephone numbers to isolate the calls that were originating from the Facebook ads. (A proxy site is a replica of a web site hosted at a unique URL so you can track responses specifically). And, the same result showed up across the board.... almost no calls came from those clicks.
However, all but one client has opted to keep their Facebook ads running. The reason is that the low cost of the traffic had other benefits. In some cases, the added traffic greatly improved the organic rankings and improved our ability to optimize their site. In other cases, the added traffic correlated with sustained increases in emails and calls that did not come from the proxy site, but rather from their regular web site. In other cases, they just liked the additional low-cost exposure.
This reinforces the idea of the marketing cocktail: a blend of strategies that create a critical mass. Every case is different but one thing is consistent. By knowing your benchmarks for web stats, for incoming calls, for conversions, etc. you can better see where you productivity is improved by making changes to the elements in your marketing cocktail. This opens you up to the possibilities of buying exposure simply for awareness like these clients did. And, when you experiment responsibly, every now and then you find a real gem that pays off directly (which we know from the metrics we put on it.) If you are interested in tracking numbers, Facebook ads, or coaching to help you develop a better understanding of the marketing cocktail that is right for you, please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com.
A common situation that has arisen over the summer is good evidence of this. A large handful of clients (both cosmetic surgeons and cosmetic dentists) decided to run ads on Facebook this summer. The cost was low at $10/day and the click rates were very high. Some clients experienced more than 300 web site visits in a month from those ads. After seeing this, we redirected the Facebook ads to proxy web sites with tracking telephone numbers to isolate the calls that were originating from the Facebook ads. (A proxy site is a replica of a web site hosted at a unique URL so you can track responses specifically). And, the same result showed up across the board.... almost no calls came from those clicks.
However, all but one client has opted to keep their Facebook ads running. The reason is that the low cost of the traffic had other benefits. In some cases, the added traffic greatly improved the organic rankings and improved our ability to optimize their site. In other cases, the added traffic correlated with sustained increases in emails and calls that did not come from the proxy site, but rather from their regular web site. In other cases, they just liked the additional low-cost exposure.
This reinforces the idea of the marketing cocktail: a blend of strategies that create a critical mass. Every case is different but one thing is consistent. By knowing your benchmarks for web stats, for incoming calls, for conversions, etc. you can better see where you productivity is improved by making changes to the elements in your marketing cocktail. This opens you up to the possibilities of buying exposure simply for awareness like these clients did. And, when you experiment responsibly, every now and then you find a real gem that pays off directly (which we know from the metrics we put on it.) If you are interested in tracking numbers, Facebook ads, or coaching to help you develop a better understanding of the marketing cocktail that is right for you, please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Three things to look for in a great web site design
This year, a lot of doctors and dentists have come to us looking for a new, fresh look for their web site. These days, there is not a lot of variety in the format of the sort of sites preferred by cosmetic surgeons and cosmetic dentists. Nearly all want the same thing: searchable, code-based sites that are highly functional that can also be designed for a high level of aesthetic. Some Flash for aesthetic effect and to show video but otherwise, a coded site.
And, there lies the problem. What is aesthetically pleasing to one person may not be for the next. As custom designers, we tailor our work to our client’s preferences. Our designs are based on fine arts standards. However, some clients play a heavy role in art directing their projects so they turn out for their vision. We offer input when this happens and hope that the client takes into consideration a few of these basic standards that make design work.
1) Good, effective design has a hierarchy. Elements should be placed in an order which guides the eye and does not confuse flow. This has as much to do with the size and placement of elements as it does which elements to use and how they are shaped and positioned.
2) Eye Contact - In advertising (and your web site is a de facto ad) photos of people making eye contact with you draw you in. Sure, an attractive picture works and often works very well but if the model or models in the photo are looking at you, you are more likely to connect with their eyes and stay on the ad longer. Try it yourself next time you look at a magazine full of ads. Find one with a great model shot and one with a great face shot with the eyes looking outward. Which connects with you?
3) Pleasing color palettes are a must. Certain color palettes connote certain feelings. Just because you like a certain color does not mean that it is the best color to promote your business. If you are trying to project a soothing, relaxing, safe image, maybe using alert colors such as red, yellow and orange is not a good idea. The lesson here, choose a look and feel that projects the right image, not necessarily your personal set of preferences.
These elements may seem semi-serious but the fact is that many great designs die on the drawing board because clients don’t embrace some of the very basics. Are you interested in redesigning your web site or designing a new one? We can walk you through these steps and others to help you design a unique look and feel for your site. In September, we are offering a special price on web site design for a limit of four HTML/Flash web sites... first come first served. Please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com for more information.
And, there lies the problem. What is aesthetically pleasing to one person may not be for the next. As custom designers, we tailor our work to our client’s preferences. Our designs are based on fine arts standards. However, some clients play a heavy role in art directing their projects so they turn out for their vision. We offer input when this happens and hope that the client takes into consideration a few of these basic standards that make design work.
1) Good, effective design has a hierarchy. Elements should be placed in an order which guides the eye and does not confuse flow. This has as much to do with the size and placement of elements as it does which elements to use and how they are shaped and positioned.
2) Eye Contact - In advertising (and your web site is a de facto ad) photos of people making eye contact with you draw you in. Sure, an attractive picture works and often works very well but if the model or models in the photo are looking at you, you are more likely to connect with their eyes and stay on the ad longer. Try it yourself next time you look at a magazine full of ads. Find one with a great model shot and one with a great face shot with the eyes looking outward. Which connects with you?
3) Pleasing color palettes are a must. Certain color palettes connote certain feelings. Just because you like a certain color does not mean that it is the best color to promote your business. If you are trying to project a soothing, relaxing, safe image, maybe using alert colors such as red, yellow and orange is not a good idea. The lesson here, choose a look and feel that projects the right image, not necessarily your personal set of preferences.
These elements may seem semi-serious but the fact is that many great designs die on the drawing board because clients don’t embrace some of the very basics. Are you interested in redesigning your web site or designing a new one? We can walk you through these steps and others to help you design a unique look and feel for your site. In September, we are offering a special price on web site design for a limit of four HTML/Flash web sites... first come first served. Please email me at donald@dogstarmedia.com for more information.
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