Marketing on Internet Road 

Following Google roll-out of its new search feature named Google Instant (where search results appear as you are typing your search query), and Google new Google Places revolution (where local results appear as the organic results on its first page), Google also introduced – rather silently – another interesting feature – Google Instant Preview.

In case you haven’t noticed it, Google had placed a small magnifying glass to the right of the web page title on the search results. If you click on this magnifying glass, a preview of the destination page is presented nicely on the right side of the page, so you can take a look at how the page looks like before actually visiting the page from Google search results page.

What is the Idea with Google Instant Preview?

Google main idea has always been “Relevance”. This is what brought Google to where it is today.
This concept means something like “we wish to deliver the most relevant (and accurate) search results and in the fastest possible way”. Therefore, Google is attempting to enable us as searches to see that the destination page we are about to visit is really relevant to our search query and with that to eliminate pages that rank with no real reason on the first page.  

Google Instant Preview Status

Google didn’t disclose too much information on this feature. What we can witness is that we see the magnifying glass of the Preview feature in some browsers but not in all of them. There are also still search queries where this feature is not available. This could be an indication that this feature is still being rolled out and tested by Google (which is the same as with the other new changes Google had introduced).

Google Instant Preview Implications

It is very soon to have any conclusions on the implications of this new feature. The Online Marketing community’s buzz has a lot of idea and possibilities but obviously nothing is conclusive. More conclusive implications will surely come after this feature had been rolled out properly and had run for a while.

Just as well, here is out attempt at forecasting the implications:

1.   Pay per Click (Google AdWords): Surprisingly enough, Google is placing the preview of the page on the right side of the page in a way that the Google Adwords listings disappear. This is surprising as AdWords is Google’s milking cow and if this will cause less clicks (leading to less advertisers as well), Google stand to lose.

Therefore, our estimations at this point are that AdWords campaigns will face a drop in clicks once (if) users are becoming used to use the Google Instant Preview feature (and it is an “if”).

Note: This is even more surprising since the other new changes to Google, like the Google Places Search, are placing elements on the right-hand of the search results page, overriding the AdWords listings. Google knows something we don’t?

2.   Site Re-Design: if the online community will start using the preview feature, the way your website (you web page actually) looks like will have a lot of impact on whether your potential visitors will visit the page or not.

It is rather safe to assume that if your web page does not look well and/or does not look relevant to the search query of the visitor, she will not click to visit.

Note that at this point in time, the preview does not present all page equally and even nicely designed pages but such that contain chunks of flash as example comes out badly on the preview image. Again, it is too soon to know if this is an issue that is being solved as part of the implementation or a feature that is here to stay.

3.   Search Engine Optimization (SEO): The visits from organic results have a potential to change, depending on this new feature. As we saw exampled where pages’ position on Google listing where changes according to click-stream for a certain keywords, it could be that we will see the same phenomenon here: if a page is ranked but people don’t click to visit, it might drop in position.

We also can’t overlook the possibility that the ranking algorithms (the plurals here is not a mistake – there are multiple algorithms being tested constantly) will take also the Preview feature into account, one way or another.


I will be more than glad to hear your thoughts and experiences with Google Instant Preview.

In the previous posts we discussed two of the important aspects of a website’s Conversion Architecture: the website’s USP and the importance of profiling your customers online. This post will present a content formula to design the content of  the internal pages of the site.

If you have dealt with the pillars of Conversion Architecture correctly, you should get a stream of segmented visitors going to your internal pages along with visitors that landed directly on those (designed for conversion) internal pages of your website. All of this makes the internal pages very important, so special attention is needed to their content.

Internal Pages Content Stats and What They Mean

Studies show that the average time someone spends on an internal page is 45 seconds.
Is 45 seconds enough time to read a full page of text…? Well, obviously the answer is “No”. This means that your text should be structured in a way that it could be scanned by the reader, highlighting the more important words and broken down to paragraphs and bullets.

Taking into account that the average number of (mouse) scrolls on an internal page is 1.3, it is important to make sure that the most important content and the important calls to action are located at the top of the page (“above the fold”).

Match Content to your Target Audience

Take this recommendation as a baseline: text should be written at a grade level of 13 years old or to target audience.

A bit confusing? Not really: With the lack of a specific target audience – write your content to match a 13 years old visitor. However, your content should be written to your target audience and you may write differently for each profile.  If you profile your customers by their age you would speak very differently to a 25 year old then you would a 75 year old.  If you profile them by company size you will speak differently to a small business owner then a large corporation. 

Learn from the successful sales people: they know how to speak directly to their audience and adapt the pitch to the person or people in front of them.

The words you use, the benefits you have, the reasoning you use should fit the person who is reading it.
Think of your page content as your sales person and try achieving the same level of communication. If you are facing problems doing that, try thinking what a prospect would need to see/read/hear before making a decision. Basically – how a sales call would go. This is typically the same information that could go on the website. If it is built this way, conversions will increase.
 

The Internal Page Content Formula

So, here is the basic formula that you should follow when writing content for your interior pages:

First you want to show that you understand their problem or need;
Then you want to focus on the benefits of fixing that problem;
Only then present the features.  

With anything that you write, make sure to be using informative headlines and make the text easy to scan as most people do not read every single word on a web page.


To summarize, design your website with conversion architecture in mind. Match the content to your target audience, make it “scannable”, pay attention to your headlines and structure the content so it leads from understanding the need to the benefits of a solution and only then to the features.

Most websites are built from the perspective of the business owner or web developer.  This means that even if it’s done right it will only sell to one type of person.  Take into account the fact that your prospects are different. Using Conversion Architecture helps to set a path to customer profiling and getting the different prospects to find what it is they are looking for, resulting in more business to the website owner.

When customers come to your website they are looking for a specific piece of information or they have a specific problem.  If you are able to address that specific problem for them, and then help them solve it, you will get the business. 

All of your prospects are potential customers, but...:

• They want different things
• They have different problems and/or needs
• They are at different points within their buying cycle
• They will make the buying decision in a different way

it is important to understand this concept: every single prospect is different and should be treated differently. 




While each individual is unique, it is not possible to directly appeal exactly to that unique person, so we group customers into categories.  Each category represents a profile of who a typical customer from that category is, and what they are looking for.  Every business should have at least 2-3 categories, but should try to have no more then 12. 

Beware of the average website visitor! Referring to all of your visitors (prospects) as the same will probably cost you in losing conversions you could have had.

Your Home Page as the Tool for Customer Profiling
The main purpose of a home page is to identify (profile) and categorize your prospects and funnel them through the section of the website that has the information they are looking for.

You start with a large pool of prospects who enter the home page.  Then you allow them to qualify who they are and they choose which path they would like to go down.

With the importance of search engines and the fact that many of your visitors (if not most of them) will get directly to your internal pages, the home page had become less important page. However, if you got traffic to your home page (either directly or from someone that landed on an internal page and wants to check the home page), use it correctly to reflect the answers of your customers profiles so they can easily find what they are looking for and continue their visit in the website's most suitable page or section for them.


Ways to Profile Your Customers

• Some of the ways to profile your customers will include:
• The problem they are having
• The solution they desire
• The products/services you offer
• Geographically
• Demographically
• Who they are/how do they see themselves
• Where are they in their buying cycle

You can profile your customers by more then one of these but you should avoid having too many profiles on your home page as this will only confuse the customers.  Probably the best way to profile your customers is by the problem they are having because most people will be able to identify with their problems. 

The key is to get the person to say "that’s me".

It is also possible to profile them and then profile them again on the next page to make the information more specific.  An example of this would be what country are you from, then on the second page what service are you interested in. 


In conclusion, use customer profiling as part of the conversion architecture in your website design. Start with identifying your customers' needs, create categories and present them with the correct options that will drive them to the pages that are most relevant for them, aiming at getting conversions.

A USP ("Unique Selling Proposition") is a reason why a customer would do business with you.  Most sales people know that if they do not get the USP across to the customer, the customer probably won’t buy.  Once they do manage to have the customer understand what makes them different, the path to the purchase is by far easier. If sales people know that it is so important in order to get the sale, then why would you not have your USP on your website?

When dealing with "Conversion Architecture" and aiming to design the website in the best way to convert the visitors into customers, the USP is one of the main cornerstones that should be considered and outlined properly.

On a website the USP is even more important as it is harder to differentiate between competitors. 
When a customer or a prospect visits your website, he/she is deciding whether or not to do business with you.  It is therefore important to display your unique selling proposition so that it is visible upon entering your website.
 
Your USP will allow your customers to really understand why they should be doing business with you and not with your competition. Furthermore, if you are engaged in Search Engine Marketing strategies such as Pay-per-Click, you are probably stating a USP on your ads (if not - you should). Clearly stating the USP on your landing page and your site in general will help your prospects to "follow the scent" of the ad, get more assurance on your offering and better tendency to do business with you.

There are three critical factors to a USP:

• The unique selling proposition is true and you actually can deliver on what you promise.
• The unique selling proposition separates you from your competitors as they do not offer this feature, or do not do it as well as you do.
• The unique selling proposition is valued by the customer as something they want or need.  

You should probably have more then one unique selling proposition but try to limit the number that you display on the home page of your website to the most important ones.  You can present the others as sort of supporting arguments to the main USP as well as in different pages of the site.

To sum up, a USP is what make you different from your competitors. Because it’s so important in sales and therefore also a websites success, make sure to prominently present it correctly on your website.

WSI E-Services conducted a while ago a workshop on Conversion Architecture, where the importance of the USP was outlined as one on the main elements. You can find the details and the workshop's presentation on our page for Conversion Architecture Workshop.

On February 18th we have conducted a workshop on the topic: "Conversion Architecture: Tourists or Customers". The workshop was held at Daronet Europe office in Antwerp and included customers and prospects willing to learn more on the principals of designing a website for conversion of its visitors.

This workshop was the second in a series of 3 workshops that cover the basic pillars of professional Internet Marketing: the previous workshop focused on Search Engine Marketing (first pillar - driving targeted traffic to the website; see the workshop presentation on SlideShare), this one covered Conversion Architecture (second pillar - how to convert the traffic to customers) and the next one in March will focus on Analytics (the third pillar - how to measure everything, receive actionable insights and optimize).


The workshop and presentation was constructed around WSI's Conversion Architecture principles. The topics were:

• General important terms
• The clarity of your website's message
• How do visitors see your site
• Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
• Customers profiling
• Setting conversion paths for customers conversions
• Call to action
• The site structure you need for reaching your goals

The presentation of the workshop could be found on SlideShare here. I shall devote few of the coming posts to elaborate on some of the topics covered in the workshop.

We have enjoyed the workshop and the feedback from the attendees very much. We ended up with setting some challenges for them with regards to their websites and we are sure they will try to work out those challenges for making their website a better marketing tool.