The Two Keys to Website Success

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The Two Keys to Website Success

• Matt Mickiewicz Co-Founder SitePoint.com

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The Two Keys to Website Success

• Web Usability Ensures people can achieve their
  goals on your website
• Email Marketing Repeat Customers. Top of Mind
  Awareness. New Customers.

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Why is Web Usability Important?

•  
• If people cant use your site, they cant
•  
• Buy Products or Services
• Contact Customer Service
• Learn about your company
• Read company news
• Find out about employment opportunities

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Why is Web Usability Important?
Write down your favourite search engine or
directory
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Why is Web Usability Important?
Market Share and Frontpage Size Yahoo 29.6
(24.4KB) Google 21.1 (11.8KB) MSN 7.2
(87.1KB) AOL Search 7.4 (106KB) The magic
number is 10 seconds or 70KB for 56K modem users.
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The Golden Rule of Usability
Dont Make People Think
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The Golden Rule Explained
Everything should be obvious. Self explanatory.
Unambiguous.   Visitors should be able to get
what it is, and how to use it, without having to
think about it.
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An Example

• Which one of these labels requires the least
  thought?
•  
• Jobs
• Employment Opportunities
• JobMania
•  
• Avoid cute or clever names and labels,
  company-specific names, and overly technical
  terms.

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A Common Stumbling Block
Clickability Can I click this?   Though the
cursor will change when you move it over
something clickable, that requires extra effort
and thought.   Too many distractions, however
slight they may be, throw people off.
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Scanning vs. Reading
Most users glance at each new page, scan some
text, and click on the first link thats close
enough to what they are looking for.   Think
billboard at 80km/hr vs. a product brochure.   A
Website is a lot more like a billboard.
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Its Close Enough

• When presented with two or more choices that are
  close to what they are looking for, people will
  simply guess.
•  
• Why?
•  
• Visitors are in a hurry
• Guessing wrong has few consequences

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Visual Hierarchy
The more important something is, the more
prominent it should be.   Group related things
visually. Place them under the same heading,
using the same visual style (font, color) or put
them into a clearly defined area of the page.
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Conventions Your best friend
Conventions are useful. Things only become
conventions because they work.   Conventions
include the way navigation is presented, the
terminology used, and how things like shopping
carts work.   If the major sites are doing it,
you should probably do it too.
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Navigation

• Navigation menus on the web are virtual
  handrails. They provide a grounding.
•  
• Navigation should also
•  
• Tell us whats available on a Site
• Tell us where weve been
• Tell us where we are
•  
• Navigation should be persistent and consistent.

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The Questions You Need to Answer

• Where am I? (Your logo and tagline)
• What page am I on? (Page or Section Title)
• Where can I go? (Navigation)
• Where am I in the scheme of things? (Breadcrumb
  trail)
• How can I search? (Conventional search box)

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Taglines The Bad

• When people hit your homepage, they should know
  what your site is about. It may be obvious to
  you, but it probably isnt to everybody else.
• The bad
•  
• Master The Web
• The Human Internet
• Right Product. Right Price. Right Store.
• Take Control of Your Website
•  

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Taglines The Good

• The good
•  
• News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters.
• Solutions for Site Builders.
• The Email Marketing Manager for Small Business  
• The Worlds Leading Provider of eBusiness
  Statistics.
•  
•  

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Web Usability A Summary
Dont Make People Think Remember People scan
instead of read Use visual hierarchy to your
advantage Conventions are your best
friend Write clear taglines that communicate   
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Effective Email Marketing

• Why Email?
•  
• According to a Gallup Survey, a whopping 97 of
  Internet users say that e-mail has made their
  lives better. Does anyone say that about snail
  mail or telemarketing?
•  
• By year-end 2002, there will be 135 million
  e-mail users, representing 59 of the overall
  U.S. population of adults and teens.
•  
• The cost for traditional direct mail can range
  from 1 to 2 per piece as compared to .01 to
  .25 per piece for e-mail.  

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The Many Benefits of Email
Opt-in email newsletters, if done properly,
present a tremendous opportunity for
first-time sales of your own products and
services, quick sales boosts through occasional
special offers, repeat traffic and sales,
and advertising revenue.
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The Many Benefits of Email
1. Email offers the best bang for the buck 2. Is
the easiest to create 3. The cheapest to send
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Cost Overview
Forrester Research Jan 00 50 E-mail Marketing
Managers
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Email Marketing Building Your List

• Overview

• Opt-Out Email (AKA Spam)
• Single Opt-in vs. Double Opt-in
• Whether or not to publish in HTML
• One list, two lists, three lists or more?
• Choose a publishing schedule
• Choose a distribution method and
• Build your subscriber base

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Opt Out Email (AKA Spam)
According to CyberDialogue   -  72 of US
Internet users feel their privacy is invaded when
they receive an unsolicited email from a company
they dont know -  42 consider it a breach of
privacy when they receive an unsolicited email
from a company they are familiar with - 48 of
the people who received unsolicited email say it
damaged their impression of the company sending
the email Never, ever send unsolicited email.
Always obtain permission.
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Single Opt-in vs. Double Opt-in
Single opt-in requires one action to get onto the
list.   Double opt-in requires two actions to get
onto the list. The requirement to re-confirm the
subscription results in a 20 to 50 subscriber
drop-off.   Single opt-in is preferable in most
circumstances where the email address will not be
rented.   Opt-in email marketing companies such
as PostMasterDirect.com which build
interest-specific direct marketing lists use
double opt-in to provide the highest quality of
valid addresses to paying advertisers who spend
anywhere from 10 to 25 cents per email address.
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HTML vs. Text Newsletters

• It used to be that newsletter publishers were
  limited to text emails which left little room for
  creativity, attractiveness and bells-and-whistles.
  
•  
• Over the past few years HTML came into being
  opening up a new universe to newsletter
  publishers. Pictures, colors, fonts, and text
  decoration can now be added and experimented
  with! In effect, a Webpage can be delivered to
  the reader -- through email!

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Pros of HTML Newsletters

• Attractiveness Colors, Pictures, Fonts
•  
• Convenience Using customer databases, shopping
  can be simplified through encoded links which
  automatically log customers in
•  
• Personalization Individual customers and
  readers can be recognized as soon as they follow
  a specially encoded link
•  
• Long URL support Text newsletters only allow
  URLs of up to 65 characters to be used.
• Advertiser Bonanza Sponsors can deliver more
  than just text messages
•  
• Tracking Ability to track readership and
  open-rates
•  
• Consistency Your ezine can make use of the same
  fonts and color scheme as your site

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Cons of HTML Newsletters

• Larger File Sizes HTML code and images result
  in significantly larger newsletters costing more
  to distribute, and taking longer to download.
• Viewer Incompatibility Different email readers
  interpret HTML differently.
• Bandwidth Limitations Those using dial-up will
  have to wait for your newsletter to load.
• Increased Ezine Creation Time Encoding each
  issue in HTML takes a lot longer than creating a
  text ezine.
• Lost subscribers About 40-50 of the Internet
  population despise HTML newsletters. Youll have
  to publish a text version or risk losing these
  subscribers.

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One list, two lists, three lists or more?
How many audiences do you have?

• Current and Potential Customers
• VIP Customers
• Press/Members of the Media
• Potential Employees

What are the purchasing interests, backgrounds,
and job functions of your current and future
customers?
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Choosing a Publishing Schedule

• Publish too often and youll overwhelm your
  readers.
• Consider providing frequency control or executive
  summary versions.

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Picking a Publishing Frequency

• Weekly or bi-weekly newsletter provides enough
  time to create new content, proofread the
  content, and not overstuff your subscribers
  mailboxes
• Daily newsletters are overkill for most and will
  have much higher unsubscription rates
• Monthly newsletters risk subscribers forgetting
  that they signed-up to receive mailings from you
• Mailings on Wednesday and Thursday will garner
  the highest response rates.

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Consistency

• Consistency between issues is extremely important
  in building loyalty and avoiding spam complaints.

• Include the name of the publication in the
  subject line of every issue
• Create a template for each newsletter and stick
  with it
• Maintain a consistent publishing schedule
• Always include clear and simple-to-follow
  unsubscription instructions

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List Distribution

• Distributing Your List

• Software on your own computer Impossibly slow
  with a dial-up Internet connection, and tedious
  with larger lists even over broadband
  connections.
• CGI-Scripts There are many free scripts
  available at CGI-Resources.com for distributing
  your newsletter. Unfortunately, unsubscription
  from these newsletters can be akward, they dont
  handle error mail, and have trouble with lists
  over 5000 subscribers.
• Commercial Services SparkList.com is perfect
  for distributing simple text and HTML
  newsletters. For more complicated tracking and
  customization available with HTML email
  Responsys.com, FloNetwork.com and
  MessageMedia.com

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Collecting Email Addresses

•  
• Build your site with the idea of collecting email
  addresses from the start. This means that you
  must have at least one subscription box per page,
  above the fold.
•  
• Use a testimonial or two from happy subscribers
  next to the subscription box to show potential
  subscribers what others think of your
  publication.
•  
• Offer an easily accessible sample issue so
  potential subscribers can check out what theyll
  be getting themselves into.

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Collecting Email Addresses Part II

• The best way to convince visitors to part with
  their email address is to give them something in
  return, and guarantee them that their email
  address will not be sold or seen by anyone except
  you. So what can you give your visitors in return
  for their email address?

• 1. Information
• A Promise to keep them updated about the content
  on your site
• A Free Report of some sort
• Trial Version of Software
• 2. A Chance to Win
• Giving away a prize to a random subscriber every
  issue, and promoting that fact on your site --
  "Subscribe for your chance to WIN"

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Other List Building Strategies

• Negotiate partnerships with other similarly
  themed newsletters to place a subscription page
  for your newsletter on their confirmation page
• Consider using pop-ups that only show up once and
  ask people to subscribe
•  
• Make it easy for your readers to recommend your
  newsletters to others by making use of a service
  such as Recommend-It.com
• Place paid advertising in other newsletters

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The Sign-Up Rate

• To ensure your list is growing as fast as
  possible, make sure you keep track of the sign up
  rate of your list. To do this, simply calculate
  the number of people who join your list as a
  percentage of the number of visitors to your Web
  site.
• Continually work towards improving your rate of
  sign ups!

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Email Marketing Publishing To Your List

• Overview

• Subject Lines
• Content vs. Sales Copy
• Content Strategies
• Testing
• Tracking and Landing Pages
• Conversion Rates

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Subject Lines 80 of Your Message
People decide whether to open an email or delete
it based on the subject line.   Therefore, the
subject needs to be succinct and informative.
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Subject Lines The Good The Bad

• iMARKETING NEWS DAILY for Monday, September 24,
  2001
• I-Sales Digest, Issue 1415 Can We Depend on the
  Internet?
• How to Be Famous How to Land PR Clients -
  Please Forward!
• I-Strategy Digest, Issue 104
• Yucky Marketing (from people who should know
  better) Pls. Forward!
• This Week's Clue Lessons from the Internet's
  Finest Hour

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Content vs. Sales Copy
People want information and not sales pitches.
Newsletters for even sales oriented websites need
to provide informative content, resources and
tips. A list of products, prices and a buy link
wont cut it. Provide information thats of
value. Most companies fail here. Newsletters are
for more than just customers. Each email should
re-affirm the companys position within the minds
of prospects. This, in turn, increases the chance
that they'll think of you when they're ready to
buy.
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Content Strategies
Providing Original content - news, tips,
strategies, etc. - takes work. If you don't
have the resources in-house, get creative. Think
about sourcing content from third parties like
trade publications, consultants and other
business partners, freelance writers, or content
providers (iSyndicate.com etc.). Keep
newsletters short. Use lots of white space and
extremely short paragraphs. Use normal
punctuation. Capital letters make text difficult
to read and makes it seem like youre SHOUTING!
Avoid the use of exclamation points!!!
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Test, Test, and Test Some More
For important emails (or all emails, depending on
available resources) develop different versions
of the email.   Each version has different
content and call to action.   Test each version,
use 10-15 of your total list for each message
and assess the response rates   Then, go market
with the message that generated the highest
return
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Tracking and Landing Pages

• HTML Newsletters, depending on the distribution
  system used, permit the tracking of
• Open Rates
• Pass-alongs
• Clickthroughs, narrowed down to specific
  subscribers
•  
• Implement landing pages to minimize confusion and
  steer people directly to the correct information.
•  
• Multiple landing pages allow the testing of
  multiple offers.
•  
• Landing pages themselves can have huge effects on
  conversion rates.

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Conversion Rates

• Measure Everything.
•  
• Ratio of visits to desired actions
• Registrations
• Subscriptions
• Memberships
• Contest Entries
• Purchases

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Email Marketing Summary

• Provide useful information on a consistent basis,
  in a consistent format
• Offer visitors something in exchange for their
  email addresses, and present the offer to them on
  every page on your site
• Craft subject lines carefully
• Provide information thats useful and valuable
• Measure and test everything

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The End

• Questions? Comments?
• Contact Information
• Matt Mickiewicz
• Matt_at_sitepoint.com
• www.sitepoint.com
• Subscribe to the SitePoint Tribune, fire off a
  blank email to subscribe_at_sitepoint.com