Fresh Clicks: Marketing and Analytics Strategies » Marketing

How I increased email subscribers by more than 300%

Lary Stucker — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 13:54:09 +0000

In marketing a lot of time and effort goes into the philosophy and science of targeting the proper markets, understanding your customers needs, and crafting a campaign that demonstrates your product as the superior solution to their problem. What if there was something you could do that would increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaign by over 300% but it had nothing to do with the actual campaign?

Reducing Friction

Go to this website, click that link, call this number, fill out that form; Anytime you ask people to do something you are creating a point of friction. Your audience will not continue unless the reward is greater than the friction they are experiencing. It is easy to forget about friction but doing so may severely inhibit the success of your campaigns.

Now that I have you thinking about friction, let me show you what happens to your marketing efforts when you reduce it.

Old “friction” form

Old form

On our website we have a 30-day free trial download page and when people download the trial they have an option to add their email address.

Problems that caused friction:

Unnecessary instructions: There are four steps involved in downloading the free trial. We are telling the audience that the steps to downloading a free-trial are so complex that we had to give you instructions! That kind of complexity is surely going to cause friction
Wrong order: They came to the page in order to download a free trial, but instead we talk about their email address and ask for it first. The actual links to the free trial downloads are much lower on the page.
Email form field: We ask for an email address, but don’t say why. Sure we mention it way up at the top of the page, but they didn’t need to make a decision to give it until now.
Too many versions: You want someone to make the decision about which version they need after they have decided they want to download it. Showing all of those versions and (unnecessary system requirements) makes it look more complicated then it needs to be.
Special instructions: Install instructions do not belong in the download form. That information should be on the thank you page. Once someone has invested the time to actually download the free-trial.

New “reduced friction” form

New "reduced friction" form

Removed all of those unnecessary instructions.
Included a product picture and positioning message to remind them why they want to try out the software.
Added a drop-down input field with the most popular version preloaded so that most customers will not have to change version.
Email request is after the form free trial option and there is a clear benefit associated with providing their address.
Large “download now” button makes it easy to understand the purpose of the form.

After implementing these changes our average email subscriber rate jumped more than 300%!

Only part of your overall strategy

By now it should be apparent that reducing friction will go a long way in creating more successful marketing campaigns. But remember it is only part of the solution; You still need to create marketing programs to attract new customers.

As part of your high level marketing strategy, map out the entire path a person takes from first-contact (whether it is an ad, a trade show booth, search engine etc.) to successful conversion to paying customer. Now that you have identified all of the areas of friction, you can build a marketing program with the greatest chances of success.

Have you had personal experience optimizing the customer experience to reduce friction? Did this article convince you to make changes? If so I’d love to hear from you!

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How file permissions can protect your site from hackers

Lary Stucker — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 07:33:42 +0000

I put together a lot of marketing strategies that revolve around a corporate website or microsite as a destination for visitors. A lot of effort goes into creating and executing these strategies. So you can probably imagine the anxiety I went through when one of the sites I manage was hacked. I was on the phone with my hosting company, Rackspace Cloud and they walk me through the steps of cleaning out the injected data, getting the site back up and running and finding the vulnerabilities. I thought I had taken the proper steps to protect the site, but I was wrong and I want to share that information with you so that you can avoid that same mistake.

What areas of your site are vulnerable?

Forms/ input fields:

This is the most common source of an attack. Hackers use form fields as a way to inject malicious code into your site or databases in an attempt to gain control of, destroy or steal information. (Like customer credit cards)

FTP:

(File Transfer Protocol ) is how you transfer files and folders to your server. If hackers can find or guess your password they can have complete control of your servers.

Files and folders:

If a file or folder has the wrong permission settings a hacker can copy, overwrite, or delete it.

File Permissions: Thats how they got me

Without getting into the details, there was a single file with the wrong permissions. This file was found and rewritten so that it would inject other files with malicious code. That one file opened the entire site up to the hacker! I didn’t think it was an issue because this file was in a folder that wasn’t linked to anything on the public site, so I didn’t think anyone would ever know it was there. I couldn’t have been more wrong! Luckily, I was able to catch it earlier and the most damage it created was a small down time to the service.

What the heck is CHMOD?

CHMOD is a Unix/Linux shell command used to change permissions on files and is an abbreviation of “Change Mode”. The permissions say who can do what to the files and folders on your server. These permissions are usually represented by three numbers like (644) or (777). Each column represents the access level for a user. The first number shows the access level of the “owner” of the file, the next represents the “group” and the final column is “public”.

What the numbers mean:

7 = read, write, and execute
6 = read and write
5 = read and execute
4 = only read
1 = only execute
0 = no permissions

So a file with the last digit of “7″ means that anyone can read write or execute that file.

This is how I fixed it

Folders:

Since I don’t want anyone in the public to be able to add files to my directories I changed all of the folders to 755. The “owner” is the only one who is allowed to read, write and execute the directories, while the rest of the world is only allowed to read and execute those directories.

Files:

Since I don’t want anyone to be able to write to a file or execute it I am going to make sure all of the files have 644 as their file permissions. That means the owner can read and write but the public can only read. Since executable files like PHP are read into memory and then interpreted, they don’t need to have executable permissions.

What kind of measures have you implemented to safeguard your website?

Image by: Zach Klein

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Verizon’s Google DROID: a real world review

Lary Stucker — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:45:10 +0000

When Verizon first announced they were releasing a Google Android phone I was hopeful that this would be the phone that would keep me from switching to AT&T (just so that I could get an iPhone). Well, as it turns out that is exactly what they delivered! I picked up my DROID the morning of the release and have been running it through its paces to see what it can do. I have read a lot of the pre-release reviews and they all pretty much said the same thing, so what I wanted to focus on was how it actually worked out in the real world.

Gmail

The first thing they have you do when you’re at Verizon is have you enter a Google account. What happens if you don’t have a Google account? You can sign up for one right on the phone. If you don’t want to sign up for a Google account then you’re going to be missing out on some of the cool functionality that is built into the phone. I have a few Google accounts so it wasn’t a problem for me. I logged in and suddenly my Gmail and Google Calendar were synced to the phone…Nice.

Is there an App for that?

So, I know Google Android is behind the iPhone when it comes to apps, but how many “fart machines” and simulated AK-47 apps do you really need to feel superior? As far as I can tell, all of the major apps have already been ported over. Since Android doesn’t lock developers out of a lot of the functionality of the phone, a lot of these apps “power up” when they become an Android app. I am sure there are many specialized apps that haven’t ported over yet, but I don’t think any of them are deal breakers.

Google, iCal, and Exchange Calendars

You might have remembered me mentioning the auto sync with Google Calender, well the DROID can also sync with both your Microsoft Exchange email and calendar which makes it great for keeping up with your corporate email. What about iCal? Why there isn’t a direct sync with iCal and DROID, starting with OS 10.5 you can sync iCal and your Google Calender so it all stays up-to-date.

Facebook

The phone also comes pre-installed with a Facebook app. One of the cool things that happens the first time you sign into Facebook is it asked if you would like to merge the Facebook friends with the contact list on your phone. You get three options; “Sync all”, “Sync with existing contacts”, “remove Facebook data”. I chose “sync with existing contacts” which updated the contacts that are on my phone with pictures, email address and other contact information it found about them on Facebook which was a nice touch.

Google Navigate

You tell an iPhone user that the DROID has Google maps and they will yawn and say, “Yeah, I have an app for that.” What you should actually say is, “I have Google Navigate.” The new app exclusively for Android phones that, when Google made the announcement it sent Garmin’s stock plummeting 16% in one day of trading and has continued to lose ground. So what’s so great about Google Navigate? Well, take the power of Google Maps, add GPS, turn by turn directions, live traffic information, Google’s local search, a sweet voice recognition system, and you can see why you’d never need a Garmin or any of those other systems that they sell pre-installed in some cars. I have used it a couple of times and though I find my Garmin a little more user friendly, Google Navigate is a nice system. One thing though, Google needs to work on their text-to-speech, that voice is a little difficult to understand.

Camera

With a 5mp camera I expected the functionality to be awesome. Well, I am a bit disappointed by its performance. I’ve heard a lot of other people complaining about the camera software too so I am hopeful that Google is working on a update soon. The quality of the pictures are good, but the delay just kills you. A bigger disappointment then the still shots was the video. It was supposed to be a big deal, “DVD Quality” recording in a smart phone. I recently shot this video and I think the results were anything but DVD quality. Hopefully Google is also working on a better compression codecs well.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYAdIx5nPog

Disappointments

Google Apps: You would think that Google would have made sure that all of their offering would have successfully been ported over as Android Apps, but they haven’t. Google Finance makes you login every time it is launched, Google Listen just gets stuck in a never ending login loop, and Google Reader, Google Docs, and Google Earth are not even available.
SMS Character count: SMS messages have a 160 character limit. If you are sending a message to Twitter, it is only 140 characters. Every other mobile phone I have come across give you a character count as you type (Except iPhone and the DROID) not having character count is a pain.
Slide out Keyboard: I actually like the keyboard, I just wish they would have done two things differently.
- Give direct access to the number keys: When I send text messages I still make use of the numbers quite a bit. It is a pain to have to hit an alt key every time you want to input a number.
- A little more room on the top row: Your fingers have to smash up against the slider in order to hit the top row.
Camera Quality: Worth repeating the camera software needs to be improved!

Final thoughts

This is a great smart phone and it holds up well to an iPhone. The touch screen is very responsive and the screen orientation is faster then the iPhone. (Yes, I ran side-by -side comparisons). Unlike the iPhone, the DROID has a replaceable battery, and removable storage. (It comes with a 16gb microSD card, but can be replaced with a 32gb card.) You can use the supplied USB cable or bluetooth to add music and other files to the phone. The music player works great. Since it is on the Verzion network it has great connectivity and as new apps come online and patches are released this phone is only going to get better.

If I had a choice between an iPhone and a Google DROID, I think it would be a touch decision but ultimately I would chose the DROID because of the superiority of the Verizon network, the ability to upgrade the device and the open source aspects of the phone.

If you have a DROID or are thinking about getting one I would love to here what you think.

Google Adwords “Quality Score”

Google Translate fails to deliver for eCommerce

Lary Stucker — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:08:41 +0000

When I was a kid I remember getting really exited about this amazing robot, The Omnibot 2000. It could supposedly do all kinds of amazing things. My eleven year old imaginination fantasized about a world where my Ominbot would fetch my drinks and do my chores…a brave new world indeed! I never did get an Omnibot, but if I did, I bet the feeling of disappointment that eleven year old me would have felt is pretty close to how I feel now about Google Translate.

When Google translate was first announced it was seen as a potential boon for E-Commerce sites and with their new Google Translate widget it seemed like a “no brainer” for any website with an international audience. So, I recently embarked on a feasibility study for our website to see if our customers could benefit from computer translated content.

Secure Checkout fails in Google Translate

Google translate cannot handle Secure Socket Layer (SSL) pages. SSL is a necessary step in protecting your users during the checkout process and Google translation services can’t handle it. This has to do with how Google Translate actually works. Google basically scrapes your site, does a find and replace to translate the text, and presents the results on their servers. Secure socket layer is meant to make whatever is happening on the page private between your visitor and your server, so if the page is trying to load on a different server the connection fails.

Can’t exit Google Translate

Okay, so visitors can’t have the check out process translated into their native language. That puts a real damper on improving eCommerce. Maybe translating the product pages and the rest of the site will provide them with enough information that they would be willing to stumble through an english language checkout. All I would need to do is implement the translation widget and have it exit if the visitor clicks on a link to our store. Surely Google provides some documentation on how to programatically exit a visitor out of Google Translate. Actually, they don’t. I’ve read through all of the documentation and even put in repeated calls to Jeff Chin, the Google Translate Product manager but he hasn’t returned my calls.

Google Translate = terrible user experience

Message that appears if you click on a secure link

At the end of the day, this really comes down to offering features and services that are going to improve the user experience of your visitors. Unfortunately, if you have an eCommerce site, or any secure location on your site, Google translate is completely out of the question. Unless you’re okay with your visitors getting a Google error messages.

Hopefully Google has something in the works to address this problem but in the meantime make sure you let them know this is something that you care about.

I would love to hear you’re thoughts and experiences with trying to implement Google Translate on your own site.

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Barack Obama uses Google Analytics

Lary Stucker — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 18:34:52 +0000

As someone who is intrinsically interested in pulling back the curtain and seeing what’s going on behind the scene, I was somewhat surprised by what I found while looking through the source code of the president elect’s web site www.barackobama.com. It seems that his campaign is making great use of Google Analytics and Google Web Optimizer.

You can see areas where they have changed code and stopped web site functions in order to improve website retension:

/* Commenting out to try to fix exit and bounce rates in Google Analytics */

What I find most encouraging is that our new president seems to have surrounded himself with smart people. Including people who know how to leverage technology like Google’s Website Optimizer and Analytics to improve their campaign, while at the same time keeping down their overhead.