Eye Tracking: How Users' Eyes Move Across Websites

Admittedly, there's far more to building an effective website than simply choosing aesthetically-pleasing colors and typefaces; developing compelling, well-written copy and other interesting content; and offering easy navigation. While there's no doubt these are always important criteria, have you ever considered visitors' eye patterns, and how they read information on a given page? No? Not to worry...not many clients or companies we've worked with over the years have, either. Until now...

Nowadays, marketers are giving much more thought to these dynamics. Why? Because ers are fickle, and u So what can be done to facilitate quick interactions, simple navigation, and returning users? Check out this outstanding infographic, courtesy of Crazy Egg and Single Grain, which offers these tips and insights:

The Name Game: How To Make A Name For Yourself Online

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. Thankfully, in the digital age, it’s possible and quite easy to make a name for yourself and your business through advances in social media and public relations. Here's how.

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In this day and age of instant communication, you think it would be much simpler to get the word about your business to interested parties. But often the opposite is true, and it’s a generally long and detailed process to make people understand how awesome you are.

Why is that? During the early stages of the Internet, when information wasn’t so readily accessible and the population online was much lower, it was easier to make a name for yourself. But the ease of use and accessibility of the Internet has made it so more and more folks log-on each day. This includes tons of businesses and interesting personalities, all of which are vying for a spot onstage.

Luckily, even with all of these competitors, it’s possible to make a name for yourself and your business. Advances in social media and public relations give you an edge every single day to make a difference… you just have to know how to use them!

1. First Steps

One of the earliest steps you must take when making a name for yourself is to decide on what your “brand” is. Your brand is anything that separates you from everyone else – something that is instantly recognizably “you.”

Companies like Coca-Cola and Nike have gone to great lengths to design and nurture their brand. When you see that check/slash symbol, you know you’re looking at something Nike has made. And Coke’s red and white designs instantly make you thirsty.

Your company needs something like this to visually separate you from the thousands upon thousands of other companies out there. When customers and the general public see your brand, they should instantly recognize it as your business. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a logo, either; it could be your shining face if you’re willing to put yourself out there.

2. Making A Name

Now that you’ve successfully designed a brand for your business, it’s time to spread it around the world! There are countless avenues for you to try your hand at marketing and PR, including social media sites like Twitter, sending out press releases, and even new tech like QR codes.

But for the most bang for your buck, I would suggest utilizing social media to its full potential. Nowhere else can you reach potentially millions of users with such little effort. Plus, if your business or product is extremely niche, you’re job might be even easier because you’re likely to find communities of people specifically interested in what you’re selling.

One rule to remember when making a name for your business: go where the customers are! If you’re spending all your time on Facebook, but all your customers hang out in communities elsewhere, you’ll still end up with an “Out of Business” sign on your door. Always remember to seek out who you want to market to and you’ll never have a problem with making a name for yourself again!

How have you made your brand stand out from the rest?

© Copyright 1998-2012 eReleases® Press Release Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

Pin This!: 7 Pinterest Marketing Tips For Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post, written by Ekaterina Walter, social media strategist at Intel Corp., and first appearing in this post on American Express OPEN Forum. Pinterest has taken the social media world by storm in recent months, and businesses of all sizes and in all industries are trying to  figure out how to make the online bulletin board work for them. In this informative article, Walter offers seven very useful tips, particularly for business-to-consumer companies, on how Pinterest can be fully leveraged for marketing purposes. 
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The image-sharing site Pinterest has been constantly in the news for the last few months. At first glance, the site seems to be nothing more than a place to share photos of shoes, recipes and crafting ideas arranged on aesthetically-pleasing pinboards, but according to a study by Shareaholic, the site now drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. So how do you make that leap from putting together whimsical boards on your profile to generating website traffic?

1. Show Your Personality, Tastes, Interests, Or Values

Your Pinterest profile shouldn’t be a copy of your website: it can be used to show a more fun side to your business. As well as showcasing your own work, you can use it to show more wide-ranging interests, such as a commitment to environmental issues, pictures of the place you live, local events you support, or your staff’s pick of movies, books or music. As well as having a Pinboard of their own products, Victory Jewelry also show boards of spiritual inspiration, Harry Potter and LEGO creations. This helps to make their brand stand out by helping to project some real personality.

2. Mark Your Content

If you are an artist, photographer or designer, you may wish to watermark your website images. Although Pinterest recommend only using images directly from websites rather than from image searches, making sure your images can be attributed to you not only helps to prevent potential copyright issues, but means that if images are used indirectly on Pinterest, you know that they can be traced back to your website if someone is interested in your services. This photograph by Gallery by Laura has been marked so that it can always be traced back to her studio website.

3. Give Tutorials

You can go beyond product images to get your message out there: YouTube videos can be pinned to boards in the same way as any other thumbnail so you can show off your expertise with ‘How To’ videos for aspects of your business. You can have a mix of learning techniques on a Pinboard, such as videos, infographics and storyboard images, like this board from Hero Arts. The content can then be shared both within Pinterest, or onto other networks.

4. Show Behind The Scenes

You might be concerned if your business is service-based, rather than product-based, that you won’t be able to use it to drive sales. But you can use Pinterest to show behind the scenes at your company, with boards about your staff, local environment and industry, or other ways of using interesting images to help people find out about what you offer. Rocket Clicks is a service based company, but they still provide plenty of interest on their profile by showing photos of their staff, their inspirations and industry infographics.

5. Go Beyond Your Website

Make use of what is possible with the Pinboard format by putting together ‘looks’, lifestyle ideas, or show your products in real environments to show how they can work. These inspirational boards from Bandhini Design show how their products can contribute to lifestyle aspirations.

6. Make Sure Your Products Appear In The Gift Section

Pinterest has a dedicated gift section, searchable by price range. If you have an e-commerce site make sure you tag your images by price when you upload them, that way they will automatically appear on the Gift Page. As with this image from Econica Fashion, Pinterest will add a price tag on the corner of your image and copy it into the sales section.

7. Help Others Find Your Content

Remember to make your content easy to find by using #tags in your descriptions, as well as labeling your Pins and Boards with obvious titles. Users can search by Pins, Boards and People, so make sure your company name reflects what you do, for example including the word ‘Design’ or ‘Kitchens’ after your name. You can also have a company website link for when people click on your profile image. These Boards by Ben Tyler Building and Remodeling are all logically labeled to help users find their images.

Like all social media networks, Pinterest is about community, and the same rules apply as on any other network. Share others’ content, don’t be too ‘salesy’, ‘like’ and comment on images shared by others, and engage in the conversation. Above all, pay attention to Pinterest’s own Etiquette Guidelines if you’re not sure how to get started.

© Copyright 2012 American Express Company. All Rights Reserved.

The Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet

One of the greatest marketing challenges for small businesses, especially when it comes to orchestrating social media campaigns, is determining precisely where to begin. Do I start with Facebook or Twitter? Or maybe YouTube? Some combination of the three? How do I leverage LinkedIn and Pinterest? And what about Foursquare and Yelp? And do I need a daily deals service such as LivingSocial or Groupon?

Ugh. It can really be overwhelming, especially for a business owner who may not have much experience with marketing, let alone social media.

Well, have no fear...the small business social media cheat sheet is here! This informative infographic from Flowtown and Column Five Media analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of each major social media channel, offers excellent advice on how to get started, and outlines the size of the audience that can be reached.

Keepin' It Real: Why People REALLY Follow Brands Online

Here at Marketing Mulligans, we're all about keepin' it real, regardless of whatever marketing subject we're  riffing on. So here's an interesting take on why people REALLY follow brands online.

Obviously, most companies know by now that creating positive online brand experiences leads to loyal customers. And that usually leads to increased sales, greater brand recall and awareness, and other positive residual marketing effects, such as positive word of mouth and the sharing of promotions and discounts with friends, family, and colleagues.

So what are the reasons behind following a given brand online? How do customers perceive online experiences? What compels them to share certain information with others? New research from Column Five and Get Satisfaction has some answers:

• The top three reasons people follow brands on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter are:  special offers and deals, they're already current customers, and the brand's interesting content.
• More than half (53.47%) of respondents follow two to five brands on Facebook.
• Almost all (97.09%) said an online experience has influenced them to buy — or not buy — a brand's product or service.
• Nearly half (45.88% percent) of all consumers have bought a product or service from a brand they follow on Twitter.
• Nearly three-quarters (70%) have participated in a brand-sponsored online contest or sweepstakes.

For more insights, check out the infographic below:

23 Things Great Brands Do With Social Media

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Lisa Barone, co-founder and chief branding officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company that specializes in providing clients with online reputation management, social media, and other digital media services. This piece first appeared in Small Business Trends. Each and every social media campaign is different (obviously), but there are certain commonalities among high-profile brands that contribute to their success with programs of this nature. This piece explores those dynamics in detail, and outlines some best practices for you how you can adopt some of these elements for your company's social media marketing program. You can follow Ms. Barone on Twitter at @lisabarone.
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No one wants to invest time in something only to be mediocre at it. We want to be great. But before you can be great you have to understand what being great looks like. What are you trying to achieve and what are you aiming for? What do people who are great at X look like? Because before you can be better than them, you at least have to be equal. And that takes some understanding on your part.

Do you want to be great at social media? Well, below are 23 things that great businesses do in social media. Maybe you can help me and add to my list in the comments.

Ready?

Great social media brands…

1. Bring sexy back to word of mouth marketing.
2. Dedicate time to answering questions from customers, potential customers and people first learning about the brand.
3. Constantly poll their community for opinions, feedback, and criticism.
4. Make it a habit to highlight other brands that are doing cool things, even if they’re doing it outside of their particular industry.
5. Start conversations that others are scared to have.
6. Give their employees a unique voice and the permission to connect to others.
7. Regularly save the day.
8. Push back the curtain to give their audience a better understanding of how things work, why they work that way, and what the company believes.
9. Bleed company culture.
10. Use tools to monitor their social media activity and makes adjustments when things aren’t working.
11. Don’t take social media too seriously, but are too smart to view it as a joke.
12. Understand the importance donuts and share them regularly.
13. Don’t forget to tie offline events into what they’re doing online so there’s cohesion between strategies.
14. Track their brand name in social media and knows when to respond, how to respond and how to engage brand advocates.
15. Give us “the why” to go along with their social media calls to action.
16. Plan for social media as to not leave channels voiceless for long periods of time just because they’re busy.
17. Never, ever automate human interaction.
18. Understand social media doesn’t belong to just the marketing department, but the company as a whole.
19. Enter the waters with a social media plan to help guide their interaction and make sure they’re getting something for their investment.
20. Use their social media plan to avoid falling victim to Shiny Object Syndrome.
21. Understand that social media is the medium, not the message.
22. Pass on insights gleaned from social media throughout the entire organization so that the right people are hearing the right conversations.
23. Have clear social media guidelines so that employees know how to engage on behalf of the brand and connect with customers.

What else? What makes a brand stand for you you?

© Copyright 2003-2011, Small Business Trends, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Corporate Snapshot: Employee Usage Of Social Media In The Workplace

While many companies, large and small, across the land are embracing social media and encouraging their associates to use a broad range of platforms to communicate with stakeholders, others are doing just the opposite and shutting off the hose completely.

Why? Primarily because of recent scandals and crises created by intentional and inadvertent posts that have resulted in some form of reputational damage, lost sales, credibility hits, client departures, and so on. Furthermore, the line between where one's personal life ends, and his professional existence begins, continues to become murkier and murkier. This is why the need for a comprehensive social media policy is so great, but it's a moot point for those companies that block access altogether.

So where do things currently stand in Corporate America? According to a recent survey of companies conducted by Mindflash and Column Five, 70.7 percent block all social networking sites in the workplace, while 55 percent of firms have some social media policies in place. For 44 percent of companies, these policies govern social media usage both inside and outside of the workplace, presumably to prevent unhappy employees from badmouthing their employers. The survey's findings also reveal that more than 50% of all companies believe in the value and benefits of social media when used for business purposes, but also has some downside when it is not.

A complete summary of the results follows below:

If you're a marketing executive or a business owner who wants to further leverage social media communications for a variety of purposes, but has not yet crafted a thorough usage policy, you should definitely pay attention to the approaches outlined here and the suggested guidelines and training recommendations. These can make the difference between a successful program and adherence to policy adherence, as opposed to having to clean up some sort of crisis down the line.

Check out a larger version of this image here, or to save this to your marketing resources archive.

The White House Checks In To Foursquare

Out of all the social media platforms I use, Foursquare is probably the most fun, and the one of the best ways to secure valuable promotions and discounts from consumer-focused businesses.

Not familiar with Foursquare? It's a location-based social networking site, designed to be accessed via smartphones, that enables users to "check in" to a physical location, such as a business, park, or historical landmark, and then announce to their friends that you are there. The individual who checks in to a given location the most times is known as the mayor, although that status can be fleeting if you don't visit a location often enough. When checking in, a user can also offer a tip to other visitors, such as "Try the ahi tuna; it's delicious!" or "Make sure to have Ted brew your latte since he's the best barista EVER!" Users rack up points for every check-in, and also earn special badges for engaging in specific behaviors and for visiting certain locations at certain times. For example, I earned the JetSetter badge for checking in to a total five different airports, and the Crunked Badge for making four stops in one night.

While it's fun, Foursquare is a great tool for small businesses, which can design promotions and discounts exclusively for Foursquare users, and in particular, mayors. When checking in to a location, a user will see an icon on his phone that says "Special Here" or "Specials Nearby," and it's usually a pretty good deal. If you like Chili's, check in on your next visit, and you will get FREE chips and salsa. No joke!

With Foursquare's rapidly-growing following, and his administration's savvy use of social media, President Obama has authorized an official White House account on Foursquare, which went live a week ago. According to the official post on The White House Blog, users can follow the White House on Foursquare (I did) to see tips on the places the President and administration officials visit around the country and the world, follow news and events by location, and learn about the White House and its history. Of course, if you're visiting the White House itself in Washington D.C., or attending a town hall meeting with the President, you can physically check in.

The White House communications staff launched the Foursquare initiative in conjunction with President Obama's economic bus tour of the Midwest, which also began on Monday, August 15. At the very least, it adds yet another effective communication platform for Obama during a difficult period, and it underscores the administration's knowledge and sophistication in the use of social media to deliver key messages to the American public.

Twitter Psychology 101: An Explanation Of Tweeting Behavior

Remember taking your psychology 101 course in college, and then using your newly-acquired knowledge to explain, and even rationalize, all sorts of normal (and since it was college, probably abnormal) behavior you saw on campus? Me, too, and I remember it being a series of eye-opening revelations.

Well, the good folks at WhiteFireSEO, a Utah-based a Utah search engine optimizer with years of experience creating popular content and optimizing websites, are equally as captivated by psychology, and decided to apply that curiosity to the petri dish that is Twitter. The company polled hundreds of marketers about their Twitter usage habits, and their rationale behind such common activities as following and unfollowing other users, retweeting content, and sharing frequency.

In some cases, the results are hardly surprising. For example, Twitter users tend to unfollow others for tweeting too much, appearing automated, or talking about themselves all the time. or being too self-promotional In other words, if you're annoying in some way, you will lose followers in a New York minute.

In other instances, the survey yielded some interesting insights, which are summarized in the infographic to the left. I was surprised at the low percentage of respondents who rely on Follow Friday to find other users of interest. That is because I use Follow Friday to recognize others that I find compelling, and to recommend them to our follower base. The same goes for people who follow me, and suggest to others to do the same. It's actually a pretty useful tool, as is Marketer Monday, but I'm careful not to overuse it, and I'm also selective about whom I recommend.

Some other findings of note:  36 tweets per day constitutes oversharing, and interesting content and humor are the best ways to garner retweets. A very good example of a power Twitter user whose content is almost always interesting and humorous is world-renowned Apple fellow, venture capitalist, and best-selling author Guy Kawasaki. With nearly 100,000 tweets to date, and a stable of approximately 400,000 followers, Kawasaki has attracted a massive audience by tweeting quirky, intriguing, and just downright funny stuff that appeals to people of all walks of life. Make sure to follow Kawasaki to see what I mean.

In the end, check out WhiteFireSEO's survey takeaway:  tweeps don’t care if you give them things or ask them to help; they’ll retweet you if they like your stuff or think you’re funny.

Amen to that.

To peruse a larger version of this image, please click here.

Weird Science: Even In Social Media, Timing Is Everything

As I've noted numerous times before here on Marketing Mulligans, content plays an obvious and critical role in the success (or failure!) of any social media campaign. However, so does timing, and and so does how that content is shared. For several years now, these dynamics have been extensively researched by brands and marketing professionals, with varying results.

Enter the latest round of data from KISSmetrics concerning the best times of the day when your social channel audiences are most likely paying attention, and when you can generate the best possible exposure for your updates and content.

The research, which focuses only on American users, reveals some intriguing insights. For example, on Twitter, combined users in the Eastern and Central time zones represent almost 80% of the U.S. population; approximately 6% of all retweets occur at 5:00 p.m. ET; and higher click-through rates can be secured by tweeting 1-4 times and hour, midweek or on weekends, and either at noon or 6:00 p.m. ET. On Facebook, Saturday, by far, is the best day for sharing content; noon is the optimum time; and 0.5 posts per day is the most effective frequency for sharing.

For a full run-down of the research, check out the infographic below:

Based on my four years of experience using Twitter, I find it best share my most important content twice per day:  once in the morning, from 8:00 - 11:00 a.m., in your own time zone, and then again about six hours later. This means my tweets are seen by my followers in my geography in prime time, and also by colleagues in other time zones when they're online. Obviously, with the high volume of tweets and users these days, there's never a guarantee that all of my content will be seen, but it's all about being in the right place at the right time to maximize visibility.

You should give this strategy a try by adjusting your posts accordingly!

How To Protect Your Business's Identity On Twitter

Editor's Note:  The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post by Christina Warren, a writer, speaker, podcaster, and video host at Mashable, and a frequent writer about the intersection of new media and technology. This article, which explains how businesses can protect their intellectual property on Twitter, originally appeared in Amex OPEN Forum. This information is beyond important because most small businesses don't take sufficient steps online to safeguard their trademarks, copyrights, and reputation...until it's too late. Instead, small business owners can be prepared well in advance by taking these simple precautions. You can follow Warren on Twitter at film_girl.

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Small and medium business owners are increasingly turning to Twitter as a tool to engage with customers, offer support and market their products and services.

Twitter has a dedicated landing page for businesses, including tips and tricks on getting started with the service, various advertising opportunities and case studies.

Protecting identity and reputation are essential for a small business, especially online. Although Twitter isn’t currently offering small business users a way to verify their accounts, there are still things business owners can do to give their accounts better visibility and make it clear that they are “official.”

1. Link Your Accounts and Profiles

Twitter’s username policy does not allow users to “reserve” a username; it’s first come, first served. As a result, business owners who have a more generic company name might find that the desired Twitter handle is already taken.

That’s not the end of the world, in fact, it can be an opportunity to better distinguish your brand or business, especially if the business name is more common.

Additionally, users can add a URL to their Twitter profile pointing to their business website and add links on their business site to their official Twitter account. Noting “official Twitter account for Business Name” in your Twitter biography can also make the account’s identity more clear.

Likewise, if you have a verified page on Facebook, Foursquare or Google Places, you can add links to your Twitter account on those services, too.

2. Protect Your Trademark and Logos

For small business owners who hold the trademarks over a business name, Twitter has a more nuanced policy.

If I own the trademark for “Cafe Christina” and a Twitter account for @cafe_christina or @cafechristina is causing intentional or unintentional confusion with my business, Twitter might be able to help.

If another Twitter account in question is using your trademark or logo in a way that is trying to confuse others, users can submit a help ticket requesting help. Twitter will look at the situation, and if it finds that the other party is trying to mislead, it may suspend that user (and grant you ownership of the account).

If the account is confusing to users, but isn’t intended to mislead, Twitter will give the account holder the opportunity to work things out and may ultimately release the username to the trademark holder.

Remember, if someone is using a name you have trademarked in a way that has nothing to do with your product or service, Twitter is not obligated to intervene.

3. Customize Your Profile

Small businesses can make their business affiliation even more clear by customizing their Twitter profile to match their branding, logo and color scheme.

©2005-2011 Mashable, Inc.

Social Media Rehab: Are You Addicted?

This is not necessarily new territory to cover, but with just about everyone these days using feature-rich smartphones on the go to manage their social media profiles, and more importantly, their lives ― anywhere, anytime, anyplace ― a steady stream of research has been published about users' social media habits.

While some of this research has been treated with a sense of humor (e.g. how many users update their Facebook profiles when using the restroom?), other statistics, quite frankly, border on the absurd, and even worse and more shockingly, may be regarded as addictive or compulsive behavior.

Need proof? Check out some of these stats below:

Click here for a larger version of this summary. If you're updating your Twitter stream before you get out of bed, you're definitely addicted. Just sayin'.

Everything You Wanted To Know About Twitter...But Were Afraid To Ask

As useful and as popular as Twitter is (and incidentally, we LOVE it!), it's also sort of the like the Wild West still in many ways:  lots of gunslingers kept in check by marshalls, with many citizens (i.e., users) simply trying to survive. But that doesn't take away at all from its power and influence, let alone its use as a cost-effective marketing tool for brands, entertainers, and professional athletes. It's a wonderful mechanism for getting up-to-the-minute news and information from just about any source or personality on the planet, but it's also highly useful for engaging and interacting with a wide range of consumers and businesses from around the globe.

For these reasons, and particularly because of Twitter's ever-growing popularity and increasing user base, much time, effort, and money has been invested in determining what drives Twitter traffic, and how its demographics, psychographics, and usage patterns are constantly evolving. It's almost a science in and of itself, and the regularly-updated results are fascinating.

Case in point:  this outstanding summary of recent Twitter (and some Facebook as well) statistics compiled by TechKing, an IT, Web design, and technology firm. So, test your knowledge:  how many of these facts did you know?

One stat that is quite intriguing: If Twitter were a country, it would be the twelfth largest nation in the world with over 105 million people!

Minute Man: Every 60 Seconds On The Web

Have you ever wondered what really happens every minute online, particularly with the extensive traffic on some of the major Websites and social media services?

Well, now you can see it all thanks to the highly-creative folks at Go-Globe.com, an international Web design firm, who have summarized a fascinating collection of stats which boggle the mind. In the short amount of time it's taken you to read this, the following has happened:

Search engine Google serves more that 694,445 queries.

6,600+ pictures are uploaded to Flickr.

600 videos are uploaded on YouTube videos, amounting to 25+ hours of content.

695,000 status updates, 79,364 wall posts and 510,040 comments are published on Facebook.

70 New domains are registered.

168,000,000+ emails are sent.

320 new accounts and 98,000 tweets are generated on Twitter.

iPhone applications are downloaded more than 13,000 times.

Check out the image for a full run-down:

Amazing! A larger vision of the infographic may be viewed by clicking here.

Why Nobody Cares About Your Content (And What to do About It)

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Glenn Allsopp, the founder and principal of viral marketing and social media firm ViperChill. This article, which addresses issues surrounding the types of content that generate attention (and those that don't!), first appeared on Copyblogger, and most recently on Ragan.com.

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A few weeks ago I decided to open up my coaching services for one day only.

The results of this 24-hour period were gut-wrenching…for my clients.

In this round of consulting I noticed a lot of my clients were — like so many online — focusing their content on precisely the wrong thing.

They wanted to make money by helping people — but in the harsh light of d

ay, their websites painted a very different story.

Results from my consulting questionnaire, the domain names used and content on their sites, made it clear that my clients were consistently focusing on o

ne thing…themselves.

My feedback? Nobody cares about you.

Now let me show you where your focus should be …

The Cold Hard Truth Must Be Faced Directly

I softened the advice to my clients by telling them that nobody cares about me either.

At least not until I give my readers something to care about.

A concern many of them had, which does make some logical sense, was that if they didn’t focus their site content around themselves, they wouldn’t be able to build their personal brand effectively.

I threw out an example based on my own experiences of building multiple successful blogs, all of which didn’t include much personal branding in the content.

On ViperChill, for instance, around 400 people per month land there by searching for variations on my name, Glen Allsopp. I say variations, because a lot of people like to call me Glenn, but that’s a rant for another day.

My full name is only found in one place on that site.

It does not appear in my posts, it’s not in my comments, and it’s not in the sidebar. It doesn’t actually appear on any static page on my site. I may have mentioned it a couple of times, but it’s hidden in the post content.

As a matter of fact, the most common instances of my full name are on other websites in things like interviews, guest posts, and reviews of products I’ve created.

The only reason I get interviewed and attract people who want to promote my products, is because people like what I have to say in the first place. They trust me. They know I can help them with their problems. Then they want to know more about me.

Your readers care about themselves first and foremost, not about you.

They only start to care about you when you give them value that they keep coming back for. In time, they become curious about who is behind all that amazing value, and that’s how you start to build your personal brand.

Since you want to build your personal brand, but attract readers at the same time, there are two things I strongly recommend that you do…

Be Personal (But Not Too Personal)

There are literally more than 100 million active blogs out there, so it’s not that easy to get noticed and in turn create a lasting connection with your audience.

As a lot of blogging advice will rightly tell you, being personal in your posts and activity online is one of the best ways for your readers to learn more about you, and engage in the content you’re consistently putting out there.

It’s no coincidence that I know quite a bit about some of the biggest content creators online.

I know that Brian has been an attorney, a real estate broker, and an ezine marketer back in the day.

I know that Darren Rowse (I don’t even have to tell you his website, another case in point) lives in Australia with his wife V.

I know that Sonia has a young son and rocks an awesome pink hairdo.

I don’t know these things because they go on and on about them. I know them because I love the content that they write, and in time, through a series of articles I follow, get to know a little more about each of them.

Drip, drip, drip.

Being hooked on the value they consistently provide to me is the only reason I have come to learn more about each of them.

Put The Focus Back On Your Reader

I’ve done a lot of split-testing lately, and have an example which proves my point even further.

I set-up a squeeze page which promoted a free eBook I’ve created, and varied a number of headlines. Two of them being:

• Discover How This Very Blog Gained over 10,000 Subscribers In Just 12 Months
• Discover How You Can Grow Your Blog to Over 10,000 Subscribers in Just 12 Months

Can you guess which one resulted in the most conversions?

The second headline outperformed the first by a huge margin. The reason being that the first headline put the emphasis on me, and the second put the emphasis on the reader.

The Only Reason People Read Any Blog I Because Of The Value That They Get From It

If Brian and Sonia started putting out content here which mostly focused on their personal lives, I’m sure they would quickly find their audience engagement levels decreasing.

It’s the Copyblogger core philosophy of creating content that benefits readers…week-in and week-out … that keeps the subscriber numbers growing.

Don’t automatically assume that you need to talk about yourself all day and plaster your site with personal interests and ongoings in order to build up your brand.

From my own experience, and with examples taken from some of the biggest blogs online, being personal — but subtle about it — is usually a far better route to take.

© Copyright 2006-2011. Copyblogger Media LLC. All rights reserved.

7 Web Design Elements That Annoy Online Visitors

Editor's Note: The following is another guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. How many times have you visited a Website, and been completely annoyed with one or more of its features (or lack thereof)? Probably in the thousands, right? Well, here are the top 7 Web design elements that put off users, and the actions that small businesses can take to address them.
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If you want to build a successful online presence, you need to have a fine-tuned Website that brings visitors in and gets them to take action once on your site. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to have the first part down (getting traffic), but when it comes to actually converting visitors into customers, they fail miserably.

That’s because a lot of sites are annoying. They drive visitors away almost as quickly as they arrive. To add insult to injury, the frustrated visitors usually end up going to a competitor’s site to get their needs taken care of by someone else.

Here are 7 things that annoy Website visitors:

1. Slow loading times.

I’ve seen studies that say Internet users give a site eight seconds to grab their attention. If it doesn’t satisfy them during that short time period, they’ll back out and go elsewhere. People are impatient. That’s why it’s so important to have a fast-loading site. Here’s a good post with tips for increasing site loading speed.

2. Autoplay music or video.

Seriously, this isn’t 1998. If your site starts playing music or video as soon as someone lands on it, you can bet more people than not will leave. It’s intrusive and annoying. Give visitors the option of playing the music or video. Don’t force it on them.

3. Cluttered layouts.

Have you ever walked into a messy room and tried to find something? It’s overwhelming, right? The same thing goes for a cluttered site layout. If every single space on your site is filled, you’re going to overwhelm visitors and make it too difficult for them to use your site. Remember, less is usually more, and white space is your friend.

4. Poor navigation.

Internet users have grown accustomed to using sites in a specific manner. They expect the navigation to be along the top or left-hand side of the page. They expect the navigation to be clear and the site to be organized in a logical manner. Don’t try to change this up. Keep it simple.

5. Forced registration.

Look, I understand you want to collect data for marketing purposes from your visitors. But there’s nothing more frustrating than forcing visitors to register before they can take certain actions. Most people don’t like giving out a lot of their personal information, so you’re only going to drive them away by doing this.

6. No contact information.

Your visitors shouldn’t have any problems getting in touch with you. You should have a dedicated contact page on your site, contact forms throughout, and you can even post your phone number or other contact info on each page of your site.

7. Too much Flash.

There’s nothing wrong with having some minor Flash elements on your site, but when your entire site is based in Flash, you’re going to have some problems. First, you’re losing most mobile internet users. And then you run into problems with simple usability issues like bookmarking pages, clicking the back button, etc.

What are some other things that annoy you on Websites? Please leave your comments here.

© 1998-2011 eReleases® Press Release Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

Happy Returns: How to Keep Your Audience Returning To Your Website

Editor's Note: The following is another excellent guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. For both corporate and agency marketing professionals, Kennedy offers insight into how to convince one or more target audiences to continuously return to your business's Website.

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Have you ever surfed your way to a beautiful, interesting and informative Website? You spent a few minutes on it, thought about how clever it was, and then some other shiny Internet link caught your attention. Soon, the original fascinating site was lost in a morass of Internet tabs and eventually closed. Weeks later, perhaps, you tried to remember the name of the site, but gave up. Or, worse, maybe you never even thought about the site again at all.

For you, the Web surfer, “losing” that Website in cyberspace was no big loss. But now imagine you’re the site owner, and browsers are surfing away from your page left and right. How do you keep them coming back for more?

Compelling Content
People remember websites that entertain, inform or engage them. The popular cat picture site, I Can Haz Cheezburger, does not feature the most sophisticated cutting-edge updates in Web design, but it certainly keeps people laughing (and clicking.) The longer people stay on your site, the more likely they are to remember it in the future.

Be Easy
Easy to navigate, that is. Everybody has visited a poorly-designed, frustrating-to-use Website. Think about it: how long do you stay on a site like that? Exactly. Peruse your site from a visitor’s point of view, and make sure it’s easy to use and inviting.

Frequent Updates
There’s a reason why blogs have become so popular on the Internet. They’re constantly updated with new information. Consider adding a blog to your site. Then encourage readers to subscribe to your blog’s RSS feed or e-mail subscription list by placing a prominent button somewhere on the site. Visitors will engage with your site, and be reminded of you the next time on of your posts pops up in their feed reader or email inbox.

Ask Them to Subscribe
You don’t need a blog to have subscribers. Maybe you have an e-commerce site, or your Website supports a cause. Encourage people to sign up for e-mail update about your latest news. Better yet, give them a compelling reason to sign up: offer a discount code, a freebie, or information like an e-book or a white paper upon sign-up. Again, they next time something from you arrives in their e0mail inbox, they will be reminded of your site.

You created your Website because you have something to say. Follow this advice, and people will be likely to listen...and come back for more.

© 1998-2011 eReleases® Press Release Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

The Game Of Thirds And Online Marketing

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Chris Brogan, president of Human Business Works, an online education and community company for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs, and a widely-recognized expert, best-selling author, and in-demand speaker on the future of business communications and social software technologies. In this piece, Brogan, who also blogs at ChrisBrogan.com, writes about how small business owners should divide their time, and the various sales and marketing activities they should consider priorities.
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Your roles in running your small business should be split into thirds: one-third prospecting for new customers, another third creating products and services, and the last third supporting your customers. This is the formula I see more often than not, and I don't disagree. Let's talk about how the first and last of these thirds can be accomplished a little more easily in the online world.

Listening Aids Prospecting and Customer Service
I talk about listening more often than I do any other part of business, partly because it results in the most immediate and biggest impact. In this case, I think that listening is the most powerful technology and practice to help you in both prospecting for new clients/customers, as well as the way to help better serve your existing customers. Let's talk about that.

First, grow bigger ears. That is, build a listening station and start listening for the important terms that will help you find prospects. The moment you start hearing opportunities on various social networks and online haunts, the moment you'll be hooked. Second, pay attention to what people are talking about when you're pursuing them for a sale. If they're having a bad day, it will be on their blog, on their Twitter, wherever they hang out online. Observe their social chatter before making any kind of sales call, and you'll see your results change.

On the other end, listen for your existing customers' complaints or discomforts. If you see them talking about other products or services that might lead them away from your product, make a call and see if you can do something to help them. Maybe you've been neglecting them. Does your current client relationship management (CRM) software say when you last connected with them? What? You don't use even the most basic of CRM tools to manage your relationships? That might be a talk for another time. But your customers will often give indications before they leave. With listening and monitoring tools, you'll have a chance to catch them before they go away.


Publishing to Preserve the First and Last Thirds
The other way you can gain more traction is by creating interesting content not only for your prospects, but also for existing customers. I was recently sent a link to a guided tour of how one customer of a product I had subscribed to was using that product to make more revenue. Truth is, I hadn't logged into that platform for over a month, and as a paying user, I imagine that their system tracked this, knew I'd be the kind of guy who might change his mind and leave, and they mailed me this excellent screencast tutorial that gave me some "serving suggestions" on how to build more revenue using their product. I'm still a customer.

What should you create? That's up to you. Would videos showing people how to better use the product help your prospecting efforts? Would a blog that provides information on the space at large be useful to showing your prospects that you want a relationship and not just their sale? There are lots of great ways to look at creating useful information that might help your prospects on one end and will definitely support your paid customers on the other. It's up to you to decide what that content will be.

Quick story: I once showed a heating/ventilation company how to use content to help them attract sales, simply by having them film testimonials from their installers, showing their pride in a job well done. It certainly helped things, and it only cost the company a few hours of shooting and editing, which they did themselves on an inexpensive camcorder.


Why Online and Why Not Phone or E-mail?
In all of the above, I showed you some ideas on how you could help with prospecting and customer support. I showed you very open-faced ways to help. Why didn't I talk about the importance of a phone call or a well-timed e-mail? While those methods are useful, my point is that the methods listed above are ways to leverage the power of the Internet and to let you scale a bit more. The listening tools help you hear more voices (opportunities and/or complaints) at once. The publishing of useful content helps many people with sales and support information, instead of just a singular event.

With that said, there is always a need for phone calls, for face-to-face, for one on one contact. Don't ever throw one away for the other. But as a busy small business, you have to find your time for all your efforts. Can you see how this will help you scale a bit?

One last point: Listening in the first piece of advice often points to great ideas for content creation for the last piece of advice.

© 2011 American Express Company. All Rights Reserved.

The 10 Commandments Of Writing Web Content

Editor's Note: The following is another outstanding guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. This time around, Kennedy delivers 10 excellent tips for developing Web content, a task which requires a vastly different approach than writing for print.
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Writing content for the Web is completely different from writing content for print consumption. People read differently on a computer screen than they do on a piece of paper. Not only do computer monitors make it difficult to read for long periods of time, but people who use the Web tend to be especially impatient, looking for the information they want as quickly as possible.

With all of this in mind, I’ve come up with a list of 10 commandments for writing Web content. Whether you’re writing a blog post, sales copy for your Website, or a press release for online distribution, you should always keep these rules in mind.

1. Keep your headlines clear and catchy. The headline is often times the only thing a reader will first see from your Web content. Maybe they came across a link to a blog post on their Twitter feed, or maybe they’re viewing your headline in the search engine results. Your headline needs to be clear, memorable, and to the point. Put the most important information at the lead of the headline.

2. Get to the point. Web users typically give a new website eight seconds to capture their attention. If they can’t find what they’re looking for by then, they back out of the site. This means you need to get right to the point in your Web content. No long, meandering intros. Cut to the chase so the reader knows he’s in the right place.

3. Link to resources for further information. It’s always a good idea to include links within your content. This is a good way to help readers get more information on a particular subject, and keeps them moving forward on your website.

4. Keep paragraphs to a few short sentences. Online readers are easily overwhelmed. Whenever they see a huge block of text, they usually get scared away. Keep your paragraphs to just a few short sentences so that it’s easy to scan.

5. Use bullet points and numbered lists. People tend to scan content online rather than read it word for word. By using bulleted or numbered lists, you help to make your content quick and easy to scan. Consider this post. If you wanted to, you could scan over it in maybe 15 seconds and get the key information from it.

6. Include subheads to break things up. Subheads are useful for making your content easier to scan, and they help to keep your copy more organized.

7. Optimize your content for relevant keywords. No matter what type of Web content you’re writing, you need to remember that it’s going to be indexed by the search engines. The more search traffic you can drive to it, the better. So, always optimize your content for the right keywords.

8. Write like you talk. The Web tends to be a more conversational, less formal medium of sharing information than most print communication. With that in mind, it’s important that you write content that has a personality and engages the reader. Simply put, just write like you talk. No need to try to dress your content up or make it more complicated than it needs to be.

9. Double check everything. Whenever you put something online, it’s going to be up there forever. The Internet has a long memory. So before you publish anything, double check the facts, and make sure there aren’t any typos.

10. Encourage feedback. The Internet is all about interaction. Now, readers have just as much of a voice as the authors. And that’s a good thing. Just make sure you’re encouraging your readers to give feedback.

© 1998-2011 eReleases® Press Release Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

The Link Between Online Advertising And Public Relations

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Jonathan Gardner, director of communications at Vibrant, a worldwide leader in contextual technology and the leading provider of in-text solutions. For several years now, marketers have sat back and watched as digital media has blurred the lines between communications disciplines. With this in mind, Gardner discusses why PR pros should continue to be mindful of developments in the online advertising world and how these impact the public relations domain...for better or for worse. This post first appeared in PRNewser.
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Going into 2011, it is clear that the worlds of online advertising and marketing are being shaped by tremendous forces. But why should anyone outside of advertising care? Because in our experience, none of the disciplines live in isolation: developments in advertising, communications, and PR all resonate with the others in the marketing universe.

In 2011, we think there are phenomena that are of particular relevance to those throughout marketing and communications: the continuing debate over online privacy (“do not track”) and the evolution of content and social media.

Consumers will need to decide what information they want marketers to have in exchange for access to content and advertising that is relevant to their wants and needs. As Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg put it, the public is unclear if privacy is still a “social norm.” And while government debate over online privacy continues, the industry is advancing an agenda of self-regulation. There is widespread agreement that there needs to be increased transparency in how marketers engage in behavioral targeting.

Whatever the outcome of the privacy issue, marketers are looking beyond behavioral to contextual technologies, which still allow precise targeting at scale. We see surging interest in a whole slate of new contextual marketing innovations that use banner ads, rich media, and video, along with established in-text advertising. This year will bring “super-relevant” dynamic ads with custom content that changes based on the content of a site’s page.

Smart communicators know the new world of content is defined by opportunities – all the new channels for content and the evolution of consumer product companies as “content producers.” PR professionals are stepping up to put in practice what they preach: using social to grow the network effect of communications content, within and beyond their organizations, in B2B and B2C, in every marketing channel. We’ll see amped-up integration of social-sharing and recommendation tools that bridge content and ads, such as toolbars, which have already made inroads with publishers.

As media and technology converge across devices and platforms, the content and channels are crossing boundaries and borders. And so for advertising and communications, what happens in one area will surely be impacting the other in 2011 more than ever before.

© 2011 WebMediaBrands, Inc. All Rights Reserved.