Archive for July, 2009

Xanadu Meadowlands launches

Published by
Don
7 months, 2 weeks ago in General. 0 Comments

We’re pleased to announce the launch of the new Xanadu Meadowlands website. The new site, home to America’s newest premier destination, offers over 2 million square feet of entertainment, shopping, special events, sporting activities and dining all under one roof, within minutes of New York City.

Xanadu Meadowlands Website

This one-of-a-kind venue features a unique mix of things to do, see and enjoy and will provide new and innovative experiences for friends and families of all ages. From state-of-the-art entertainment to unique and contemporary shopping to the nearly dozen attractions, when Xanadu opens it will become a must visit destination for local and international visitors.

Whether you want to ski or snowboard in America’s first indoor snow park, see a concert, shop, skydive, bowl, catch a wave, play, enjoy a great meal, see the skyline of Manhattan from the largest observation wheel in the US, it’s all here at Xanadu.

The new site features an innovative interactive map feature. The rest of the sites features the venue, highlights the surrounding area and gives information about the history and companies behind the project. Look for future additions and innovative interactive content in the near future!

For additional information, as well as marketing, media and analyst inquiries, please contact Don Grantham at 714.528.1133 ext. 201.

Marketing on an island

Published by
Don
7 months, 3 weeks ago in Business and Marketing. 0 Comments

Imagine if you ran a business on a small island, every interaction matters and every customer is precious.

There’s a finite number of people you’re going to be able to sell to, and every person you interact with knows everyone else, so you always have to be on your best behavior. You can’t say, “tough” and then go on to the next person. You can’t run ads that churn and burn through an endless supply of naive prospects. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and on the island, that impression matters.

Consider an airline in Chicago that can bully and bluster and greedify its way through an endless supply of business travelers, and compare them to a short hop carrier on Martha’s Vineyard. The Vineyard airline knows that people can always switch to the other short hop airline or the ferry, and they also know that the folks they serve have power, because there aren’t an endless supply.

As you’ve probably guessed, like most things in our ever shrinking world, all marketers are now on an island.

The island perspective is the Zappos model. Every interaction is both precious and an opportunity to delight. Marketers no longer have the money or the platform to harass and promote their way to success by burning through the market. Instead, we have to act like we’re on an island earning and then nurturing a permission asset.

Through this lens, banner ads and various pop ups make even less sense than they used to. So does the insane act of outsourcing the random dialing of businesses to do telemarketing spam. We used up those resources a long time ago.

So think about how you interact and service those customers and prospects that seek out your goods and services. In this economy you cant afford to give good service “most of the time”.

When you consider how you spend your online and offline marketing dollars, think about what makes sense. The shotgun has run out of shells.

The Art of the Landing Page

Published by
Don
7 months, 3 weeks ago in Business, Design and Marketing. 0 Comments

Landing page optimization and testing can have a dramatic impact on your online marketing profitability. But even without testing you can quickly eliminate several common mistakes that can instantly skyrocket conversion rates. These approaches work across a surprisingly wide variety of circumstances and industries:

Remove choices.
You should be very clear about your desired conversion action, (whether it is a sale, download, form-fill, or simply a click-through to another page). All other clickable links or choices on the page should be eliminated or at least visually de-emphasized.

Keep your promises.
Your visitors arrived from somewhere, and an expectation was set before they even landed on your page. This could have been in your pay-per-click ad, a third-party blog posting, or a comparison shopping engine. Make sure that you understand the context from which they arrived. It is critical to align the content of your landing page with their intent and expectations.

Don’t be loud.
Minimize visual distractions as much as possible. Do not use a wide variety of font styles, colors, and sizes on your page. Remove images and interactive rich-media content unless it directly supports your conversion goal and is a clearly superior way of conveying important information. Sometimes minimally designed landing pages are often the best converting ones.

Reduce anxiety.
Unless you work for an internationally recognized company, you have no brand-strength or credibility with your online audience. You should do everything possible to reduce anxiety on your page by using safe shopping seals, and other indicators of your trustworthiness. The logos of trade associations, acceptable payment methods, and money-back guarantee seals can all be powerful ways to make your visitors feel safer.

Enhance affinity.
People want to feel an affinity for your product or service. By transferring recognition or goodwill from other sources you can help reinforce their desire to act. Liberally use logos of well-recognized client brands. Add the badges of media sources that have covered or mentioned your company. Prominently display glowing testimonials from existing customers.

Have a clear call to action.
Have a prominent and clear call to action. Make sure that you spell out exactly what will happen if someone fills out the form or clicks on the desired link. Do not clutter the area around the call to action, let it stand out by its isolation on the page.

Cut down your text.
The Web is an “at-a-glance” medium. Study after study has shown that less textual content on a landing page leads to a higher conversion rate. Ruthlessly edit your text down to simple headlines and short bullet lists. Cut out the self-promoting marketing speak that people will not read anyway. Detailed information can be linked to on supporting pages.

If you follow these best practices you are guaranteed to make your cash register ring more often, so to speak.

Ask The Expert

Published by
Don
7 months, 3 weeks ago in General. 0 Comments

Question:

“How can companies protect themselves when choosing a URL as their public face?”

Answer:

Choosing a URL requires thought and foresight. Make sure no combination of words or letters impinges on the copyright or trademark of other companies, particularly large, well known brands.

Email = Profits?

Published by
Don
7 months, 3 weeks ago in Business and Marketing. 0 Comments

While the Internet has opened new marketing channels for small-business leaders, it also has generated challenges. One of the biggest challenges is identifying, contacting and keeping customers.

In two recent surveys by Information Strategies, Inc. (ISI), respondents indicated that they can increase new business by as much as 20% on an annualized basis by creating effective e-mail campaigns. Moreover, from existing clients, the increase in new business generated by creative-contact e-mail campaigns was nearly 40%.

These studies, and others by e-marketing groups, show that maintaining constant contacts with potential and existing clients via e-mail is an effective sales tool, even in this economy.

Said one Midwestern parts supplier during a focus group, “We instituted a program that touches our clients once a month, and we saw the results in under three months.” He added that the initial cost, in terms of dollars and employee time, was repaid within four months. “We then took every e-mail lead we had and sent a biweekly fact sheet that included a tip on using one of our products and a listing of one or two specials we were running,” he added. “From this initial seed list of 1,400 names, we got 24 new orders in the first six weeks, as well as 620 new sign-ups.”

Another focus-group participant, the owner of an upscale salon chain, said she used e-mails collected at her physical locations to start up a new e-mail program. “We started with a prom special in June of last year offering a special ‘prom party’ program that went to 7000 teenage customers,” she said. “From that group, we got twenty five ‘parties’ that generated $12,500-plus in sales that week,” she reported. This Syracuse, N.Y., entrepreneur then launched a Thanksgiving and Christmas program to which she directly attributed $53,000 – and probably more – in additional income.

Experts suggest that companies do the following:

* Always ask for e-mail addresses on orders and requests and on the company Web site.
* Keep the list up-to-date and mail at least once a month.
* Always offer the opt-out option on any mailing.
* Train employees to ask where the order or sale originated, and track results.
* Encourage recipients to refer other possible recipients.
* Make sure to use a reliable agency, like Evolve Media, to manage the e-mail accounts. The relatively minor costs will be repaid with efficiencies and avoidance of problems with Internet regulations.

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