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    web strategy

    What’s Above the Fold?

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    Here’s the thing about the internet. Here’s the thing about marketing. People need to know what your product or service is before they buy it. In a real world retail setting if your jar of white stuff is next to the mayo, you are probably selling mayo. If your light bulb is on a shelf in an auto parts store, it’s probably a for the car.

    For new or establishing brands on the web there is no such context. Your name is context. Your picture is context, as long as you meet accessibility requirements. I learned all this at a startup that was too many things to too many people…and it sunk us.

    Take a look at this screen grab from Strasmore and tell me what they do. ‘Xactly. What do you think the bounce rate is for someone who doesn’t know the company?  Dig a little and you may get they offer cloud services and back up and consulting but, hell, that could be anyone.

    I have a little trick I call the Is-Does. What a brand Is and what a brand Does. If you don’t nail the Is-Does above the fold on your homepage, you are awash in the ether.

    Imagine if you were someone who changed their name every week. Kinda like that.

    Peace.

     

     

     

    Pinterest vs. the Lazy Website.

    By
    Steve Poppe
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    0

    I’m not a pinner or user of Pinterest (yet), but recently visited the site in an effort to help out a friend with a woodworking business; my intent was to get him to display his amazing work.  Pinterst recognized the fact that I was not an active user and so popped up a quickie tour of new features.  The pop up made it sound as if they were sharing new enhancements, but it could easily have just been their way of reorienting and activating me.

    Nice finesse Pinterest.  This is how the web should work.  In my world, where a website should represent the brand plan (one claim, three proof planks), pop-ups or interstitial pages that vary based upon your visiting behavior are refreshing. A return visitor that always heads straight to contacts or about should be offered a quick link there. A first time or lapsed user should be treated with special gloves. A repeat purchaser should get the special treatment — perhaps a surprise every now and again, and other delights.

    But this doesn’t happen very often.

    We have really kind of forgotten the website these past few years as we go all head down on shiny new social media and moble. And now “content marketing” is the haps. Often unbridled content marketing. Off-piste content marketing.  (That’s why it’s smart to use thought leaders in the practice – see Kyle Monson and www.Knock2x.com for instance.)

    Fred Wilson and John Battelle in a recent video chafed at the notion of giving traffic to other’s websites.  I agree. Social and content are kind of like chumming and fishing, but once the fish is on the line it needs to come into the boat.

    Websites are the biggest most important development in commerce since the telephone.  Let’s get back to optimizing them. Steve Rubel, you with me on this? Peace.

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