The Click #007

Google's revenue has increased by 437,115% over the last 5 years. The reason? AdWords are a great way to advertise.

What are AdWords? AdWords are the sponsored links that display down the right hand side when you Google. The bottom of this article explains how to get started, but first a few tips:

1. Lead with need We are just starting a website redesign and AdWords campaign for bed makers Litvinoff & Fawcett.

I'll bet my laptop that ads shown to people searching for 'back pain' and 'insomnia' will be more effective than 'beds', 'mattresses' or 'teak finish'. Watch this space.

2. Match your headline to the search term The easiest way to get a good response is to make the headline of the ad match the term that the user has searched for. Better still, squeeze in some geographic information.

3. Use AdWords to discover why people want you AdWords lets you run a number of ads and see which resonates best with your target market.

The first campaign I ever ran was for Scoles Manor holiday cottages. As this report shows, the left ad gets better responses than the other two - 1.3% CTR compared with 1.1% CTR.

The main difference is that the line 'Sleeps up to 20' has been replaced by '2 miles Corfe Castle'. In retrospect that is clearly a better appeal - it's more evocative and more specific.

As we are paying £2/day, I can leave it at that. If we were paying £2000/day, there is lots of scope for improvement. I'd make three new variations on the '2 miles Corfe Castle' theme. I'd check them a few weeks later, see which variation was working best and then make new variations based on that. I'd also rejig the relevant page of the website to reflect the most successful advert.

4. Get started The best way to understand AdWords is to start a campaign: http://www.google.co.uk/adwords.

Within 5 minutes you'll be cost-effectively advertising your business and learning about your market.

A shop in a premium location costs a fortune to rent. A webshop in a premium location costs... well pretty much anything. Creating a premium location (that is, one with lots of traffic) online is a problem so new and so different that almost no one seems to have much of a grasp on it.

Sure, there are bloggers and SEOs who are starting to feel the way.

It's slippery. Big media intuition is often plain wrong. Rupert Murdoch just convened his 50 execs to reexamine the challenge of the internet. I bet they end up flushing a whole lot more cash down the toilet.

Meanwhile, the boys from CollegeHumor.com have moved into a $10,000/month Tribeca loft, on the back of their hot bartenders and dorm stunts website.

As I nipped out to post a letter I was thinking that Seth Godin has made some great posts recently: Don't Shave That Yak, The Tolstoy Rule, The Ever Worsening Case of the Cog.

I just saw his new book is called All Marketers are Liars. It is about 'the power of telling authentic stories in a low trust world'. I had wanted Mint's tag line to be 'The marketing agency that tells the truth', but no one thought it was a good idea. Perhaps the tide is turning?

Great photos on this site: Seb Janiak

Is the design helping?

I think so.

Orange branded Wednesdays. Now Mint are branding summer.

We're planning a party to mark that fantastic first day of summer when shirt sleeves are rolled up and pretty girls come out of hibernation.

Each Mint founder will do a song or a dance.

Everyone's invited. More details soon.

The Click #006

The last Click argued that you need a website the way a peacock needs a tail. It got the most favourable feedback yet. Thanks to everyone who replied.

There was one dissenting voice.

I asked Matt Weston to glance at it before I sent it out. He phoned back with a dozen reasons why a website should be more than a peacock's tail.

(When he phoned, I was out the door to a meeting. The limited time to incorporate his thoughts without losing sight of my argument meant The Click ended up riddled with typos. Apologies.)

This is roughly what he said:

There are two sorts of websites: showy ones (peacocks' tails) and hard working ones (let's call them monkeys' tails).

A monkey's tail doesn't look great. But it is hard-working, efficient and, above all, responsive to its environment. It does the vital job of balancing the monkey... saving her from falling to her death.

Constant measurement means good balance Your website should be a monkey's tail. Constantly balancing your company.

As Bill Gates said 'Your customers are your greatest source of learning'. As Bill proves every time you struggle with bullet points in Word, this is tricky in practice.

A website makes it much easier. Your site can be a constant source of learning. It offers unprecedented opportunities to see how your customers want to relate to you.

How to start measuring There are hundreds of opportunities. Here are some ideas:

1. Run two home pages, with different headlines, to see which message resonates best.

2. See which pages people are on when they leave your site. Reconsider the design of those pages.

3. Consider your least visited pages. How can you excite visitors about that content? If you can't, consider dropping them.

4. Analyse where people are coming to your site from. Spend time cultivating those sorts of links.

5. If you run an online shop, compare the number of people viewing an item to the number of people buying. If a high proportion of browsers buy, promote that item more heavily. If a low proportion buy, adjust the price.

Accountable advertising Maybe the most exciting opportunity the web offers in this area is instantly measurable advertising: Google AdWords. Read more in The Click #007

John Lovell, MD of Lovell Consulting, says:

“Very pleased with the work. The response from clients has been very positive. It's a huge improvement.”

Matt Drought, MD of Natural Training, says:

"If you are (like me) a newcomer to the world of internet I suggest you choose Mint Digital as your online partner. They are very patient and explain everything in full (read: no 'smoke and mirrors').

"Importantly, they have a knack of knowing how things work, from how the potential customer thinks when surfing, to choosing just the right words for your all-important headline. As for their promise of "websites that sell" - within a day of the site being live I had two enquiries from potential customers. Give them a try - you will be delighted with their care and expertise."

When we were starting Mint, Noam and I thought it would be hard to convince people of our approach to web design. These two clients understood straight away. They made it easy for us to work together to make sites that demonstrate what's special and exciting about their businesses. Thanks for hiring us!

Everyone's talking about blogging as a tool for business communication. The Economist had a piece this week on Scobelizer. Hugh Mcleod at gapingvoid is excited about using a blog to promote his pal, tailor Thomas Mahon.

I like blogs and I'd love to see them edge out traditional PR. But it is is worth noting that blog poularity follows a zipf distribution. Put simply, a few bloggers get most of the traffic... and most bloggers get hardly any.

Reading a successful blog makes publicity sound effortless. Something about their immediacy makes you feel like you could easily be as widely read as Seth Godin. You'd never start rapping hoping to sell records like Eminem.

Economic analysis suggests that in a market with no barriers to entry (like blogging) any marginal benefit - above what you'd expect to earn from doing something else - will soon get competed away.

But then, economists make terrible entrepreneurs. An economist wouldn't bend down to pick up a stray £10 note found lying on the floor, thinking that if it was really was a £10 note it would already have been picked up.

The Click #005

The week before last Mint Digital went to a pitch meeting.

The prospective client had been operating for 2 years and had built a profitable one-man operation. He was keen to replace his homemade, bug-ridden site with something more professional.

Towards the end of the meeting, he asked:

"Why do I need a website? My business is growing strongly with the current one."

I mumbled something about web marketing being hard-to-measure but vital*.

In truth, I felt like a shop assistant in M&S being asked, "Why do I need pants?" The answer seems obvious. But it's hard to explain when you are put on the spot.

If I'd had a week to think about it, here's what I would have said:

"Evolutionary theorists have long pondered the peacock's tail. Wouldn't a peacock better off with something less showy, something that wouldn't alert predators? The answer, many believe, is that a peacock gets use from its tail because it is a non-fakeable display of health. An unhealthy peacock couldn't produce such a dazzling display. The tail is a great symbol for peahens looking for a mate.

"At the very least a website is a display of corporate health. (And a good website can be much, much more). It's non-fakeable and highly visible. If you are selling a service it is often impossible for prospective clients to judge what the quality is like prior to buying. Instead they have to rely on symbols.

"As Harry Beckwith says, symbols are incredibly important when you are Selling the Invisible. That's why lawyers devote intense attention to having the right office furniture and accountants take care to dress conservatively.

"Compared to office furniture, a website is a symbol on steroids.

"With this in mind, make sure the content of your website is non-fakeable.

"Library photos and empty slogans - like 'An unrivalled commitment to quality and professional relationships' - can be used by anyone. Case studies, client lists and detailed points of your methodology can't be faked by inferior firms. That's what your site should start with."

I wonder if that would have closed the deal?

* If websites are clothes for companies, than Miucca Prada is stuck on the same problem. The ex-communist, PhD-holding founder of the self-titled fashion empire says:

"Everyone who is smart says he hates fashion, that it's such a waste of time. I have asked many super-serious people, 'Then why is fashion so popular?' Nobody can answer that question. But somebody must be interested, because when I go to the stores, people are there. Thousands of them."

If I was looking...

When I started Mint Digital I was inspired by this article by Seth Godin:

When I started Mint Digital, I was inspired by this article by Seth Godin. He suggests:

You say to the prospect: I will work with you to build a four-page engine of revenue. The idea: the client loads it up with targeted traffic that he buys by regularly trying and testing adwords and other relevant, measurable media. Then, I will regularly, constantly tweak (or redesign) the four page site to turn those strangers into friends (and maybe, if your product is great and your followup is appropriate, you can turn those friends into customers).

The thing is, it's probably cheaper to constantly measure and evolve and redesign a four page offer site than it is to build the annual 400 page website overhaul. And there's no question it's more effective.

It takes patience. It takes a lack of ego. It takes a willingness to be creative and to try new stuff, to measure what works and to do it more.

So far we haven't met anyone who'd be up for this approach. In fact, we've haven't found a client who it would be suitable for (though we have discussed the idea with a couple...).

The Click #004

The last Click argued that a website has to communicate a firm's personality in order to sell. I'm not sure many of you agreed. Everyone who replied said - roughly - that personality might work for quirky products, but it won't work for normal businesses.

But a personality doesn't have to be zany.

I imagine you want your dentist to be precise, your accountant to be meticulous, your train driver to be one-track-minded and your programmer to be geeky.

Websites should show these sort of personalities. To demonstrate this variety, I decided to find 50 decent 'About Us' pages.

Why 'About Us' pages? They are hard to do right. It's where the temptation to blather away in meaningless platitudes is strongest. Also, it's where people turn when they get lost.

50 'About Us' pages is too much for one man. Here's my first five. I'd welcome suggestions of others, drop me an email at andy@the-click.co.uk.

50 GOOD ABOUT PAGES (PART 1)

1. Ryanair http://www.ryanair.com/about/abouthome.html This page demonstrates Ryanair's fanatical devotion to low cost fares. On the other hand, their site is so 'special' that you can't link to the 'About' page without breaking the navigation.

2. Howies http://www.howies.co.uk/about.php It's a big 'About' section, but every page works. David Carruthers at Oyster suggested this fabulous site. I'd never heard of them before. Now I want their t-shirt.

3. BusinessBricks http://www.businessbricks.co.uk/aboutus.shtml OK, we designed the site but we didn't write this page. Clear, lively and enthusiastic.

4. FogCreek http://www.fogcreek.com/About.html Joel Spolsky is an inspiration for this newsletter. His firm's about page conveys vision, intelligence and expertise.

5. Skype http://www.skype.com/company/ Being believed is an essential problem when writing a website. Testimonials get round this problem, especially when written by recognised experts. Even better if that expert would be expected to rubbish you.

So, what do you are these effective sites? Or do they suck? Let us know...

We offer website evaluations on the Mint Digital site. I thought it might be interesting to occasionally share them:

I like the 'Hotel of the Month' - this is the content on the front page that works hardest to demonstrate what Accessatlast is about.

Here's a few areas I'd work on if I was thinking about improvements:

1. The main blurb on the front page should be shorter. This bit of the blurb gets their message across: "Our website contains accessible hotels for the disabled, elderly and infirm. The disabled hotels are visited and assessed by wheelchair users so you can be sure that they are suitable". I'd think hard about what else is needed.

2. As I understand it (and I may be wrong) the site is primarily about helping people find accessible hotels. It is always stronger to demonstrate what you do than to tell people. With that in mind, I'd be tempted to put the Accessible Accommodation finder on the home page.

3. I was a bit confused clicking on 'Hire'. I assumed I was going to get a page that would let me hire AccessatLast as a consultancy service. Instead I came to a page that invited me to fill in a questionnaire.

After chatting to Matt, our aims for the new Business Bricks site were:

• to keep something of the old site's home-grown feel but, at the same time, to make a better structured site that felt more professional
• to showcase Matt's great writing without design getting in the way
• to make something that felt solid like, um, a brick

How have we done? A step forward for Business Bricks? Or have we blown what used to be brilliant? We'd love to hear your thoughts...

The Click #003

I asked a good friend for his feedback on our new Mint Digital site.

Commenting on the people page, he blasted:

“Why are you telling me what you do at the weekend? I don’t give a sh*t about that. I want to know you’re clever enough to minimise my expenditure on your times and materials, creative enough to come up with an interesting solution and focused enough on ‘making it sell’ to be professional.”

I thought everyone agreed that the web is changing the way companies communicate. I took it as read that people want to do business with people, humans want to connect and the web is a great way to make this happen.

Maybe I’ve read too much Seth Godin and got carried away on internet hype.

The Innocent website, which everyone seems to like (well, a couple of clients recommended it last week) is stuffed with personality. Roll over staff faces and you see what they looked like as toddlers. The press section starts: ‘It’s not for us to blow our own trumpet, but… parp parp.’

It works for Innocent, but maybe they are a winsome exception?

Google is a model of professionalism. Occasionally they raise an eyebrow, letting their geeky brilliance shine through. Install the Google toolbar and you are told: ‘Please read this carefully, it’s not the usual yada yada‘. Click on an empty spam folder in Gmail. It says: ‘Hooray, no spam here!’

To communicate a firm needs to show its personality. You’d think I was strange if I introduced myself by saying: “Hi, I’m Andy. I have an unrivalled commitment to quality and professional integrity. I aim to be number one worldwide!” That’s how many corporate sites kick off.

The web makes honesty more cost-effective. Corporate happy-talk and big lies (like ‘Gillette: the best a man can get’) seem hollow. Personality and truth resonate. Saying “Noam has a world record for playing in the world’s longest football match” won’t close any deals for us. But you can’t read it without thinking of Noam as a human being.

And that’s a start.

Make yourself a smooth-riding, pimped-out, date magnet. Over 134 billion options to choose from.

Check our Overhaulin' game. Enjoy!

The Click #002

VIRAL MARKETING WAS A BUZZ phrase in the dot com boom. It's out of favour now. That's a pity because it's still a useful concept.

Viral Marketing means getting people to pass along your message. The thinking is that you are more likely to be persuaded by a recommendation from a friend than a corporation. It's not a new idea. Advertisers have attempted to seed word-of-mouth campaigns since the 1920s.

(Enthusing hairdressers is one technique that proved successful. They've got time to chat and have a wide variety of customers, making them highly contagious. Another is planting rumours on university campuses just before the end of term. Students disperse and pass on the gossip, making it believable in the wider population because 'everyone's saying it'. Karl Rove has used this technique to spread dirt on George W. Bush's rivals.)

In theory, the web makes viral marketing much easier (if you like something you can easily email 10 friends, and they can easily email 10 friends, creating an epidemic of favourable publicity). In practice, it is hard to get right.

1. Traditional Viral Traditional viral involves making a bit of gee-whizz content (usually Flash or a video clip) that is so gee-whizzy that you just have to forward it on.

It is hit driven. For every success, there are tens of duds. If you subscribe to Chinwag viralmonitor you'll see a bunch of duds, and the odd gem, float past.

Channel 4's Gay-O-Meter is a hit. It connects with a forgotten playground taunt in the back of your brain. It is funny. When you are finished, you have an incentive (of sorts) to send it on: 'The Channel 4 Gay-O-Meter has calculated that Andy is 26 percent gay! Find out just how gay you are: http://www.channel4.com/gayometer.'

For big business, traditional viral is cheap. It costs, say, 1% of a TV campaign. If a viral ads gains traction it will be seen by something approaching a TV size audience. And that audience won't be making a cup of tea, going to the loo or snogging. They will be opening an email, thinking 'Why did my friend James send me this? Wow, how cool.'

For a medium-sized business (i.e. any business that wouldn't run TV ads), it is comparatively expensive and very, very uncertain.

If traditional viral only makes sense for big business, what other options are there?

2. Refer a friend Your current customers' friends are a great source of new business.

Cheap calls firm TalkTalk offers you and a friend £20 each if your friend signs up. Organic foodies Abel & Cole gives you a bottle of olive oil for a referral.

3. Competitions The Click reader Pravin Shah runs CityFruits.com, a fruit and flowers delivery service. He's got a spark for creating competitions with a viral element.

He runs a reverse auction. If you make the lowest unique bid during the week, you win a bottle of vintage champagne. It's free to play and you can enter as many times as you want. There is one condition. For each entry, you have to submit a friend's email address.

Off this, Pravin gets 50 new email addresses a week, each one a personal recommendation.

4. Blogs Blogs are online diaries. I thought they were a fad but they are going mainstream. The FT recently published an article offering 'Words of Advice for Corporate Bloggers.

Done well, they put a human face on a company's communication. Done very well, other bloggers link to you, raising your profile almost effortlessly.

To make a blog work, you've got to find a niche. The best bit of advice when I started The Click (which is a newsletter about to morph into a blog) was don't write about website design. That's why I concentrate on making websites that change minds.

Andrew Goodman does it well. He runs a successful blog on search engines: www.traffick.com. This blog establishes him as an expert in the field and drives business to his online marketing consultancy: Page Zero.

Conclusions So, what are the lessons?

A viral campaign might sound easy but it isn't a free lunch. All successful examples have a touch of ingenuity at their heart. They perform a judo role, taking a consumer's momentum and directing him or her in a way that promotes your firm.

The good news is viral marketing is cheap to try and easy to get started.

The bad news is that this means there are lots of other businesses competing against you.

You need to try different ideas. Test them and tweak them. With luck, you'll find one that works like magic.

- Noam Sohachevsky, Mint's creative director, has been locked in a dark room with a towel round his head. He is desperately finishing off a new viral game for Discovery USA.

- Mint Digital has been commissioned to make new websites for Lovell Consulting and The Nursery.

- New Business Bricks website due to launch 'sometime next week'.

Paco Underhill has spent the last 20 years observing shoppers. Can his insights in Why We Buy - The Science of Shopping help make websites that sell?

Landing strip
When shoppers enter a store they are walking at street pace. They need to slow down before they start browsing properly. Don’t try to sell your most profitable items in this transition zone. For the same reason you shouldn’t put lots of text on your home page. Users need to slow down before they are going to read absorb anything substantial.

Appropriate signage
Don’t evaluate shop signs sitting in a boardroom. Evaluate them as a shopper would, at an angle, hurrying past, maybe in fading light. This is exactly the same with website design. Genuine users rush past your site at a 70mph blur, only pausing long enough to find the next thing to click on. Over familiarity is the problem when trying to evaluate a site you are involved in producing, so testing it in the dark on a motorway won’t help. Testing on sample users is the solution.

Atmosphere
Shopping is a sensual activity. Good stores perform “retail judo” – taking unconscious desires and fulfilling them with a purchase. Most ecommerce is like “a warehouse club on the web”. Some sites are getting better at generating an atmosphere. In my opinion American Apparel does a great job. British e-tailer Figleaves.com aims at a premium market but feels as muchTK Maxx as Selfridges.

Ecommerce
Paco sees plenty of scope for boutique e-tailers targeting specialist niches. For instance, he imagines an shop for tall girls who like travelling. It’s too much of a niche for the real world but would make sense online.

The butt brush
Once a couple of people have brushed past your bottom, you’ll probably leave the shop. This phenomenon probably has no online equivalent.