What does loyalty really mean?

Customer loyalty is a valuable commodity and a loyal customer can pay dividends in more ways than one. But what does loyalty really mean?

Loyal clients and customers are the most valuable assets of a business, and should be treated as such. They stick with a brand even though they have other options because they believe they are being given a better experience, better value and benefits than they would get from other brands. Customers like that are worth their weight in gold, and can usually only be created if they are made to feel they are a business’ number one priority. Here are the top reasons why you should treat them like royalty:

• Marketing, advertising and incentivizing is an expensive business, and it costs a business about 5-10 times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain and sell to an existing one – so catering to your current clients will save you money
• They love to do the hard work for you. When a client or customer truly loves what you do, they want to tell people about their positive experiences. These are the consumers who use in-person and online conversations to regularly share and endorse your products and services. In short – these brand advocates are the crucial difference between having average audience interaction and genuine influence. This small yet extremely valuable group of advocates should be highly prized because their support, endorsement and recommendations can not only increase awareness, but they can provide social proof to considerably boost your Google rankings. They engender trust and reinforce your business amongst consumers who are unfamiliar with and new to your brand to drive them to ACTION.
• Up and cross-sell strategies are more effective with loyal fans. They trust you, so they are more inclined to be adventurous with their choice of products and services, and they tend to buy for longer, too
• Loyal customers spend on average 67% MORE than new ones with repeat purchases – making them high ROI prospects. Research shows that return and repeat purchasers have higher average order values and conversion rates than shoppers with no previous purchase history
• They can improve other aspects of your business. Loyal customers are more inclined to freely give genuine, quality feedback that is invaluable for knowing what you’re doing well and what areas need improvement. They can also give insight and ideas for product and service development too – they could be your next big money-spinning inspiration!
• Loyalty gives your business the power to endure through a tough economy. When the competition is hotting up and everyone around you is cutting prices, you will stay afloat and keep trading. Why? Because your loyal customers aren’t interested in getting the cheapest price for what they want – they want real value, and that comes with the experience you offer them and the benefits they perceive your products give them, aside from price.
• When you have to raise your game, loyal customers will play along. Everyone has to raise prices, whether to combat inflation or just because you deserve a better profit margin. Fortunately as with the previous point, your faithful client base is dependable. Because they perceive that you offer a greater value they will be willing to pay more for a quality product or service

Many businesses offer monetary incentives in exchange for people’s loyalty, but maybe they should have indulged their beatnik tendencies, because those Beatles were right – money can’t buy love, and it can’t buy loyalty either.

Discounts = Desperation

No matter how much you dress it up – and even if you pretend to be okay with it – cutting prices hurts. You’ve worked hard on your business, and it’s a real come-down to have to get a whole lot less that you deserve in return. Providing services at a lower cost can be the start of an ugly cycle – to cover the cash shortfall other quick hits are needed, which is the start of a dark, downward spiral that forces you to keep prices low and before you know it you’re in a hole too deep to get out of.

So is there anything else you can do to redress the balance? You guessed it – you have to take something away from your product, and that can be a real blow to quality and integrity.

You might have to reduce the efficiency of your delivery service, or cut down on client aftercare, or strip valuable features away from your carefully crafted offerings, leaving them mutilated and limping. This in itself is bad enough, but consider the consequences… What will your clients think of all this corner cutting? Well, in short – not a lot. These days people are swift to condemn sub-standard products and services, and thanks to the boom in social media they like to do so publicly (it does have its flip sides). Be prepared for a serious dent in your reputation as well as your wallet. Here are some more powerful reasons NOT to discount:

• Prioritizing growth over profit means your business runs a significant risk of never reaching profitability.
• You will need a substantial cash buffer to stay afloat if you’re going to vastly discount your products – and that can be difficult to come by for most small businesses.
• If you offer lower prices you have to make up for the shortfall by working harder than your competitors to make the same amount of money. This is bad news as there are only so many hours in a day, so you may not be able to make up your profits without exhausting yourself – if at all. This means your competitors can be more relaxed, and they’ll have bigger financial resources at their disposal for marketing and advertising too, making them more powerful adversaries.
• A basic understanding of the psychology of consumers is essential when running a business. The majority of people have a ‘You get what you pay for’ psychology, so if they see a cheap offer, they immediately perceive it as lower quality. This can significantly devalue your services. This is bad for your reputation as it positions your business as ‘cheap’ rather than representing quality – and the negative impact on your business will be long term and difficult to repair.
• If what you put out is low grade, what you get back will be low grade too. If your products are seen as cheap they will attract the wrong kind of client – bargain hunters. These are the bottom dwellers of the consumer pool. They are demanding, have a skewed perspective, zero loyalty and they’re not afraid to shoot their mouths off. They are also often indecisive and bad payers, and they can suck up the resources of your company and spread negative energy like a disease.
• A low or discounted price implies you have a lack of faith in your own product or service – particularly if it is ‘high-end’ – and if you don’t believe in your product, why should anyone else?
• Setting a low standard makes it much harder to raise your prices as your business grows. Even if you make it clear that the lower price is “introductory” only, this is almost always ‘forgotten’, and getting people to pay higher prices once you go back to normal will be really tough, let alone when you inevitably raise your prices.
• What happens if you are discounting products or services your existing customers have already paid full whack for? I can tell you one thing for sure – when they find out they are not going to be happy bunnies. The likelihood is you’ll have to either give them a partial discount or risk losing them forever. And they’re quite likely to spread the word about their shoddy treatment too…

How to win the hearts of your customers

Ok, so if you can’t discount and you don’t want to compromise quality – you may well be wondering if there is anything you can do.

In fact there are a ton of fantastic options for you to differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd to increase awareness, keep your existing customers satisfied AND win new clients. What you must do is add value in some other way that will truly benefit them to create a far deeper and long lasting loyalty.

Here are some proven major strategies that work across any industry – apply as many as you can and you’ll soon begin to develop a much richer relationship with your clients and customers.

1. Provide an ‘experience’

We live in a virtual age where reality is subjective, and the more things get digitized, the more people instinctively feel the need for something genuine. The new breed of consumer differentiates between product and service choices on a whole new set of criteria to the ones marketing types are used to. What they are searching for is an authentic experience rather than just gimmicks or features from self-serving companies – something that enriches either their lives or has a positive impact for the greater good. Businesses with a strong focus on charity or community offer a compelling reason to commit and stay loyal.

Attentiveness, recognition and personalization are also key players, with the latter being particularly powerful. Amazon is one of the great artists of personalization techniques like personal recommendations based on previous purchases and browsing history. Think what you could do to ensure your customers know that you not only pay attention to their preferences, but remember them and cater to them for each and every transaction.

…And don’t forget to show your clientele the appreciation they deserve, they will love you for it. Reward them spontaneously with free and valuable insights, articles, games, competitions and other treats. Be there in the right place at the right time to give them the experience they crave.

EXAMPLE: SPECIAL K

Special K paid close attention to the feedback from their customers and devised a comprehensive weight management system. As well as giving women a selection of diet plans that can be tailored to the individual and the support they need with articles written by experts and forums cleverly divided into larger topics like ‘others like you’ and ‘nutrition’ as well as about the diet plans, Special K offer a set of valuable tools like a BMI calculator and eating out guide and a food diary to keep track of everything.

The crowning glory of the Special K diet plan experience however, is a neat little iPhone app that enables dieters to plan meals (with recipes provided) according to their chosen plan. These plans then automatically generate a shopping list made up of all the ingredients in every meal. From there it’s a simple step to add these ingredients to a shopping basket on the Tesco website (a major supermarket chain in the UK) and have everything delivered to their door.

And best of all? Everything is FREE.

2. Mitigate ‘pain’ points

Every customer has concerns – it’s only natural – but worries and fears are barriers to commitment and loyalty, so you must do everything you can to assuage them.

If you know your target audience well enough and listen to them often enough, you will have a fair idea of what makes them tick and what reservations they have. Offering excellent customer service, fast results or delivery, and exceptional guarantees is a good place to start, but tailor what you do to deal with the problems that affect your clientele specifically.

Show your personality to reassure people you are a flesh and blood being with feelings, dreams and aspirations – and problems – just like them. Be empathic and encourage emotional bonds to develop. Make them feel comfortable and secure and they will most likely happily return to you time and time again.

EXAMPLE: APPLE

They are renowned for their excellent customer service and over 60% of Apple employees are actually out there in stores, which demonstrates the importance that the company places on going that extra mile to keep clients happy. Apple employees are trained to understand the needs of customers and solve their problems rather than to ‘sell’, and their employees have no set sales targets or commissions. Even the Apple name has been used to create a customer service-centric acronym:

• Approach customers with a personalized warm welcome
• Probe politely to understand all the customer’s needs
• Present a solution for the customer to take home today
• Listen for and resolve any issues or concerns
• End with a fond farewell and an invitation to return

With customers being supported by friendly, helpful (and fair) advice throughout the buying process and afterwards, it’s no surprise that customer feedback is excellent. Phrases like ‘I felt appreciated’ and ‘I feel completely secure with my purchase’ are commonplace from Apple’s many advocates.

3. Show them what you’re made of

Prove your worth by demonstrating the truly unique attributes that set you apart from the rest – they don’t have to be conventional, in fact it is better if they’re not. With a unique selling point you effectively remove yourself from the competition and create a comfortable niche for yourself that creates demand and inspires loyalty. Think creatively to determine the unique traits of your products, services, mission or image that make you special.

Position yourself as knowledgeable and an authority to be respected by demonstrating your unique expertise and experience through useful and informative articles, contributions to forums, webinars and other social interactions.

Not only is this good for your image, it also develops your image by giving something back to those that follow you. Build on this reputation and show that you follow through on your promises. Be proud and showcase excellent referrals, reviews and testimonials from satisfied customers and clients – and the beauty is that the more loyalty you gain, the more willing people will be to freely give you glowing feedback.

EXAMPLE: JACK DANIELS

Jack Daniels’ unique value stems from their unique heritage – it’s an iconic brand with a personality that’s genuine, authentic and unpretentious. With a bottle of Jack comes a snifter of traditional America. The JD website places heavy emphasis on this with a timeline entitled “Our Story of Independence” which reads “This isn’t a history lesson. This is a story about independence and craftsmanship” and that is what appeals to millions around the world – they want to be part of the bona fide American story and feel they have that true, independent spirit.

This is reinforced very effectively with videos about the craftsmanship involved in production, associations with rock stars and music, Jack Daniels culture and the people who’ve made a difference to the Jack Daniels story.

Emphasize the virtues of your product or service, and not the price. First you must step back to see the bigger picture, then you must hone in on the all-important details – because when you put enough of them together it is those details that will keep customers returning to you over and over, not dropping your prices and making compromises.

Demonstrate enough true value and not only will you turn your clients and customers into loyal advocates who do your marketing for you, you will also place yourself in a powerful position that will over time will enrich your business and your level of achievement and satisfaction, make you stand head and shoulders above the rest, and allow you to commanding the big bucks – even when those around you are floundering.

About James T Noble: James makes small businesses bigger. He’s worked with some of the world’s largest brands and companies to market their products and services online – including Disney, Microsoft, 20th Century Fox, Virgin, Coca Cola, MTV and many others. Find out more and read business growth tips at http://www.JamesTNoble.com

Below are six things we did that increased our sign-up rate by more than 75%. But first, let’s take a look at our baseline.

This was our site before we spent time optimizing it:

The first thing you may notice is that there is no clear headline stating what this product actually does! There is some small text that says “The Online Gantt Chart.” Many of our visitors don’t even know what the term “gantt chart” means. We knew we had to make this bigger and pick some text that people would understand immediately.

1. Short Simple Headline

Try making the headline shorter and more obvious. It’s always tempting to think people understand your website better than they really do. You know what you have because you spend so much time thinking about it. However, others don’t have that advantage. They, likely, are just browsing around the web and quickly stopping by your website to see if you have anything to offer them.

You have only a few seconds to capture a visitor’s interest. Make a quick, bold statement so they will decide to hang around your site longer. We made it very clear that our product is for “Simple Project Scheduling.” This change, with a few of the others below, was part of a site makeover that resulted in an increase of over 50% in free trial signups.

As you can see, we changed more than just the headline here. We will cover the other changes as we go through this article.

Evernote has an awesome headline: “Remember everything.” That says it all about their product in just two words!

2. Images

Yes, an image can say a lot about your website or product without having to use many words.

We put a bright, cheerful image of our software on the home page. It says a few things right away. People can see immediately that our software has a fun, lively design that promotes simplicity and allows them to visually schedule their projects.

All of this was communicated with just a nice screenshot carefully designed and cropped to showcase the great aspects of TeamGantt. (It’s much easier for someone to look at an image than to read a lot of boring text, right?) We also updated the background color to a bright, happy shade of blue. This change also contributed to our initial 50% increase.

WP Engine did several tests to find out that an image of their staff is what works best for them. This probably is because they are a hosting company and support is what matters. Seeing a bunch of friendly, smiling people is something that visitors can relate to, and it worked great for increasing their conversion rates.

It may have been tempting for WP Engine to put up screenshots of their software or some websites, but they were smart enough to know that wasn’t going to work for them. They also backed up their assumptions with A/B tests.

What is it that makes your potential customers feel good about your company? Think about this when picking out images for your site.

3. Social Proof

Okay, so you hooked some visitors with your great headline and nice image. But now you have to prove to them that what you have actually is awesome! There are a few types of social proof that work really well:

Testimonials: Try not to use boring text from people no one knows. Sometimes, this can have the opposite effect and make people not trust you. Try to use a picture of the person and link to their company. Some business owners feel awkward asking for testimonials, but we have found that people are extremely helpful here.

For instance, you may receive a nice email after providing good support to a customer who says something like: “Love your product and support! It’s made a huge difference in our company.” If so, simply reply and say: “I’m so glad to hear that! We are getting ready to update our website and would love to feature a quote from you. We could even link to your company so that you could get an inbound link and extra traffic to your website.”

Initially, we had some nice quotes from people on our website. However, nobody knew who the people were. There also weren’t any pictures of the people. This can lead to visitors questioning if the quotes are even real. Our quotes were real. I promise! But people may not have any way to know that.

We were fortunate enough to have Ryan Carson and his company use TeamGantt for the launch of their popular startup, TeamTreehouse.com. Ryan is widely known throughout the startup and design communities, and his recommendation gives us a lot of credibility with people who know him. We asked him for a quote, and he kindly provided one for us.

We replaced the other quotes with this quote from a well-known and well-respected individual. We also decided to make it big so that it stands out and people actually read it.

Tweets about your company: An easy way to show some more legitimate testimonials is to use tweets about your company/product. We usually “favorite” especially nice tweets about TeamGantt. We built a Happy Customers page, and we included a section that pulls in random tweets that we “favorited.”

Case Studies: We offer a few short case studies with summaries about how people used TeamGantt for specific projects and the benefits they got from it.

Press Coverage: Were you in The New York Times? Show it on your website! Present a nice quote from the article and the newspaper’s logo. Have you not had any press yet? Well, then, go get some. Here are a few great ways to -> generate some PR.

We were featured in TechCrunch last year and wanted people to know it.

Logos of Customers: Do you have some big name customers that will allow you to put their logos up on your website? This can establish some instant credibility with others.

Adding these changes helped account for a 13.8% increase in one of our later iterations.

4. Video

There are a few different types of videos that may help improve the communication of your message. Maybe a video that walks visitors through your product and how it can be used. Or maybe an animated video that explains the problem your product solves. Consider hiring a company to create an explainer video.

On our TeamGantt page, we tried adding a product overview video. We made this video ourselves using ScreenFlow for Mac and iMovie. If you want to tackle creating an explainer video yourself, I recommend reading this article: http://blog.kissmetrics.com/creating-a-explainer-video/.

Since we created our video, it has had over 51,000 views and helps give people a quick understanding of what our product does.

This video is one of the things that helped us in our first big revision that resulted in an increase of over 50% in signups.

Later, after adding the video, we decided to try different placement options to see if we could get even more out of it. Here are the 3 options for placement of the video:

Baseline: No video directly on the home page. There was only a button that would take people directly to the video.

Video at the top of the page: Decrease of 5.3%

Button + Video further down the page: Increase of 3.3%

Yes, there actually was a decrease when we put the video up at the top of our home page, which was a bit of a surprise to us. This is one of the reasons it is so important to A/B test.

It turns out that the most optimal placement for the video was below the fold about 1/3 of the way down the page. So, instead of losing 5.3% of signups, we gained 3.3%. A 3% increase may not seem like a lot, but if you get a few of these from various changes, it can really add up.

5. Longer Home Page

This definitely is worth trying. There really isn’t any way to know if a longer home page is better or worse than your existing one without running an A/B test. A longer page works better for us.

The reason we checked into this is because we noticed that we didn’t get a lot of clicks going to our “tour page.” Therefore, we thought we would combine the “tour page” with our home page. Now, people can learn more about the benefits of our software without having to click to another page.

Increasing the length of our page with more information about features contributed to an increase in our sign-up rate of 8.6% in a separate A/B test.

Crazy Egg works very hard on A/B testing and has found that a long page works great for them as well.

6. Call to Action

Don’t forget this one! You need to tell your visitors what to do. Should they download an eBook, sign up for a mailing list, start a free trial, or buy your product right now? Give them a friendly nudge to help guide them to the next step. This can have a huge impact if you don’t already do this.

Also, make sure that your call to action is above the fold. This way, a potential customer will know what to do without having to scroll down the page.

Try a few of these changes and track your progress by using an A/B testing tool like Optimizely or Visual Website Optimizer. For more detailed funnel analysis and analytics, we recommend trying KISSmetrics.

About the Author: Nathan Gilmore is a Co-Founder of the web based project scheduling app www.TeamGantt.com. He takes care of app design and marketing. Nathan can also be found on twitter here @nathangilmore.

Today, Salesforce is worth about $25 billion with annual revenue in excess of $3 billion. And according to Forbes, Benioff (pronounced benny-off) was the most valuable CEO in 2011, giving shareholders the best bang for the buck.

Not surprisingly, Benioff gets lots of questions from entrepreneurs and others seeking his advice. In response, he wrote a book in which he gives his entrepreneurial advice. This blog post is not intended to be a substitute or replacement for the book.

Through some interviews, Benioff has given advice to entrepreneurs. I’ve curated these and include them below. Read on whether you’re an entrepreneur in SaaS or any other business.

Work on Something Big and Meaningful

“My summers at Apple had taught me that the secret to encouraging creativity and producing the best possible product was to keep people fulfilled and happy. I wanted the people who built salesforce.com to be inspired and to feel valued.”

-Marc Benioff

Benioff has been quoted frequently saying that the cloud means it’s “the end of software.” This would have seemed pretty far-fetched back in 1999 when Salesforce was started, but today it has become more of a reality.

When launched, Salesforce was entering a big market, and it threatened traditional business models. Instead of paying an annual fee for hard software, customers would subscribe to software and pay monthly. Salesforce was aiming to be something big and make a meaningful change in an industry.

If you’re going to put a lot of work into a new venture, you might as well make it big and meaningful.

Establish Culture Early

In the early days of Salesforce, Benioff set up the culture to be “doing what you enjoy.” So, if you have a dog, bring it to the office. If you want to wear a Hawaiian shirt, wear it.

Today, Salesforce ranks as one of the best places to work and has a 3.8 rating on Glassdoor.

Similarly, Zappos offers newly trained employees a check if they don’t want to work for Zappos. This weeds out people who are looking for only a check and don’t want to be involved in the company culture.

All great company cultures were set by the founders at the origin of the company. The key is not only setting the culture, but also maintaining it throughout the life of the company. Founders must set cultures from the beginning.

Either you define your culture or it will define you. @awesomeculture #startup2startup #startup

— Hiten Shah (@hnshah) February 24, 2012

Ignore Obsolete Rules

Entrepreneurs aren’t exactly rule followers. Many are unconventional and make their own rules. It’s inherent in them to ignore convention and question why things are the way they are.

So, it should come as no surprise that Benioff recommends entrepreneurs ignore rules (and conventional thinking) that are obsolete or that defy common sense. He says:

“Don’t be afraid to ignore rules of your industry that have become obsolete or that defy common sense.”

Sometimes the best advice is to ignore the long-held principles of your industry. It cuts out the “business as usual” mindset and can lead to some real innovations.

Benioff, much like his former employer, Apple, encourages entrepreneurs to think differently.

Communication is Key and Business is Social

In an interview with The Ladders, Benioff shares his communication strategy with these principles:

• Be responsive – According to Benioff, responding to customers quickly shows you care about them and respect their time.
• Embrace social media- Benioff is an active user of Facebook and Twitter. Also, the team at Salesforce is an active participant on Twitter:

Benioff says,

“The future of communicating with customers rests in engaging with them through every possible channel: phone, e-mail, chat, Web, and social networks. Customers are discussing a company’s products and brand in real time. Companies need to join the conversation.”

• Tell classic stories – When Salesforce was starting out, Benioff took the story of David v Goliath and used it as an analogy for changing an industry. He says they positioned themselves as revolutionaries and went after a big competitor in a big industry.
• Act confidently – Who would want to work for a CEO who has no confidence in him or herself?
• Become a better presenter – Employees represent the brand. Benioff says it’s important to be a good presenter and have a good attitude because every employee interacts with the customer one way or another.
• Have a big dream – SaaS and cloud-based software was a new technology when Salesforce was founded. Benioff firmly believed in it, and, to this day, believes that, at some point, all software will be delivered in the cloud. He started small with servers in his bedroom closet but had a dream of making cloud-based software the future. Today, it’s well on its way, and Salesforce owes all of its success to the SaaS model.

Benioff gives companies three steps for becoming a social enterprise. They are as follows:

1. Connect to the public social networks – People are talking about your business on Twitter. As an entrepreneur, you have to pay attention to what the customer is doing. Don’t let people talk about you on Twitter without responding.
2. Create your own private social network.
3. Make all your enterprise apps social.

For more information on Benioff’s view as “Business is Social,” watch his fiery keynote at Dreamforce 2012.

Stay Focused

Do not allow yourself to get defocused. Benioff says:

“[Do not] allow yourself to get disfocused…. I’ve been doing this now 13 years and I’m still as focused and as excited and as energized as the first day that I did it. And I think that for a lot of entrepreneurs, and certainly a lot of my friends who are entrepreneurs, they get disfocused….

“And I think that it’s classic and, I think, reasonable that an entrepreneur coming in is very creative and very project oriented. But, also, an entrepreneur can kind of have almost an ADD type of thing – Attention Deficit Disorder….

“And that’s classic, but the thing is you have to build the tools to help you refocus yourself and to channel that energy. If you don’t, then, I think, you end up becoming a serial entrepreneur; and I think that’s fine, but, I think, it’s much more exciting to build a sustainable company that can become a leader in the industry.

“I have a couple friends of mine who have had companies and just as they get going and just as they are ready to break through, they become disenchanted, disfocused, they sell them, they bring someone else in: ‘Oh, I’m done.’

“And I’m like ‘What are you doing?’ And I will take them out to lunch, and I will call them on the phone…. I have seen over and over again that these entrepreneurs, they…I think, get distracted. And I think that is a problem for the entrepreneurial personality. So I think you’ve got to figure out how to be able to refocus yourself.”

When asked what helps him stay focused, Benioff says:

“One of the things that we do is we have… (I write about this in the book.) We have an internal tool that I use and a communications cadence to help me to stay focused because I can be the kind of person who does need the help – I need help staying focused.

“That tool is called a V2MOM and there [are] five questions that I’m constantly asking of myself. And I do that basically every six months for the company. I ask the employees to do it once a year, to publish it, to make it transparent for all the other employees, and to take those five questions and to constantly rethink about ‘Where are you positionally?’ And it’s:

“‘What do you want?’ Vision; you know, write it down in 10 or 15 words. When I meet with entrepreneurs I’ll say to them ‘What do you want?’ That will be my opening question to them. And I want to see them write down (or show me) in 15 words what it is that they exactly want. What is their vision, what is their outcome? And then I will say to them:

“’What is most important to you about that vision?’ So what are the values or the tenets about that? What are the two or three things? Is it growth? Is it quality? Is it excellence? What is it? Write those things down and prioritize them. And number three is:

“‘How are you going to get it? What are the specific actions that you are going to specifically take, in priority?’ Write them down. And obstacles:

“‘What is preventing you from having that vision right now? What is preventing you from achieving that outcome right now?’ Write it down.

“And then, ‘How will you know you’re successful?’ Write it down. What are the measurements of success? And then get ready to recreate that on a continual basis.

“For me that’s a focusing exercise. And then I will present that back to my management team. I will present that back to the company on an annual basis, I will show them what the answers are, where I’m going, what I want to do, and I will ask them to do that back, and it’s a collaborative exercise.

“I don’t think we get enough of that. I think if you’re an entrepreneur, you have to over-communicate. I think you need to over-share those things….

“For our Foundation, they have a V2MOM as well, because if you don’t have those guiding principles, and when you’re growing… You know, we have 6,000 employees. I don’t know all these people. So I need to over-communicate and over-share and to set that forward so we can somehow get what I call alignment: That we can get all our wood behind the same arrow to get that entrepreneurial momentum.

“That, I think, is a huge challenge. And, also, it builds a lot more trust in the organization. If your employees can really see that this is what you’re doing. Of course, you’ve got to walk your talk. If you’re going to write it down and say you’re going to do it, you better do it. Or your employees are going to walk out and say ‘I’m going to find somebody to follow who is actually going to get this done.’ That transparency builds trust, I think, and that collaboration builds trust.

“These are kind of modern values that we need in the entrepreneurial organizations…the transparency, alignment, collaboration, trust….

“On chatter, which I spend a lot of time on, I’ll see these tremendous individual contributors who are in the organization, who are adding value and coming up in the organization. HUGE focus on the individual contributor, giving them the props so that they can be more successful! This is also really, really important.

“And at the end of the day, it’s still a huge focus on the customer. If the customer success is not your number one value, you have to reevaluate and relook again.

“You know…I have these entrepreneurs who somehow end up in my world, and I work with them, and I work to facilitate this V2MOM with them. And it’s tough for them. And we’ll go through the exercise, and then I’ll send them away, and they’ll come back.

“We’ll start out with them (and maybe two members of their management team), and they’re all over the map. And we bring them together and they’re going, and then I send them away, and they come back, and they present it to me.

“And then, maybe two or three weeks later, they’ll write something: ‘Oh we’re working on x, y, and z.’ I’ll say ‘How does this relate to your V2MOM?’ And they’ll be like ‘Well it doesn’t,’ and I’m like ‘All right, maybe it should be brought in then, or maybe it shouldn’t.’ Because I think this issue of disfocus, this can be a big issue.”

Don’t Forget about Helping Other People

“This is my number one recommendation to entrepreneurs…don’t forget about helping other people because it’s so easy.”

-Marc Benioff

Salesforce is a philanthropic company. Benioff says it’s ingrained in their culture, from the CEO on down. Benioff himself donated $100 million to help build a new children’s hospital in San Francisco.

Salesforce employees get 4 hours per month, or 6 days a year, of paid time for volunteerism. This is in addition to their regular vacation time.

Additionally, they employ a 1/1/1 model as part of the Salesforce Foundation. The 1/1/1 philanthropic model is “We take…

• 1% of equity,
• 1% of profit, and
• 1% of employee time.

“And we put them into the 501(c)3 Salesforce Foundation.” Today the stats break down like this:

• 18,000 non-profits, NGOs, social entrepreneurs, and higher ed use Salesforce for free.
• Over $40 million has been donated.
• 445,000 hours of community service have been contributed.

Benioff says,

“We don’t charge people who are trying to change the world.”

While giving money away won’t fit all companies, it still is beneficial to help other people. You’ll feel good about it, and it will reflect well on you. It’s also good for your health.

Marc Benioff Tidbits

On the early days of Salesforce and focusing:

“Our focus was directed at developing the best possible and easiest to use product, and this is where we invested our time. Realize that you won’t be able to bring the same focus to everything in the beginning. There won’t be enough people or enough hours in the day. So, focus on the 20 percent that makes 80 percent of the difference.”

Focus on alignment, on getting people on the same page. “You can have growth and you can have all these things, but if you don’t have alignment, I think it can be a real struggle, I think, for the employees,” says Benioff.

If you’d like more entrepreneurial tips from a SaaS pioneer, read his book. You can find some excerpts here.

Any feedback? Let me hear it in the comments!

About the Author: Zach Bulygo is a blogger for KISSmetrics, you can find him on Twitter here.

In that vein, allow me to explain why Batman is better than Superman, and how putting this knowledge to work could increase your leads and sales.

The way I see it, there are three main reasons:

1. Batman actually has to try

One of the most annoying things about Superman is how overpowered he is. I mean, it’s bad enough that he’s indestructible, can fly to alternate dimensions at will, and that his sneeze will destroy an entire solar system.

But it’s even more annoying that, despite his ability to hear every conversation on the planet, multitask at speeds where common mortals appear motionless, assimilate complex books in seconds, freeze or melt most materials, see through anything except lead, move well in excess of 5,000 feet per second, and let’s not forget fly…not only has he been completely unsuccessful at eliminating crime worldwide, but he can’t even get it under control in a single city.

This implies that he is not merely dimwitted and incompetent, but also incredibly lazy. Even a determined moron—or an indolent genius—with these sorts of powers would still have solved the problem by now. If you gave Batman those powers, the world would be a very different place. Yet Batman manages to keep Gotham under control with nothing but a good brain, a buff (but super-powerless) physique, and a few billion dollars’ worth of custom technology.

How this could improve your conversions

I know. This is all extremely interesting, and you probably had a great rebuttal ready for that snarky comment about indolence (because, if nothing else, All Star Superman established beyond doubt that Superman is a genius)—but what in the blue blazes does it have to do with increasing leads and sales?

Just this: when you’re deciding how you want to position your brand—how you want your customers to perceive you—it’s very tempting to take on the role of Superman. You’d like to think you’re their flawless savior, flying in to the rescue with nary an effort.

The trouble is, customers aren’t looking for a Superman, because Superman is silly. They’re looking for a Batman—someone who can achieve great things, not because he was born that way, but because he has paid his dues in the School of Hard Knocks. Someone who doesn’t pretend he can give them the world when he can’t; but who can give them what they want, because he has developed that ability through skill and determination. While Superman breezes through any challenge (or would, if he remembered to use all his powers), Batman has to face adversity and overcome it. That makes him more relatable, and subsequently more trustworthy.

Simply put, Batman is believable, and Superman isn’t. So when you’re formulating your brand story, where believability is crucial, keep that in mind.

2. Batman has skin in the game

Clark Kent was raised by good, honest parents to be a good, honest, rose-tinted farm boy. Bruce Wayne was also raised by good, honest parents—until a tender age, when they were brutally gunned down before his very eyes by Joe Chill, a petty criminal.

This gives us a certain sense that Batman has real skin in the game when it comes to crime fighting, while Superman is just doing it to please his parents. That isn’t to say his belief in Truth, Justice and the American Way is wrong…just that it rings kinda hollow when, as we’ve already established, he is really doing the bare minimum. When you’re basically a god, but you spend a sizable portion of your time pretending to be a nerdy reporter instead of using your powers to save the world (something you claim to strongly believe in)…well, it just comes across as a bit like you’re going through a superhero phase, as opposed to actually being a superhero.

Batman, by contrast, spends his off hours either running his company, or finding ways to relax (you know what I’m talking about). Both these things are of the utmost necessity to maintaining his role as Batman; which is financially, physically, and emotionally stressful.

The upshot is that Batman puts everything into a cause he has vowed to uphold since childhood, while Superman just seems to be coasting along, putting a bit of time in because he knows he should. Batman really seems to stand for justice and freedom; Superman just pays lip service to them.

How this could improve your conversions

Customers want a vendor who stands for something. Not someone who will fight for them just because he happens to be there and it’s really no trouble, but someone who will put everything he has into getting the job done, no matter the cost—because that is his cause. The more fiercely you stand for something your customers care about—whether it’s beautiful technology that just works, a la Apple, or “free as in freedom” a la Linux—the more fiercely they will support you.

3. Batman has serious flaws

This might sound like a strange reason to think Supes is inferior, but bear with me. Superman, as everyone knows, is a bit of a goody two-shoes. A big blue boy scout. That’s probably for the best, since we only have to look to titles like Irredeemable or The Boys to know what would happen if he were less stable upstairs. Batman, by contrast, tends to brood a lot, and is known for being dangerously obsessive about fighting crime. Simply put, he’s kind of damaged.

Incidentally, the same is true of Iron Man, who garners a great deal more interest (and movies) than Captain America. There’s something going on there, psychologically speaking.

How this could help your conversions

By now you’re probably picking up on how this works, but let me explain it anyway.

Superman seems aloof, unrelatable, or just plain bland by being too perfect. Batman, on the other hand, seems genuine. Customers don’t expect flawlessness—indeed, they are automatically suspicious of it, because no one is flawless. And although it seems counterintuitive to us as marketers, one of the ways customers become more loyal is by defending the flaws of the brands they love. They often consider these foibles to be idiosyncratic—part of what sets the brand apart. “It’s a feature, not a bug.”

This is especially important if you’re a one-man band, or you use a single person (or personality) for presenting your brand in your email marketing. But regardless of how big you are, or what you’re selling, it generally increases customer trust and loyalty when you are frank about your shortcomings. Pretending to be perfect has the opposite effect.

Let the flamewar begin

So there you have three reasons to take a Batman approach to marketing. What do you think of my reasoning? Is Batman’s victory decisive, or do you think Superman still has a few things to teach us? Share your insights below.

About the Author: D Bnonn Tennant is the author of the free email micro-course, “5 Sales-Spiking Website Tweaks Gurus & Designers Don’t Know”. It contains no super-heroes, but there are plenty of practical, actionable tips Batman would approve of.

Charge for features no one cares about enough to upgrade, and no one will upgrade. Charge for features essential to user engagement, and no one will stick around long enough to build a relationship with your product and upgrade. Knowing what to charge for is essential and specific to every product.

Fortunately, some patterns have emerged that we can understand and use to improve our own pricing methodology. Let’s look at 3 SaaS products that intelligently aligned user experience and pricing to capture maximum value.

Buffer

Buffer lets you share content to social networks more effectively. The value is both convenience and efficacy. You can share to multiple networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) with a single click.

Moreover, Buffer automatically schedules posts for you and spaces them out. This way, you avoid overwhelming your followers, appear to be active on social media all the time, and most importantly, get higher visibility and click-through rates because Buffer is helping you optimize the timing and distribution of your content.

You can get all of this value without paying a dime. Yet Buffer is on a $1M+ run-rate with more than 10,000 people paying $10 every month for their Awesome Plan. Why? Here are some of the things they do that make people upgrade:

Put a Cap on Core Functionality: More Posts

Suppose I am a social media personality that other people follow for advice on certain topics, like user experience or product management. Or, maybe I am a community management team for a brand that needs to maintain an active presence for our followers. I will be sharing a lot of content. But once I have 10 items in my Buffer, I need to upgrade in order to add more items.

Given that the core behavior of sharing on Buffer is indeed valuable, users who need more posting capacity are likely to pay when they hit the limit. However, it’s important that Buffer allows users to first share up to ten posts in order for them to experience and understand why this sharing is valuable. Paying upfront with no free option would require a pipeline of prospects who know the value of social sharing optimization. In a new market like social sharing optimization, this level of consumer understanding is unlikely.

Identify an action that your best users take. Does that action provide users with value when they take it but cause a little pain if you limit how many times they can take it? If so, it is a feature that could be given some sort of cap among your free user base.

Make Life More Convenient: More Synchronized Accounts

Earlier we pointed out that Buffer is a convenient way to share across networks. It would be annoying to have to post the same content across additional networks instead of just once, seamlessly.

Notably, Buffer lets you sync a couple of accounts for free. (I have my Twitter and LinkedIn accounts connected.) But as soon as it is clear that a customer is, say, a business with a social media presence across multiple LinkedIn groups, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and so on, then there is a pay wall. Buffer deliberately lets you get a taste with a couple of free synced accounts without giving away the entire sync system.

If users could get away with syncing unlimited accounts and there was a cap on only the number of posts, I would guess that fewer people would upgrade, and those people would just cope with slightly slower content pipelines.

Can your product do something automatically that is mindless for someone to have to do on their own? Making it clear you can do it for them, but requiring an upgrade to unlock the convenience, often tempts people past the free plan.

WebEx

WebEx is a conferencing solution that allows users to start for free, but they must pay for premium features, such as including more participants and a dial-in number.

Help People Avoid Looking Unprofessional: Add Participants

WebEx charges if you want to add more than just two participants to a call. Sure, you could just forward the invitation to as many people as you want, but they won’t be on the meeting invitation formally.

Meetings tend to be defined by the attendees. If you leave people off of the invitation, so they don’t receive a formal meeting invitation, they may feel unwelcome or think you behaved unprofessionally (if they even attend!).

There’s a certain standard expectation for invitations that come from systems – either Google Calendar, Outlook, or a conferencing system like WebEx. Receiving a two-liner from a vendor with some jotted-down call information may not seem quite legitimate.

If you are serious about your conference call, WebEx makes the cap on invitees so low that upgrading is required to appear professional.

When your audience is in a professional setting, giving them the tools to appear up to snuff can be a chance to charge.

Reduce Friction for People: Dial-in Number

Nowadays, conference calls are taking place regularly while people are on the go. At least one of your participants may not be staring at their laptop with their ear buds plugged in, eagerly awaiting your call. A dial-in number ensures that people can call no matter what, even if they are mobile or even if they have no Internet, etc. The last thing you want to do is frustrate a sales prospect or your boss who just wants to join the meeting.

Also, a dial-in number is a bit of a standard these days; therefore, to some extent, it’s a matter of being professional.

Figure out if your product is a tool your users need in front of other people or if it is leverage they need to look good in their boss’s eyes. If so, then that’s a pinch point where you probably can inject friction until the user upgrades to the paid plan. No one wants to look bad in front of sales prospects, partners, or their boss.

HelloFax

HelloFax provides an online sending and receiving service that makes fax machines obsolete. Among other functionality, they charge to receive faxes and send faxes to multiple recipients during a single process.

Replace an Expensive Incumbent More Cheaply: Receive Faxes

HelloFax charges for receiving faxes digitally instead of via your fax machine. This lets you move off of your fax machine – no more repairs, no more paper, etc. This makes a ton of sense because the financial cost to support a fax machine easily outweighs the low end $10/month that HelloFax charges.

If your product allows someone to eliminate a more expensive alternative, your pricing can capture from 0% up to 99.9% of that value.

Make Life More Convenient (Part 2): Multiple Fax Recipients

Going through the process of sending a fax for a second time just to add another person is tedious. “Let me just add a 2nd recipient!” Imagine that for 10 recipients, and the pain of inconvenience becomes even more apparent, just as it did with Buffer and posting across 10 different social networks.

People are used to adding multiple recipients on content, whether it’s email messaging or mentioning on social networks, etc. By withholding this functionality, HelloFax ensures that people looking for the most convenient experience (who need to fax a document to more than just one person) will upgrade.

If your product can save someone time, and it forces them into unnecessary manual labor if they don’t upgrade, then (absent an alternative) they will upgrade.

Summary Takeaways

Withholding useful features arguably worsens the user experience. But the real world doesn’t operate with people giving away free cars as soon as you walk into a dealership, or showering you with fresh fruit to feast on when you walk into a supermarket. So, there’s no reason to believe you have to give all of your best functionality away in your software, either.

• Identify who your power users are and make sure you’re monetizing their extreme behaviors without detracting from the core user experience.
• Work is social: customers, partners, and bosses. Charge for making your customer look good.
• If you can make the convenience and/or return on investment of your product obvious, be sure to capture some of the value you are saving the user.

Figure out what your users are willing to pay for without driving them away, and you’ll unlock a lucrative product and pricing strategy. In a future post, we’ll explore a framework for applying these patterns to your own product and the differences between converting free users to customers and up-selling paid customers to more comprehensive packages.

About the Author: Jason Shah is the creator of HeatData, a mobile gesture analytics platform for tracking how people interact with mobile websites. Jason is also a Product Manager at Yammer, where he focuses on building out new features for the leading enterprise social network. He blogs regularly at blog.jasonshah.org and tweets shorter thoughts @jasonyogeshshah.

Funnel based on a 3-month average at CleanProgram.com (Nov-Dec 2012). Data normalized to 1000 customers.

The best e-commerce websites create an online experience that makes visitors fall in love with their products. The shopping experiences are emotional, guided, and clearly encourage visitors to add a product to their cart.

But once they get to the checkout, something just doesn’t feel right. There’s a break in the experience from cart to checkout, and it causes a disconnect for the customer. It’s this disconnect that leads to the highest level of cart abandonment at the very first step of the checkout. We’re not the only ones who notice it.

We’ve identified four UX (user experience) fixes that will reduce the number of visitors who abandon their cart before they really even get started. We’ve seen improvements of up to 5% in overall conversion rates as a result.

Funnel based on a 3-month average at CleanProgram.com (Jan-Mar 2013). Data normalized to 1000 customers.

1. Tear down the “sign-in” barrier

Most checkouts start with a potentially jarring question: Are you new here or a returning customer? Don’t remember? Follow this hyperlink.

If your user is a returning customer, you’re asking them to remember which email they registered with and the corresponding password. If your user is a new customer, you’re asking them to decide whether they want to register (i.e., go through a set of additional steps) or checkout as a guest. Each option creates an unnecessary disconnect between the user and their goal – buying the product.

But even the best are guilty of this:

With a few programming tricks, some stores figure out who the customer is based on their email address. They recognize a returning customer from the email address registered in their system.

Then, they offer the user a way to login if it helps them checkout faster. Or, they offer a way for returning customers to login, while allowing the rest to continue into the checkout. This does not interrupt the shopping process and asks less of customers.

Checkout usability expert Christian Holst found 30% of users abandoned their cart (scroll to point 10) when asked to register upfront.

2. Provide a progress indicator

Checkouts come in all shapes and sizes. Some have one step, some have three, and some go up to six steps. Customers want to know how many steps it will take to get to the finish line. In many checkouts, there’s absolutely no indication at all when the customer gets started.

Again, even some of the best don’t use progress bars:

An uber-simple solution is to take the unused space on the page and put in a progress bar. As a step gets completed, it is clearly shown, and there’s a way to go back to edit it in case of a mistake.

3. Match the checkout with your site’s look and feel

When there’s a visual disconnect between the checkout experience and the rest of your site, it can contribute to abandonment at the first step. A slightly different background color, a varied font type or size, or even a new “next” button can throw off the experience.

A sharp change in page contrast can alarm the customer.

Even changing the font can throw a customer off.

The transition from My Cart or Product page into the Checkout has to be seamless. By maintaining exact styles and keeping an identical look and feel, your site can prevent visitors from feeling visually alarmed. So, they will continue on as if everything is a part of one experience.

4. Don’t get ahead of yourself

A majority of e-commerce checkouts jump the gun by asking customers to fill in their billing information first, even before they are asked for their shipping information or preferred shipping method.

Best Buy puts billing before shipping…

And so does Amiclubwear. This screams at the customer: “We want the money NOW”.

Though billing information is most important to retailers for collecting payment, shipping information and method are more important to customers. Customers care about when and where they will be receiving their product and want to know those details before providing payment details. By aligning with your customers’ priorities, you can make them feel their needs are the most important.

These retailers do it right:

How to Test

Testing is easy when utilizing either KISSmetrics or Google Analytics. With KISSmetrics, all you have to do is create unique events at the start of each checkout step. If you’re using Magento, this guide provides step-by-step instruction on getting started.

If you’re using another e-commerce platform and are more comfortable utilizing Google Analytics, we suggest you follow this tutorial.

Both tools provide reports that identify how many users abandon and at exactly which step.

Too Big to Ignore

When the abandonment rate at the first step of checkout is the #1 drop-off point, it’s an important user experience to tunnel in on. When done right, conversions can increase anywhere from 2-3% all the way up to 5%.

What is your most frustrating checkout experience?

About the Author: Nirav Sheth is the creator of Awesome Checkout, a Magento checkout extension that guarantees higher checkout conversion rates. He also is the founder of Anatta Design, a Magento and WordPress development shop that builds online businesses.

With over 72 hours of footage being uploaded to YouTube every minute, how do you successfully market your business on the world’s largest video site and #2 search engine?

This guide will provide answers to those questions and much more. Whether you are a YouTube beginner or a seasoned pro, this post will serve as an in-depth guide for marketing on YouTube.

How to Set up Your YouTube One Channel

YouTube is evolving from a “video-based site to a channels-based site where subscriptions rule.” With the new One Channel layout, your branding will work across all screens, you can turn non-subscribers into loyal fans, and you can show off more of your video content.

While I won’t cover all of the ways you can optimize your YouTube One Channel, I’ll cover a few of the important basics.

Create Channel Icon and Art

Think of your channel icon as your profile picture.

You can either upload an image or choose a still image from one of your videos.

If you upload an image (recommended), upload an 800px by 800px image.

For your channel art, YouTube recommends that you upload a single 2560px by 1440px image. This provides the best results on all kinds of screens and devices, including desktops, laptops, phones, tablets, televisions, or any other place with pixels.

Upload a Trailer

You now can feature a trailer that displays only when non-subscribers visit your channel. This video is your chance to show off your channel and encourage viewers to subscribe.

YouTube lets you select a trailer from one of your uploaded videos, or you can enter a YouTube URL.

The Annoying Orange channel provides a great example of an optimized One Channel trailer. They optimized their trailer description with relevant links to purchase merchandise, download mobile games, and follow them on Twitter.

Add Custom and Social Links

YouTube gives you the option to overlay one custom link and up to 4 social links on top of your channel art.

For the social media links, you must select from YouTube’s drop-down menu of social networks. You cannot enter in your own links, but there is a wide range of social media sites to choose from, including Google+, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Tumblr, Blogger, etc.

How to Produce Effective YouTube Videos

Gone are the days when YouTube was exclusively a place for one-hit, user-generated viral videos. If you’re serious about building a successful marketing campaign on YouTube, you have to consider your channel’s long-term plan.

Are you there to educate or entertain? Are you looking to increase subscribers or attract new visitors to your website?

YouTube recently changed its algorithm. Now it gives videos and channels that retain viewers throughout an entire video more visibility in its search results and discovery (suggested videos at the end of each video and related videos on the right sidebar).

Don’t be discouraged if you have never produced a video. You don’t need an Oscar to maximize watch-time on your videos. All you need are simple video production techniques that include effective editing, quality production, and an engaging video structure.

Put Compelling Content First

Studies have shown that viewers decide during the first 15 seconds of a video whether they are going to keep watching or not. And, in this modern world, we are accustomed to a constant flow of information. So, you should aim to build trust or curiosity within the first 15 seconds of your video.

Here are a few ways you can quickly engage viewers:

• Gain the trust of the viewer with a quick, animated introduction.
• Spark the viewer’s curiosity, or tease the rest of the video, with hosts/personalities.
• Start with a quick clip that previews what’s to come.

Having an animated introduction is a simple and effective way to build the trust of a viewer. It shows them instantly that a quality production is about to follow.

You can find some great templates over at VideoHive or get a custom one through SmartShoot.

This is especially important if you’re doing a talking head / webcam video. Having a professional introduction captivates your audience and adds production value to an otherwise static video.

If you are creating a “how-to” type video, think about showing the final result first and then going into the instructional steps.

Inspiring the viewer from the beginning will keep them engaged throughout your video.

Create Calls to Action

The key to a successful marketing campaign, even on YouTube, is creating clear and concise calls to action. Depending on the message, you can use the beginning, middle, or end of a video to direct the actions of your viewers.

Having too many prompts can cause confusion, so keep your CTAs minimal and simple. The goal is to make it as easy as possible for viewers to perform an action.

Here are a few important actions to use on your videos:

• Subscribe: Give your viewer a reason to subscribe (e.g., new videos every week or never missing an episode).
• Like / Add to Favorites / Share: Ask your viewers to “like,” “favorite,” and “share” the video so your content appears in more places across YouTube. You’ll be amazed at the reaction you get when you simply ask for it.
• Comments: Encourage your audience to participate by asking a specific question or requesting a topic they’d like to see covered in an upcoming video.
• Video Graphics: Create a video “end slate” that appears at the end of the video to direct viewers to your website.

Create Regular Content

Consistently updating your channel with content will keep your channel feed active, increase your presence on YouTube, and help you build an audience. You should aim for a minimum of one video per week, but the right amount of content depends on your audience, your goals, and your content.

One simple way to create a steady stream of content is to produce shorter versions of long-form content. Build a theme around a topic and then post bite-size versions of the theme on a weekly basis. This will keep your audience engaged and coming back for more.

YouTube Optimization

You’ve spent hours planning, producing, and editing just the right content for your YouTube audience. Now it’s time to grab some popcorn and watch the views roll in (Gangnam style), right? Not quite.

Remember, over 72 hours of footage is uploaded every minute on YouTube. While creating an engaging video is crucial to your success, it’s only half of the equation.

To give your videos and channel the best possible chance for success, you’ve got to optimize them.

Let’s Get Meta(Data)

Metadata is the information that encapsulates your video – the title, description, and tags. By optimizing these three components of your video, you will increase the likelihood of it showing up in YouTube’s search results, homepage, and related videos.

Title (or Headline)

Think of your video’s title as its “headline.” Try to have a nice balance of SEO and AGO (Attention Grabbing Optimization). Be sure to keep your branding at the end and relevant keywords at the beginning.

Avoid titles that trick viewers into watching a video. This will cause a huge drop-off, which will negatively impact your video’s watch-time performance, along with its ranking.

Description

Do NOT make the #1 mistake with your description field. You want to optimize the first 1-2 sentences with a link back to your website or landing page. This is essential because YouTube truncates your description, and only the first 2 sentences are shown when viewers watch your video.

You’ll also want to include relevant keywords here. Again, try to strike the fine balance of intriguing content that is also SEO friendly.

Next, you’ll want to end the description with URLs to other important sites, such as your social media presence, blog, website, etc.

Tags

The key to optimizing your tags is to place your important terms first. Use quotes for keyword phrases such as “video production” and provide a blend of common and long-tail keywords.

You want to provide enough tags to thoroughly and accurately describe your video. Think about what your potential viewer may be searching for on YouTube.

Thumbnails

Along with your video title, thumbnails act as mini marketing banners for your videos. If your YouTube account is older than 30 days and is in good standing, you may have the ability to upload custom thumbnails for their video uploads.

If you have custom thumbnails enabled on your account, you should always upload a custom thumbnail along with the video. The right thumbnail can attract a huge audience on YouTube.

While you’re filming your video, consider what your ideal thumbnail will be, so you can take certain shots or pictures while you are on location.

Here are some general guidelines to follow:

• Hi-resolution image (640px x 360px at a minimum)
• Close-ups of faces
• Looks great at both small and large sizes
• Foreground stands out from background
• Accurately represents the content

Annotations

Annotations are text overlays that you can place over your videos. With annotations, you can layer text, links, and hotspots over your video to enrich the video experience with additional information, interactivity, and engagement.

Be modest with your use of annotations since too many will turn off viewers and decrease your average watch-time. Here are some ways to use them:

• Navigate (i.e., next/previous episode, go to channel)
• Subscribe to YouTube channel
• Link to other YouTube videos, playlists, channels, or full versions of shorter clips
• Encourage viewers to “like” or comment on the video

You can customize many different aspects of annotations, including size, color, type, link, and timing. Play around with the different types of annotations to find one that matches your goals.

Avoid placing annotations in the lower third of your video as the YouTube ads overlay can obscure them. Also, the embedded player can obstruct annotations along the very top of the frame.

Finally, be careful that the annotations do not get in the way of the actual content. This can seem “spammy” and may have an adverse effect.

Analytics

You cannot manage what you cannot measure. YouTube’s Analytics tool provides valuable data and insights about your content and audience.

While YouTube provides a suite of information, we’ll do a deep dive on three of the main sections – viewership, watch-time, and traffic source.

Viewership

YouTube gives you view counts for each video and channel.

Analyze your most viewed days, weeks, and individual videos to understand why they are successful. You’ll also want to investigate the causes or catalysts for the high viewership and build on them. Was it the headline? Was there something in the news that caused the spike?

Also, take a look at the comments on the video to see if you can find insightful nuggets of information.

Don’t forget to make sure the successful videos are annotated to drive subscribers, comments, and traffic to your other videos.

Watch-time

YouTube Analytics now features data for viewer watch-time on your channel and on a per-video basis. While getting views is important, knowing how long your viewers are watching your videos is a much stronger indication of how well they are performing.

Remember, YouTube is optimizing its search and discovery algorithm based on watch-time, so it’s a metric you’ll definitely want to pay attention to.

Look for videos with the highest view-duration percentages and longest total watch-times. These are the videos that you should use annotations on to promote your channel or other videos.

Traffic Source

Traffic source helps you understand how viewers discover your content on a channel and per-video level. When examining individual video traffic, you can see which other specific videos are driving views via suggested or related video placement. Use these insights to optimize your metadata, thumbnails, and tags.

“YouTube Other Features” allows you to see traffic coming from annotations.

For your top-performing videos, analyze the first 1-2 weeks after they were published to discover what may have caused the spike.

Build Your Community

In his TED talk about Why Videos Go Viral, Kevin Allocca, YouTube Trends Manager, states that community is one of the elements of a viral video. Unlike traditional video, online video is social. It is a two-way dialogue.

Keep in mind that YouTube is a social network. So, as a creator, it is essential that you interact and engage with your community. Just as you may thank your readers for comments on your blog, you should apply the same strategy to your viewers on YouTube.

An engaged community of viewers often leads to a loyal following. Unlike a blog, with video, your viewer can see and hear you, and that establishes a much deeper connection.

Cross-Promote with Other Channels

To increase your reach on YouTube, make it a priority to identify and reach out to other similar channels to cross-promote or collaborate in a mutually beneficial manner.

This doesn’t mean that you need a huge following on YouTube already. Gregory Ciotti has a great post on Think Traffic about how he worked with another YouTube channel to create a video based on a popular blog post he wrote – Science of Productivity.

That video alone increased his email subscribers by 7,000!

Promote on Social Media

Did you know that 700 YouTube videos are shared on Twitter every minute?

However, promoting your YouTube content on social media doesn’t always mean consistently pushing your content on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.

Warby Parker cleverly replies to questions on Twitter with video and has doubled their response rate.

“People have a lot of questions about the color or the size and the shape of our glasses, and instead of just responding to them with a tweet, we’ll create a video that shows them the difference between two frames,” says Jen Rubio, Social Media Manager at Warby Parker.

To grow your social media following, think of ways to do the unexpected on the different social media platforms.

From a Google+ perspective, YouTube now allows you to use a Google+ identity for your YouTube channels. This means that all of your public channel activity – uploaded videos, created playlists, comments, “likes,” “favorites,” and subscriptions – can be attributed to your Google+ name.

Remember, the profile aligned with your channel should be created on the same Google account.

Outreach to Blogs

Don’t limit yourself to just YouTube. A lot of viewers find content on YouTube through other sites.

Mark Malkoff and his viral videos have been featured on the Today show, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and many other media outlets.

He has created such hits as the Apple Store Challenge where he performs crazy stunts at various Apple Stores to see what he can get away with.

He recommends reaching out to blogs and journalists a week before the launch of your video. Give them a sneak peek of the video so they can determine if they are interested in covering it.

Blogs, media outlets, and other websites are always looking for great content to feature. Leverage their audience and reach to grow your YouTube presence.

Conclusion

Congratulations, you made it all the way through this massive guide. Now you are set to become the next YouTube star/creator.

Apply the principles outlined here and grow your presence on YouTube. Remember, it may not work on the first try, but continuing to produce high-quality content on YouTube can deliver amazing results.

SmartShoot’s YouTube Channels have over 10 million views, Zappos receives over 250,000 visits from YouTube alone, and a blender company, Blendtec, has over 220 million views on YouTube.

Success on YouTube comes with time and practice, so get out there and shoot.

Please, also, do me a quick favor. If you would like to learn more about YouTube marketing, then leave a comment below with your questions.

About the Author: Steve P. Young is the Director of Product Marketing for SmartShoot where marketers go to get stunning photos and video from the best local photographers and filmmakers. Follow Steve on Twitter.

Unfortunately, there is no proven method to make this a reality. However, luckily, there is something that can help. It’s called being an authority on a subject. It’s not about being an authority on every subject, but about being an authority on one specific subject. No one can be an authority on everything.

If you are an authority on a subject, you gain the trust and confidence of your visitors and readers. People will speak highly of you and recommend you. Here’s an example:

With this tweet, Tony Conrad is broadcasting to his 20,000+ Twitter followers who he recommends for health information and product recommendation. The question is: How do you achieve this kind of authority among thousands of people?

That’s what we’ll be discussing.

In this post, we’ll break down some examples of who is an authority, why they are an authority, and how you can present yourself as an authority on your own subject.

Let’s Go Through Some Examples…

For me, there are a few people and organizations that I trust and treat as experts on a subject. I trust what they say, buy some of the products they recommend, and tell others about them. I’ll go through the list and tell you the qualities they have.

Here are some of my favorites:

Pitchfork Media

Some say that music is entirely subjective. What some think of as good music others consider awful. So, in the case of music, reviews are useless since you cannot rate something that is subjective.

I disagree with this whole notion and believe that some music is just better than other music. And when I want to read reviews and find good music, I go to Pitchfork.

The reviews and articles are well written and very deep. The website is well designed, and I find myself aligning with their musical tastes. Additionally, the authors are more knowledgeable about music than anyone I’ve read. I learn from them, expand my musical awareness, and get more out of music because of Pitchfork. For me, they are the authorities on music.

FiveThirtyEight Blog

There are hundreds of outlets and self-proclaimed “experts” who predict elections. Many tend to run off their own biases and others are just flat-out wrong. People need someone who uses polling data from multiple sources and is able to set aside all personal biases. They need an authority they can go to for election forecasting. Nate Silver fills the role.

Silver first gained public recognition when he developed a model for baseball performance. Then he accurately predicted the 2008 and 2012 U.S. presidential elections. In September 2012, he released a book entitled The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail – But Some Don’t.

On election night 2012, when he accurately predicted the presidential and many congressional elections, he tweeted out a promotion of his book:

Two days later, his book was #2 on Amazon:

And it became #6 on The New York Time’s list of best sellers:

And at the time of this writing, it ranks #271 on Amazon’s list of best sellers:

As for his blog, around election day, 20% of all of The New York Times traffic included a visit to the FiveThirtyEight blog.

None of this success would have happened if Silver was a pundit. Silver has established his credibility with accurate election forecasting; and, through this, he has become an authority for election predictions.

Leo Laporte

Leo Laporte, a technology veteran and longtime radio show host, is one of the people I trust when it comes to all things technology. He is experienced, friendly, and doesn’t talk down. He openly praises and criticizes products. Off the top of his head on his show, Laporte can name software recommendations and solve complex technological problems.

Through his radio show and podcast network, he recommends various products and services. If you listen to his radio show, you’ll hear that many listeners buy only the products that he recommends. Laporte has proven himself for years on the radio and gained the trust of many people. He criticizes products when necessary because this is an important trait if you want to be viewed as an authority on a subject. We’ll be getting into this a little later.

Dr. Oz

Despite criticism from detractors, Dr. Mehmet Oz remains one of the most popular figures in the health field. Oz’s television show and books are filled with advice for maintaining optimum health.

While Dr. Oz doesn’t endorse anything, he does feature specific products on his show. Many of the products sell out at stores soon after appearing on a broadcast. Some stores even place an “As Seen on the Dr. Oz Show” sign on display shelves.

As part of being an authority for many people, Dr. Oz has coined a term “Dr. Oz Approved.” These are recipes and foods that, as the name implies, Dr. Oz approved. A quick Google search shows dozens of results and some keywords that others search for:

A Twitter search for #ozapproved brings up thousands of tweets with that very hashtag.

As you can see, Dr. Oz has positioned himself as an authority on health. Any products he recommends sell out rapidly. It’s no wonder that the show gets hundreds of product pitches every month.

Oprah

Having a television show, magazine, website, and television network means you get a lot of coverage. It’s pretty difficult for folks to miss you.

This is the amount of media exposure Oprah Winfrey gets:

• Former show host of The Oprah Winfrey Show
• Chairwoman and CEO of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN)
• Publisher of O, The Oprah Magazine

At the time of this writing, she has over 18.5 million Twitter followers and 8.3 million Facebook fans.

When you have this kind of reach and this kind of following, you can be an authority. And Oprah doesn’t shy away from product recommendations. Many of the books in her book club are best sellers. In addition to her book recommendations, Oprah also recommends products. Often, the products she recommends quickly become popular products. It has become such a regular occurrence, that the term “Oprah Effect” has been born. One CNBC anchor called the Oprah Effect “The Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval x10.”

The Oprah Effect even takes place outside of the business arena. It has been estimated that, when she endorsed Barack Obama in 2008, Oprah influenced one million votes in the Democratic primary. This would have been enough to put Mr. Obama over the top to win the Democratic primary.

You can see the kind of power and influence Oprah has on people. Anything she speaks about or features in one of her media outlets is immediately affected.

Consumer Reports

According to the Consumer Reports mission:

“The organization was founded in 1936 when advertising first flooded the mass media. Consumers lacked a reliable source of information they could depend on to help them distinguish hype from fact and good products from bad ones. Since then Consumer Reports has filled that vacuum with a broad range of consumer information.”

The Consumer Reports premise is solid. Unbiased experts buy products and thoroughly examine each one and rank which ones are the best. In some cases, they aim to save consumers money when they feature products that are cheaper than the more expensive ones yet just as reliable. They also work to be a consumer protection service. Here are a few examples:

The Consumer Reports magazine has around 7 million subscribers. In each issue, they test and rank products and issue safety warnings. With this kind of content, Consumer Reports positions itself as an authority. Loyal Consumer Reports subscribers will tell you: “Don’t buy before you check Consumer Reports.”

How You Can Become an Authority

As you can see, being viewed as an authority can be very beneficial for businesses. We see that it can increase sales and customer loyalty to a brand or organization. Here are some ideas to help you become an authority on a subject:

Knowledge

This is pretty obvious. You cannot be an authority if you are not an expert on a subject. People won’t trust someone who doesn’t have strong credentials.

In all your content, you need to show your knowledge of a subject. This can be done through your writing, your academic credentials, and your experience.

Finally, be sure to back up your knowledge with third party sources:

• References to studies.
• Links to other reputable articles supporting your thoughts.
• Quotes from other authoritative sources.

Have Lots of Good Content and Keep it Updated

Content stretches beyond just a blog. We are all content creators, and content can be produced in multiple forms. Videos, photos, and writing are the most shared forms of content on the web.

As I’ve said, Pitchfork is my favorite website for music news and reviews. They have a large collection of music reviews. So, if I ever want information on a newly-released or older album, I can find the review on Pitchfork.

With the KISSmetrics blog, we have written lots of content on online marketing, entrepreneurship, and analytics.

When writing content, don’t hesitate to go in depth and show your knowledge. Get technical, but not to the point where you turn readers away. Readers need to know that, if they want a technical explanation for why you recommend or don’t recommend a product, they can find it easily.

Another important key in writing content is keeping it updated. Because people can access an article anytime, if it isn’t up to date, it may appear that you don’t have a good grasp on the subject.

Criticize Things That are not up to Par

If you praise every product that comes along, you’ll have no credibility. Many political pundits on cable news have a habit of sounding like a mouthpiece for a political party. Every day, they praise one party and criticize the other. To moderates and fair-minded people, they have no credibility. Anything they say is taken with a grain of salt.

Similarly, Jennifer Lopez on American Idol almost never criticized any of the contestants. This was the opposite of Simon Cowell, who spoke his mind. He became the authority and an attraction for the show. Not surprisingly, when Cowell left American Idol, the show’s ratings dropped.

Furthermore, authorities don’t hesitate to criticize products from companies they generally praise. They’re honest to their core. If they disagree with something that one of their preferred companies does, they say it. Giving, and being open to, criticism is a key trait of authorities.

Respond to Criticism

If you get popular enough, you’re going to be criticized. The key is to respond to it. If enough people see that you’re not responding to criticism, you may lose your status as an authority. It’s not about getting into arguments or always needing to have the last word, but rather about not allowing criticism to go unchecked. If criticism comes, examine it and respond to it in a timely manner.

Use Evidence

You have to be able to back up anything you say. This is especially important when making health claims. For example, in this article on coffee, everything is backed up by actual published studies. Or, if you’re going to write an unbiased view of President George W. Bush’s presidency, you should list sources that back up your claims. Or, if you’re writing about President Clinton’s economy, you should, as this article does, list your sources.

By backing up your content with sources and references, you’re making yourself more likely to be trusted and relied upon by readers and/or viewers. It’s vital to make sure that what you’re broadcasting is factual. One error, and you may lose your credibility and status. So, quickly correct yourself if someone catches an error. It’s better to correct it and acknowledge the error than it is to ignore it and hope no one else notices.

And if you don’t have evidence or don’t know the answer to something, just say, “I don’t know.” It goes a lot farther with people than making up something that can later be proven untrue.

Social Proof

Authors and movie studios like to put quotes of praise from credible and recognizable people on the cover of a book or movie. This is aimed to give the author or movie studio some social proof. If you can get social proof and well-known people to refer you, you will be another step closer to being an authority.

Create and Build

Nobody likes it when someone stands on the sidelines and criticizes but doesn’t add any value of their own. To add credibility, it helps if you can say you’ve “been there” or “been in the trenches.” ESPN hires a lot of former players and coaches as analysts because they’ve “been there” in the game and have more credibility than people who have never played or coached.

Becoming an authority is a long process. It takes years to build credibility and establish a presence in a given field. But if you dedicate yourself to becoming world-class in one subject/field, have the chops to prove it, spread your message, and enough people like you, you’ll be an authority. And that can be very powerful.

Some Action Items

Here are some actionable items you can employ to make your company an authority:

• Build an authoritative blog: Create frequent content that educates your audience in the topic that THEY are interested in. Don’t overly promote your own product or services because you’ll look less like an authority and more like a salesperson. Good examples of authoritative blogs are Help Scout, which aims to be the authority on all things “customer”. The entire SEOmoz website is written for visitors to learn about SEO. They also sell SaaS software. Copyblogger has a blog on writing and also sells SaaS software. They add value to readers by providing actionable content while also offering their own copywriting product.
• Highlight award winning products: If you run an ecommerce website, show consumers what products are the best by linking to awards, consumer reports feedback and other sources that prove that certain products are the best.
• Answer questions: Become the Quora or Yahoo! Answers of your area and post the results on your site.

Any questions, additions, or criticisms? Put them in the comments!

About the Author: Zach Bulygo is a blogger for KISSmetrics, you can find him on Twitter here.

It’s fast

If you’re like me, accessing the KISSmetrics blog on a mobile phone can be painfully slow sometimes (which also goes for most of the web content I view). I’m still on the iPhone 4, so my internet speeds aren’t the greatest. This app is perfect for me because it loads our blog posts lightning fast, and I don’t have to wait for:

Waiting….my typical iPhone content experience

And it was developed fast, too!

With this app project, we practiced what we preach about developing minimal viable products (MVPs). Instead of spending months building an app for our blog readers, we challenged ourselves to see how quickly we could release a functional app in the App Store.

This is a pretty bare bones app meant for one purpose: To make digesting KISSmetrics blog content easier and faster for mobile readers.

The Story Behind the Project

In a two-day frenzy, KISSmetrics team members, Hiten and Will, took it upon themselves to create the first KISSmetrics iPhone app.

The premise behind the application is that, on our blog, we write long form content intended to be informative and instructive. We noticed that people like to come back to the content when they actually need it, such as when they are planning an A/B test or creating campaigns on LinkedIn. So, we built an application that allows them to view the content without interrupting the work they are doing on their computers.

We debated about adding a lot more features than there are today, but we were making assumptions we could not prove, so we decided to start very minimally. Basically, this is practicing what we preach with MVPs and such. ;)

We redesigned the blog to have a much friendlier mobile, responsive design, which also made it easy to create something simple quickly. Between the design and tweaks, it took us a total of two days to build it, and it took Apple a total of four days to approve it. Therefore, from idea to App Store, it was less than one week.

– Hiten Shah & Will Rust, KISSmetrics

The Few Features

The home screen is a clean, simple list of the most recent blog posts we’ve published. We’ve included only the title of the post and a snippet of the introduction to each post.

The only real “feature” is a share function. When you press the share button, you have the option to either email someone the blog post or email us feedback about the app so we can iterate and make the app even better.

This leads us to our tip for today’s post: When you make an app, try to include an easy way to get feedback from your users. Forgetting to do that can be an expensive oversight in the long run.

The End Goal

We didn’t go crazy with features. We want to hear from you what will make this app better, so we can improve it for you, our readers instead of just guessing.

Oh, and we know there are flaws in this app. But, in the words of Hiten Shah: “Just ship it.” Let’s see if you can find the flaws!

Download the App Here

Please download our app, and don’t be shy with your feedback!

Bonus: Free iPhone Wallpaper

Please feel free to download our KISSmetrics iPhone wallpaper. It was cleverly designed by our Creative Director to keep you in the metrics mood. :)

Blue: Click here for the blue wallpaper

Green: Click here for the green wallpaper

About the Author: Sean Work is one of many marketers at KISSmetrics. To keep up to date on future KISSmetrics articles, please follow him on Twitter or on Google Plus.

Just the other day, I was speaking with a business owner in my local community. They recently had begun an aggressive Google AdWords campaign that was working, sort of. They were receiving new leads, but the leads were for things they didn’t even do. Their AdWords buy was too broad, and they were paying for leads that weren’t any good.

How do we make sure that our paid advertising is performing as it should be? There are several simple things we can do to make sure we are getting the most bang for our buck.

Understand How Long Tail Keywords Work

The main thing we need to understand before jumping into paid advertising (especially search advertising) is how it all works – more specifically, how keywords work. Google’s AdWords tool is a great resource for discovering keywords in your industry.

The problem with this tool is that it tends to push people toward very broad keywords that are far more expensive and much less effective. These are called “head” keywords. It is important to remember that you aren’t necessarily looking for the highest-traffic keywords. You are looking for the words that your customers use to look for you.

So, you will need to be on the lookout for something called “long tail keywords.” These keywords are the longer, more specific keywords that, when added together, make up the majority of search-driven traffic.

Learn to identify longer, less popular keywords called “long tail keywords.”

In the example above, the term “social media marketing” is considered a “head” keyword, which means it is searched for very frequently. The much less popular term “social media marketing courses online” receives few searches, but better exemplifies a long tail keyword. You might be able to go even further and try something like “the best social media marketing courses online.”

The big mistake that many first-time marketers make with SEO or pay-per-click advertising is choosing the wrong keywords. When you purchase “head” keywords like “social media marketing,” you will spend significantly more money and reduce your ROI dramatically. The key that you have to remember is you will get a lot more bang for your buck by targeting a large number of lower-traffic terms than by targeting a small number of higher-traffic terms.

Finally, the best source of keywords can come from your own website. Consider using a survey tool like Qualaroo to find out what your customers are looking for or why they decided to do business with you (after checkout for example). The language they use can be very effective ad copy for internet advertisements.

Know the Territory

There are a lot of places to buy ads, with each site having its own strengths and weaknesses. To start with, you should understand some of the major types of paid advertising.

Display Ads or Banner Ads – Banner ads immediately come to mind when we think about online advertising because they stand out so noticeably on the page. They are very common and come in a variety of sizes. These ads can be effective, but they tend to target customers who are not actively looking for something new.

For example, a person may be reading a newspaper article and not be interested in a new social media course. Display ads can be successful, but they need to be used properly. Display ads can be purchased using a pay-per-click model or they simply can be displayed for a certain length of time.

Text Ads – Text ads are the type you usually see on the primary Google search page. These ads generally are less expensive than display ads and target customers that actually are looking for something specific. They can be very effective but depend heavily on good keyword research and A/B testing (a topic we will discuss later in this post).

Here are a few of the places you should try listing your ads, though there certainly are many others:

Google AdWords. – Google AdWords are an obvious choice for many businesses. They offer display and text ads in association with highly targeted keywords. AdWords are a clear choice for any campaign. Bonus Tip: Your Google Adwords ads will produce a better return on investment the longer you use Adwords. Google will rewards long-term customers with better “quality scores”.

Bing or Yahoo. – Bing and Yahoo both offer alternative ad platforms that work similarly to Google’s. They combine display and text ads with targeted search terms. Some brands find that, while these options bring less traffic, the overall ROI is a bit better.

Facebook or LinkedIn. – Social advertising has grown enormously in popularity over the last few years. These ads combine text and display elements and are targeted based on user preferences, demographics, and location. Depending on your business type, both Facebook and LinkedIn are valid options to consider.

StumbleUpon. – The social network StumbleUpon offers a unique paid advertising option that is very inexpensive and guarantees a “click-through” of some kind. This is worth looking into, but it is important to track your actual conversions, which is the primary weakness with this model.

BuySellAds or Direct Buy. – BuySellAds.com is a great place to go to find additional display ad opportunities. These usually allow you to “rent” space on a site or a blog for a fixed cost. Additional opportunities like this can exist if you contact some of your favorite bloggers directly.

In the beginning, it is important to try several of these options and use hard data to make final decisions about where you want to put your money. Often, we simply guess which sites will be best without putting much effort into finding out if we actually are right. Hard data, not guesses, will tell you what gives you the best return. Good tracking capabilities will make this possible.

Have Your Tracking Ready

If you aren’t able to see how each of your ads is performing, then you shouldn’t be buying paid advertising at all. The beautiful thing about online advertising is that you get the opportunity to track everything. Google Analytics is an absolute must when it comes to online ad buying. This analytics package is free and easy to install.

Once you have it set up, you should become very familiar with Google Analytics Custom Campaigns. These options allow you to create a customized URL for each ad that will help you see overall performance for all of your advertising. Using Google Analytics in this way will give you a single dashboard for comparing all of your advertising campaigns.

We can use analytics, like KISSmetrics, to determine how successful our efforts are.

KISSmetrics is another important tool for online tracking because it allows you to create a funnel report for your ads. Not only will you be able to see the amount of traffic that you received from the ad, but you also will be able to see how many of the clicks converted into a genuine lead, a purchase, or even a long-term subscriber.

This type of tracking is extremely important; click and traffic counts simply can’t tell you everything you want to know. While you may get fewer clicks with certain types of ads, if they are more likely to convert to sales, they just might be worth your while.

Google Analytics Custom Campaigns make tracking easy with custom URL tags.

Create a Landing Page

It is important to send incoming visitors to a unique page (called a landing page) on your website, rather than your homepage. This may seem counter-intuitive, but there are three very good reasons for using this strategy:

1. Landing pages allow you to customize your message for incoming visitors. This means that you can continue the message that you started with your ads, which creates a cohesive experience.
2. These custom landing pages allow you to push visitors toward specific actions, such as downloading a free ebook. (Displaying traditional navigation may distract your visitors.)
3. Landing pages make tracking your visits very easy. This is especially important.

When you combine this strategy with easy funnel-tracking tools like KISSmetrics, you quickly can gain a lot of information about how to reach and sell to your new visitors. In some cases, you can create a single landing page for an entire ad campaign. In other cases, you may want to create a specific landing page for each keyword that you purchase.

This landing page helps us track who comes to the page and exactly how effective our ads are.

It is important to remember to block your custom landing pages from search engines. This can be done with a simple edit to your “robots.txt” file. This is an important step that will make your ad tracking more reliable. If you allow Google and Bing to send non-paid visitors to your page, you may get a false sense of how your page is performing.

Create a Call to Action – Once you have a visitor on your landing page, how do you convert them into a lead or a customer? Every page you send them to should have a clear call to action. Think about this one carefully, because it’s the difference between a sale and wasted money.

I like to decide what the “number one” desired outcome for each page is before I design a landing page. Simply ask yourself, “What do I want them to do the most?” Then create the page accordingly.

A good call to action will tell your visitors exactly what you want them to do.

Everything on your page should push your visitors toward the action you want them to take. Without considering this, you’re throwing money away.

Use A/B Testing – You may have launched your page, but you aren’t done yet. Small tweaks and adjustments can make a huge difference in your overall conversion rate. If you’ve followed the tips above, you should have the proper landing page and conversion tracking to make this task very easy.

A/B testing is being scientific about testing which methods work best. When you go about A/B testing, it is important that you make only a single, testable, change each time. For example, you could test the effectiveness of your page’s headline or button placement, but not both at the same time.

By testing a single change, you will be able to see conclusive results about what works best. A/B testing is an ongoing process, too, so don’t stop. Keep testing and modifying your page. You might be surprised at what it does to your overall conversion rate.

Review Results Regularly

Whatever you do, don’t look at your results every day. This practice can lead to off-hand changes that are made too hastily. It is best to wait so that your analytics have time to accumulate accurate trends and information. Then determine a set time period for reviewing your statistics and making changes. It might be monthly, it might be weekly. Checking monthly is a good plan for picking up broad shifts.

Also, you might consider setting up spreadsheets to track your statistics. It’s easier to pick up on trends and understand what you’re seeing when you dig into your analytics to pull out the numbers for your spreadsheet.

Use simple spreadsheets to track your incoming ad traffic.

Be prepared to kill keywords that are under-performing. Remember, conversion rates are your most important statistics, not clicks. Clicks just waste money unless they are doing something purposeful for you. With all paid advertising, especially AdWords, the longer you run your ads, the better your rates and quality score will become. This will be true particularly if you rely heavily on good A/B testing and are constantly refining your ad buy.

Set a Budget and Plan for the Long Haul

This is something that you will do for a while. Don’t expect to be finished in a week or two. You need to give it time and finesse your plan to get the best results. Again, cumulative trends and information will give you a clearer picture. Dedicate your time and funds for a serious study. Online advertising isn’t a quick-fix solution, but rather one requiring patience and observation.

About the Author: Garrett Moon is a founder at Todaymade a web development and content marketing company, and the makers of CoSchedule an editorial calendar for WordPress that makes content marketing and social media easy.