What to Name Your Facebook Group or Fan Page

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in The Social Media Phenomenon

The name you pick for your Facebook group or Fan Page is critical to its success. If subscribing to groups and becoming fans of pages were a private thing, and no one knew that you did so – titles would probably not be as important. But on Facebook – becoming a fan or joining a group is a way to communicate to others what you like – and who you are.

Look at the Facebook Group called “I Went to Bellevue East High School” – there’s no real content value there. In fact all the posts are “Hey, I went there too and I went to X elementary school”. But,  what if that was the Facebook Group name of the school you went to? Would you click on it?

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

Compare that to a Facebook Group named “My Favorite Place to Take Kids on Vacation Is. . .”. This is one of the most content rich, user generated Facebook Pages. There’s no spam, and users give great tips on places to take their kids on vacation. Awesome resource.

But if you think about the Buying Process, as we’ve talked so many times about, people don’t necessarily come to Facebook for content. You’re at Facebook to connect, write on people’s walls and show people pictures and tidbits about you. Having the title “My Favorite Place To Take Kids on Vacation Is. . .” on your Facebook wall doesn’t say anything about you. Maybe it tells people you have kids, but it doesn’t tell people what your favorite place is. The only reason you’d join that group is if you were actually looking for that kind of information.

Let’s look at the numbers. The Facebook group with the title that speaks volumes about who you are by showing people where you came from drew 486 people in a matter of three weeks. The heavily promoted Kids on Vacation site garnered 200 people in 9 months.

Aside from choosing a shocking title like “I Will Quit Facebook If They Start Charging Us”, choose a title that speaks volumes about the person who joins it.

Think about this. . . People talk about going to Legoland on the Taking Kids on Vacation group. It’s a great place to learn about it, but the Legoland California fan page has 2,016 people and the Legoland Billund site has over 5,900.

Would you rather tell your Facebook friends “I have kids” or “I’ve been to Legoland California and it rocks”? Tell me which group you’d join.

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The Buying Process – Writing Ads for your Audience

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , ,
Posted in The Buying Process

So, I’ve written quite a bit about the buying process lately. I think that’s mainly because marketers don’t always understand. For instance if you’re an affiliate marketer and you write an ad that says:

    Nikon 30D Camera
    Lowest Price on the Nikon 30D
    No registration required

Now, suppose you write that ad because you’ve become an affiliate of a camera website and the Nikon is a popular camera. Does it make any sense to send that person to a landing page with a title like:

    Nikon 30D vs the new Canon SLR

NO! It doesn’t. Do you know why? It doesn’t make sense because the person who clicks on your ad (based on what you wrote) is beyond comparing features in their buying process. They want to be taken to the page that shows the price and the “BUY NOW” button. Anything less than that and you’re wasting your money on ads.

And speaking of how you write your ads, make sure you spend some time testing what’s written. A poorly written ad won’t get you anywhere (well, maybe you’ll get a spot in this blog) :)

Here’s an example of a poorly written (from a non-native English speaker, most likely), and highly humorous ad – just for fun. I got it in my spam e-mail folder today:

Christmas, Happy!
Hey, what are you doing lately? I’d like to present to you a very good company that I knew.
Its home page company: www.Ele-sky.com
If you have any needs, please contact the company Email.
They can offer all kinds of electronic products that you need, such as motorcycles, laptops, mobile phones, digial cameras, , x box, ps3, GPS, MP3 / 4, etc. Please take time to look at that there must be something you’d like to purchase.
Hope you have a good state of mind in buying your company!
Regards

Please check out these posts on the Buying Process as well:

enjoy!

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Your Web Page and The Buying Process

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , ,
Posted in The Buying Process

This is the third time I’ve written about The Buying Process in the last few months.  This morning I met with some folks who hadn’t really spent a lot of time thinking about the buying process of their consumer. So after talking about it a bit, I wanted to add a little bit more.

Please check out these two posts on the Buying Process as well:

Your First Time Web Visitors First Glance

From a “buying process” perspective, what process must someone go through internally to sign up and become a member?

Here’s my thoughts on that:

  • They must find the site
  • They must find it interesting enough to read something or browse and not press the back button
  • What they’re reading or browsing must be interesting enough to signal their brain that this is a good site
  • After they’ve decided it is a good site, they must also have the feeling that this site will be good for them tomorrow or next year
  • (We need them to take an action at this point). They must be able to see how to bookmark the site, send a link to a friend, sign up for the newsletter, or join.
    the human brain
    Image by missjdub via Flickr
  • (Ultimately, we MUST be able to contact them somehow. There is no option here. We must be able to entice them back to the site.) To fork over their e-mail for example, they must be a reason to do so (newsletter, gift or free report), they need to see NO SPAM language and be absolutely clear of what they’re getting.
  • Then when they get the “confirm you want this newsletter” e-mail, they must still be confident and happy that they signed up.

So when you look at your website landing pages (where visitors first come in contact with you), I wonder do they know they are the target market? Do they know they are welcome and part of the group? Do they know that your site isn’t directed at someone else? Do they know that this site pertains to them? Do they know this is a place they can feel comfortable and read – not a place to have their guard up and be ready to be “sold” at any minute? Can they smile and feel like they’re home? Do they know we welcome them and they can come back?

After that long diatribe (and if you agree with the above), what do we need to do to satisfy those steps in the buying process? Look at the website Pre-boomermusings. It’s a relatively new site, but the front page respects the buying process.

It says “for people born between 1936 and 1945”. That’s very clear. He could have said “A blog for us pre-boomers”, but chose to help the user understand they’re included. The photo of Don reinforces who it is for. The word “boomer” in there reinforces who it is for. There being no ads helps make you comfortable and not put up your “hide the wallet” guard.

Can you tell that a person born in 1938 might be interested right away? It’s no “mecca of web design”, but it does have a clear message.

Does your site?

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Internet Marketing: Do You Know the Steps of the Buying Process?

Posted By: dan | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in The Buying Process

I recently read Todd Brown’s Article on “the Greatest Marketing Lesson”, which I thought useful, and it made me think about reiterating this important lesson to go along with it.

Todd actually wrote about a concept he learned from Eugene Schwartz regarding the “level of sophistication” your audience has achieved and how to tailor your marketing to that. When you’re finished reading this post, go read Todd’s.

What Eugene Schwartz doesn’t talk about in that lesson is knowing what stage of the buying process your audience is in. Without fully understanding these, you may still be sending the wrong message using Eugene’s marketing advice.

There are three basic steps in the buying process.

The First Step of the Buying Process
The first step is the education phase. That is the phase my Benefits-of-Resveratrol.com site speaks to. Anytime you’re learning the benefits or features of something – you’re in the first phase. Calling the site Benefits of Resveratrol speaks directly to that first phase desire: This is where you can learn about resveratrol. If you just googled “Buy Resveratrol Supplement” and one of the pages of my site came up in the results, your first inclination would be to click the GNC.com / HealthSupplements.com or other e-commerce sounding link before going to the benefits/wikipedia style site. If you do have an informational benefits/features site – you should recognize you’re marketing to Phase I consumers and should read Todd’s post about understanding the maturity of that audience.

The Second Step of the Buying Process
The second step is what Consumer Reports caters too. You already know the benefits of the digital camera you want, you’re ready to compare cameras to see which offer those benefits. Perhaps you could call this the comparison phase. Whether you’re comparing features, benefits, price, delivery speed, or website return information – you’re in the second phase. If you have a comparison site (where you feature 4 stars for your top rated product for example) then you are definitely catering to the Phase 2 crowd – but are probably seeing some of the “buying stage” customers as well. It’s important to recognize that much of your customer base isn’t at your site to buy. They may buy – but they are there to compare. Grasp That. Market to that need so well that they fell compelled to buy from you as well.

The Final Step of the Buying Process
The third and final step is the “buying phase”. You may still be comparing price a bit – but if you are, you’re likely comparing the price of a specific microwave oven on one site to that of another site. The final phase customers know what they want – they need a place to buy it. This is the phase that a 1800Flowers.com or GNC.com caters to directly. They pay for ads for specific products directing you to that product’s Order Now page. This is the phase that Todd’s post speaks to directly in terms of understanding the experience level of your customer base. If your customer is there to buy – they don’t need to be ’sold’ again on how much dirt your vacuum picks up.

Without combining Eugene Schwartz’s marketing message and your knowledge of your customer’s current buying process ‘mindset’, you may still be sending a mixed message. Know where your site fits into the buying process – and take that knowledge with you in determining the “sophistication level” of your market.

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