Next week our office is closing for our annual meeting, some client meetings, and our attending the European Software Conference.

Myself and Aaron will both be there, so please be sure to say hello if you’re attending.

Posts will resume on Wednesday 11/11.

When Marcus Tettmar (creator of the astonishing Macro Scheduler) showed me his BlackBerry a few years ago, it took me about 48 hours until I had my own. I won’t ramble and drool here; suffice to say that I know of no-one who has downgraded from a BlackBerry to an iPhone…

As a (then) new BlackBerry user, I was a little surprised to discover that it had a chat client built in, as back then, BlackBerry devices were aimed squarely at businesses. Today’s BlackBerrys are a lot more consumer oriented, and while segments of their range are targeting either business or consumer use, some of them impressively manage to straddle both.

The BlackBerry Messenger client is a simple IM application that allows BlackBerry users to instantly send messages, photos and recordings to other BlackBerry users. It’s very simple to use, very reliable, and as most BlackBerry users have unlimited bandwidth, allows you to do all of this for free. Meaning, for example, I can instantly send my co-worker in the US a photograph of our local weather here in the UK, for free. He is quite delighted.

As a novice BlackBerry user, I assumed that there would be a desktop version of the software that I could use when sitting at my PC. But I was wrong. I assume  the main reason for this is that BlackBerry have no wish to develop, distribute and support an IM client that has the potential to be used by millions of non-BlackBerry users all over the world.

So why don’t they make a desktop version that’s tied to each device by PIN? Better still, why not make a desktop version that anyone can use, but that can only communicate with BlackBerry users?

Picture the scene. You run a small business, and a handful of your employees have their own BlackBerry devices. You install the desktop application at their suggestion, and this allows you to keep in touch with them, in real time, for free, wherever they are in the world. How long will it take you to see the potential and buy your own BlackBerry? How long will it take you to realise that everyone in your company should have one?

If you can find a way to get people to use what you sell without obligation, some of them are going to become customers. The better the product, the higher the conversion rate.

Play before you pay works.

At this year’s Software Industry Conference in Boston, USA, I gave a presentation on The A to Z of Online Marketing. Letter M dealt with the Mac.

Chances are that you don’t have or use a Mac, and aside from seeing them in a store, you probably only know one or two people who have one. I’m guessing they’ve already told you how amazing a Mac is, right?

The reasons for there being less Mac users than Windows are simple.

Macs have limited software, limited hardware, limited availability and higher prices.

So why do people buy Macs?

Many Mac users will tell you that PCs are unstable. And they’re right.

If they relied on their computers to keep them alive, stability would be worth paying three or four times more for. But most Mac users use them for the same thing that you and I use PCs. And if you dig a little deeper, the non-evangelist Mac owners (a rare breed) will admit that their systems aren’t quite as reliable as some like to think.

So why do people buy Macs?

The Mac website is aggressively going after PC owners, and until recently had a large headline of “Why your next PC should be a Mac.” Much of the website and their ongoing ad campaigns focus on Macs being more reliable, easier to work and more secure.

Having never worked with a Mac, it may well be more reliable. But it won’t be easier to work with, as most of my software won’t work on it. So aside from the fact I’ll have to buy a lot of new software, many of the applications that I work with on a daily basis won’t work.

Of course I could run Windows on a Mac, but why would I want to?

So why do people buy Macs?

They’re quieter, they look nicer and they’re supposed to be fast.

But what’s in it for me? Aside from a major increase in costs (I can buy a PC for less than $300), having to live without most of my software and a massive investment in time and familiarisation?

The Mac website addresses many of these questions in an incredibly slick and evasive way.

Can a Mac run Windows and Office - yes it can and “most other popular applications are available for the Mac too.” Can they really say that??

Is a Mac safe from PC viruses? “Yes, a Mac is 100 percent safe from viruses designed to attack PCs.” Beautiful! And “Apple continually makes free security updates available that can be downloaded automatically.” Why does that sound familiar?

So why do people buy Macs?

They’re definitely cooler. They look good, and they’re cooler, and they look really good. And if I’m really, really honest, I want one.

I suppose it must all be down to marketing. Who’d have guessed it?

I’ll be giving a revitalised version of The A to Z of Online Marketing in Berlin next month, at the European Software Conference. I hope you can join us.

The new CNN website is scheduled to go live next Monday, and a TechCrunch article gives us some details and screenshots of what’s to come.

The New CNN.com (First Screenshots)

I don’t really visit CNN for news, but have always found the similarities (and differences) between their main navigation and that of the BBC News website oddly interesting.

CNN’s is horizontal and sleek:

While the BBC’s is vertical and more populated:

Interestingly, both begin by focusing on regions. Yet the BBC places World as the top priority, while CNN place this category in fourth place. And while the CNN nav includes Asia, the BBC has Health. Draw your own conclusions.

The article shows a slightly unclear screenshot of the new CNN, but it does appear that the new nav has an intriguing link to Justice.

As for why they’re changing the design:

“…there are two reasons to change CNN.com: the site wants to constantly move forward, and it wants to help expose the wealth of content that exists beyond what sits on the homepage.”

The first is just corporate babble, but the second is more familiar territory. Bizarrely it’s a problem that almost all websites face, yet everyone thinks of it as a unique problem:

New content develops, the website expands. How do you show your visitors everything that you have?

The short answer is that you can’t. A map inside a large store doesn’t show every item available for purchase. It groups items into categories, lays them out logically, and places clear, prominent navigational aids all over the store for shoppers to find what they’re looking for. Within each area, products are presented by popularity and margins. It’s that simple.

Websites can learn a lot from the big stores. A brightly lit and clean entrance (home page) offers clear directions (navigation) to the different sections of the store (content). Clear signs throughout (navigation and links) help the visitors, and there is extensive highlighting of special offers and discounts, with best selling products often being on display to draw extra attention. Checkouts are easy to find and use (shopping carts), and while waiting, shoppers are bombarded with impulse buys (upgrades and upsells); and they work. Convenient and free parking (shipping or instant download) sometimes makes the difference between the shopper visiting that particular store or going elsewhere.

You get the idea.

Next time you’re in a large store, open your eyes to how they’re setup, and try to take away more than just your groceries.

Amazon finally made the Kindle available to the rest of the world a few days ago. Obviously I’d pre-ordered it weeks ago, and am now the delighted owner of a truly remarkable device.

When I ordered it, there were three options available:

Kindle US, Kindle International and Kindle DX (larger).

As of today, Amazon appeared to have merged the US and International versions, and reduced the price of the International by $20.

If I’d have noticed, I wouldn’t have cared. That’s the price you pay for being an early adopter.

But then I received the following email from Amazon:

“Good news! Due to strong customer demand for our newest Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6″ Kindles. As part of this consolidation, we are lowering the price of the Kindle you just purchased from $279 down to $259. You don’t need to do anything to get the lower price–we are automatically issuing you a $20 refund. This refund should be processed in the next few days and will appear as a credit on your next billing statement.”

I’m a long-time Amazon fan, and this is a perfect example of excellent customer service.

They could have done nothing. I’d have been fine with that.

They could have given me a $20 voucher, and I’d have been delighted.

But this goes one step further than delighted.

The just-launched Bing Twitter, aside from being an odd idea, is broken:

Google recently announced a year-on-year 7% increase in revenue, with profits up $25 million. Not bad for a recession. Yahoo, meanwhile, just announced (or tried not to) a 12% decline in quarterly revenue, with a 19% decline in search-ad revenue year-on-year.

Paid search appears to have three contenders, in theory. Yet the charts speak for themselves:

Google:

Microsoft:

Yahoo:

At this year’s Software Industry Conference in Boston, I gave a talk on The A to Z of Online Marketing. Letter R dealt with realism.

From the handout:

“Like the search engines, different segments of the software industry have their own class system.

Level one is the undisputed king who towers many metres above anyone else. There’s no need to name this particular search engine.

Level two has the second tier of engines – Yahoo, Bing, Windows Live.

Level three has MSN, Ask and AOL.

And the fourth level is everyone else.

In the realm of graphics software, Adobe sit at level one, Corel, Xara & Serif at level two, hundreds of others at level three, and thousands at level four.

But when we consider the possibility of ascending from one level to the next, it starts to get interesting.

A level four company can lift themselves to level three simply by having a good product.

A level three company can lift themselves from the over-populated darkness of obscurity into the second level with a lot of work, a great deal of skill and a really good product, but it can be done.

However the chances of a level two company climbing the throne to level one are almost zero. Yahoo aren’t going to take Google’s place, and Corel will never dominate Adobe.

It can’t be done – at least not usually, and not quickly.

However within the second level, all occupants are far from equal. Yahoo seems to send more targeted traffic than Bing and Windows Live, and more people seem to be using PaintShopPro than Xara’s products. And these positions are up for grabs.

So even though PaintShopPro has no chance whatsoever of toppling PhotoShop, it can gain market share from Xara and Serif, and can even absolutely dominate the second level.

So be realistic. Your chance of overthrowing your market king are a microdot above zero. But you still have every opportunity to dominate your level within your market, and if you’re in the third tier, the opportunity to pull yourself out is there for the taking.”

I’ll be giving a revitalised version of The A to Z of Online Marketing in Berlin next month, at the European Software Conference. I hope to see you there.

Questions have started to trickle in for our Marketing Q & A plus free exposure offer.

“I’ve been reviewing the text for my Google AdWords lately.  I find the tiny 25-35-35-character format very restrictive and frustrating.  Do you have any tips for writing good ads in that tiny space to draw quality traffic (that is, not just clicks, but buyers)?”

Laura Look – Bitsmith Software

One of the reasons for Google’s success was their approach in creating small, unobtrusive ads that don’t clutter the search results.

For the advertiser, however,  getting clicks on their ads requires significantly more skill.

Yet there are plenty of techniques for ensuring that your ads work well.

Start by identifying the goal of the ad.

The obvious answer is “to get clicks“, but bear in mind that your ads are triggered by your keywords. And if your AdWords account is setup correctly, you’ll have groups of keywords tied to relevant ads.

Let’s take a real life example, where I want to buy a new email application for my PC.

I go to Google and enter the phrase “email software”.

The first three ads, featured above the search results are as follows:

None of which are relevant to my search. I’m not looking for email marketing software, I don’t want a web-based email marketing solution, and security isn’t one of my priorities at this stage.

So I look at the next eight ads:

Only one even has a chance of getting close to what I’m looking for; assuming I have customer management as a priority, I might be interested in the Microsoft ad.

[As an aside, I certainly wouldn't be interested in Clickable.com managing my AdWords account, as they're throwing away their own budget with poor targeting.]

It wasn’t until the third page of results that I saw the following:

Not the greatest ad, but at least it’s relevant.

So far:

Lesson 1 – choose your keywords carefully, and make sure they are relevant to what you’re selling.

Lesson 2 – make sure the ads fit the keywords.

Lesson 3 – if your ads aren’t relevant, you’ll still get clicks. After all, the searcher isn’t paying for the clicks; you are.

Let’s take a look at a competitive market – hotels in London.

I go to Google UK, type in “london hotel”. The top three results, above the search results, are as follows:

And the other results:

Do you notice the common theme? Every single one of the eleven ads is competing on price.

Lesson 4 – make sure you know what your competition are doing. Your ad is going to be displayed right next to theirs.

A very common mistake is to try and include too much information:

Assuming that your ads are relevant and targeted, then having less information will make your ad stand out:

Lesson 5 - less is more.

And finally, make your ad compelling, preferably with a call to action.

If you wanted to buy a new PC, which of these ads would you be more likely to click:

Lesson 6 – keep it clear and compelling.

One bonus tip. Make sure you know how the system works before trying anything too fancy:

One of our clients surprised me a few days ago by sending me a LinkedIn recommendation without warning:

“For more than 10 years Dave has provided my company with excellent services in SEO, SEM and online software marketing & sales consultations.”
October 11, 2009
Dirk Paessler, Founder and CEO,  Paessler AG

Like most people reading this, I’ve dipped my toes into LinkedIn a little over the years, but never really found it to be worthwhile.

Let’s think about that for a moment.

I played around with a system for an hour or two, then waited to see what it would do for me. Aside from an occasional new contact, nothing much happened, so I gave up on it.

Thankfully I never applied the same principle to the development of our company. Or I’d still be sending SPAM newsletters today. (Did I just say that?)

When I approved the testimonial from Dirk Paessler, LinkedIn gave me the opportunity to ask other connections for recommendations. I chose a few of them, and the testimonials have now started to roll in.

Aside from being a pleasant boost to my ego, something interesting has happened.

Three companies have requested price quotes for our Google AdWords management services, none of whom had ever heard of me before finding me on LinkedIn.

Lessons to be learnt:

1) Dipping your toes in does not constitute an appraisal.

2) Personal and quantifiable recommendations are a powerful catalyst.

3) Permanently writing-off an idea, product or service can be bad for business.

None of the above are earth shattering. But sometimes it’s a good idea to revisit the obvious.

In 24 days I’ll be speaking once again at the European Software Conference in Berlin, this time on Google AdWords and also the subject of online marketing.

I’ve been working in online marketing since 1997, and have spoken at conferences in the United States, Russia, Germany, France, Belgium and the United Kingdom. As I’ve had the pleasure of working with well over 400 companies in some 42 different countries, I’ve effectively been granted quite a unique insight into what works and what doesn’t.

Aside from the fact that this is good for our business, it can also be useful for any other company selling online. And I’d like to share some of what I’ve learnt over the years.

I’m opening the door to anyone and everyone to send any online marketing related questions my way, with a view to publishing your questions and my answers on our blog.

Here’s how it works.

Send your question/s by email to dave@softwarepromotions.com, with the subject of “Questions for the blog”.

Please also indicate whether you wish to remain anonymous, or if you’d like a link to your company website with the question.

While I can’t promise to publish a reply to every single question, I will try my best to answer as many as possible.

In terms of what you can ask, within reason, anything. Various forums and newsgroups are full of interesting questions, but many people find it difficult to distinguish good advice from good intentions.

Some ideas:

“In Google AdWords, which match type is the most effective?”

“Will my IP address affect my search engine rankings?”

“What’s the easiest way to get more people to my website?”

“Will Google AdWords work for everyone?”

“How do I get started with Facebook and Twitter?”

Please take advantage of my 12 years of experience. I hope to hear from you soon.