Upcoming Online Marketing Events for April

If you're like me you like to know what up and coming marketing events are on the horizon so here are a few that are taking place in April 2010.

Social Fresh
April 19^th, St. Louis, MS.

Social Fresh is a social media event and community company based out of Charlotte, NC. Social Fresh flagship events are one day conferences targeted for marketers, focused on case studies, and currently being offered across the country in under-served cities.

For an overview of the conference check out: http://socialfresh.com/stlouis/

Ad tech
April 19^th-21^st, San Francisco, CA

As the digitization of media continually redefines the business of marketing, it is ad:tech’s mission to provide brand advertisers, agencies, portals, online publishers and technology providers an unparalleled forum – one that supports the exchange of ideas, experiences, new practices, emerging models and expert opinion.

For further details please visit: http://www.ad-tech.com/sf/adtech_san_francisco.aspx

The Marketing Forum

April 25^th-27th, Miami, FL.

The Marketing Forum places marketing solution providers and senior level marketing executives together for pre-agreed, pre-scheduled business development meetings.

For specifics on this conference visit: http://www.marketingforum.com/

Has your Registration Page Become a No Fly Zone?

When looking to improve conversion rates, take a look at your registration page.

It doesn't matter if your conversion approach is offering an online demo, making a purchase, signing up for a webinar or e-newsletter you still need to follow some simple guidelines.

-Dump the clutter!

Get rid of the extra noise. Prospects need to be focused and if you have links, buttons, graphics and a whole lot of content everywhere how do you expect them to know where to look first. Be a minimalist, less is more, keep the white space.

-What's your name? What's your number? How tall are you? What's your safe combination?

Stop asking too much information! If you limit the number of questions you ask, more likely than not you will increase your number of registrants. Get your sales people to initiate a conversation for other necessary lead data. Again keep the questioning simple on your registration page.

-I hit submit. What happens now?

Don't leave your potential leads in the dark, let them know what happens once they hit that submit button. Whether it's that they will get their first e-newsletter the 15th of the month or that they will receive a call from a sales rep within 24 hours, let them know what to expect next. Letting prospects know what happens next makes them feel more comfortable with handing over their personal information.

-Your registration page is page 1

Whoa, whoa, whoa...now this is the one that always gets me. Registration pages should never be the first page you come to. Think of it this way, if you go to a bar, a seminar or even a house party do you ask someone you never met before for their first and last name, email address and personal telephone number? Not in the first 10 seconds you don't. So then why would you ask all that when trying to acquire a new lead?

You need to first show a genuine interest in your prospect. Present a welcome message and let them know that you want to make sure they get to the right product or service by first asking a couple of preference or current situation questions. Again, remember tip #2, keep the questions simple and to the point. You may also want to explain or show an example of what they will be getting once they fill out their registration form. For an e-newsletter that could be an image example for an online demo it can be a quick description of the type of demo that will be offered and what features will be highlighted.

-You got back to them when?!

Ok now you have a lead what next? Follow up and fast! Don't leave those hot leads sitting around cooling down. Have a defined process for following up once a lead signs up for that webinar or takes that online demo. No matter your organization size there is a way to make sure your leads don't get lost or forgotten in the shuffle. For smaller companies it's a matter of the sales rep taking the time to send a personal email or making a phone call. For large companies it can be taking advantage of an automated email process so that the lead knows you appreciate them signing-up. Either way making that follow up touch point is crucial.

These few guidelines don't require much effort but they can really make a difference in your conversion rates.

If you have other ideas on how to improve registration pages that resulted in higher conversion rates I welcome you to share those.

Designed by Apple in California

Is it just me, or has Apple been a pioneer of recent design innovation for the last decade?

It's hard to find someone nowadays who doesn't have at least one Apple product - whether it be an iPod, iPhone, iMac, etc... What is it that draws us to their products though? Is it their Mac vs PC commercials, is it their simplistic approach to design or is it the fact that we liked the interaction we had when a friend of ours let us check out their Mac product?

Whatever reason it is that draws us to their product, the fact is, it's working! Five years ago Apple stock (AAPL) was at about $40 a share. Today it's at $200 a share.

Again, what is it that makes them so successful? If you go to almost any store that sells electronics, you can see that you could get a comparable product for significantly less, yet we're attracted to the Mac version.

I first used an Apple Macintosh computer in the mid 80's when I was in elementary school computer class. When I started my freshman year of college in '99, Mac's were the only computer you could find on campus. All of the designers used them. It was like a technological staple to our creative diet. They were even in the library!

My thought is that Apple just continues to push the limitations of great design combined with easy user interaction. Creating something that looks cool is one thing, but creating something that looks cool, is easy to use and just works. That's Apple.

Let me know your thoughts.

Check for Browser Compatibility

As a web designer who has spent countless hours making sure that web design looks good on every browser platform, I know the importance of ensuring that what I'm posting online looks correct on all browsing systems.

This rule doesn't just apply to website design. It applies to e-blasts, content management systems and other web based applications such as Runaware's TestDrive.

I also can't tell you about how many time's I've had to walk clients through updating their browser software so they can view their own sites correctly because they're still using outdated software, such as Internet Explorer 6, which has been out for about 9 years.

I'm not sure if these people just simply don't know how fast the web is changing and how important it is to keep up, but I can assure you that it's worth the 5 minutes to upgrade your browsing software, if for nothing more than to provide a better user experience. I can tell you one thing though -- I'm not going back to using tables!

If you've got any stories that relate, please feel free to share.

Google's Big Buzz

This month Google announced their new social media service called Google Buzz. This service combines many of the like tools and features that Facebook and Twitter offer into one cohesive environment. For complete details and video about Google Buzz check out the official Google Blog.

In its current state Google Buzz is best suited for personal use and not specifically business but as Facebook realized over time, business has it's own demand and that became strong enough for Facebook to adapt to those needs. My assumption is that Google Buzz will also yield to that ever growing voice of business and bring forth a Google Biz Buzz of sorts.

However in Google Buzz's current state, there is some useful marketing potential you can take advantage of now.

First things first, create a gmail account using your company's name. This will allow you to use Google Buzz.

Next locate folks in your industry and start following them, similar to what you do in Twitter. Also like Twitter, Google Buzz will recommend others that have the same interests as you. This will help to cultivate not only who you want to follow but the people that will want to start following you.

Now the big thing to remember with Google Buzz is that buzz is king and because of that you want to be sure to make your posts as interesting and buzz worthy as you can. This would include beefing up your content with great articles, photos and videos. Get others to take notice by encouraging everyone to participate in your posts with conversation. This is incredibly important when it comes to Google Buzz because one of the most note worthy differences between Google Buzz from other social media services is the way it filters through content. Only the most popular content gets launched to the top. So spread the word and achieve viral status with your content.

The first thing I would like to create some buzz about would be finding a short nickname for Google's latest service offering. How about G-Buzz? Let me know what you think a great nickname would be.