May 2006 Archives

ContentBiz Summit 2006: Reuters Selling Content Online: What We've Learned

By
David Eckoff
on May 10, 2006 7:07 PM | | Comments ()

summit2006.jpg

NEW YORK - Joanne Casley, who leads Reuters consumer facing paid content businesses in the U.S., presented an in-depth case study "Selling Content Online: What We've Learned".

We've all heard of Reuters thanks to the company's global reach. What you might not already know is that Reuters has launched premium content offerings, including pay-per-view analyst research reports and subscriptions services for individual investors.

As Reuters developed their paid content offerings, they faced some major challenges. Foremost, the company has historically had a business-to-business focus, and lacked experience and systems to support a business-to-consumer initiative. For example, the company didn't have any of the following: an e-commerce platform, a shopping cart, recurring billing system, customer support for online customers, segmented customer database, path analysis, or A/B split testing. Adding to the challenge, it wasn't easy to make changes to Reuter's technology systems on the fly.

To overcome these challenges, Reuters partnered with research company "Marketing Experiments". The company helped Reuters build a separate testing platform to host test pages, enabling Reuters to bypass their own in-house technical constraints and get quick learning.

What Reuters learned about optimizing marketing pages:

  • Emphasize Free 30 Day Trial in the page title as the biggest incentive
    Simple explanations of the value proposition work best.
  • Capture customer e-mail addresses up front, so even if they don't complete the purchase, you have their e-mail address. This decreases click-through but increases overall conversion
  • Include a clear call to action
  • Set expectations about the sign-up process ("Just two easy steps")

    What Reuters learned about optimizing the order process:

  • Shopping cart works REALLY well for pay-per-view purchases, with average concersion from items added to the card 82%
  • Shopping cart is less successful for converting free trial subscriptions
  • Shopping cart is also less successful for converting traffic from search engine marketing, for these users, the cart process is too long
  • The instinct that shorter order forms result in better conversion proved to be incorrect.
  • Words such as "Start" and "Activate" performed better than "Register"
  • A surprise "incentive" increases completion of the order form. Casley believes that it doesn't matter what the prize is, as long as it is relevant to the offer.

    What Reuters learned about product name testing:

  • Marketers surveyed got it all wrong, voting as the best names those that performed worst in test results.
  • Intuition isn't always right...
  • The best performing name increased conversion by 9%
  • Capitalize on a brand with existing recognition and awareness

    What Reuters learned about customer research:

  • Informal, low-fidelity customer research is as valuable as an expensive study
  • Contact customers frequently and informally to improve the quality of feedback, establish an ongoing 2-way communication channel, and get on-the-fly guidance
  • Data from even low-fi research can help secure management buy-in
  • A beta program for a new product can enable you to identify usability issues, fix bugs, pre-sell to users who might upgrade to the product and create buzz around the new product. And it costs next to nothing.
  • Users value the opportunity to give feedback and appreciate being asked for their opinion IF they care about the service.

    • ContentBiz Summit 2006: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tactics for Premium Content Providers

    By
    David Eckoff
    on May 10, 2006 1:18 AM     | | Comments ()

    summit2006.jpg

    NEW YORK - On Monday, Peter Morse, VP, Search and Advertising at ECNext Inc., presented a case study "Search Engine Optimization for Premium Content Providers".

    Getting your web pages ranked high in the organic (free) listings of search engines is important for generating greater traffic to your website. Especially when as much as 75% of clicks within Google are on organic listings.

    So how do you do it? Depends on who you ask. Search engines want you to create a content rich site and build it so it works well for users - then let their crawlers and secret algorithms do the rest.

    But what do you do when much of your website is behind a subscription wall or login box? It can be difficult for search engines to crawl and index your site. Further, it can be difficult to acquire inbound links because people generally deep link to free content. Finally, free pages within a premium content site tend to share similar characteristics, prompting search engines to exclude them from indexing, thinking they are duplicates. Net: fewer pages indexed and lower search engine rankings.

    Let's take a look at the essential elements of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - the process of improving web pages so that they will rank higher in organic search.

    At the most basic level, search engines crawl, index and rank web pages:

  • First, search engines automatically crawl web pages and read content, revisiting periodically to look for updates.
  • Then search engines index your pages, creating a database of crawled web pages and making content of web pages available for people to search.
  • Finally search engines rank web pages, using top secret algorithms to decide which pages to show and in what order, for a specific search query.

    Premium content publishers should: 1) leverage existing content; 2) create new content and give it away; 3) build relevant links; and 4) decrease page duplication; 5) catch long tail search term traffic; and 6) track progress.

  • Leverage existing content: Every piece of content is a marketing vehicle. Develop a product page for each piece of your content. And make sure crawlers can find this "free" content via text links and by avoiding dynamic URLs. Rather than one large page, create individual pages for each product page - more pages means more targeted search terms.

  • Create new content and give it away: You need some free content to entice links to your site. Some ideas for free content: blogs; user generated content; lists of useful resources and "how to" subject guides; and industry news and trends.

  • Build relevant links: If your content is worthwhile, someone will want to link to it. You want text links that are contextually relevant in nature and are one-way, not reciprocal (discounted by search engines). But all links are not created equal. Inbound links from content areas carry more weight vs. links from footer/navigation. As a first priority, pursue links from .edu, .org, .gov, .and mil domains (these are viewed by search engines as non-profit and authoritative, carrying more weight).

  • Decrease page duplication Search engines try to reduce too many similar pages being indexed. With limited free content available per page, it's important to avoid pages looking too much the same. Morse's rule of thumb: keep pages less than 85% similar.

  • Catch long tail search term traffic: Specialized content and search terms are very valuable to mine. To accomplish this, try using product specific keywords where search engine users land on the exact page that answers their question. Consider displaying author and publisher name prominently to capture additional search traffic. And display addresses and phone numbers for visibility in local search results.

  • Track progress As with everything direct response, it's critically important to track results. Morse recommends monitoring the number of "important pages" indexed, ranks for targeted keywords, and conversion rates for search traffic.

    Next Up: What Reuters Learned About Tech Platforms and Marketing by Launching Five Content Subscription Sites in 2005.

    • ContentBiz Summit 2006: Hoover's Website Design Tests Results to Increase Conversion

    By
    David Eckoff
    on May 9, 2006 9:34 AM     | | Comments ()

    summit2006.jpg

    NEW YORK - Hoover's delivers comprehensive company, industry, and market intelligence services. Paul Pellman, EVP Marketing of Hoover's, presented a case study on the redesign of Hoover's free website.

    Hoover's typical prospective customer: people researching a topic stumble across Hoover's. Once on the site, Hoover's needs to quickly communicate the value proposition of their service - and get the person to subscribe.

    The goals of the redesign were to 1. Improve the UI to better communicate Hoover's value and quickly guide users to the information and tools they need; 2. to showcase subscriber-only content and tools; and 3. to improve advertising integration and generate more advertising revenue.

    The key challenge Hoover's faces is finding the right balance between the free and paid portions of their website.

    Hoover's worked with Optimost to perform multivariate testing (a statistical methodology of testing many variables at once vs. the slower process of A-B testing).

    Key points covered by Pellman:

  • Homepage: Adding a search area, enlarging button size and designing button text in all caps significantly increased click-through rate. In addition, Hoover's streamlined search, included prominent placement of "sneak peek" access to some premium content, showcased how many articles were updated today (to reinforce Hoover's timely updating process) and provided an opportunity to use the service's list-building tools. The result, according to Pellman: triple digit improvements in conversion.

  • "Fact Sheet" about a company (which you might come across if you search for a company name such as "Dell", using Google or Yahoo): these variables won in testing: including the toll free ordering phone number prominently in the masthead, streamlining the left navigation area and clearly separating free and paid sections.

  • Subscriptions Options Page: Use of more benefits-oriented language that focus on the value proposition - specific calls to action with the ordering phone number more prominently placed - resulted in double digit improvements. A benefit to Hoover's sales process: potential customers calling the order number are better educated about Hoover's services and the quality of inbound leads is higher when they reach a salesperson.

  • Further testing of the subscriptions options page found these variables greatly increased conversion: simpler graphics, a focus on concepts of "affordable", "exclusive editorial" and more active words such as "Click Here" and "Get". In contrast, words such as "Subscribe" and "Subscription Options" tested poorly.

  • Registration Page: According to Pellman, every time you take a piece of data away from the registration form, you increase conversion. Hoover's reduced the number of fields on their registration form from 12 to 9. Pellman advises: "Is every piece of information absolutely critical? If not, remove it." For example, Hoover's removed the traditional "Address 2" field. Additionally, Hoover's learned that it's better not to give an option to go to other pages - you want the person doing one thing only - filling out the web form.

  • IT resource issues: Pellman said that outsourcing to Optimost helped get around a scarcity of internal IT resources.

  • Creative/design: Pellman noted that general web design creative services are often horrible at the specialty skill of direct response design. I've seen that time and time again. His advice (which isn't commonly followed but should be): hire creative talent that specializes in direct response design.

    Next Up: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Tactics for Premium Content Providers

    • ContentBiz Summit 2006: Secrets of Match.com's Email Marketing Success

    By
    David Eckoff
    on May 8, 2006 3:21 PM     | | Comments ()

    summit2006.jpg

    NEW YORK - People check their e-mail four times a day. That's four times a day you can market to people via e-mail. Michael McCurdy, CRM Product Marketing Manager at Match.com, got the conference started with a case study, "Secrets of Match.com's Email Marketing Success". Key points covered by McCurdy:

  • You have 2.67 seconds to get someone's attention in an e-mail.

  • Single focus e-mails perform dramatically better.

  • More means less and less means more. The more cluttered the e-mail, the less likely people are to click through. McCurdy says he tries to limit e-mails to 30 words including headline and copy.

  • The subject line is the most important part of the e-mail. Without a solid subject line, people won't open the e-mail.

  • Intrigue the recipient of the e-mail. This is a proven direct marketing technique, applied online.

  • The price is right? WRONG! Don't emphasize price in the e-mail offer. Selling content isn't about the price. It's about the content and representing the value of the content. It's about relationship building and guiding a person through a process.

  • Use an active voice, not a passive voice (eliminate words like "is" and "are") to drive statistically significant improvements in response rates.

  • In the design of the e-mail, tell the person where you want them to go. Be sure the design of the page doesn't cause the reader's eyes to bypass the buy button.

  • Don't tell people to "subscribe". That word signifies buying. Emphasize the word "free" (with a caveat: to bypass spam filters... McCurdy says Match.com doesn't use the word "free" in the subject line, and uses graphics to denote free, instead of pure text).

  • Free trial stated in hours (72 hours) performs better than free trial stated in days (3 days).

  • Test e-mails in different e-mail clients to see what they look like to different people.

  • For Match.com, HTML designed e-mails achieve significantly better conversion than plain text.

  • McCurdy recommends these three books: "The Paradox of Choice" - in which the author says 4 to 6 choices are better than 20 choices, because there is less buyer's remorse; "Freakonomics"; and "Permission Marketing".

    Next Up: "Hoover's Website Design Tests Results to Increase Conversion"

    • David Eckoff: At ContentBiz Summit 2006 - Selling Subscriptions to Internet Content

    By
    David Eckoff
    on May 8, 2006 9:20 AM     | | Comments ()

    summit2006.jpg

    NEW YORK - I am at the "ContentBiz Summit 2006 - Selling Subscriptions to Internet Content" conference, and I'll be blogging the most interesting sessions on location.

    This is one of the best conferences of its kind, with lots of practical and useful ideas presented. Thirteen industry lreaders will present case studies - learning you can actually use to sell subscriptions to Internet Content.

    The conference is sold out, with is a capacity crowd at the Grand Hyatt ballroom.

    Anne Holland, Publisher of MarketingSherpa, Inc. opened the conference with some quick comments, noting that while online advertising is hot, the online subscription industry is an attractive place to be, with annuity income.

    Coming Up: Secrets of Match.com's Email Marketing Success, with Michael McCurdy, CRM Product Marketing Manager, Match.com.

    New distribution methods for TV programming

    By
    David Eckoff
    on May 1, 2006 4:59 PM     | | Comments ()

    Newsday has a good read, "TV or more TV?" The article focuses on the changing ways you can watch TV now that you can watch your favorite shows on your computer, cell phone or iPod.

    The video-cable iPod is credited with getting the ball rolling last October, with ABC offering downloads of "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," commercial-free for $1.99 per episode. CBS and my industry colleague Brinley Turner then jumped into the fray, offering fee-based episodes online of new "Survivor" episodes immediately after their airing, while NBC and other cable channels have joined ABC on the iPod bandwagon.

    With video now on the Internet, iPods, VOD and cell phones, the article questions if the current flurry of high-tech innovation seems to be outpacing viewer desires and the ability to follow the fast-moving developments.

    "Basically, some products are being pushed forward," says media analyst Phillip Swann of TVPredictions.com, "not so much because consumers are rising up demanding it, but because the technology could create it."

    But David Katz, head of sports and entertainment for Yahoo! Media Group, (and formerly of CBS where he and Scott Ehrlich formerly of RealNetworks got together five years ago to pioneer the leading edge live online video "Big Brother 24/7") notes: "If you look at high-definition TV sets, they all have Ethernet jacks in the back for you to put a high-speed connection in. ... That then kind of blurs the line. Are you getting content from a network? Are you getting content from a Web site? Does it really matter to you?"

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    David Eckoff is a media and technology executive.
    Views expressed here are his own and not those of his employer.

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