You’ve spent thousands of dollars on professional landing pages: professional design; professional copy; professional images. The pages drip professionalism and you’ve watched more dollar signs float out of your wallet than a bird has feathers. According to that fast talking sales person, people should be throwing money at you by now.

Landing Page ROI

You feverishly check your merchant account for the fiftieth time in the last week. It’s empty; the promised “landing page ROI” just isn’t happening. Either people have forgotten your site existed or your landing pages are bombing worse than Bouncing Betties ever did.

Welcome to Landing Page ROI 101. In this article:

• Landing Pages vs. Preferred Landing Pages (PLPs)
• Traffic Check 101
• Are Your Preferred Landing Pages Blocking Traffic?
• Your Preferred Landing Page Checklist
• Secrets of Strong Conversion
• Testing, Testing, Is This Thing Converting?

Read on, oh information seeker!

People often get confused by the term landing pages. They assume this means a special type of page. Instead, a landing page is just any page a visitor lands on. For example, if a visitor has landed on your contact page first, your contact page is a landing page.

A preferred landing page, however, really is a special type of page. Pages designated as PLPs are the ones you’d ultimately like your visitors to come to. You want them to see these pages first, before anything else. They’re generally set up as sales pages, with direct calls to action and so on. These distinctions are important, and we’re going to use them for the rest of the article, so don’t forget!

Traffic Check 101

It’s easy to think, “I’m not getting customers so my landing pages must be bad.” It’s easy to jump the gun and start changing everything in an attempt to get something – anything – to happen.

Well, we’re not “throw a noodle at the wall to see if it sticks” type professionals. We’re “systematic research and strategic approach” type professionals. The first thing is to look at what your traffic data has to say, because it does no good to change pages if visitors aren’t reaching your pages in the first place.

Server Stats

Server Stats

Most servers have some kind of traffic tracker available. Don’t worry; you don’t have to delve into the data. What you do need to do is see if something has changed in your reported traffic.

In the image to the left, for example, there’s a noticeable drop in traffic for February and March of this year. This probably means something happened with this site’s web presence rather than with its landing pages specifically.

Google Analytics

Google Analytics

Your server stats and GA stats aren’t ever going to measure up exactly. We aren’t looking at numbers at this point, however, so that’s okay. We’re looking at peaks and valleys.

When comparing stats from different programs, it’s important to pay attention. What appears an obvious drop in the site stats is barely a dip in Google Analytics. Having said that, GA is actually showing a peak of 1,000+ visitors in March before dropping back down in April (May has just started, so it makes it looks like a huge drop – don’t freak out if you see this in your stats).

What you’re looking for are noticeable drops in traffic, indicating an issue with your site’s online visibility (i.e. ranking, publicity, engagement, etc.). If your traffic is maintaining a steady flow, you can (somewhat safely) assume there’s something wrong with your pages. Let’s go look!

Are Your Preferred Landing Pages Blocking Traffic?

Now, if you performed some due diligence, you should have marked in your analytics when you made changes to your landing pages. You can do this in Google Analytics by adding annotations. Once you have at least a roundabout idea of when you installed those landing pages (or the updates), here are a few things you can do:

• Compare pre- and post-installation information. These are simple metrics, but they give you a good idea of trouble areas.
  • Are you getting more/less traffic to these pages?
  • Is the bounce rate noticeably higher than pre-install?
  • Has the time on page changed?
• Compare pre- and post-installation traffic per PLP.
  • Where is the most traffic coming from (referral, direct, search)?
  • Have any search terms changed (include “not provided” and “not set” information)?
  • Has referral traffic changed (more/less than usual)?

What you’re looking for:

What Are You Looking For

It’s not easy troubleshooting by cookie cutter, but what you’re looking for is something that stands out. Optimization is 75% training, 10% trail/error, 10% instinct and 5% fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants. If it weren’t, there wouldn’t be so many kinds of SEOs. For example, you might see:

• A 14% drop in organic traffic, which could mean things like:
  • Your topical focus no longer matches terms the page was originally ranking for (i.e. search engines don’t see the relevance and the page dropped out of the SERPs)
  • Your title and description aren’t marketable (i.e. they don’t invite click-throughs to the page)
  • Something 404′d (error not found) somewhere along the line
• A heavy drop in time on page, which could indicate:
  • Your new content doesn’t draw the visitor in
  • Your new content is great, but calls to action fail
  • Your new content is great, but the page isn’t correctly targeting your market
• A heavy rise in bounce rate, which could indicate:
  • Your page doesn’t provide what your ad/search snippet promises
  • Your page is off putting in some manner (i.e. Too many images, too much content, not trustworthy, etc.)
  • A heavy drop in referral traffic, which could mean something as simple as your referring sites dropping off the map.

If you can’t figure it out, don’t start throwing noodles. Hire a professional SEO expert for a consultation and get rid of the guesswork. At least that way, any work you do has a much better chance of succeeding!

If it turns out that your PLP is the problem, don’t scrap it. You wouldn’t want to waste the thousands of dollars you watched fly out the window. Almost any content/page can be salvaged, it just takes a strategic approach.

• Did I define the goal of this PLP (what do you want to achieve)? Decide what the goal is for the landing page.  Are you trying to collect contact information?  Sell your product?  Talk about your services?  Whatever goal you’re going for needs to be the central theme of the landing.
• Does the title/description for the search snippet or ad match the content on the PLP? Your ad has a call to action also, so match your landing page with the ad.  For instance, if your ad says “The best professional SEO specialists money can buy”, you want your landing page to say something like “Level343: The Best Professional SEO Specialists Money Can Buy.”  Use the same phrases on the ad and the page.
• Is the page focused on its goal?
• Is the content call-to-action-focused or is there extra information? Keep it simple and direct without a whole bunch of extra words. Here, you have to keep the content as focused as possible on the call-to-action.
• Have I kept the navigation to a minimum? Limit or eliminate your navigation.  You don’t need links around your website on a landing page; these are only ways for them to leave the page.  If they leave the page before conversion, you’ve lost them.
• Have I kept distractions to a minimum? Do you need those images or are they just eye candy? Is that YouTube video important? Look at each aspect of your page and ask the same questions.
• Is the content easy to scan (bullet points rather than paragraph copy, for example)? Research has proven that individuals are more likely to click away from a wall of text. Keep paragraphs short and break them into bullet points if possible. Quick bullet points at that!
• Have I kept the sign up or contact form to a minimum? The more complicated it is and the more information you ask for, the more uncertain your visitor will be about giving that information. A good rule of thumb is, “if you don’t absolutely need it for the sale, don’t ask.”
• Does my PLP inspire trust? If you’re a member of your local BBB, provide Paypal or are registered with HackerSafe (for example), use these logos on your landing page.  Logos take little room, and these specific logos inspire trust.
• Did I test the PLPs before implementation?

Are You Listening?

Traffic, in and of itself, is just traffic. However, when you have good ad placements, that traffic becomes expensive. Therefore, you have to place a higher commitment on the PLPs those ads lead to. You have to be willing to dedicate time to those pages, because your conversion rates can always get better – unless they’re already 100% (in which case, contact us with your secret).

A strong landing page, much like a news piece, answers Who, What, Why and How.  Who are you targeting, what are you offering, why should they be interested and how do they act? Each step of the conversion process has to do its part in answering those questions.

How does conversion actually work? If you don’t know, you’re missing a vital piece of information, so pay careful attention. When you place an ad or have a paid search result, the last thing you want to do is have that link go to a generic page. Why? Let’s look carefully at the steps:

Step #1: Seeing your ad – Either your ad is on a site or you’ve paid for placement on a search engine. Whichever, a potential site visitor (not even a potential customer, yet), sees the ad or search result.

Step #2: Clicking through to your landing page – Either it catches their interest and they click, or it doesn’t – and they don’t. Clicking on the link (click-through rate) implies a certain degree of interest.

Step #3: Reading your landing page – Once they get to the page, either they read – or they don’t. If they see copy that doesn’t fit the link, the chances of them turning away are higher.  For this reason, your landing page should be relevant to the search term you targeted. For example, if you have search placement for “free business cards”, your headline and content needs to reflect “free business cards”

Step #4: Understanding the offer - Buyers are savvier than ever. They’ve learned about the fine print, marketers, so be careful with what you put in there. Somewhere in the content, they’re going to be trying to answer:  what’s the offer; what’s the catch; what’s the cost? You’d better be prepared to answer these questions within the body of the landing page itself. As a rule of thumb, it’s always best to lead with benefits and follow with features.

Step #5: Accepting the offer and ACTING – They understand the offer, catch and cost, and are now looking for a clear-cut sign of what to do next. Make this step very clear and prominent. You don’t want them hunting for it. Make sure they know what will happen next when they do act, whether they’ll receive an email, start a download, etc.

Step #6: Gaining security and trust – At some point, depending on how long it takes them to see some results, the converted individual will have second thoughts. They get that slightly nauseated “uhhh” feeling. Rather than let them have any time to get that feeling, give them some kind of encouragement, such as a thank you page that says, “You will be receiving an order confirmation in the mail. However, in the mean time, please accept this free gift as our thanks” – or something to that effect. Don’t let them leave without some sort of thank you and acknowledgement of their action.

Each step above is an important part of the conversion process; the ad itself draws them in, the call to action (and thank you) completes the process. If you’re not getting the ROI you expected – or any ROI at all – there’s something wrong in your conversion process.

Testing works to pinpoint the errors in a systematic way once you know your problem isn’t an overall site problem (such as getting iced by Penguin, in which case, call us). However, when it comes to testing and changes, you start backwards in the conversion process.

May The Results Be With You

For example, you might first test different shopping cart pages, or start by testing various trust issues. Do you have privacy and terms of use policies that are easy to see? Have you tried to put yourself in the visitor’s shoes, to see where they might feel uneasy in the sign up process? Maybe you need their social security number – do you have a question mark (for example) and a pop up that addresses why you need this information?

At each point, using A/B testing gives you a better chance of strengthening your PLP as you make changes. The changes are incremental, which allows you to pinpoint weaknesses while keeping the strengths.

We hope this article has provided you with enough information to really beef up your preferred landing pages to get the strongest conversions possible. Feel free to drop any question that comes to mind in the comments, and we’ll do our best to answer them.

I’ve been boiling all morning long – and what does someone who blogs do, but kick out a rant? All morning, I’ve been researching marketing agencies, digging into sites, news articles and various sources to find out about them. –And that’s the whole damn point. Why, if you’re advertising yourself as any type of internet marketing agency, should I have to go digging?

Connect The Dots

Maybe it’s Gabriella’s influence. “Connect the dots, Jahnelle,” she keeps saying. “You always have to connect the dots.” However, I also think my expectations of someone claiming to be an internet marketer come from the years’ of experience in connecting those dots, and understanding why that connection is important.

Case in point:

I visited a site for an agency. They market themselves as a “digital agency” on the “cutting edge” of technology. You know what I found? A blog – with this cute little calendar that shows the number of posts per month. Two here, three there, a couple there… Whatever – so maybe they aren’t as strict about regularly posting as we are.

Then, I read their latest post. Even though it’s a month outdated, I think, “I like the way this company thinks.”

Now, if you follow the SEO Article Archive, you probably already know Gabriella is the more social of us. Me, I use it because that’s where you connect with people on line. –And damn it if that isn’t another point. It’s where you connect!

So, I’m interested in this company, and I look for their social links. Contact us? Nothing social, just an address and a phone number.

They have a Facebook and a LinkedIn profile button on the sidebar. I’m not too fond of Facebook for anything other than the dubious pleasure of saying the occasional “hello” to friends that no longer live in my area, so I click on LinkedIn. It takes me to their company page, which shows me a list of employees (most without pictures).

Those employee links, in turn, take me to the individuals’ pages, where I can then, and only then, see that at least two have Twitter accounts. To connect with these people through LinkedIn, I have to send an email stating that I’ve worked with them or known them in some way. I’m faced with a decision of how to class these people I don’t know and just want to see what they’re saying – rather than the one-click “follow” of Twitter. Talk about a waste of “being social”.

To be blunt, it ticked me off to the point that I tossed my headset down and stalked outside for a breath of fresh air.

Social isn’t everything, just like SEO isn’t everything; it isn’t the end all, be all of marketing mediums. I know this. Twitter isn’t everything; there are plenty of platforms out there. –But you call yourself an internet marketer!

Maybe it wouldn’t have upset me if I hadn’t just poured through over 10 sites of so-called digital, internet, social, etc. marketing firms with dead blogs, dead social accounts and dead ends.

Connect the Friggin Dots, Already!

I’m trying very hard to keep my language fit for public consumption. I really am, but how are we supposed to teach our clients to connect the dots if we aren’t at least making more than a half-hearted attempt to lead by example?

Connect the dots

That stupid “What We’re Saying” section in the sidebar? I don’t care what you’re saying, if you were saying it five months ago! We live and work in a fast-paced, constantly changing world. What you said five months ago may be completely wrong today!

“Thanks for the fantastic holiday event!” by marketingtwitteruser was posted December 19^th of last year…. What, was it so fantastic that you had to take two months off to recover?

It just absolutely blows my mind. If you’re an Internet marketer of any type (i.e. you market your client’s brand, business, and online presence to the public) there should be some proof that you know what you’re doing on your own site. There should be some sign that you are actually trying, instead of doing what a lot of business owners do and throwing noodles at the wall to see if they’ll stick.

 Business owners have an excuse. It’s not their job. Their job is to use their past experiences and know-how to grow their business. You don’t have an excuse. It’s your job. This is what you do to make a living, and as far as I’m concerned, you are the weakest link. Good bye.

Deep Breath and a Note to Business Owners

Please, don’t visit these types of Internet marketing sites and think, “Well, if they aren’t doing it…” Connecting the dots online is important; much like connecting the dots in the physical world. For example, if you have a logo, that logo will be visible on your business cards. It will also be visible on your business letterheads and your store front.

Online dot connection works the same way. It’s called consistency:

• Your logo should be on your website, connecting your physical storefront with your online presence
• Your logo should be able to be converted in a favicon, to be used on the site
• If you have a coder or developer on hand, you can have a widget created for other sites to use
• Your company name should be consistent across all platforms, websites, articles and so on – anything you put it on, it needs to be the same
• Your business phone number should be easy to find throughout the site
• If your company is participating in social media:
  • All social accounts with the business name should have the business logo
  • All social accounts for individual team members should have their pictures
  • Your Twitter accounts, depending on how big your business is, should be a mix of company and team member names:
    • Your main company account (example: @level343), which resembles your actual company name
    • Your team members’ accounts (examples: @SEOCopy and @jrpittman), which is how followers get to know your company personally
    • Your department accounts (examples: @companysales @companyservice, @company Q&A, etc.), which (in a large corporation) give customers direct access to the necessary department
• Your Facebook page should include links to your website, your company email, and other social accounts
• Every social account should have some kind of congruity with your business site
• Provide ways on your site in the contact area for people to connect with the various social accounts
• If you decide to start a blog:
  • Set a minimum amount of blogs posts per month and stick to it
  • Set a regular schedule of days you’ll post (example: we post every Monday and Thursday) and stick to it
  • Allow people to share across social networks – and don’t just limit it to the networks you’re on; that’s selective thinking, and it won’t serve you well
  • Provide ways on the blog for visitors to connect with your company’s social accounts
  • Link your site to your blog and your blog to your site – provide two-way traffic flow
  • If you decide to do content curation or guest blogging, like we do on Scoop.it, Tumblr, and Paper.li:
    • Schedule your posts on these content curation sites or guest posting sites to be on days that you aren’t posting on your blog
    • Put your name out there every day in some way or another – give the search engines a reason to crawl your site

At some point in time once the Internet started, we got this idea that everything had to be in a box. Don’t link out – that’s bad. Don’t let people share outside of your social circles – that’s bad. Don’t let the blog and the business mix, because, wouldn’t you know it, that’s bad, too.

It's a Fine Day To Walk The Walk

Times are changing, my friends. History is a cycle, and we’re cycling back to open borders – only this time, the open borders are the ones we allow online.

Walk the Walk

Look. I have no idea whether these marketers are any good at what they do. However, if they aren’t doing what they tell their readers to do, or what they plan for their clients, they don’t believe it. Why would you ignore something that you know works to grow a business?

There are many online marketers, SEOs, copywriters and so on that walk the walk. They do what they say you should do – because they honestly believe it works. Any time you decide to follow a marketing company through their blogs or their social accounts, keep your eyes open. If they don’t practice what they preach, at least to a reasonable degree, they’re just blowing smoke to look good. What they say may make perfect sense, but they don’t believe it.

You learn a lot of things in Marketing 101. Things like “Starting sales copy with negatives is a negative thing.” You learn that meeting a customer’s eyes is important, as is active listening. By the time you’re done with the course, you can sell sand to a man in the Sahara. Of all the things you learn, however, a few stick with you more than most. One of them is AIDA.

A.I.D.A.

AIDA is an age-old marketing concept. The acronym stands for: Awareness (or Attention), Interest, Desire, and Action.

The purpose of this method is to allow you to target your niche or demographic with systematic diligence, so you can create a sales funnel that truly works.  Below is a breakdown of each individual part of this classic acronym and what it means.  Let’s discover how each can be used effectively as part of your SEO and Internet marketing techniques.

Awareness (Attention)

Awareness has two tiers to it: branding (image) and attraction.  Generally, the AIDA method refers to the ability for your advertisements, website and landing page to attract that initial attention or awareness to begin with.  How is this accomplished?

A/B Testing can quickly reveal which attention grabbers are working, versus those that immediately bounce (Teflon, anyone?). It isolates two versions of an element (ad copy/headlines, pictures, graphics, layout, navigation, search results links and website content), and allows you to compare minute or major changes in the element. For example, a small A/B test can be changing the color and sizes of your headlines to see if one would perform better than another.

One way to measure this specifically is by cross-comparing the actual Clicks Per Impression (CPI) rate of your ads or other content.  If, for instance, you’re generating hundreds of thousands of impressions only to get a few dozen clicks connected to those impressions, your initial responses are lacking.  This is an indication that your first impression is ineffective at garnering the Attention or Awareness of your target audience.

Again, this isn’t just about your headlines or ads; it can apply to each page of your website.  If a certain page is resulting in a high Bounce Rate (BR) and has become a stumbling block, that particular page is hindering Awareness or Attention at the early stages of sales conversion potential.

You don’t have to have ads to be able to measure CPI. For example, Google Webmaster Toolsgives you data on how many impressions you may have gotten for a particular key term, and how many clicks you got for that impression.

Practice...

The CTR (click through rate) of your search snippets can also provide an indicator of your first impression.

Try continuously tweaking each element, one at a time, until your Clicks Per Impression reach a minimum of 10-20%.  Track how well the changes do through A/B Testing (Google Website Optimizer works well for many business types and sizes).

You can apply this to guest posts as well, especially if you have a good relationship with the site you placed the post on. If they’re willing to share their traffic numbers for that page, you can compare that to your referral numbers from the URL.

Statistically, most initial attention-based responses to a well-targeted piece of content or ad copy should be in the 10 – 20% percentage range (or higher).  If you run into a plateau on this, it could be time to consider whether you are placing your ads and/or content in front of an audience that has even the remote potential of being in your niche market – and adjust your placement accordingly.  Targeting is a key means to that end.

Interest

Once your content or ad copy has achieved the initial response of a click, it’s time to take things a step further.  Now the pressure is on and you must keep their attention by generating interest in the discussion.  A landing page that accomplishes this will bring you one step closer to the almighty conversion.

How do you captivate website visitors?  Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?  It’s really not.  All you need to do is give them something to identify with.  When you study your demographic properly, you learn what their age group is, what their income level is, what gender the majority is, and so on.  Use this data as a basis to write copy and present images that make them feel you understand.  Construct your copy with this mindset.

You may not even need to pitch your product directly at this point.  A landing page is very much an interest-based element, as is a website homepage.  The link that preceded their entry to such a page would be considered the Attention element that pulled them in, in the first place.  All you need to do at this point in the funnel is remind your target audience of a problem they likely have which needs a solution.  You can hint at the fact that you will be offering said solution, but you can wait to reveal it in the next step (on the product page).

Desire

Now that your potential customers are interested, you must build their desire to act. To do so, you have to show them that something about their life warrants a need or strong want for what you offer.  Classically, if you answer the following question properly, you are using benefits to spark a sense of desire:  “How will this product (or service) change the life of the potential customer.”

This is simply a continuation of the Interest phase.  You have to intensify the interest to the point where your audience becomes compelled to act.  The product page, for example, can generate a sense of desire.

AIDA

Not only should benefits be mentioned, they should lead the way.  “Lead with benefits” is a motto you should be repeating to yourself whenever you write copy or headlines.  Also, be mindful of the distinction between features and benefits.  You can lead with benefits and support those benefits with features.

Example: Let’s say you sell adjustable beds… Here’s a basic setup of how to position the benefit and support it with the feature, versus the other way around. 

Feature = Adjustable Positions 

Benefit = Comfort Throughout the Day and Night

Poorly Written Copy (Feature Only): “Our adjustable beds allow you to sit or sleep in multiple positions.”

Better Copy, Wrong Order (Feature-Leading, Benefit-Supporting): “Our adjustable beds allow you to sit or sleep in multiple positions which will keep you comfortable at every time of day or night.”

Ideal Copy (Benefit-Leading, Feature-Supporting): “Feel comfortable no matter what time of day it is; our adjustable beds allow you to sit or sleep in multiple positions.”

Easy? Sure...

Action

Action is perhaps the “easiest” part of the AIDA process, but it must not be overlooked.  This is where things like user-friendly and conspicuous navigation, purchase links, and shopping carts come into play.  Most of that can be automated, but remember that where you place your Buy Now buttons and what they look like matters.

Again, simply apply A/B Testing on each element to determine which ones generate actions (purchases, mailing list sign-ups, etc.) more often than others.

Relating AIDA to Your Online Marketing Activities

So how does AIDA really relate to online marketing? How can we simplify this a little?

• Awareness – Anything you’re putting out beyond your site fits in the awareness stage: guest posts, PPC, and YouTube videos all count.
• Interest – Your site and any pages a visitor might potentially see the first time they visit your site. For PPC and guest posting, make sure your links point to a specific landing page, geared for that video or post.
• Desire – The content found on your landing and product pages. Answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” and “Why should I buy from you versus the other guy?
• Action – Your calls to action: buy buttons, free shipping if they order today, only four left so order now.

By breaking each part of AIDA into steps, you have a clear structure to follow when developing your marketing and campaign initiatives. Using this information, revisit your click paths, from ad or search snippet to final buy. What have you done well? What could you do better? Answer these questions, and then start testing!

Collective Intelligence

Science fiction stories often talk about the “Collective” – or “intelligence”, if you will – where the mass of mankind’s knowledge is accessible through a telepathic thought. While much of science fiction is still just fiction, we’re a whole lot closer to the idea of the Collective then you might think. It’s already here, in the form of the Internet.

“Big deal,” you say? Ah… read on, oh lucky visitor!

Humanity’s Mass Mind

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players…
William Shakespeare

Consider how much knowledge is now at your fingertips! Marketing data, medical studies, scientific papers, blue prints: anything you want to know, anything you want to learn, can be found on the Web. Not only that, but the Internet has become a collection of peoples’ thoughts, opinions, studies and experience on any given subject. So much so, that it’s become a mass mind – a living, feeling, learning creation.

We all play a part…

The fascinating thing is that each of us plays a part in helping this creation grow. By writing and posting new content, we add to the collection our own thoughts, experience and knowledge. Even if the topic is the same, with few exceptions, each person’s content is unique, because our views on our personal experiences.

How amazing! How wonderful! How fantastic! With prolific online authors, you can search their names, and learn all about them. It’s almost like reading their minds – it’s all there for us to digest.

Collected Information Leads to Collective Intelligence

Mankind & Evolution

All this information pouring into the online collection has begun to serve a greater purpose than one individual learning new things. This collected information, humanity’s mass mind, is leading to new forms of Collective Intelligence (CI). In turn, Collective Intelligence is leading to mankind’s continued growth as a species – to learning new things that no one has ever known before!

What is collective intelligence?

The MIT Center for Collective Intelligence describes CI as “groups of individuals doing things collectively that seem intelligent.”  (emphasis ours)

Crowd-sourcing, collaboration, and the wisdom of crowds are all minimalist forms of collective intelligence. It’s seen in nature, in the hive mind of bees or in the way ants colonies work as a unified entity. The key word in the MIT definition is seem. For any collaboration to be a true example of collective intelligence, it has to lead to new levels of intelligence. In other words, something more than what was before.

Why are we bothering to discuss this?

That’s a darn good question. We have a darn good answer.

Collected information and collective intelligence are changing the way we live, act, react and interact. It matters for SEO, because optimizers need to learn how to capitalize on it. It matters for marketing, because social is a big part of collective; your target market’s wants, needs, thoughts and opinions are right there for you to gather, in big, bright, bold words. It matters for business because of all of the above and then some.

Look at the applications we’re building! We’re creating our home security systems online. We’re pulling an entire company’s data stream into one central location in the cloud. We’re gathering information from around the world in a matter of a few seconds.

The world is growing in leaps and bounds – the way we interact with computers and people (social, blogging, search, surveys, comments, programs, applications, research and development, marketing, etc.) has changed in such a way that we’re ALL a part of that growth.

Intelligent Emergent Behavior

5 Real World Examples of Collective Intelligence

Everything you put out there, everything thought, opinion or bit of knowledge, is a contribution towards the future of mankind. You never know what will spark of the next round of innovations and ideas.

Listen – do you really think the people behind every successful business, every great piece of technology and every standard scientific process knew their ideas would be successful, great or become a standard? How many of these things started with just a spark? It might not have even been the “inventor’s” own thought – it could have just as easily started with someone else’s comment…

The thousands of real world collective intelligence examples should be taken as inspiration. They are just the beginning of what’s possible. We’ve barely started, yet there are literally thousands of real world examples of collective intelligence in use:

Google

Google is an oft-used example, yet it’s important to specify the search engine itself, not the search engine’s output:

Google’s Output – The feedback that comes from any given query is subject to misinformation. Anyone can write about anything… and we do. Therefore, it’s important to point out that mass authoring isn’t synonymous with mass authority. Just because many people write about something doesn’t mean we learn from that writing.

Google- If you’ve ever seen the list of patents that went into creating Google, you’d quickly notice that the patents don’t always have the same creator’s name. You’ll see names like Mayur Datar and Ramanathan V. Guha, but you’ll also see Alexis Battle, Barbara Engelhardt and so on. Not all patents were created by Google employees for Google, and most patents were created by a team of inventors. What we end up with, then, is a search engine designed, built and added on to by hundreds of people. Unique in its overall abilities, it was the only one of its kind when first created: intelligent design developed through collective intelligence.

Google +

From the time that Google Plus hit the online world, it’s been an example of collective intelligence. They opened a bare bones project, not to the masses, but to a specific audience – the geeks and coding freaks of the Internet. They gave these individuals the ability to give automatic feedback on all areas of the system.

G+

Why? In order to turn out a strong, working product when it’s released for everyone to use. The company wants the best social platform out there, and who better to finish the creation process than the very people they’re targeting?

Open Source Projects

Anything “open source” can be considered a strong example of collective intelligence. Open source projects are developed by the people for the people; open source is a completely organic approach, if you will. In fact, some amazing products have come out of the Open Source Initiative. The list includes several well-known products, such as:

• The Apache server
• WordPress
• Drupal
• MySQL
• Mozilla Firefox
• Many, many more

BRAIN

BRAIN, Behaviorally Robust Aggregation of Information in Networks, created by Hewlett Packard, is a fascinating example of collective intelligence. According to the creators, “Existing processes tend to be either too data-driven, and therefore lacking the perspective of human insight, or too ad hoc, and therefore inconsistent with the data. “

BRAIN was developed to gain more accurate information for prediction markets using data side-by-side with team surveys. It’s worked for HP, and other companies, such as IBM and Ford, have implemented prediction markets as well.

KuiSchi

Knowledge Unifying Initiator for Science and Technology, or KuiSci, is “a meeting place for discussion among scientists and technologists, a place for presenting national and global scale problems, a forum for brainstorming, skill and expertise exchange among scientists to harness the collective solutions. KuiSci is a place for innovative work creation. “

History of Mankind

On to Bigger and Different Things

We’re in a technological space we’ve never been in before – not in the entire history of mankind. We’re able to collaborate globally in ways that have previously not been possible. Open source projects are changing medicine; social networking is changing how we learn in a classroom. –And, the power of the collective is changing how we do business.

That’s not so bad; change is the beginning of growth. Although no one knows how things will turn out in the future, we do know that it will probably be something totally unexpected – something different. Something no one has thought of before. As content developers, marketing managers, application developers, search engineers, SEO geeks and so on, it’s our responsibility to make sure we follow a mantra of respect, honesty and communication. Maybe “Respect, honesty and communication for the betterment of mankind” should be part of the 10 Online Commandments (wonder how well that would go over?).

Over the next several weeks, months and so on, we’ll be talking more about Collective Intelligence and how it applies specifically to marketing your online business, branding, users’ opinions, etc. In the meantime, put your thinking caps on; if you have any questions or comments, you know where to put them (in the comment box, people…)!

All the bells & whistles in the world...

A vendor at the mall stopped me the other day. I don’t know if it was my frizzy, messy hair piled in a ponytail or the smile on my face, but he thought he could sell me his wares. I sat down in his chair and politely listened to the virtues of his products. He was a friendly—a great conversationalist—but I walked away empty-handed.

When I left the mall, I called a friend who has worked in sales for years. “I think I am a salesman’s worst nightmare,” I laughed into the phone as I told him my story. Without missing a beat, he replied, “You weren’t the right prospect. That guy needs to do a better job sizing up his customers.”

That comment lingered in my head. We know the goal of marketing is to sell products. There’s no magical formula involved. If customers know about your product and need it, they will buy it. It seems easy enough, so why do even the best marketing plans sometimes fail? A friendly face, excellent product, and perfect sales pitch can lead nowhere. How does this happen?

16 Basic Desires That Motivate the Sale

Research & Studies

The key to this puzzle lies in the hearts of your customers. In the end, people do things—including buy products—because they want to do so. The deciding factor isn’t you or your product. It’s the ideals that drive your customers to do—or not do—something. Successful marketers understand this. They know who their customers are and what matters most to them.

How do you know what will convince your customers they need your product? Researchers at Ohio State studied the factors that motivate people do whatever they do.

• Acceptance: I want others to approve of me.
• Curiosity: I want to learn how and why things work.
• Eating: I want food.
• Family: I want children and a partner.
• Honor: I want to be true to the values of my cultural group.
• Idealism: I want justice in the world.
• Independence: I want to be myself.
• Order: I want organization and systems.
• Physical activity: I want to exercise.
• Power: I want to be able to influence people
• Romance: I want to have sex.
• Saving: I want to collect things I may need.
• Social contact: I want to have friends.
• Status: I want to be important in the world.
• Tranquility: I want to be safe.
• Vengeance: I want to get revenge.

On a subconscious level, each one of us has certain dominant motivators guiding what we choose to do. This explains why workaholics are truly happy sacrificing relationships and leisure time, while social butterflies cannot imagine life without a bevy of friends and acquaintances. What motivates me to spend my time and money may be very different from what motivates you to spend yours. – And we’re both equally happy with our lifestyles.

Marketing the Right Way

Embrace Knowledge

There’s a right way and a wrong way to use these basic desires in marketing. What’s the right way?

• As you develop your marketing plan, stop to consider your target market and what motivates them. What do the members of your target market have in common? Are they pet owners? Parents? Senior citizens? Creative types? Of course, your target market is composed of individuals with different motivators, but they also have common motivators. For example, people with children are often motivated by family. Senior citizens living on fixed incomes tend to be motivated by saving. Make a list that represents your market—age, location, lifestyle.
• Prioritize the desires. Review your list. Which motivators are most dominant in your target market? Young professionals may be motivated by acceptance, independence, power, and status. If your market of young professionals is filled with recent college graduates working in the corporate world, the needs for power and status are likely stronger motivators. Knowing this will help you zero in on what will make them want to buy your product.
• Develop a marketing plan that shows how your product or service will meet these needs. For example, how can you convince young professionals that you offer them a way to increase their status within their peer groups? Incorporate images of young professionals who are surrounded by people showing they respect them. Use strong language implying how your product will arm them with the tools that bring the honor they strive for.

When Marketing Goes Wrong

Making The Wrong Decisions

The sales rep who tried to sell me his hair products tried several techniques to convince me I needed them. He started with, “See how much better your hair looks with this?” (romance and acceptance). When I didn’t respond, he tried, “Your friends will all be jealous and want to know what you’re doing different” (social contact and status). Again, I refused to buy. Then he asked me about my family and told me about his (family).

He knew that I needed a reason to buy his products. What he didn’t understand was that my need to save money (saving) was far more motivating to me than the factors he assumed would matter. Had he offered to lower the price or demonstrate how I could save money using his products, he would have been more likely to make a sale.

I’m sure you don’t have the time or the resources to make a similar mistake. When you understand what motivates your target market, you can tailor your marketing plan to those needs. As a result, you will spend more time on marketing campaigns that bring results.

You don’t want to invest your time and resources on marketing that falls on deaf ears. Knowing your market and their needs is a key factor in developing a marketing plan that will reach them—in ways that will resonate with them. When you consider their needs, you are well on your way to increasing your conversions.