August, 2009 | Dangerous Common Sense

AT&T Requires Opt-Out Contracts

I act as the Director of Marketing for one of my consulting clients, and every year about this time AT&T calls about their “Real” Yellow Page ad. The protocol is that the sales rep sells, we agree on a package for the next 12 months, and then the sales rep calls a recording number so that my agreement to the proposal is formalized.

old phone Today’s ritual went okay until we were together on the recording device. The sales rep started reading the boilerplate contract which I would agree to at the end of his spiel.

But, wait a minute! In his rapid-fire speech I heard some new wording, something like, “This contract is for 12 months and will automatically renew unless the client notifies AT&T in writing that the client wishes to Opt-out of renewal.”

I stopped him.

We have to opt-out in writing?? Huh?

I said that the rep and I had only talked about a contract for the next year. I was happy to commit my client’s firm for a one-year period, but I the term had to end in 12 months. AT&T could sell to us again next year, if they wanted, but I didn’t want it to be our responsibility to talk to them next year before the renewal date.

At first the rep assured me that my agreement would only cover the next 12 months — apparently he wasn’t listening to himself, though. Otherwise, he was being untruthful. At any event, when I said into the taped line that I was happy to authorize the service for 12 months but for no further, the rep said he would have to check with someone on his end.

When he came back on the line he said that he could not alter the wording and we would have to accept automatic renewal. I replied that we couldn’t place the ad now with automatic renewal, and unpleasantness ensued. (Him: “You’re telling me don’t want your ad to continue after November, 2009?” Me: “No, I am not saying that. Please do not put words in my mouth. I am not able to commit for period longer than 12 months.” Him: “You’re telling me want your ad to stop this November?” Me: …)

The bottom line is that I did not commit my client to a renewal of the ad. Their ad will stop in November. And, my client is okay with it.

The AT&T online ad costs $105/month and, even according to AT&T’s own stats, only 6 people clicked on the ad in the month of July. That’s $17.50 a web visitor. Moreover, nobody has told my client all year that they found my client on AT&T real Yellow Pages.

But, what a cautionary tale! It sure makes me wonder if AT&T doubts the value of its own service: can’t it stand an annual customer review of the online Yellow Pages’ cost effectiveness?

By Ozdachs|2009-08-27T16:50:48-07:00August 27th, 2009|Marketing|0 Comments

Google Ranking Tip: You Get Just One Phrase Per Web Page

I am working with a frustrated client who is concerned that her site is not visible on Google’s search engine results.

I asked what search terms she was having problems with, and she said, “All of them. My site isn’t in the top for ‘aaaa’, ‘bbbb’, ‘cccc’, … ‘xxxx’, ‘yyyy’, or ‘zzzz’. Each of those terms are valid synonyms for the service she offers.

Aha!

To help her site, I’ve asked her to pick the ONE most important search term she wants her site to show up for. “All of them” is not something I can tune a web page for. Even if all the terms mean the same thing.

The reason I cannot tune a single page for all the terms is simple. Google’s method of ranking pages is to read a web page and to then count the placement and frequency of the words on that page. Then, based on its secret algorithm, Google decides what that one page is about and how valuable the content of that page is likely to be to a visitor searching for any particular set of words.

In order to tune a page to make Google think it is a good resource for, say for example, “San Francisco accountants”, I have to put “San Francisco accountants” in the page’s title, headers, photograph descriptions, and paragraph text. I have to emphasize that one phrase, “San Francisco accountants” in order to convince Google of the page’s focus.

To tune for “San Francisco accountants” the words I use are “San Francisco accountants”, not “SF accountants” nor “San Francisco CPAs”. A human reader may know that those three phrases talk about the same professional service, but Google does not.

Similarly, “vacation rental” may mean “vacation lodging” to a human being. You may search for “vacation rental” and be happy finding a page talking about “vacation lodging”. But, to computer-minded Google the terms have only “vacation” in common.

To Google “apartments” and “apt” are also unrelated as are “tennis shoe” and “sneaker”. (At least they are at the time I write this blog entry.) Google deals in words and phrases and is ignorant of topics and meaning.

A thorough optimizing of a site to show up highly on Google requires individual pages for each keyword phrase. Each of these pages will emphasize that particular keyword, and each page must also have unique content on it.

A business that has 10 “money words” for which it wants high Google ranking will have to have at least 10 pages in the site, one for each phrase. This requirement is, of course, one which many small businesses cannot meet. Creating text and graphics for each of these pages can be a burden!

Therefore, for a first step I advise my clients to pick the one phrase they most want to show up for in Google. I then tune their home page for that most important phrase. As time, energy, and money permit we can, over time, create separate pages for each of the desired money phrases.

If you’re not showing up as high as you want on Google results, start with this simple tip. Look at your home page. Edit it to highlight the ONE phrase that you most want to show up for. Your home page should focus on that phrase like a laser and not throw out all your keyword goals like a shotgun.

Next Up: Picking the One Phrase that Will Get Your Site the Most Visitors

By Ozdachs|2009-08-26T14:19:36-07:00August 26th, 2009|Marketing, Search Engine Optimization|2 Comments

So You Think You Need an Electronic Newsletter?

Yesterday one of my clients said he wanted to send out email newsletters (like The Common Sense Internet Gazette) and wanted to know how I could help him.

I assist four organizations send out newsletters using the Constant Contact email service. Another two clients use Constant Contact to write and send out their newsletters without any assistance from me.

Electronic announcements of sales, new products, and specials is a cost-effective way of getting your existing clients to buy from you more often. Attractive and timely correspondence helps you both serve your clients and sell more! At the very least, a regular newsletter puts your name in front of your clients without being pushy.

But, before I launched into what I could do for my inquiring client, I first wanted to do some reality checking. Just as I cautioned a client about starting her own blog, I warned the client yesterday about spending money before he knew if he was really able to get a return from his newsletter.

Electronic newsletters requires both:

an audience — there is no point in spending hours to write and produce a newsletter if no one is going to read it

some valuable information to share with its subscribers. This information can be general tips for their life or business, or it can be coupons or updates on your services.

So, before my client used energy signing up for an email tool and learning how to use it, I suggested that in the next month he test himself to see if he’s ready to take on the task. I asked him to:

Create of a list of at least 50 email addresses of either current clients or prospects to be his first subscribers.
He has to know these people somehow so that they won’t consider his messages spam. (The best emailing services make you swear that you haven’t bought the addresses you’re sending to and that you haven’t used other spammy techniques.) This client provides a physical service and communicates via phone. He doesn’t collect customer email addresses so I want to verify that he has a critical mass of potential readers before he goes further.

Write the content of the first two newsletters he wants to send out.All marketing efforts require repetition for success.
A single mailing won’t generate much notice, much less business. To prove that he was serious about starting an on-going newsletter, I said he should write two of them so he understood the work involved in regular production of his ‘zine. Even if he eventually decides to hire me to write and send out future newsletters, I want to make sure that there is a range of topics for those newsletters that will reflect well on his business. If there’s nothing to say other than, “Buy from me!” the newsletter will be a failure.

Don’t get me wrong. I think small businesses should send out MORE electronic newsletters. B&B’s should send out off-season newsletters telling about local festivals and special room rates. CPA’s should send out tips on how to improve your business’s profits or personal wealth. Apartment owners should highlight the benefits of renters’ insurance along with bragging about the latest painting job.

Still, “should send out MORE electronic newsletters” is not the same as having the time to take away from your core business. A B&B owner runs the inn, the CPA handles your finances, and the apartment owner rents, renovates, and referees. After handling the core responsibilities, there may be no time or energy left to create and distribute a good newsletter.

I like to recommend “try before you buy” whenever possible. For electronic newsletters I recommend “try before you promise”. Before you have a launch party for your electronic newsletter, make sure that you have an audience and that you have something worth communicating.

There are so many good ideas about promoting your business! A electronic newsletter is one of the great marketing tools. But, my business mantra is that coming up with good ideas is not where businesses fail. They fail in execution.

Take my two-step test before you decide to start your own business newsletter. This test is free, private, and, too often, revealing!

By Ozdachs|2009-08-25T14:12:19-07:00August 25th, 2009|Marketing|0 Comments

Why Focus on Google?

When business owners ask for help appearing in Search Engine results, we talk about what Google likes to see. We tune pages to be attractive to Google.

Being #1 in Google is the Gold Standard.

Why Google?

Because most people world-wide use Google. I checked yesterday morning and the latest statistics show that 79% of all searches go through Google. Second place world-wide is Baidu (China) at 9% . Yahoo! is at 7% and Bing (Microsoft’s new search site) at 3%. (Data provided by HitsLink Market Share)

So, if you have limited time and a limited budget, it makes sense to focus on Google. Preparing Yahoo!-tuned pages and creating a Yahoo! ad campaign takes the same amount of effort as tuning for Google and advertising at Big B. But the return is the potential of being seen by 79% of the world at Google while only 7% of web

Ozdachs monitors the ebb and flow of search engine traffic. Yahoo! used to be a much more important force in the search market. It may be more important again.

The recently announced Yahoo! and Microsoft Bing collaboration is currently getting 10% of traffic worldwide, according to HitsLink. If that percentage grows over time, we will advise clients to consider tuning their pages for Yahoo!/Bing or buying Pay-Per-Click ads at that site, too.

But, right now our recommendation for cost-effective optimization and ad placement is to stick to Google. That’s where the potential visitors to your site are surfing.

By Ozdachs|2009-08-04T14:44:24-07:00August 4th, 2009|Google, Search Engine Optimization|1 Comment

Do You Want to Exclude iPhone Users from Your Site?

The Full Navigation Menu

I was talking with a San Francisco limousine service owner last week who wants his website to drive more potential clients to his business. As we chatted, I pulled out my iPhone and took a look at his site.

On my iPhone it looked like he had only one page on the site.

As we talked, our conversation sounded more and more like we were from alternate universes. He kept talking about the page about his airport services, about his tour services, with his contact information, etc. And, I kept looking in vain for links on the one static page I saw.

When I got home and went to his site. From my desktop PC I saw the navigation links to all of the pages he’d been talking about.

I investigated and discovered that the navigation menu and its links had been built using Microsoft’s FrontPage (or Expression Web) and that program’s custom Java applets. The menus look great on browsers that run applications from websites. But, iPhones block these applications (and they also disallow Flash).

My first step in helping Regency Limousines capture more business was to re-write the navigation menus using standards-complaint JavaScript which is supported by iPhones. Limousine services — and your business! — want to be seen by iPhone owners. I haven’t seen official statistics, but I’m willing to bet that iPhone users as a class are more likely than average to call for limousine services.

There was no visual or design reason to use the Microsoft applet for the navigation menu. Microsoft had simply created an easy way for novice users to install navigation buttons that change when you put your cursor over them. But, the way Microsoft created the navigation buttons made them take a relative lot of computer resources to display. And, Microsoft’s way of creating moving images was not standard, didn’t catch on, and very few sites use it.

Apple had an easy decision when it designed the iPhone. It decided to not support a seldom-used, non-standard, resource-intensive way of displaying buttons. Those few sites, like the limousine service, that used Microsoft’s applet would not show navigation menus on iPhones. But, few businesses would be impacted, and iPhone users would probably assume a broken web site and find a competitor’s site to use.

So, I’ve uncovered another step for site owners who want more business from their websites: check out the site on an iPhone, Blackberry, and other smart phone. Make sure that the up-scale people carrying these devices can see your up-scale website.

By Ozdachs|2010-11-21T16:05:39-08:00August 4th, 2009|Web Design|0 Comments

Monthly Archives: August 2009

AT&T Requires Opt-Out Contracts

Google Ranking Tip: You Get Just One Phrase Per Web Page

So You Think You Need an Electronic Newsletter?

Why Focus on Google?

Do You Want to Exclude iPhone Users from Your Site?