Virtual Impax

Effective Strategic Digital Marketing

Home » Page 16

Customer Noise and Social Media

by

social media communicationI write a lot here about connecting with customers.  It’s what social media does best really.  While the old web  was all about a one way conversation in which businesses “spoke” and consumers “listened”…  the “new” web with it’s social media capabilities – allows the conversation to go two ways.

Social media is new – brand spanking new.  Never before in human history has communication on a grand scale been accessible to the masses.

Businesses are learning – often the hard way – what this new level of communication means for their business.  In a nutshell – if you’re not treating your customers with the respect they deserve – you’re in for a nasty introduction to the power of social media.

Some companies don’t respect their customers.  They view them as idiots with credit cards and the latest “aggressive sales tactic” known as post transaction marketing is a prime example of this type of thinking.

What is post transaction marketing?  Well, it’s really quite simple.  When you complete a transaction with one of over 450 online retailers, when the purchase is complete, a “certificate” will pop up with an offer which appears to be from the merchant with whom you just trusted enough to share your credit card information.

Click here to claim [insert irresistible offer here].
Continue
Click for details now!

When you “click”… you’re taken to an innocuous site which asks you to enter your email address.  Remember, you have to enter your email address to get the irresistible offer.  Since  this page doesn’t ask you to hand over your credit card information – many consumers didn’t think twice about entering their email address to obtain an additional discount or cash back.

After all, what harm can comes from turning over your email address?

What these customers discovered was that they had inadvertently signed up for a monthly charge to their credit card.  See,  buried in the fine print was the agreement to allow a third party to charge their credit card each month … using the same credit card information they had given previously to complete their purchase at a trusted online retailer.

The term used to describe this is “data pass”.  The data pass – the data being your credit card information –  happens behind the scenes and the whole process to gain your consent to this is intentionally deceptive. Using a brilliantly crafted combination of stealth and trickery – by entering your email address, you’re authorizing the merchant with whom you just did business to share your personal data with another company.

See, once you’ve completed your transaction, well… I’ll let the government report tell the tale:

For customers to reach the confirmation page, they must either accept the offer to join a membership club offered by the third party sellers (by clicking a large, colorful ?”Yes” button) or click a much less conspicuous “No Thank You” hyperlink. In general, the name of the familiar website with which the consumer has just completed a transaction is displayed on this page, making it more difficult for the consumer to discern that this “interstitial” page is actually owned and operated by the third party company, not the website on which the consumer has been shopping.

Consumers who have been duped by this process have found themselves unknowingly joining a membership site – with a 30 day free “trial”… then the charges of between $10-$20 per began.  Some consumers paid for months before noticing the charge on their bill.

According to C-net:

The government says the investigation shows that Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue “trick” consumers into entering their e-mail address just before they complete purchases at sites such as Orbitz, Priceline.com, Buy.com, 1-800 Flowers, Continental Airlines, Fandango, and Classmates.com. A Web ad, which many consumers say appears to be from the retailer, offers them cash back or coupon if they key in their e-mail address.

Many of those who complained say they don’t fear the ad because they aren’t being asked to turn over credit-card information, according to the Senate report.

According to the Cnet article – one of the biggest profiteers from this scam is Classmates.com.  They’ve partnered with all three companies pulling this scam and pocketed over $70 million as a result.   And you thought Classmates.com’s  biggest sin was sending you emails that lie to you about someone looking specifically for you on their site.

Are victims of this scam complaining?   You bet they are.   According to the government report,

Thousands of customers have contacted the companies using words like “fraud”, “tricked”,”deceptive”, “misleading”,”scam”, “deceitful”, “dishonest”, “betrayed”, and “robbed” to describe their experiences.

In the government report – the customer complaints have been tagged as “customer noise”.

CUSTOMER NOISE

I guess “customer noise” is kind of like the sound you heard Ned Beatty make in the movie Deliverance.

Denny Hatch actually lists a few of the companies involved and he discloses their estimated “take” from their part in this scam.  (Be sure to click through to see a list of the popular retailers who have profited from this scammy practice.)

When confronted with this practice, the blame is promptly shifted onto consumers.  Obviously, if the customers of these online businesses are “stupid” enough to trust them with their credit card information – then they deserve what ever abuse they receive as a result.

This practice has it’s roots in the days BEFORE social media – before communication via the web was easy and accessible to all.  I’ve written often about how in the “old” days, mass communication was reserved for national media.

In the old days –  when consumers complained – retailers could count on the effect being contained.  The old adage that an unhappy customer told 10-16 others would affect a small mom and pop or  local retailer much harder than it would affect a larger company.  Unhappy or upset?  You’d tell your friends and relatives and your experience might dissuade them from buying.  Previously – the only backlash a large abuser of customers feared was the FTC.

However, it’s not just the internet – it’s social media which is changing all of that.

Now, when consumers have been led down the river and screwed hard instead of screaming like a pig – they can make their voices heard via social media.  These “squeals” continue to echo LONG after they were first made.   My blog post about my complaints about a pest control company will continue to live on as long as this blog is online.

When consumers squeal online via social media – the squeal gains legs.  In the case of United Airlines – a customer complaint ignited a social media shit storm.

Social media is changing the landscape by making the internet a two way communication tool.   Gone are the days when you had to have access to a journalist to get your story told. Gone are the days when you had to be able to code in HTML to communicate via the web.

Now – when a customer feels like making some customer noise and screaming like a pig – they can do so with social media.   They don’t have to be “smart” enough to code – or rich enough to pay a programmer.  All they need is an internet connection and a passion to begin.

Call it customer noise at your own peril.

Who’s afraid of the FTC’s new guidelines?

by

social media's magic ingredientAnswer – ” Not you if you’re operating under an authentic business model.”

Social media is all about information flowing freely and easily.    When a company engages in questionable business activities – social media is there, allowing customers to share what it’s like to do business with someone.  However, there have always been business owners who don’t want to play by the rules.  Instead of gathering authentic testimonials – they resort to crafting lies to promote their product or service.   They create “faux blogs” to promote their products – complete with fake testimonials.  They hire celebrities whom you trust, banking on that trust being transitive.   Well, the US government (via the FTC ) has been receiving complaints and is about to join the game.  They are in the process of crafting some new “rules” for the game of doing business – both off line and online!

The FTC stands for the Federal Trade Commission- a US government agency which is charged with the protection of American Consumers. The FTC was founded in 1914 – in the era of “trust building and trust busting.”  Since then, the agency’s powers have been enhanced to include all “unfair and deceptive business acts or practice.”  The most recent (1980)  guidelines are receiving a “face lift” for the new millennium – and may be a cause for concern for those who have been operating outside the bounds of “authentic” marketing and business building.

It’s not just brick and mortar businesses that have to worry about the new guidelines. Bloggers and internet marketers are definitely affected by the latest FTC guidelines that ban deceptive or unfair business practices.  If you’ve embraced my 3 step  authentic business success secrets formula – then you’ll probably welcome the relief offered by these new guidelines -written with social media marketing in mind.

New guidelines are being drafted which in their current state would allow the FTC to go after bloggers for any false claims or failure to disclose conflicts of interest.   The current draft of the guidelines also allows the FTC to go after the companies who partner with bloggers as well.

By the way, this same language also applies to celebrities who endorse products.  It looks like those D list celebrities who endorse such products as Cash 4 Gold had better take a good hard look at the reputation of the company who wants to hire them.

So, if you’ve written a glowing testimonial for a product you’ve never used – you might find yourself in as much hot water as the person for whom you wrote the testimonial.

If you’ve written a glowing review of a product you received  for free and you failed to disclose that you received the product for free –  again, you might find yourself in the same hot water.

Mary Engle of the FTC tells why in this video:

It  appears that the FTC is joining in the effort to keep the communication going on via social media “clean” and free from manipulation.

If you’re running an authentic business model – you have little to fear with the new guidelines.

If the testimonials you feature on your blog or web site are real – both the ones from your customers and the ones you have written for other bloggers and internet marketers – then your compliance with the guidelines will be easy peasy lemon squeazy.

For most ethical business people and bloggers, you may need to disclose the fact that the links in your blog post are affiliate links – but other than that – the new rules shouldn’t cause most authentic and ethical business owners and bloggers much concern.

If however, you’ve been less than authentic in your marketing communications – then you may have a serious problem on your hands when the guidelines are finalized – expected some time in 2010.

Before you spend one penny on an AdWords campaign….

by

online advertisingBefore you spend one penny on an AdWords campaign – take a walk with me – a customer – through the whole “searching for a product or service” on the internet.

Yesterday – my clothes dryer quit working.  While draping my clothes over the railing of the upstairs over look is an option, it’s not particularly decorative – so the first thing on my “to do” list this morning is to find an appliance repairman.

Right now, it’s easier for me to search for this service online rather than try to find the latest version of the yellow pages.  If I had one of those jobs where you get up, get dressed and drive to an office – I’d be using my cell phone to perform this search as I sat in rush hour traffic.  However, because I don’t have to drive to my office – I sit down at my computer and begin my search for a local business online.

I go to Google and I type in the words “appliance repair [my city + state]” and hit enter.  This, by the way, is known as a “search query”.  These are the KEYWORDS that I am using to find what I need on the internet.  I could have just as easily used “dryer repair [my city + state]| ” or “[brand name] dryer repair [my city + state]”.

I am greeted with several Adwords ads – each containing my search query.  This is good.  I WANT a local service provider.  However, while the ads all lead with my search query terms of “appliance repair [my city + state]”, when I click through to the web site – there is no MENTION of them servicing my city.  As a matter of fact, one of the web pages proclaims proudly that they travel clear up to – well, to a town in the next county.

I’m well aware that each time I click on one of these ads, that each of these businesses will be charged with the click.  I can’t help but wonder how many other people in my city have clicked on that ad only to discover that the business does NOT provide service to our city.

One company has an elaborate flash page which takes more than 20 seconds to load.  That time is an estimate.  As I watched the elaborate show unfold – I clicked away.  I don’t want to be entertained – I want my dryer fixed – NOW!

I come to a really GREAT web site of an appliance repair shop.  It’s a GREAT web site, complete with a cute basset hound puppy as a mascot.  I’m such a SUCKER for appealing mascots.  I picked my pest control company because they dressed their cars up as mice.   With that experience in mind,  maybe it’s best that this appliance repair service is not local.  However, while the basset hound puppy was cute, it took me three clicks to find out the company is based out of a city over an hour away.

As I search, notice I’m looking for something really specific.  Yet, while the AdWord ads parrot my search terms – when they take me to a page which lists cities two and three counties away – I instantly think I’m in the wrong place.

If a keyword is worth bidding on – then it’s worth creating a landing page for that keyword.

I’ve written before about the importance of landing pages.   If you’re using the web for marketing, you’ll know it’s a numbers game pure and simple.  However,  the key concept is that those numbers include VIABLE prospects.

Once I exhaust searching the paid ads – that’s right, there were 9 ads and not ONE of them mentioned my city as an area they serviced – I move on down the page to the “natural” search.

Natural search are the results that DID  NOT pay to get moved to the top of the page.  These pages are here because they actually contain the words “appliance repair” combined with “[my city + state]”.  Fortunately for these businesses – none of which have an ad displayed – those who DID pay to have their ad displayed couldn’t convince me in 30 seconds or less that they had a solution to my problem.  Because paid search failed me – now I’m off through a hunt through the “natural” search.

THAT IS THE KEY TO USING ADWORDS: You’ve got 30 seconds or less for the page to load and to convince me YOU are the business I need to call.  You’ve paid to be bumped to the head of the list – take advantage of your one time only shot at my business!

Before I get to the “true” natural search, I see Google’s “local business results.”  This yields a better quality of options for me.  After all, there’s a map so I can SEE that each of these businesses is located near me.

I like Google’s local business result.  In order to sign up, the business owner must fill in a form with essential information.  Instead of assaulting me with an audio/video extravaganza – I see the essential facts I need to know – like what brands they service.  I can choose to click on the link and go to their website – or I can click the “click more button and see the results of the form they filled out to open the account. Without exception – I use the “more” button because the web sites are so poorly done.

I begin dialing and call the three businesses listed on local search which service my brand of dryer.

This is the moment of truth.  Across my city, phones begin ringing as I try to become a member of an appliance repair company’s “tribe”.

At this point, I could launch into a rant on customer service.  I’m getting answering machines at 9:15 AM on Monday morning.   These are the people who will be bitching about how the poor economy is killing their business.  Here’s a tip – it’s NOT the economy – it’s your lack of attention and commitment to your business.

Finally I get a busy signal.  It’s a welcome relief.  At least they’re in the office and answering calls – and other people are calling them as well.   I may have a winner – but I have to wait.

As I wait – I move on down the list of results to my search query and find a Superpages.com listing.  Oooo – the all inclusiveness of the yellow pages delivered online.  This sounds promising!  I click and am greeted with a page that lists 15 different paid ads.  FIFTEEN!!!  Many of these are for other search sites.  Just what I want to do on a Monday morning – go on a wild goose chase!

I scroll and scroll until I find the business listings.  However, this positively cryptic when compared to the local business results offered by Google.  I get out of the Superpages site and get back to the number which was busy 10 minutes ago.

BINGO!  The phone is not only ringing – it’s manned by a living breathing person who speaks English fluently.  RELIEF!  I am willing to wait until tomorrow for my dryer repair person if it means my search is over.

Thirty minutes ago, I thought my dryer would be fixed by nightfall – now I’m just glad to know I’ll be seeing someone this week.

By the way, I had to have my oven repaired about 5 months ago.  I was thrilled with the service, but I don’t remember the company name.  If they’d left behind a refrigerator magnet – I would have called them.  I remember the guy’s face and first name- but not the name of his business.  It’s too bad.  I liked him and he did a great job.

Which is why I had to go searching again.  I tried to follow the “path” I used five months ago – but none of the results I saw looked familiar.

Without a well defined, tightly targeted audience… well… Google Adwords then becomes just another way to drain cash from your accounts.  Before you spend one penny on an Adwords campaign, be sure you get inside your customer’s head and find out what they’re  REALLY searching for online.  AdWords is no play to launch a “spray and pray” advertising campaign.

Need help with getting inside your target customer’s head?  Pick up a copy of my book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results for a step by step process you can follow to figure out the who, what where and most importantly WHY customers buy.

Are your customers wearing tin foil hats?

by

business-building-strategyIn Business Building Strategy: The most important question of all…, I suggested that the word”why” can turn a simple complaint into an essential business building strategy question.  Sometimes – a series of very mystifying actions can have their root in a very simple disconnect which can be quickly and easily discovered by simply asking “Why?”

For example, let’s say you’re taking a walk through the park.  You come across a man wearing tin foil hat who is hiding under a metal park bench.  Words like “idiot” and “crazy” will quickly come to mind – and to be honest, it’s easiest to dismiss his actions as that and move on.   However, asking our mystical magical question, “Why?” can lead to some insight  into customer buying behavior.

Perhaps our friend in the park is wearing the tin foil hat and hiding under the metal park bench to prevent aliens from reading and manipulating his thoughts.

Think about it for a moment – if there really WERE aliens with the ability to control minds orbiting the earth in their cloaked space ship – this man’s actions would be perfectly rational – even sane.  The disconnect lies in a belief about aliens orbiting the earth.  If I thought there were aliens  –  I too would be wearing my own tin foil hat.

By asking “why” I can quickly ascertain that there will be no meeting of the minds with the fellow in the tin foil hat in the park. I can’t make the leap to my way of thinking – and he can’t join me.

How does this apply to your business?

When it comes to your marketing strategy – asking “Why” is a VERY common question.  In the best marketing strategies – it’s the central question driving all marketing decisions.

  • Why would people spend their hard earned money on our products/services?

When you know that answer  – the REAL answer – to the question above, the world becomes your oyster!

However, there’s a catch to all of this: you can’t directly ask your customers why they’re buying your products or services.

Just as you can’t ask the dude donning the tin foil hat WHY he’s wearing the tin foil hat and expected a well reasoned, rational answer – you can’t ask your customers to tell you WHY they’re buying your products or services.

It’s been estimated that up to 90% of a buying decision is sub-conscious and because it’s subconscious – it takes some digging to discover WHY someone is buying what they buy.  It’s a process I go through in great detail in my book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results.

The short answer – you can’t ask customers to answer the question “why” for you.

I once had a client who began a new ad campaign and each time a new customer visited his business – he would grill them mercilessly on how they found him.  One poor woman who was subjected to this grilling kept trying to help- but she was certain she had seen a sign for the business and kept mentioning possible locations for the sign.  We were running a mix of television, radio and newspaper and the only sign he had was the one outside his retail store.

He desperately wanted his customer to answer the “why” for him.  She just couldn’t do it.  The reason she couldn’t do it was because she wasn’t conscious as she walked the path to the final buying decision.  The television ads we had been running combined with radio and newspaper ads had subtly influenced her over the past 12 weeks.  Then, when the time came to make a buying decision – she chose his business.

So while my client wanted to know why his new customer (the lifetime value of this customer was much higher than the previous 12 week media buy) chose his business – asking her why she chose him was kind of like asking the dude in the park why he’s wearing a tin foil hat. This same client was MUCH happier a few weeks later when another new customer cited his informative blog as being the main reason he chose his business.

It’s great when a customer is paying attention – but often they’re not.     When you can’t ask your customers to answer this question for you, then it’s time to begin playing detective to learn the answer to this powerful business building question.    Just like any great detective – you’ll be required to pick up on subtle clues your customers give you which tell you more than mere words can communicate.

Business Building Strategy: The most important question of all…

by

business-building-strategyWhen you’re building a business – there’s a lot of questions that need to be answered.  Dr. Jean Murray says there are 10,000 questions you’ll have to answer as you start your business.  While I never stopped to count them all – I think she’s definitely in the ball park with that estimate.

Some of those start up questions are easy – and when a question is easily answered it’s usually answered quickly.  Some questions are hard – and it takes time to discover the answer.

There is one word which can drive your business towards success more quickly than any other word.  While this word can stand alone as a question – when it’s part of larger question – it’s presence signals that the question at hand is one of the most important you’ll ask over the course of your business.

This powerful word is easy to say – and easy to spell.

This mystical magical word is the word – WHY.

Why ask why?

Why is a powerful question to answer as you build your business.  In Business Building Strategy: What will you do to get their money?, I talk about a common business problem – those idiot customers and their stupid requests.  (If you don’t know me or haven’t spoken with me – you might not know that my tongue is FIRMLY in my cheek when I wrote the previous sentence.)  Often – when you’re tempted to “label” a customer as “stupid” or an “idiot” – it’s often because you don’t understand thy “why” which is driving the customer’s behavior.

For example,  “Those idiot customers keep calling to get directions to our store, even though we have a map on our web site!”

Ask “why” and suddenly the view of the situation changes.  Asking why helps to move the view of  from a customer problem – to a web site problem.

When you apply the “why word” to the questions raised – the questions suddenly take on an elevated level of importance.  You can even add this mystical magical word to a simple statement to turn it into a thought provoking important business building question.

Take this “complaint” – “My [insert advertising media here] is driving visitors to my web site – but it isn’t generating any new business.”  Adding the word “why”takes a complaint and turns it into an essential business building question.

Sometimes  answering this question is easy.  Sometimes it’s hard – but the reason it’s hard is not that it’s like solving a complex math problem hard – but rather it’s a “we’re going to have to do something that’s outside of our comfort zone.”

“Because I said so” is a LOUSY answer when someone -anyone – asks you why.   If you’re tempted to give that answer – take a moment to think.  Often, that answer is often a sign that you just aren’t willing to dig in and answer the real question – “why?”

Asking why often leads to discovering business problems which lie outside of your comfort zone.  For that reason alone – knowing the answer to “why” is essential.  The “why” can help you take that first scary step through the Looking Glass – which is known in MBA speak as “thinking outside of the box”.