I recently strolled through the splendid halls of the legendary Leo Burnett headquarters in Chicago. I was on my way to a marketing conference held at this advertising agency.
First of all, I didn’t see any bowl of apples on the receptionist’s desk.
Why was this important? The bowl of apples is the hallmark symbol of this company. As I got onto the elevator, however, another participant assured me that the apples were indeed there, in another place.
Apples or no, one speaker told the story of an online company which seemed to have all the makings of a profitable business, but it wasn’t seeing growth.
The company had been started by a special operations military man – these people are sort of a cross between James Bond with his clever devices and the Green Berets. The company sold various kinds of outdoor gear, such as camping equipment.
The speaker, Jonty Yamisha, a marketing consultant, pointed out several flaws in the company. First of all, they found that by making several tweaks in the purchasing experience, sales increased. One technique was to place a promotional offer before the thank-you page. Overall, they increased conversions from 1.4 to 2 percent in a few weeks.
They also beefed up their data collection from website activity, and determined which products, promotions, and customer segments could be approached successfully.
A third flaw – and the one that intrigues me the most – was that “there was no blog, no premium content, no on-going promotions, and no email newsletter.” Yes, the products were good. But it seemed to me that they needed to create a sort of culture around the products.
Their email list was stale, and upon first use, had 90% of bounce-backs and spam rejections. But eventually the newsletter and other promotions, such as remarketing, turned a profit.
The experience showed that stepping back and taking a big-picture view of your visitor and customer experience and expectations can turn a website into a growth machine. And what kind of culture are you creating?
Non-profits as well can ask themselves – What do I want my web visitors to do? Have I clearly explained what we do?
If I offer some tangible service to others, do I go beyond that – do I explain the real-life rewards that are gained through my services? Have I created a culture of understanding around what we offer?
