Incomplete Experience Paths - A Marketing Nightmare

I just took the time after several months to fix an update issue I was having with some software drivers on my computer running Vista. Here was the scenario:

The HP Update program that was supposed to provide software updates wasn't working. Every time I would try to download an update, it would download but fail to install and would end with the following message: "HP Install Canceled" and a red "X" next to each update I had been prompted to install.

Finally, a few months ago, a new update appeared with the name: "Urgent! HP Install Canceled Issue Fix." It sounded like it was just what I needed to get the other updates to install. The problem was that the bug that the software solution promised to remedy was blocking the installation. Cruel irony.

Well, I was prompted today to download and install this update again and went through the trouble of researching a solution. The solution was simple enough: I had to run the HP Update software as the computer's administrator. No biggie, but what a broken customer experience! Here are a few of the most offensive experience gaps I have seen over the years. Most of these could be prevented easily with a little more review and preparation. But mistakes do happen.

• Incomplete messages being sent to customers. One of the most effective messages we ever sent at MyFamily.com to millions of users was an incomplete message that said "Today is April 18." Many people clicked to see what was special about April 18. Some expected it was part of a stealthy promotion we were running, but it was just some incomplete code that was rolled live. In the end, we looked rather foolish when we explained to customers what had happened.


• Missing calls to action or response links. Every communication with a customer should invite them to take action. Newsletters are the worst offenders in this area. Newsletters are to inform, but they should also invite customers to do something. One of the most important steps to take when writing any newsletter is to segment your customers from your prospective customers to give each group a different call to action. A subscription service, for example, should always include invitations to non-members to join their service in each newsletter and then customize the newsletter for current subscribers with messages about how service improvements have increased the value of their membership. This is a simple concept that is easily done and often overlooked.


• Missing links. Here is the most obvious lesson of all. If you want someone to get to something on your website, you should promote it . . . or at least link to it. Early in my days at Ancestry.com, I implemented a redesign of the homepage with input from several stakeholders. I reviewed the design with Paul Allen, and he wanted to reduce the clutter on the page further by removing more links. One of the links that was cut was the link to the "Learning Center." A few weeks later, Paul came to me wondering why our traffic to the learning center was down so dramatically, why nobody was visiting it anymore. I explained simply that more people are likely to click on a link that exists than one that doesn't exist.


• Including a incorrect link or phone number. Always visit every link and call every phone number you include in any promotion piece. Don't just visually look at the link and type it into a browser. Copy and paste the link to make sure you are using EXACTLY what is included in the promotional piece. This is especially critical if it is going out in print. A wrong phone number is worse than not including one at all. Get someone else to call the number as well to make sure the number is correct and that the complete customer path and experience is in place BEFORE printing or sending out a promotion. I was once ultimately responsible (although the initial error was not my own) for a religious-oriented direct mail piece that included a phone number for a phone hot line that wasn't exactly "religious." We negotiated to have the number redirected to us for the duration of the campaign, but not before a few customers had already called the wrong "service."


• Customer service being left out of the loop. This includes your online FAQ or help links. Customer service needs to know about changes to your product or service that might impact customers. You can embarrass your entire organization by not letting the customer service department know about current bugs, challenges, or anything else that customers may contact them about. You should never find yourself in a meeting addressing customer issues and experience the following scenario: Someone from support explains an issue they are starting to hear about from customers and someone else says, "Ya, we've been working on that. It's a known problem." That statement is evidence that communication was missing and that information is flowing in the wrong direction. Transparency is the right solution.


• Dead end experiences. How many promotions have you run on your web site? What do you do when one promotion ends and another begins? What about price promotions that may be sitting in someone's email inbox for next three months? What experience will they have when they finally get around to opening it and clicking on a link? This point could use three or four examples, but consider the following principles when designing pages or experiences:
  
  1. People can likely get to a page on your site through multiple paths, including directly from a search engine. Unless the page is a targeted landing page, you probably want to include full navigation.
  2. Links can live forever. Never just take down a page or promotion. Either replace it with something more recent or use a friendly redirect to tell your customers (and search engines) where they should now be looking.
  3. Clearly let customers what to do next in any sequence, such as a sign up path. Don't accidentally hide the link you want them to click by turning it into an inconspicuous text link with a beautiful style that doesn't make it look like something they should click.
  4. If someone starts down a path (such as conducting a search) make sure they can get back to start again without using the browser's back button.

At the end of the day, an incomplete experience path can actually do more damage than frustrating your customers and potentially lower your revenue. Incomplete paths are likely to damage your brand in the eyes of your customers, turn customers into enemies, and leave you looking like an idiot. Been there, done that.

Marketer, can you respect yourself in the morning?

I've had an interesting week this week to say the least. Don't worry. I haven't had an affair as the title may suggest. I've just been thinking about self-respect and what compromises in ethics and morality marketers are willing to make for themselves and their clients.

Asked by a couple of friends to help them market their products, I've been introduced to an underbelly of marketing I had never really recognized in the past. I guess I've had the blessing to always market legitimate products to customers whom I respect appreciate. Have I just been blissfully ignorant and naive about other approaches to marketing? Perhaps. But now I'm a bit saddened.

To keep this blog entry short (OK, relatively short), I'm going to go straight to a list of practices that may lead to unsettled nights and waking up with regret and a loss of self-respect as a marketer in the morning. The list also serves a dual-purpose of showing you what to look for when identifying online scams, so you don't fall prey to their deceitful practices.

1. There is no way to contact the company or the only means of communication excludes the possibility of talking to a live person. Real companies respect their customers and want to help them when challenges arise.


2. You search for the product or brand and see it associated with the words "fraud" and "scam" repeatedly. Anyone who has a bad experience with a product or company may be vindictive and go overboard to hurt the company; however, thousands of hits in association with the word "fraud" or "scam" can't be a good sign.


3. You've never heard anyone say anything good about the product or service beyond hype in marketing messages. This is related to my blog entry a couple weeks ago about delivering a "remarkable product." An absence of positive reviews is not necessarily an indictment, but it means you should be careful with your expectations.


4. The product is marketed using questionable practices. If you see ubiquitous ads for a product everywhere but have never heard of the product again shows a bad ratio between marketing presence and satisfaction. the next few points outline some specific marketing practices to look for.


5. You learn about the product through spam. Spam includes unsolicited email, unrelated message board postings, and "friends" who push affiliate links via social networks. Twitter has become notorious for social spam, but I've seen a positive trend with fewer spammers following me lately.


6. The product is marketed heavily on Clickbank. I hate singling out an affiliate network here, but Clickbank is notorious for allowing scams to advertise through its network. It appears that everyone is in on the scam, including publishers, affiliates, and Clickbank itself. Does that make activity in Clickbank an "un-virtuous circle?" Maybe an "immoral circle?" It's definitely not vicious to anyone but the consumer.


7. The product promises are too good to be true. I had to throw this one in here. There are many companies that continue to market the "promise" of their product rather than the reality of what the product may actually do for you. Outlandish claims and hyperbole are sure-fire indicators that an unscrupulous marketer is behind the message.


8. The value exchange is unreasonable. Good products cost money. So does excellent information. But lots of scams are just over the line from overpriced products, including information that is freely available online repackaged as an e-book.


9. Something free requires a credit card or cell phone number for delivery. The cell phone number signup scam is relatively new, an "innovation" related mobile apps and social media ads. Read the fine print on any "free" offer that requires you to provide a credit card number of cell phone number. With mobile phone delivery, you may be allowing them to sign you up for a monthly subscription that is billed to your cell phone number. Slimy!


10. The company treats its customers with disrespect or contempt. While this is a fairly common practice in today's course society (I once heard the former CEO of eBates.com jokingly refer to his customers as "cheap a** bast****" during a presentation), companies that run scams tend to antagonize and intimidate their customers rather than listening and helping them. They are harshest in their enforcement of refund and cancellation policies . . . until you threaten to report the company to the FTC or Better Business Bureau.


11. The company cares more about revenue than satisfying the needs of the customer. I almost left this one out but had to include it on principle. It actually represents a conundrum. There is no ability to satisfy customers if a company can't make money, but a company has no "right" to be in business if it isn't serving the needs of customers. I still maintain that the best path to profitability is identifying a customer and then working passionately to serve the customer's needs. Any company that has a sole focus on revenue or "what customers can do for us" is looking at customers as a means to an end. Serving and hopefully delighting customers is how a company succeeds. A focus that is too heavy on revenue often leads companies to abandon their most valuable advocates while they "step over a dollar to pick up a dime."

A rule of thumb I have often used is answering the following question: "Am I afraid of my customers or do I embrace them?" There are lots of possible variations on this question, such as "How excited am I to tell people about my product and service?" The point is that any marketer who fears his customer is likely in a tough position because either the product or service he is marketing isn't delivering on its promise or it has been marketed in a deceptive manner.

So, when you are marketing a product or service, are you ensuring yourself a peaceful slumber or are you going to wake up in the morning wondering what on earth you were thinking the night before?

Marketing ethics fell through the floor right before the dot com bubble bursting, led by loyalty programs, lead brokers, and referral services. I hate to say it, but as an interactive marketer it's feeling a lot like it did about 10 years ago. Will we wake up and opt for self-respect or keep building a house of cards one compromise at a time?

Delivering a Remarkable Product

Something happened when Apple first released the iPod, and it had everything to do with the product and everything to do with marketing. Apple released a "remarkable" product. By remarkable, we're talking about the very definition of the word--something people want to talk about.

Very few are the truly remarkable products today, products that create such a passionate following that anyone who owns or uses the product feels compelled to share it with others. The iPod was not without faults and detractors. With its relatively soft screen and temperamental body, the product was not exactly durable and solid. But it delivered an excellent user experience from the moment someone opened the box.

Soon the product was everywhere: the prize of nearly every sweepstakes or giveaway, on television, in the news, and in the ears of hipsters and techie geeks on the college campus. The clean and elegant white body and matching white ear buds were synonymous with modernity itself.

A few years passed, and Apple did it again with products called the iPod Touch and the iPhone. Some people ran out and bought the iPod Touch as soon as it was released, but more waited for the impending launch of the iPhone. I can name the first five people who brought their iPhones to work because they also brought with them a conversation piece, an audience, and a major distraction. They were anxious to share their new "everything gadgets" with everyone around them. Within a few days, the gesture of pinching and spreading thumbs and index fingers was synonymous with viewing images on Apple mobile devices. It was elegant, intuitive, and simple.

Why do I bring up these examples here? I'm not an Apple lover. I have never even owned any of the products I just mentioned. But I do recognize excellent marketing. And excellent marketing always starts with an excellent product. Today, however, an excellent product is not enough. Products that really succeed need to be remarkable.

Think about it this way. Word of mouth advertising with a remarkable product is a multiplier. Your customers do all of the heaving lifting for you and multiply the impact of your marketing dollars.

Another way I like to describe it is that every dollar spent on delivering a good product (R&D, design, packaging, etc.) is a dollar spent on marketing. Surely, developing an excellent product begins and ends with marketing (from research to go-to-market strategies); however, most companies skimp somewhere in the middle, when the product is actually being developed.

But don't people talk about other products? Certainly. But they are either comparing them with superior products or explaining why they regret a purchase decision. For example, "well, my SanDisk player works for me, but it sure isn't an iPod." Or, "I'll never buy a Zune again. My next mp3 player will be an iPod."

Surely, the quickest way to go out of business is to launch a terrible product and then tell everyone about it. You will likely achieve one generation of customers, but you won't get any others. Why? Because by the time you're ready to reach the second generation of customers, they are wise to your business. Consumers are smart. They talk to people. They conduct research before making decisions.

Some will buy on impulse, but they will feel deceived when they run into issues and then read the feedback from other former customers. That can be worse than never having made the sale in the first place.

Sometimes you will hear people talk about getting a product to market that is "good enough." There is another concept in the marketplace that is often misunderstood when people talk about products that are "good enough." These products aren't junk. What is meant by "good enough" is that they have only the functionality that consumers actually want. They are simple and cheap to produce and deliver on their key value proposition extremely well.

Again, the concept of a product that is "good enough" is not that it barely passes some low quality threshold but rather that is has enough functionality to be a hit with consumers, and can compete with and replace other more expensive and sophisticated solutions based on a simple value proposition. The case study of the Flip camera designed by Pure Digital Technologies is a brilliant example.

You can read the article from Wired Magazine by Robert Capps called The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine. Mr. Capps was not the first to recognize this trend or even this market example, but his article is a great read.

The example of the Flip camera is what Clayton Christensen calls a disruptive innovation. Instead of carrying on in an arms race of features and functions (speeds and feeds), Flip came into a mature market and started over with a product that was simple and elegant. In essence, they hit the reset button and in the process captured 17% market share nearly overnight.

The key wasn't just producing a "cheap and simple" product. The secret again was in producing a remarkable product that people wanted to share with others. And it worked.

The next time you are asked or tempted to market a product that doesn't add unique value to the current set of solutions in the market or is clearly inferior to existing options, just ask yourself, "how fast do I want to fail?" You will do a lot of heavy lifting to acquire each new customer, since you will have to reach each one yourself. And at the end of the day, you may just end up right where you started--looking to develop a product people may actually want to buy.

The companies that win never ask, "Who (or how many) can we get to buy our product?" That question is asked by someone with a product that is looking for a market.

Successful companies know better than to launch a product they only hope will succeed. Those that win ask, "How will our product be talked about by our core customers?" Subtle difference? I don't think so.

Hello World

I'm not a developer, but I understand that for many the first program they ever wrote was a program to get the words "hello world" to display on a monitor screen. In my mind I see these words in the upper-left corner of the screen in monochromatic green on black telling the developer they have succeeded in creating something.

We all have a need to create--to synthesize the world around us and come up with something new. Whether it is a jarring new explosion in creativity or the results of more subtle exercises, such as "piggybacking" or "piling on" or "standing on the shoulders of others," we all have a desire to make our own mark on the world.

Although I've been marketing online for more than 13 years now, this is my first attempt to create what I have previously believed to be somewhat narcissistic or self-aggrandizing: a personal reflection on what I have learned during my online marketing career. Instead of increasing my personal profile I have spent all of my time dedicated to building the profiles of some pretty innovative brands, including Ancestry.com, Move Networks, and FamilyLink.com.

Paul B. Allen, a co-founder of Ancestry.com and the founder and CEO of FamilyLink.com once shared the concept with me of "value creators" vs. "value managers." My role has always been that of building value for companies that are nascent in creating their brand identities. I've learned that the best seemingly organic paths for value creation tend to be well-planned and executed and that most examples of serendipity or "dumb luck" actually obey the principles of common sense. Like my seventh grade physics teacher, Mr. Browning taught me, "you can't cheat work." There are very few shortcuts to good marketing and long-term success, but some have managed to discover the principles that lead to success unintentionally or even by mistake.

If you want to learn from my past experiences and current challenges, I invite you to follow along. If you want to participate in a dialog of ideas, I encourage you to extend yourself. If you desire to gain an understanding of the principles and concepts that make marketing work (especially online marketing), I encourage you to weigh my contributions carefully. You might decide I have something worth reading.

The following are a few of the concepts I will be exploring and expounding upon here in my little corner of the Internet:

• Marketing strategies that are really strategic
• Interactive marketing that actually creates interactions
• Using common sense to understand likely customer scenarios and responses
• Projection, patterning, and invitation as methods to reach customers on a psychological level
• The balance of art and science that is marketing
• Creating layered campaigns that amplify across customer segments and channels
• Managing marketing initiatives, such as PPC, SEO, affiliate programs, partner programs, and email
• Designing effective ads for different online channels
• How to get a blank check for your marketing budget
• Playing the averages to achieve both low cost and high volume
• Focusing on creating a remarkable product to stretch your marketing dollar
• And much, much more . . .

That's probably enough for a first blog post. I'll be adding a lot more this week, including some tutorial content on PPC and Affiliate Marketing. You can also look forward to some lists of best common sense marketing practices and the biggest mistakes you will want to avoid.

Hello World