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A tale of two florists: Same product, same market. Here's why one company wins hands down.
Business has always been about competition. Online, it is competition on steroids.
Depending on which study you read, online attention spans range from four seconds to 10 seconds. With tabbed browsing, online attention spans are getting even shorter. As a result, if your website doesn’t shout your value proposition—particularly if you’re in a highly competitive industry—your visitors are only click of the back button away from a page crammed with your competitors.
So not only do you need to get their attention fast, but also gain their trust. You must communicate who you are, what you do, and what makes you better than your competition.
There are lots of ways to differentiate your business online. Here are four you must master:
Have a strong, central message: What’s your elevator pitch? How can you deliver your value proposition in as few words as possible? Get to your point quickly.
Avoid huge blocks of text: Your home page is not the place for long, explanatory passages. It is a gateway to your primary content.
Avoid clutter: It is important to isolate your central message. Get rid of secondary messages that will only distract.
Use clear calls to action: The objective of any business website is to drive consumer behavior. Make sure it is easy and intuitive for your visitors to take the next step.
A tale of two florists
A recent Google search for “New York City florist” came up with pages and pages of results. Let’s take a look at two sites that came up high on page one of Google results.
What happens when you arrive at Big Apple Florist? You tell me. Is there anything about this homepage that makes you want to use their services?
Design? On one side, dense copy in a font that’s difficult to read. On the other side? A rather unattractive photograph of an uninspired bouquet.
Offer? No clear offer or pricing.
Trust? The copy says that they’ve been in business since 1946, but that message is buried in the dense copy. That information should jump out at you.
Ease of purchase? It doesn’t even look like a site where you can actually buy flowers. Most people are in a hurry when buying flowers. There is nothing here that facilitates the buying process.
By way of comparison, take a look at bloomstoday.com:
They clearly get the concept of differentiation.
Design? Clear and clean with lots of white space. No dense copy, just clear, short offers.
Offer? The main image rotates showing offers for birthdays, holidays, sympathy, etc.
Differentiation? The 50% discount jumps out. So do the delivery fees.
Trust? “Safe and Secure Checkout” right at the top of the page.
Neither of these companies are the industry heavyweights, but one site has managed to get my attention, while the other is a turn-off. Great websites don’t require big budgets—but they absolutely need great messaging.
Already know and love Google's data tools? Here are nine cool features you may not be using--but should.
You probably already love Google Analytics because it gives you a big picture look at how your website is performing. You probably also love it because it is free and easy to install.
But I have come up with nine more reasons to love Google Analytics. Check out these sophisticated tracking tools you might not even be aware of:
1. Set up "event tracking"
Event Tracking is a feature of Google Analytics you use to track different actions visitors take on your website, such as clicking a button or downloading a file. It is useful for tracking actions on your website that don't take the user to a new page (i.e. clicking play on a video player). This will help you to understand which features and calls to action are being utilized and which are being ignored.
2. Track page load time
If your site is loading slowly, you are guaranteed to be losing traffic. Web users are impatient and have a very short attention span. If your site is loading slowly, get help immediately! Find an expert who can both diagnose and fix the problem.
3. Setting session length to the right amount
By default, a session in Google Analytics is set to 30 minutes. That means that if a user is inactive on your website for over 30 minutes, their next move on your website will be counted as a second visit with a brand new set of pages that will be part of that visit. For some websites it is beneficial to see the entire "flow" of one long visit, regardless of idle time.
4. Create "funnels"
Google Analytics allows you to track the steps visitors take to achieve a specific goal. Let's say your goal is to have a visitor make a purchase of a specific product. The "funnel" is all of the pages that lead a visitor to this desired goal. By listing and tracking your funnel pages, you get great data on where visitors are dropping off (in this case, not making a purchase) along the buying funnel. Armed with this knowledge, you can fix the weak links in the buying chain.
5. Establish "cross-domain tracking"
This helps you to track user behavior in cases where a user is visiting multiple domains you own. This frequently comes into play on e-commerce sites that use a third-party checkout provider. If you fail to set up cross-domain tracking, Google Analytics will not be able to track the entire buying process, ending a session when a user leaves one domain and creating an entirely new session when that user arrives at the second domain.
6. Set up "advanced segments"
This tool provides another way of slicing up your visitors. For example, you can divide visitors into those who came from paid advertising, from organic searches and from directly typing in your domain name. Or perhaps you want to see what new visitors coming to your site after a search query do after landing on a specific page of your website and you wish to track this regularly. This information gives you key data on your paid marketing and SEO efforts.
7. Set Up "campaign tagging"
Wherever you promote your site, whether it's on Google, through a paid advertising campaign, or through social media, you need to create URLs that identify the source and nature of the visit. For example, if you launch an email marketing campaign, you want your URLs linking back to your website to contain various attributes, such as source ("Email to Prospects #4"), medium ("Email"), name ("Email to Prospects 2012"), etc. The data provided by campaign tagging will help you see which marketing and advertising channels are providing the best ROI and which ones either need to be improved or abandoned.
8. Establish "e-commerce tracking"
By enabling e-commerce tracking on Google Analytics and coding your shopping cart's receipt page, your sales revenue data is sent directly to Google Analytics and is available to you in a simple, straight forward report.
9. Filter IP addresses
Certain visits to your website distort your analytics. These include all internal (company) visits and repeat visits from spammers. By using Google Analytics to filter these IP addresses out of the equation, you get a purer set of visitor stats.
Whether you have someone in the company who really understands Google Analytics or hire an outside agency with Google Analytics expertise, get someone one board who can help you set up and monitor all of these valuable tools. Chances are, very few of your competitors are digging deep enough into their data, so the more you do the better off you are.
Google’s augmented reality eyewear is coming to disrupt your face and your business model. If you don’t even have to pull your phone out to take a photo, get directions, or message with friends, why would you need to buy the latest iPhone or spend so much time on Facebook?
It could be a year before Google eyewear reaches stores, but that’s why these and other tech companies need to strategize now. If they wait to see if the device is a hit, the world could be seeing through Google-tinted glasses by the time they adapt. Apple and Facebook’s bet might be to team up…
If you haven’t heard, Google today announced it is beginning public tests of augmented reality glasses with the codename Project Glass. A mouthwatering mock-up video of what the device might eventually be capable of shows someone using voice commands to send messages, take photos, share to Google+, see the locations of friends, view maps, get directions, set calendar reminders, and more.
Cramming all the functionality into a sleek set of glasses is going to take time and effort, but the Google(x) skunklabs is on it. There’s a dozen ways the product could flop, most obviously if the glasses are awkward and unstylish, but also if they’re too heavy, expensive, fragile, or the world is just not quite ready. Let’s forget those for a second. Say Google figures it out and the retail version of Project Glass becomes wildly popular. How will this disrupt Apple and Facebook, and what should they do to defend themselves?
Here’s what I see as their best courses of action:
Apple Should Compete
Project Glass takes a ton of the things you use your iPhone and iPod for and puts them into your glasses. The glasses will likely run a version of Android and since they’re voice controlled, they could turn into Google’s competitor to Siri. People might buy Google glasses rather than snapping up the latest Apple device.
But Apple is the world’s greatest hardware company. Hopefully somewhere deep inside its headquarters there’s some scientists figuring out how to turn an iPhone into glasses, not just a wristwatch.
Apple should seek to capitalize on Google’s lack of hardware experience, and spend some of its cash reserves to lock up critical component manufacturers. Even if Project Glass ends up an ugly mess, Apple could still make eyeglass computing beautiful. This technology sure seems like the future, so Apple needs to be ready to pounce. deems it important But the problem remains that it has no social network or other key services to power its own version…
Facebook Should Team Up With Apple
Facebook is no hardware company and isn’t big enough to become one. Not having its own mobile OS or device is hurting Facebook, and eyeglass computing could turn into round 2. The video already showed Google+ as the preferred sharing method. Unlike an Android phone where you could just open the Facebook app, Project Glass won’t necessarily allow third-party apps, at least at first, and could make them harder to access than Google+ which will be baked in.
Though Facebook and Apple have been on strained terms so far, and Facebook hasn’t even gotten directly integrated into iOS like Twitter, the two companies could bond over the common threat of Project Glass. Apple needs somewhere to share the content you’d create with its glasses, or why create it in the first place? Facebook needs to make sure Apple lets it get deeply embedded, with or without Twitter alongside it. Though, Facebook, should probably start with today’s iOS).
Postscript: If Apple or Facebook consider eyeglass computing as marketable to mainstream in the next few years, today should give them a jolt. It’s early though, so they’ll only need to be scared if they don’t plan.
But here’s the kicker…
Despite its lack of hardware experience, Google is the best positioned company to make, or at least provide the software for eyeglass computers. It has Android, Google+, Maps, Gmail, Gcal, Latitude, and more. Glass might go belly up, but if not it could breathe life into some of these sluggish services. That’s why it’s ridiculous when people call Project Glass a diversion or waste of resources. Seems to me like Google’s vision is 20/20.
Big moves in the Internet PR biz, as Yahoo grabs Amanda Pires from eBay’s PayPal unit and Twitter snatches Google communications exec Gabriel Stricker.
Pires, who is currently senior director of communications and brand at PayPal, worked with new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson for many years when he ran the popular payments service. Sources at Yahoo said she would begin April 16, taking up the position of SVP of global communications that has been held by Eric Brown. He’ll apparently be leaving the company.
The well-regarded Pires comes to Yahoo at a particularly dicey time, having just announced the firing of 2,000 employees today with more to come, along with an expected restructuring next week. The Silicon Valley Internet giant is also facing a noisy proxy fight with activist shareholder Third Point and is contemplating the sale of big parts of its business. (And then there’s me, so I’ll pay for lunch, Amanda!)
Stricker, who is director of global communications and public affairs at the search giant, will be VP of communications at Twitter. I wrote him about the new job this morning without a response until tonight, after he tweeted the new job. The affable Stricker will start in a few weeks at the social communications service, where his big challenges will be explaining how Twitter is making bank and when the heck it is going public.
In a move that AllThingsD had previously reported was coming, Yahoo said it had laid off 2,000 employees, or 14 percent of the workforce.
“Today’s actions are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo! — smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require,” said Yahoo
CEO Scott Thompson in a statement. “Unfortunately, reaching that goal requires the tough decision to eliminate positions.”
While Yahoo has had periodic layoffs over the years, this one is its most significant in its history, and will also result in another large-scale restructuring of the management organization. More cuts are also likely to follow in the months ahead, due to the reshaping of Yahoo.
The latest employee action is being pushed by Thompson, who joined the Silicon Valley Internet giant in January from eBay’s PayPal unit.
At an internal meeting with top staff last night, Thompson — who has gotten what seems to be a well-deserved reputation for chewing folks out at Yahoo — was more direct with the execs gathered, berating them extensively for not delivering and getting the company to this sorry point.
Ouch, Scott! It’s Easter, so it might be time for some forgiveness. (And no more ranting about my reporting to those inside Yahoo, since I have been 100 percent accurate so far. FYI, will aim for 110 percent next week!)
Yahoo said it will save about $375 million with the cuts, incurring a $125 to $145 million pretax cash charge for employee severance in its second quarter. Before the cuts, Yahoo had 14,000 staffers and has many thousands more hired as contractors.
The layoffs touch all units of the company, but the hardest hit is the product division, which is headed by Blake Irving, as well as its marketing, research and international units. Yahoo gave no details on the layoffs other than the number.
But the fate of two key parts of the soon-to-be-blown-apart unit — Yahoo’s advertising technology businesses, Right Media and APT, and its search business — is still being contemplated, as I have previously reported. Possible scenarios include a sale or a joint venture transaction for both, which employ thousands of Yahoo staffers.
The layoffs tomorrow are not the end of the road in cutting costs. Along with the likely shedding of its ad tech and search businesses, Yahoo leadership is also looking at future cuts as it evaluates current businesses, which could lop even more employees off its roster.
That said, Yahoo will be doubling down in some older and new arenas, so there would also be simultaneous hiring in the months ahead.
As wrenching as they will be today at Yahoo, the layoffs come as no surprise. Thompson had told employees in memos and also in recent meetings that “real change” was coming to the company.
Along with the trauma of the layoffs, Yahoo is also facing two other tense face-offs externally. In one, activist shareholder Third Point is waging a proxy fight for board seats and stepped up the public pressure this week; and Facebook struck back hard at Yahoo’s patent lawsuit with a counterclaim of its own.
After the layoffs tomorrow, sources say Yahoo will be announcing a new organization by next week. Thompson, along with outside consultants he has hired from the Boston Consulting Group, are making what appear to be profound changes.
Sources said that Yahoo will most likely be comprised of a global media division, one that encompasses
Yahoo’s consumer products businesses and one focused on global and regional sales. There could also be a small organization of about 50 employees aimed at future innovation.
Americas head Ross Levinsohn is pegged to run the media arm, which will also include its leads/commerce businesses, such as autos; Shashi Seth — who now heads search and marketplaces — is likely to run consumer products, which will include Yahoo’s communications and search businesses.
Yahoo has already been conducting a search for a new worldwide sales head, who will also be boss of the U.S., Asia and Europe, Middle East and Africa sales regions. Rich Riley, who was recently running EMEA, is reportedly the pick for U.S. sales; Rose Tsou, who is running Asia, would presumably stay put; Yahoo is looking for an EMEA sales lead.
Some current operational execs — such as service engineering and ops head David Dibble, CFO Tim Morse, and top lawyer Mike Callahan — are likely to continue to operate as before.
One big question mark is how Chief Product Officer Irving fits in the possible new org, in which the new units get control of their product development. Irving has reportedly had several incoming job offers, although it is not clear if he has responded to that interest.
But today, the focus is on the layoffs and letting go all those employees, many of whom have worked at Yahoo for years. Even if it will result in a stronger Yahoo, as Thompson promises, it is still a very sad day in Sunnyvale.
Here is a video on the topic that I did with the WSJ.com “Digits” show today, after the cuts were announced early this morning:
Google Begins Testing Its Augmented-Reality Glasses
If you venture into a coffee shop in the coming months and see someone with a pair of futuristic glasses that look like a prop from “Star Trek,” don’t worry. It’s probably just a Google employee testing the company’s new augmented-reality glasses.
On Wednesday, Google gave people a clearer picture of its secret initiative called Project Glass. The glasses are the company’s first venture into wearable computing.
The glasses are not yet for sale. Google will, however, be testing them in public.
In a post shared on Google Plus, employees in the company laboratory known as Google X, including Babak Parviz, Steve Lee and Sebastian Thrun, asked people for input about the prototype of Project Glass. Mr. Lee, a Google product manager and originally worked on Google mapping software Latitude, mobile maps and indoor maps, is responsible for the software component and the location-based aspects of the glasses.
“We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input,” the three employees wrote. “Please follow along as we share some of our ideas and stories. We’d love to hear yours, too. What would you like to see from Project Glass?”
The prototype version Google showed off on Wednesday looked like a very polished and well-designed pair of wrap-around glasses with a clear display that sits above the eye. The glasses can stream information to the lenses and allow the wearer to send and receive messages through voice commands. There is also a built-in camera to record video and take pictures.
The New York Times first wrote about the glasses in late February, describing an augmented-reality display that would sit over the eye and run on the Android mobile platform.
A video released by Google on Wednesday, which can be seen below, showed potential uses for Project Glass. A man wanders around the streets of New York City, communicating with friends, seeing maps and information, and snapping pictures. It concludes with him video-chatting with a girlfriend as the sun sets over the city. All of this is seen through the augmented-reality glasses.
University of Washington Babak Parviz, who is working on Project Glass, developed contact lenses with pixels embedded in the display.
Project Glass could hypothetically become Project Contact Lens. Mr. Parviz, who is also an associate professor at the University of Washington, specializes in bio nanotechnology, which is the fusion of tiny technologies and biology. He most recently built a tiny contact lens that has embedded electronics and can display pixels to a person’s eye.
Early reports of the glasses said prototypes could look like a pair of Oakley Thumps — which are clunky and obtrusive sunglasses — but the version Google unveiled Wednesday looks more graceful. There are reportedly dozens of other shapes and variations of the glasses in the works, some of which can sit over a person’s normal eyeglasses.
People I have spoken with who have have seen Project Glass said there is a misconception that the glasses will interfere with people’s daily life too much, constantly streaming information to them and distracting from the real world. But these people said the glasses actually free people up from technology.
One person who had used the glasses said: “They let technology get out of your way. If I want to take a picture I don’t have to reach into my pocket and take out my phone; I just press a button at the top of the glasses and that’s it.”
Project Glass is one of many projects currently being built inside the Google X offices, a secretive laboratory near Google’s main Mountain View, Calif., campus where engineers and scientists are also working on robots and space elevators.
