Blue Wave Concept's Blog

RETURNING VISITORS
Returning visitors already know the basics about your site. Help them learn more, have a richer experience, and convert faster by targeting a different experience after their first visits. For example, you might replace instructional or introductory language with more relevant content on a second visit based on what you want them to do next.
FREQUENT CONVERTERS
For frequent converters, give them targeted rewards – these visitors are the most valuable, and it pays to engage them more ef- fectively. Or, encourage infrequent purchasers to convert again by identifying them and then providing a more compelling offer.
REGISTERED USERS
Most sites devote a lot of real estate to user registration. If a visitor has already signed up, fill that valuable space with different content. A magazine site, for example, should remove the subscription sign-up content if an existing subscriber is visiting the site. If someone is already receiving your newsletter, use that sign-up space to promote something else.
USER-GENERATED CONTENT PROVIDERS
For visitors who contribute to reviews or discussions on your site, make it even easier and more rewarding to participate more. Highlight other opportunities to join your site’s community with layout changes or calls to action.
WEEKENDERS
People behave differently depending on when they visit your site, so target campaigns based on day of week or time of day. If you have offers, promotions, or content that expire at certain times, targeting content based on time of day or day of week will give you an easy relevance win. Inform visitors of upcoming shipping cutoffs, show different content to lunchtime visitors, and try day of week offers to help drive conversion metrics.
CATEGORY LOYALISTS
Give your visitors what they are telling you they want. For the portion of your traffic that repeatedly visits the same category, make the favorite category even more prominent. Try changing navigation to put a visitor’s top category first in the list. Or deliver targeted calls to action and offers associated with the favorite category.
SEARCHERS
Show returning visitors content related to their last site search. Or, make search functionality even more prominent for people who search frequently during their visits to your site.
DECIDERS
If someone provided job title as part of site registration or a request for information, focus your messaging based on that information. Create segments for different levels of responsibility to increase engagement and to identify decision makers or business owners. Speak to decision makers differently than decision influencers for greater relevance.
LOCALS
Even on the Internet, a visitor’s geographic location can make them likely to respond to different messages. Would you tell them something different if they were within a few miles of you?
YAHOOS AND GOOGLERS
People who come from search engines may behave differently. They have used a keyword that you can use to align your solutions to their needs. For that matter, any traffic source may bring users with similar preferences. Use this knowledge to be more relevant to them.

2% to 3% of searches are now being done by mobile phone. Is your website viewable by smart phones?

Now that Google has introduced real-time search results, you’ll see what’s being said about you and your company on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Friendfeed and traditional websites.

Being a socially responsible company is no longer enough. ” In the social contract era,” says Jason Saul in The Corporate Citizen magazine, “not being bad was equivalent to being good. But in a social capital market (one where “good” is a commodity that is valued, bought and sold) “responsibility is the ‘green fee’ for getting in the game.”

The change involves four tenets:
Shift from responsibility to social impact
Shift from “foundation” to business unit
Shift from social causes to business outcomes
Shift from compliance to performance
In the new paradigm, stakeholders value results not just efforts, claims Saul.

As business leaders or communicators, we must make sure that the message we deliver is one of engagement. One that tells stakeholders that our companies are part of the world in which we operate. One where profits do not out weigh the public good. One where Saul says social change works for business and not the other way around.

Most professionals wait too long to ask for referrals. They typically approach clients for leads when their current engagement is winding down or complete. “This approach is upside down,” says Sandler Sales Coach David Mills. “Instead, you should ask for referrals at the start of the project.” The conversation could sound like this, “At some point in the near future can we get together to consider who in your circle of contacts might benefit from the services we are providing your organization?”

By seeking permission you reduce pressure on your client to produce and increase the possibility of receiving quality leads.

In that vein, we’d like to ask you to keep us in mind when you hear of organizations that are:

* Wrestling with a poorly designed, hard-to-read and difficult-to-navigate website.
* Struggling with ways to communicate about change (new leadership, technology, policies, etc.)
* Seeking to add social media strategies to their marketing mix.
* Looking to measure their communication effectiveness.
* Looking to strategically plan their public relations/marketing efforts.

From Twitter to Google

Click the link to read the article. Adobe PDF file.

Click here.

We are working on a site for a non-profit foundation called Michael Scott Mater Foundation. It is nearing completion. You can see its current status by going here.