Pure Play

Somewhere a Telecoms Disruptor is smiling

There is an endless number of posts on this topic - why is the EU split into so many regions for music and film licensing purposes? The most recent one I have read was from Pat Phelan.

This evening this was posted on arstechnica.com

"The European Commission wants online music stores across Europe to be fully stocked, and is eliminating certain restrictive policies imposed by royalty groups. EU regulators ordered 24 music societies across Europe to modify or ditch their agreements that bar music services from selling or broadcasting music across borders......
....Although the licensing bodies are unhappy, EU music fans should welcome the decision. Instead of a different iTunes Store for each country, for example, the changes open the door for there to be a One True™ iTunes Store to rule them all"

For the full post click here.

The implications are that any digital media business will now be able to carry out one set of negotiations and with that launch their service across the whole of Europe. Nice one.

keith

Recurring theme - optimising subscriptions

I posted recently about a free webinar on this topic and a flash version of that live event is now watchable by clicking on the following image:

It is entitled - Optimizing Subscription Paths - How to improve results by 59% or more. If I do not get to it tomorrow I will definitely watch it on Monday :-). This is a crucial success factor for us in the path to making dbTwang a success.

keith

iPhone App Store

Browsing through the new App Store via iTunes7.7 and 2 thought occurred to me:

1. Some of the news apps remind me of the one (whose name I forget) which I used to use on the Palm - which picked up updates via the PC sync and then you could read them on the move.

2. Will we build an iPhone app for dbTwang at some point? I suspect it will be a question of the timing as opposed to if. The Gallery of succulent photos of antique and collectable guitars would be wonderful eye candy for an app. As would a similiar display of guitars available from the dbTwang marketplace. hmmm

This is a selection from the social app's section.

keith

Lets run those numbers one more time

Real world conversion rates for online services/applications are hard to come by so was pleasantly surprised to come across the following from the 2007 SXSW event in Austin.

The post is entitled Web App Autopsy and it is a writeup by ReadWriteWeb of a discussion between 4 online services. The presentation is a zip file from here.

In the midst of all the gems were the following:

For every 100 visitors to Wufoo 7 signed up for the free service and 1 for the paid service
For every 100 visitors to Blinksale 11 signed up for free and 1 for paid
For every 100 visitors to Feedburner 8 signed up for free (paid n/a)
For every 100 visitors to regonline 1.52 signed up for free and 1.14 for paid

Those figures are lower than I would have expected (especially after attending the Selling Online Subscriptions Conference) - however they are all either strongly B2B services or at least B2Geek (in the case of Wufoo and Feedburner).

I would be interested in seeing similar stats for services more like dbTwang - offering a portfolio of services and content into a strongly motivated niche consumer audience.

I don't suppose anyone can oblige :-)

keith

Bankers, the whole lot of them.

They should think before they speak. That is my initial thought having read the following quote attributed to Donal Forde of AIB in the Sunday Business Post

...adding that the fact that the bank lent money to an individual customer should not be seen as a "commentary on the wisdom or otherwise of what he's doing"

Ok - so that was in the context of lending to property developers. And (if true) it will come as a surprise to many in normal business sectors whose lending applications are judged primarily on their ability to repay - an implicit judgement on the wisdom of the underlying business you would have thought!

keith

If you have a subscription model..

..you should consider "sitting in" on this free one hour webinar. I saw the presenter in action at the Selling Online Subscriptions conference and he knows his stuff.

Title: Optimizing Subscription Paths: How to improve results by 59% or more

When: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 – 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. EDT

Presenter: Dr. Flint McGlaughlin, Director, MarketingExperiments

What is it?
Even in a strong economy, selling online subscriptions can be difficult. And in today's environment, you need every advantage you can get.

Optimizing your subscription-path pages is the best way to increase revenue without increasing your marketing budget.

Join us to find out how one Clinic attendee achieved a 200% lift in conversions from our 10-minute live optimization session.

During this free, one-hour Web Clinic, we will also:
– Examine recent tests that improved sign-ups by 59% to 77%
– Discuss how "clarity trumps persuasion" in sub-path pages
– Review and optimize attendees' landing pages (time permitting)

NOTE: To be considered for a live landing page review, please include your sign-up page URL when you register.

Reserve your spot for this Webinar by clicking here.

keith

Subscriptions Online - Credit card issues

The Payments Minefield: Developing a Strategy for Success in a Softening Economy
Paul Larsen, Payments & Operations Consultant

If you think it has been challenging for subscription merchants to meet recent credit card challenges, you may be in for a rude awakening. In the best of times, preventing inadvertent damage to customer relationships, caused by credit card ‘issues’, is problematic. In a softening economy, replete with delinquencies and shrinking available credit, the potential for future fallout is even greater. This must-attend session offers incisive best practices that can help you meet and overcome the challenges posed by an uncertain economic and competitive conditions.

My Notes

• 50% of American CC's within 5% of their credit limits
• The average number of accounts per individual that are overdue by one payment or more - 1
• A lot of businesses do not implement best practice in transactional processing

Transactional best practices:
When re-trying to clear a cc payment you should re-attempt each 10 days and 3 times so that you cover the full 28 day payment cycle.
If you make multiple attempts over a number of days your processor may tighten up your account as they perceive that you are trying to get "dodgy" transactions through.

He gave a couple of examples of transaction recovery (having initially been declined). An observation that transactions under $25 are more likely to get cleared - the figures for three different merchants (with different price points) were:

1. $13 - 51% recovered
2. $24 - 58% recovered
3. $50 - 27% recovered

The second and third ones tried 4 times over 30 to 40 days and they were able to do this because they are digital businesses and the direct cost of servicing a failed transaction is low to zero.

Cleansing of CC data
he then gave an example of merchants who asked for their CC details to be updated by Visa and Mastercard and these produced 2.2% to 5.1% of their details held which were out of date. This scheme in the US is a one time fee and less than a quarter for each update. This is compared to the cost of having payments declined.

[this is particularly relevant to annual renewals of recurring subscriptions]

Gift Cards
These are becoming an issue for merchants [I guess these are similiar to the 3V disposable credit cards in Ireland] and the CC companies are developing a mechanism to give merchants information that will allow them to identify a gift card when a transaction is declined.

keith

Subscriptions Online - Landing page optimisation session

This is a live session looking at a couple of sites suggested by the audience. Lead by Flint McGlaughlin, Director, MarketingExperiments.

We looked at entertainment.com and the very first suggestion was that there should be an understanding of where the traffic is coming from.

We followed the site through to the sign up page for online membership/subscription - click here for that.

The link to that page said Buy An Online Membership - yet this page does not use that term. So there is a Site Flow Interruption or Disconnect - the expectation of the user has been disturbed.

The graphic on the page gets in the way of the eye path - it draws a visitor to it immediately yet it does not answer the What or Why question. This eye path is influenced by:

• Size
• Motion (dangerous)
• Shape
• Colour
• Position

The heading is not clear enough, too many bullet points, text too small.

There was a discussion on the tension on the site between the printed product (they do money off coupons) and the online membership. The team leading the session have done work with the New York Times and they suggested a single form/page that allows the user to select between printed and digital and not split a site in two.

Clarity Trumps Persuasion

What is your offer?
Why should I participate?
    Emphasise positive
    Eliminate negatives - friction and anxiety

New York Times Casestudy - increase subscriptions to the online edition

They reduced a cause of friction - 3 equal buttons for Subscribe Now, Learn More and Free Trial. The Subscribe Now was made larger and the learn now was reduced to a much smaller link. The changes resulted in an increase in revenue of 65%.

They then looked at the free trial option page - which carried contradictions with Free V pricing information and also CC logos - you should not give pricing and CC logos equal emphasis on a Free trial signup - it introduces anxiety.

A change from a two paragraph layout to a single column (on a longer page) and this brought an 80% increase in revenue. Because the page became clearer with a better eyepath.

Next live site analysis - www.wie.org/unbound/

One of the first comments - never build a landing page with boxes, bars and clips - there is no flow, no sequence and no clarity of offer. The actual objective - signing up a subscriber - is "hidden" mid way down in the right hand column.
The page starts with a banner (text in banners does not get read), then text which is not clear on the offering. This is followed by a number of photos of persons whose audio clips are carried by the service. We are now almost at the end of the screen and the user will still have no idea what the page is about.

Phrase used - component thinking instead of dialogue.

next one - MDR - www.schooldata.com/

This home page is unfocused and has multiple objectives. (as an aside - he made the point that the majority of the internet is full of bad pages working poorly - if you make any improvements you will do exceptionally well. This is a new industry and it is still learning)

The MarketTrial subscription page carries no value proposition - the What and Why are not addressed at the top of the page. The Free Trial text is too small - and the trial of what is not explained.

The form is too long - just collect the name, the email address and phone number.
use relevant testimonials here to validate.

next one - Weight Watchers

We looked at a page that is a landing page used for pay for click advertising with google,

Landing page analysis - the page is not clear. Vague heading, multiple options, a learn more button that goes to their home page! Disjointed eye path.
There are 2 columns with identical options. So make it one column, single call to action and they self sort with a radio button choice.

next one - Wall Street Journal

The page we looked at is a landing page (reached from the home page) for online subscriptions.

First issue was a Free Trial button that lead to a page with a lot of pricing - so a disconnect.
Second one is three equal choices - causes friction and unsupervised thinking.

First get them to buy, then to choose. That is the sequence of thought and the flow should support that. So ensure that the offer is understood and the visitor is immediately going to purchase.

next one - http://www.jobsinsports.com/

No clarity, horizontal layout. A button that says Search and Find at the same time - confusing. Went back again to need for vertical and sequential.
(aside - people buy from people, not websites)

Example of good site:

http://www.sherpastore.com/workshop/index.php?9692

• Headline with key offer.
• Next text addresses negatives.
• What they will do
• More detail on how they will do it
• Simple sign up

keith

Subscriptions Online - how to optimise sub-path pages by 30% to 50%

How to increase your ability to optimise sub-path pages by 30% to 50%

Flint McGlaughlin, Director, MarketingExperiments. Also runs research lab at University of Cambridge.

He used 3 cases studies to make points on conversion of visitors to users to customers

First one:

Site offers customisable news feeds and the objective was to improve the conversion rate for visits to signups

The process which he engaged in was during a webinar with over 1000 participants and took 10 minutes

• Make eye path vertical - one column
• Increase font size
• Purpose not clear
• Add credibility indicators
• Put sign up on the main page (typically asking people to link to a second page looses 50% of them)
  

The simple changes made conversions rise from 3.9% to 6.6% and then also reduced marketing spend by focusing on keywords which lead to highest conversions.

Clarity trumps persuasion

(he mentioned a clients $5M web redesign which was awful because it was unclear)

Optimisation is about leading the visitor to a single objective - too many objectives confuses the user and the page

Two questions to ask about a site and how it works: (you must fill two cognitive voids)

1. What is your offer? (you have 3 seconds to get them oriented)
2. Why should I participate? (if I am your ideal customer why should I purchase from you and not anyone else?)

Our tendency is to rush to the "why" before we have answered "what"
Our tendency is to answer "why" before we have made the questions, itself, relevant
Our tendency is to answer "why" with presumed authority rather than actual credibility (quantitative is better that qualitative). If you do not have quantitative then use someone's else's qualitative.

Marketing Sherpa offers subscription to knowledge

Q - does a feature matrix on the trial page help or hinder subscriptions conversions

The answer was yes - an increase in 1.12% conversions to 1.97% (75% increase) with the matrix - despite the matrix making the page longer and pushing the subscription signup to the end!

Subscriptions to an internet hosting subscription - currently at 1%

3 pages shown - original and 2 treatments. All 3 have a matrix

Wording on top - simpler headings, more focused proposition -  Our best every hosting packages won!

1.31%, 3.44%, 2.05% (relative difference 162%)

Beware of unsupervised thinking by users!

(He uses his 13 year old son and when a page is done he sits him down in front of it and asks him - What is this page about?)

During the Q&A he said that using credibility indicators randomly does not work - for example littering the home page with 3rd party references. Instead use them at relevant decision/value proposition points and make them specifically relevant.

The amount of copy should be just enough to answer the 2 questions - what and why. You can use "popups" to carry additional content for more detail.

keith

Subscriptions Online - Online Subscriptions Entrepreneur of the Year 2008

Online Subscriptions Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 - Reaching New Market Segments

Every year we celebrate an entrepreneur whose inspirational story shows you can start a subscription offering that succeeds online without major corporate backing. Past winners include AskTheBuilder.com and TheLadders.com. Find out who will win this year!

My Notes

Paul Allen is the winner this year - he founded ancestry.com and a number of others and in 2007 he started familylink.com (family record site).

This now competes with ancestry.com which turns over about $150M per annum. This is a mature segment where the users are usually over 60.

Founded 2006 with 7 from original team - now 32 ee's. They raised seed funding of 1.2M last Autumn and they have a very traffic successful Facebook application. They started the development of that the day it was announced and it changed their marketing strategy to focus on piggybacking on the traffic from the social networks.

They have about 2.5M unique visitors a month (over 100k active users a day)
and they have 30,725 paying subscribers from a standing start in 2007.  They have
He spoke about their sales channels - with affiliates accounting for 39% of their sales. They pay a 40% commission to them.

They have content partnership deals with over 30 different businesses and organisations.

He spoke more about Facebook and where they see it going for them. They spent an initial 15k to advertise it and none since - all adoption since is viral with over 3.5M downloads since October 2007. The facebook app showed a lot of Canadian activity and this lead them to the fact that the over 50's in Canada use Facebook a lot more than the US. Facebook in Canada was not launched as a college service.

He then presented some of their experiences with worldvitalrecords.com and facebook. They gather email addresses by offering to send emails which help with your research and this has a 4% conversion rate.
Searches done on the application give summary results which if clicked on bring you to a sign up page. Each page of the app carries a surname search box.
They have a special offer for Facebook users which is 99c for a month - taken from iTune track pricing which the facebook users are familiar with.
They reckon they will have 10 million facebook users by year end. They are collecting 2,700 emails a day.
.26% conversion rate for the 99c offer - with a lot of click throughs but a 4.15% conversion rate for those to give their CC or paypal details (paypal slightly higher).

Q&A session
Why are affiliates so successful - Paul said they treat them properly with the 40% one off revenue share a fair payment for their contribution to the business.

He said that the social networks can deliver really targeted advertising because of the profiling information that they have gathered - this offers tremendous opportunities for businesses.

On a humorous aside he said that he does get email for the MS Paul Allen and does forward it if it appears to be legitimate (via a friend who knows the real one) :-)

keith