The Naked Truth About Advertising and Underwear

This time of year our shop Your Life Your Style is full of hearts. Glass coasters with hearts fused into them, heart shaped cushions, handmade cards with stuck on hearts… other shops have enough flowers, chocolates and romantic CDs to fill Westminster Abbey. All intended to show we love someone this coming Monday.
Underwear seems a popular choice as a Valentines Day gift but I’m not certain it’s a good idea. I’ve been wondering how men who receive Marks & Spencer’s new BodyMax underwear will feel. To remind you, this is a new range intended to make a man’s abs more flat, his bum more firm, and his maleness… just plain more. All those years your wife or girlfriend has been saying size doesn’t matter and suddenly she buys you ‘frontal enhancement’ underpants.
It's worse still if you buy them for yourself. The trouble with all these body changing clothes, for men or women, is that, once you’ve attracted your potential mate with a bulging crotch or uplifted padded boobs, there comes an inevitable moment of truth. Your pants go down and the mountain brings forth a mouse. The bra comes off and your man’s face drops along with a couple of other things. I suppose we hope that by then our partner will be so overcome by passion, they’ll forgive the deception. Or maybe we just make rely on everything looking better by candlelight.
In business we have no such luxury. The law doesn’t allow us to pretend our product or service is one thing and then hope once the customer has bought it, they’ll just accept the disappointing reality. Nor would it be good business sense. Contrary to a widespread public perception, advertising is not about lying. The industry regulator the Advertising Standards Authority even says in its core statement that advertisements in print, TV and radio must be ‘honest, decent and legal’. It’s about to get tougher for businesses because from 1st March the ASA is taking on complaints about websites.
Shops shouldn’t need legislation to make us honest because truth is our biggest marketing tool. I've always found that if you are honest about your products, describing them accurately, admitting their limitations, even sending customers elsewhere if that is their best bet, and apologising when you get something wrong, your customers will trust you and come back to you again and again.
These days, all good websites allow customers to comment on products and service from the mighty Amazon to our own little (and only slightly enhanced) Your Life Your Style. We don’t always like what is said but it shows customers we have nothing to hide and it is an additional spur to be clear and accurate about what we promise.
Of course you can’t satisfy everybody and we’re all entitled to an opinion. One customer gave a poor review to our ‘rabbit’ draught excluder. There was nothing wrong with its quality but she didn’t like his slightly mad expression! Still, at least we didn’t pretend it was a bigger size.

This article also appeared on the Your Life Your Style Wordpress blog and on the Southern Daily Echo website

The Big Society: Free Or Fee?

In a world where pay, pensions and bonuses dominate the headlines, it encourages me that people are still prepared to offer so much of their time for free. Even though we expect to get paid by our employers, we don't put a monetary value on time spent on our personal relationships: we don't bill the ironing or the cooking; we do jobs for family and friends for which we would charge strangers; we do charitable work.

Somewhere along the line, we decide that some of our activities must be paid for. In a way this makes of what previously must have been bartering. You might argue that these paid-for activities are the things we don't really want to do but that isn't always true as clearly many people enjoy their paid work (and say they would do it for nothing). Some people even turn their hobbies into paid work. It's not even that simple because the other side of the coin is that some people do things for free for family but really resent it.

All of which leads me to the interesting way in which a whole worldwide web community is happy to share their experiences of products and services with strangers for no monetary gain. Many send reviews to sites like Internet Movie Database or Whatsonstage. I myself am a member of the Web Of Trust which is an add-on for the Firefox browser. Members rate sites as trustworthy or otherwise and I find this very useful when I'm thinking of buying from an unknown supplier. What it shows is that most of us are social beings with an idea that we benefit from a system of indirect mutual support. The formal version of this might be paying taxes for, say, education.

In today's retail world, customer reviews, freely given, are very important. Even critical comments are good because they validate the praise. Customers are much more likely to buy if others have been impressed by the product. The Your Life Your Style website offers the opportunity for our customers to comment. They need to be encouraged with a follow up email and a click link but the investment is worth it.

Plus ca change... the old media and new media aren't that different

People often say that the internet has created a new way of doing business and in some respects they're right. But what strikes me are the similarities wtih what has gone before.

It seems to be true that Websites have to please customers whereas earlier media needed to put advertisers first. Then again, subscription only magazines and subsidised or subscriber-based Public Service Broadcasting always put customers first. And when you think about it, many websites won't survive unless they attract the visitors advertisers want to reach.

As someone in the retailing business, I notice how alike a successful website and a successful shop are. Both need to decide which market segment or 'tribe' they're aiming at. For both, customers come first (or they should). Both need to have an attractive window to lure their target in. Both need to lead their visitors around their site with clear signage. Neither can afford to overwhelm their visitors with too much information or too many choices in one go. They both have to be user friendly. Both need to provide a straightforward buying process (if we're talking about an e-shop). The internet is great at one-to-one marketing but this is what the best shops do, with their regular customers at least.

Of course there are important differences. An e-shop can reach niche markets with a 'long tail' of products that even the biggest mail order catalogue could not previously have served. A website needs to make its sale through its copy and images, whereas a bricks'n'mortar store has staff who can help a customer to the product that's right for them. An e-shop has a much better opportunity to get to 'know' its customers by tracking their movements and purchases.

Speed and scale have changed and every medium has its quirks, but I believe that the basics of good marketing are the same whether the channel is old or new.

Untangling The Web Part Two

Speed is of the essence. Web users are an impatient lot. To them, ten seconds is like watching Gone With The Wind. Unless the user has high speed broadband, a site containing clever graphics and big photos will be s-l-o-w to download. Forget art for art’s sake, if there’s not a good reason for an image, leave it out. A web page should be no more than 60 KB. If necessary, start with small-ish photos to prevent delays in downloading and then make sure they can be enlarged.

Users don’t like having to click more than three times to get to what they want. Don’t make them click to ‘enter’ the site and don’t have too many stages in the buying process. The ‘buy’ button must be prominent on every page including the home page- and the phone number as well.

I was amazed to come across a South coast theatre website that didn’t have its box office number on any of the events pages. 30-40% of people may book by phone, so your number as well as the online buying facility must be prominent on every page. Your physical address must also be easy to find. This is important. It gives your website credibility and, another thing, it’s the law.

When it comes to the buying process, try to keep down the number of choices people have to make. Think of buying a theatre ticket- What date? What time? Stalls or Circle? Front, Middle or Back? What price? Any Discounts? Is it any wonder people give up and go to the cinema instead?

Your site must be easy to read. Not everyone has perfect vision (especially our ageing population) or the latest 20 inch widescreen monitor. Make sure type can be re-sized and that the blocks of type are ‘liquid’ so they will adjust on an old style 4:3 ratio screen, rather than the right-hand side being cut off.

Make sure the text contrasts with the background. Your older ( and usually richer) visitors will really appreciate this. Google, Yahoo, BBC all opt for a white background- and they should know. Highlight important information with strong simple colours. Black, white, red, blue- keep away from subtle shades.

Keep each page simple. Most people give the page a quick scan. One clear topic per page means the visitor doesn’t have to make choices about what to read. Even the Home Page should only give prominence to the four things that visitors are most likely to want to do. Use hypertext links (links within the page content) to enable people to find out more information, rather than trying to cram it all on one page.

Make your site interactive. If you want your visitors to become your customers and ultimately your advocates, give them the chance to comment on your products and your website or to ask questions, or even to talk to each other. A site which welcomes comments adds credibility to what it is marketing.

Whatever the website looks and acts like, the most important thing remains content. Remember the slogan- Great sizzle but where’s the sausage?

Don’t sell, inform… the sales will follow. People have already made a choice when they visit your website- they want information or they want to buy something or maybe they want to tell you something. Whatever the reason, they didn’t come to be sold to.

Websites win or lose on the quality of the words. Don’t think anyone can write the text. The great Jakob Nielsen’s research on Useit.com shows that changing ordinary text to web-orientated text can double website usability. Unless you’re one yourself, pay an expert to go over all your text and rewrite it to work on the web (e.g. use information-carrying words and actionable phrases, cut verbiage, make it search engine friendly). For example,‘The Hills Are Alive’ is a clever headline for a brochure but ‘The Sound Of Music’ is what works on a web page, because it carries the clear information needed both by search engines and by users scanning the screen. This is something I’m good at, by the way.

A few other points. Increasingly people are using their mobiles to visit websites. If yours doesn’t work, tell your designer to change the codes to conform with standards for handheld devices.

It’s tempting to convert print documents into PDFs for your website. Don’t, unless it’s something people are going to print themselves. People expect to be able to interact with a website, so a fixed document is frustrating.

It’s a good idea to get visitors to fill in a form, say to join your email list. Much as you need to know lots about them for marketing purposes, on this occasion keep the questions to a minimum or they won’t bother. You can ask them more later.

Finally Test. Observe even half a dozen people using your site- where they get stuck, where they go wrong. And employ the analysis tools that are often available from website software or servers or from Google Analytics to find out the pattern of visitors’ usage. Use this information to improve your website and put the customer in charge.

I’m hesitant after all of the above to suggest you look at my shop’s website. There are a number of ways it falls short of ideal. This is mainly because we used a template e-shop called Cubecart which is very but not entirely adaptable. Still, I’m on a continuous mission to refine and improve it, so any comments will be much appreciated.

Untangling The Web Part One

This is a longer version of a feature that appeared in Encore magazine.

I have three seconds to convince you to read this article. That’s the… Oh, you’ve gone. I was going to say, that’s the average time someone spends on a website before deciding whether to stay or leave.

Your website is probably the most important marketing tool you have, so it’s too important to be left to a web designer or consultant. It’s up to you to make sure people can get around your site easily and find all the information they need and you want them to know. There’s no excuse. So much research is available about what works and more importantly what doesn’t.

As with all good marketing, the key is to look at it from the customer’s point of view. ‘To see ourselves as others see us’ as Robbie Burns said. The problem is, we’re so involved in our business, it’s difficult to step back. Yet it’s crucially important because, unlike other media, the customer is in charge of the web.

I’ve recently been involved in constructing a website for our shop. There is a lot of research available from sites like Useit.com and thesitewizard.com about how people use websites. Of course, some people are more internet savvy than others but many of us are still trying to work out why we have to click ‘Start’ to turn off their PC. Some have quicker brains for working out how to navigate a site but you can’t expect most of your users to be like that any more than you can expect them all to be able to solve the Rubik’s Cube.

The playwright Bertolt Brecht kept a toy donkey on his desk and when he wrote something he would turn to it and say, ‘Would you understand this?’ (in Gerrman of course.) This is not to do with how intelligent we are but how knowledgeable. Let’s face it, when it comes to websites, a large number of us and our customers are donkeys.

I’ve found there are a number of ‘rules’ your website must obey if you want your visitors to stay and use it.

First, research why people are visiting your website then make sure the content of your website answers their needs. They may want to know you sell, prices, how to find you, what your business is about, how to buy an item or simply who you are. The Home Page should let people know they’ve come to the right place (‘Welcome to Anytown’s largest theatre where you can find out information about forthcoming shows, about the venue and buy tickets online’) and offer a few samples of the site’s content. The links that provide answers to key questions must be prominent and easy to find.

Appearance matters. People judge your professionalism and reliability by the quality of the design.

Appearance doesn’t matter. Don’t let design, however good, get in the way of ease-of-use. Google is hardly the prettiest website but it makes it easy for people to find what they’re looking for.

The key to usability is Don’t Be Different. I know we all love originality but we’ve all visited thousands of sites, so if your site doesn’t have the same layout as the vast majority of other sites, we get confused. For example, if we find the Contents list isn’t in a line along the top or down the left side, we may miss what they’re looking for. We also expect to click back to the home page with a link on the logo and they’ll be looking for a ‘previous page’ or ‘back’ button. Link titles that pop up when the mouse goes over a link help people understand where they’re likely to be heading. People expect Search. Make sure it’s there in a recognisable box at the top of the page and make sure it works.

The same basic format for each page helps users know where they are. All of this makes your site easy to navigate.

And no pop ups. We all hate pop ups because they - Visit my website thelewisexperience.co.uk -make us lose track. Many of us block them.

Part Two tomorrow.