What we're reading - May 31, 2012

Afraid you won't have anything to read this weekend? Well fear not, because here's a round up of some of our favorite articles we've read this week. Enjoy! (PS - You might want to follow us on Twitter, we tweet really cool stuff! :)

• Video highlights of Tim Cook at the All Things D conference via MacRumors
• Mary Meeker's 2012 internet trends report via All Things D
  • Here's our key takeaways for marketers from the report, btw
• Why startups need to hustle via Mashable
• How people look at your Pinterest boards via Mashable

Subscribe to our newsletter too, click here

Facebook ads just got more important

Josh Constantine of TechCrunch pointed out that Facebook Ads Can Now Be Optimized To Drive Any On-Facebook Action, Such As In-App Purchases, Shares, Offer Claims. Which is important because

Marketers don’t actually want clicks, they want the downstream conversions and the return on investment that follow. 

That is absolutely true. Clicks are simply vanity metrics and don't mean much if the person who clicks isn't doing anything on your site/Facebook page after. The same goes for Facebook Likes. Who cares if you have 4,000 Likes if you're not doing anything with them?

Facebook recently updated it tracking so you can see what actions people are taking on Facebook after they click an ad. This is important as it will allow advertisers to more precisely target audiences who will take an action (rather than just click Like).

Why is this important? This gives us more data to understand what is working, what is not working and who is taking action on Facebook (and that is leading to actions in other places such as on our site as well as in store purchases). Knowing all of this info allows us to arm ourselves with solid info rather than just "being on Facebook because everyone is on there."

The full lst of actions advertisers can optimize for is below (Thanks TechCrunch and Josh):

Here’s the full list of actions advertisers can optimize for:

• People talking about this
• Page likes
• Page post likes
• Pagepost comments
• Page post shares
• @ mentions
• check-ins
• photo tags
• offers shared
• offers claimed
• App installs
• App used
• Credit spend events (number of times someone uses credits in the app)
• Credit spend amount (value of credits that were spent in the app)
• Number of RSVPs

PS - You might want to follow us on Twitter. We tweet cool stuff

Five important factors for your homepage

As the majority of your website traffic will see your homepage it's important that it is working hard for you. Many times this is the first step in the conversion funnel (and one of the most important). If this is the first time they're hearing of your company you'll want to make a great first impression.

Here are five elements that should be on your homepage to make it effective: 

Simplicty

I know you're basically Steve Jobs and everything you do is simple and very "Apple." However, chances are that your approach to simplicity is not the same as Apple. Simplicity should be used to minimize distraction. Think of your homepage and the user experience similar to making a cold call. I should be short (We do X), sweet and clutter free.

What should be clear is your...(see next point)

Value proposition

Why should someone give you their money versus giving it to one of your competitors? The value proposition should solve problem or give a benefit. It should not give details on a process or a technical specification. People want to know what that process is going to do for them.

A great recent example was from Jack Dorsey and his company Square. A new value proposition (i.e. benefit) they announced was that the money from a sale someone made would be in that person's account the NEXT day. The don't go into detail about how that happens, they only focus on the simple value proposition. Money the next day.

CTA

One of the benefits of a well thought, strategic site is that you can (and should) efficiently guide the user to what YOU want them to do. Goals and objectives are set before, so everything that you do should lead them to your goals. 

If you know from the analytics that people on average read 3 articles before clicking the submit on the contact form, then you might want to think about putting a CTA on the homepage to read articles.

The homepage should be their tour guide to the site and direct them to what you know they want, and to what will lead them to a conversion. Provide them a CTA they can't miss.

Validation

Let the prospect know other people like your product! If you sell the world's best facial lotion and it's been featured in a top beauty magazine and on authoratative blogs then let them know.

If you sell services and want to show people that you know what you're talking about without saying "Trust me I know what I'm doing", then link to some awesome content that your wrote. This shows you're smart, keeps them engaged on your site and helps you out in search.

Social Integration

People take their friend's word over a brand's word. Every time. That's why it's important to show the approval of others. Social buzz and social credibility are more important than ever in today's marketing, so having it is a must.

Are they any other elements you guys feel are essential to a home page (or even landing page)? Let us know in the comments.

PS - You might want to follow us on Twitter. We tweet cool stuff.

Hit a roadblock? Just look for the answers. They're begging you to find them.

We wrote in our last post about how the proliferation of cloud-based, cost efficient tools can help marketers and entrepreneurs everywhere succeed. Another topic that we have seen in our Twitter feeds and inboxes: how to use freelancers.

This adage article talks about how Madison avenue uses freelance depending on the amount of new business coming in. Not that this is news to anyone - freelance has been around forever. This article from Under30CEO.com  gives advice on how to bootstrap a startup using freelancers. Both really awesome articles from really smart people.

The common thread with these articles isn’t that they’re ground breaking journalism, but that they are dispensing knowledge. Knowledge that first time entrepreneurs can take advantage of. 

Lean start-ups (no, not these types of lean start-ups) are getting odds that start-ups before them never got. Free storage, free analytics, free access to your ideas from anywhere, getting customers inexpensively. And if you look in the right places (and are on a never ender search for content and knowledge), it’s out there. Hell, I even thought I heard some inspiration from a Chrysler commercial yesterday that aired during Mad Men.

So how can marketers and entrepreneurs increase their chance of success? Just look and you may find it.

PS - You might want to follow us on Twitter. We tweet cool stuff.

More tools means more success

In the past two days there have been two high-profile call outs that entrepreneurs and marketers must notice and use immediately if they are not.

The first one is the launch of Google Drive (finally) which is giving people 5 GB of free cloud storage - which is more than the 2 GB Dropbox gives away for free -and the second is this wired piece on A/B testing (which btw we love).

So what in the world do these two things have in common with each other?

These two things are important because they give entrepreneurs and marketers everywhere more options to go out and create something awesome. It doesn’t matter if you use Google Drive or Dropbox for cloud storage or Unbounce or Optimizely for A/B testing. The point is that these are ideas you need to embrace.

5 free GBs is more than enough space to store ideas you have for a company, or at least parts of an idea that you want to explore. It’s enough space that will store the business plan. Or the big idea for that upcoming product launch.

It gives you flexibility to work from anywhere (one of my main “offices” is the local Starbucks). Since you can access any of your files and folders from basically anywhere, it will allow you jot down any inspiration or other ideas you have.

You’re at a family party and your mom’s cousin happens to be a designer? It just so happens you now bring your ideas everywhere.

The second weapon that you have at your disposal is A/B testing. The aforementioned Wired articles doesn’t give you an excuse on why you SHOULD’T do it. Google does it. And Amazon. Don’t forget about Netflix.

A tool and technique as simple as putting up 2 webpages and see which one works better can be so effective, you’d be crazy not to. Data always wins over opinions. Always. I know that your boss when to Rutger’s in the late 80’s and is super “creative”, but is she right? 

These are only two of many tools that are out there that marketers and entrepreneurs puts the odds of being successful in their favor.