11. Pull Back the Curtain. When you show your vulnerability, people feel empathy.  If you’re open and honest with your customers, you’ll forge bonds that normally wouldn’t exist.  In marketing, this is a common practice.  It’s intentional and effective.  You’ve probably seen sales letters or T.V. commercials that use what’s called the “damaging admission.”  That’s where they reveal how they used to be fools but now that they’ve been there and done that, they know better.   Domino’s pizza did that last year.  They ran a whole campaign that pulled back the curtain and showed how their pizza used to taste like cardboard but now it was new and improved.  Boy was it successful.  They showed hidden-camera footage from their focus groups.  People said things like, “Yuck.  This is aweful.”  Or “This is flavorless.”  Then the CEO came on and admitted how embarrassed he was when he heard stuff like that so he and his chefs reinvented the Domino’s Pizza recipe.  They started over.  New ingredients.  New cheese.  New sauce.  New spices.

I have to admit, I was a sucker.  I had to see if the new pizza was better than the old.  I ran right out and brought a couple home for dinner.  Turns out, we pick up a couple Domino’s pizzas every Friday night now and watch movies with the kids.

This “damaging admission” technique worked so well, they just started another similar campaign.  This time, they’ve reinvented their cheesy bread sticks.  Same routine, but this time their chefs are talking about how embarrassed that their cheese sticks were so bad.

The reason this works so well is because we’re not used to people being open and honest in today’s society.  We’re trained from a young age to be superficial.  You say, “Good morning, Bob.  How are you?”  Bob replies, “Great.  And you.”  “Couldn’t be better.”  What a load of junk.  Seriously.  You just ran out of the house and were yelling at your spouse 10 minutes ago.  Couldn’t be better?  You don’t want to unload on Bob and tell him how you’re really doing any more than you want to hear how Bob is really doing.  It’s just a formality.   So when a company reveals their sensitive side, it makes us go, “Whoa.  What’s going on here.  If they’re this open and honest, then they must be telling me the truth.”  Isn’t that right?  If they admit that their old pizza really sucked, you have to try the new one because they’re telling you it’s so much better.

When a Pizza Hut ad runs telling you that their new pizza is better than the old one, you just think, “Yeah, sure.  I hear that all the time.”  It’s like new and improved.  Or faster or better.   We’re getting immune to these claims.  But when the claim is preceded by brutal honesty like Domino’s did, you have no reason to not believe them.  Suddenly it doesn’t seem like marketing or advertising.  It seems like a relationship.  The irony is, it’s probably more calculating and strategic than a Pizza Hut ad saying their new pizza is new and improved.

Toyota actually capitalized on this technique last year when they were having so many recalls.  BP used it after the oil spill.  It’s perfect for damage control, but even better when there’s no reason for damage control.   Here’s why.  You expect Toyota and BP to admit fault.  It’s all over the media.  There’s no denying that they did something wrong.  But when Domino’s admits fault, it’s out of the blue.  It’s that much more impactful because they are coming out and admitting something that could have remained hidden.  Powerful stuff.

Anyway, back to Facebook.  You don’t have to run TV ads for the damaging admission to work well for you.  And you don’t have to use it so intentionally that you feel like you’re a slimy marketing guy.   Maybe just admit that you’ve had some issues lately and your inventory was back-ordered because of a strike.   Whatever the reason for your recent complaints.  Facebook is a great place to admit your faults.  People are willing to forgive, if you demonstrate that you’ve learned from your mistakes and are making necessary adjustments.  Just look at Toyota.  They had a banner year.

Fast forward 2 years. The other day I was wearing a t-shirt with an oval on the front with the name of our orthodontist printed in the middle. My 4 year old came up to me with a huge grin on his faced and proclaimed, “Cool Dad! Smashburger!”

The point to all this, a logo can do wonders for brand recognition. So I began to wonder, how many websites are designed with brand recognition in mind. Imagine if your website was just as easily recognized by a 4 year old. Perhaps that’s something to consider when it comes to website design.

Umm, yeah – they don’t. And that leaves us with the challenge of not only finding web-based alternatives but explaining why there’s a difference – despite the fact that all my fonts come from the same place, my computer. The same place where websites and brochures come from.

The good news is that Google, of all things – is making tremendous strides to close the typography gap. Since last August, Google’s Font API has grown in popularity and now offers a wide variety of typefaces. Most importantly, integrating Google Fonts into web development is about as simple as it gets.

However, one glaring problem still remains. There is a noticeable absence of classical typefaces with Google Fonts and that means designers are still required to consider alternative faces when developing for the web. So while different fonts are cropping up – our brand identities will continue to specify the lesser-quality substitutes and designers will have to continue to explain away the why ‘some fonts’ are not ‘web fonts’.

The good news is that 500 years in the digital age is about a decade, more or less.

Dumb it down.  For many people, writing is intimidating.  Are you one of those people?  Do you stare at the blank page with nothing to say?  Why is it that we don’t freeze up when speaking but when asked to put our words on paper, our mind goes blank?  It’s all in your mindset.   One way to keep your brain from freezing up is to just try and relax.  Quit thinking of a better word and a more sophisticated way to say that phrase.  Just let it flow as if you were speaking.  Keep a conversational tone.

We use a simple tool with our clients when we’re writing copy for them.  Before we start, we present them with 4 paragraphs of text.  Each one basically says the same thing, but each one is written in a different tone.  We have one that’s very technical, one that’s salesy, one that’s conversational and one that’s more journalistic, like you’d find in a newspaper.  Inevitably, people gravitate toward the conversational tone.  They always choose that one.  In fact, I can’t think of a client ever reading those and then asking us to write in the technical tone.  So why is it that we sit down and start writing and become like robots, trying to think of big words that don’t sound like they’re every day, spoken language?

Enough said.  I hope that helps.

The concept basically works like this;
For your particular project, there are 3 options available to you. But, you can only pick two.
Your 3 options are Cheap, Fast, and Good. Pick two.

Well, the truth is most of us want something as Good as possible for as Cheap as possible. And so what tends to happen is that we end up buying the same things multiple times over. But if something costs a bit more and is clearly worth the extra price then we’ll gladly pay (ie. see Apple’s 4th quarter sales on the iPhone).

The same can be said of website design. If you skimp on cost then you skimp on quality and the site will most likely have to be done again. That’s not to say that once you build a good site it’s done forever. Ney, ney! As you well know the web and the way we access the web is always changing.  But an effective site typically requires good design and good process which doesn’t necessarily equal cheap or fast. So when it comes to website design, part of our responsibility is to help our clients to appreciate the value of choosing the right options on the Sales Triangle for their business.

For another interesting take on this subject, check out this article from HOW magazine.

Dead space. Negative space. Empty space.

Fact is, white space is one of the most powerful tools any internet marketing company can use to improve website design.

Think about your website like a large, empty room where everything is white – the walls, the floors, even the ceiling. And off in the corner of this large white room is a little red bean bag chair – you couldn’t possibly walk through this room and not notice this red bean bag chair. With so much white space surrounding this red bean bag chair – it instantly grabs your attention when you walk into the room. In fact, there’s so much white space in this room – our little red bean bag chair draws even more attention. Now just imagine how white space can be used to draw attention to your message, or your call to action or your logo!

Now, let’s think about a vast empty room as your website. Any good website design company will tell you, our objective is to move customers from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ – or from prospect to purchase – with a limited number of clicks. Having a clear path for your customers, with the fewest number of obstacles – is not just great website design, it makes good web marketing sense.

White space can be used to isolate and increase the importance of your message, while creating a clear path to purchase – converting ‘window shopper’ to  ‘customer’ in the fewest number of steps.

So the next time your tempted to add some clutter, remember how something as simple as white space can improve a visitors experience and convert customers more easily. Of course, what good is your website design without outstanding search engine optimization – if your customers can’t find you, they can’t buy from you.

If your site can combine elements of good design with best practice for web usage, then I forecast a win win solution!

Cognitive relationships can be really important in website marketing – not only do they help communicate your brand but they make your brand more accessible. Let’s take for example the latest trend in the banking industry. Over the past decade, the banking industry has taken a real beating for a variety of reasons and lately it seems that new banks are popping up as quickly as other banks are failing – but what’s evolving are the brands.

The square shape suggests strength, but the red and yellow colors may also make some people angry or even hungry - for a Royale with Cheese.

Back in the late 80′s – the banking industry relied on communicating a brand of strength and power. Their logos often consisted of square shapes with tall uppercase lettering, perhaps one of two brands even went so far as to incorporate marble columns in their logo. Banks appeared to be trustworthy and strong, sometimes powerful and ‘in charge’. But look at the banks today – purple ovals, blue circles, lowercase names – even round, bouncy fonts? What’s changed? Are these banks or coffee shops?

We associate ovals and cool colors to be more friendly, even passive or ‘service oriented’ – and the same for lowercase typography. These cognitive relationships have a positive response with the public – and therefore consumers are more willing to hear the brand message.

What is your website communicating? Chances are, if you’re selling organic sunscreen and not Halloween decorations or Harley-Davidson products – your black and orange design scheme is most likely creating some uncertainty in the minds of your customers, slowing down the sales cycle or worse – driving prospects away.

Quality content, not just words on the page for the sake of having words on the page, is crucial to the way your website is ranked. What a lot of web marketing firms forget is that search engine optimization isn’t just about including the keywords on the page for which you want to rank. SEO isn’t about fancy tricks, it’s about readable, relevant content. Sure, there are a ton of methods of ranking your pages, but there’s only one tried-and-true method that will stand the test of time: writing content that matters.

So the next time you start blogging, skip the blog posts about your “really cool Facebook page,” and stop giving your traffic away. Keep your readers on your site by giving them something they want to read!

So instead I offer for your viewing pleasure something epic from 1984. It’s so great to find little gems of history that perhaps help explain our present. And maybe even, dare I say, predict the future.

The Mayans got nothing on this!