Where's The Any Key?!?

User experience has come a long way since the "dark ages" of DOS and the "any" key but there is still much progress to be made by many companies. To be successful, a company must engage customers and enable them to find what they're looking for in an easy and efficient manner.

A recent Mashable interview of Kare Anderson by Brian Solis, "Why Emotion Makes For Great Web Design" discusses the science behind a better user experience, specifically the science of emotions.  Anderson relates how understanding behavior cues in interpersonal relationships can help businesses provide a better experience between business and customer online. 

Better Listener

Anderson's talking points all boil down to the basic fact that companies (and people) need to be better listeners. 

Increased internet activity and the resulting "screen face" as she calls it are preventing people from truly connecting and being great listeners. She points to the popularity of Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking as a sign of people's increased feelings of introversion and isolation from others. If you read my post "Do I Fascinate You? Do I?!," you'll remember that as an INTJ this book hits close to home. 

Two cues Anderson mentions that I think are particularly true for combating this isolation and making for a better user experience is for a company to  

• "find the sweet spot of mutual benefit"  
• "get specific sooner." 

Mutual Benefit

A company will be unable to achieve these points unless they are actively listening to their customers. Customers will be turned off by a company if all it does is push advertisements and self-serving ads/tweets/facebook posts. Companies like Pampers and Kraft have been successful by creating content that benefits the consumer without the appearance of being self-serving. 

Customers appreciate when they feel that the company is there to help them whether it be soon-to-be or new parents looking for advice or a gamer looking for the newest game release.

Specific

The quicker a customer can find what they are looking for, the better an impression the company will make.

To the left is a screen shot from the "Games" page  at Electronic Arts

This page is a moderately successful showing of a good user experience. The page is set up so you may find games by platform, genre, release date and more, which allows you to find games by franchise, ESRB rating and type of gameplay. You are able to make a selection in each of the drop-down boxes allowing for a cross-reference and narrowing to a game that fits your criteria. 

This page also makes good use of white space, not too cluttered and features large graphics making it easy for gamers to find what they are looking for quickly by multiple methods.

Companies who master these two cues will find their customers happy and happy customers are loyal customers. 

This Is Crazy But Search Me ... Definitely

So this is crazy but did you know there are things called search engines and people use them to find things? 


Did you know "Google" is in the Oxford English Dictionary? In Spanish it's "Googlear?" I have a B.A. in English; I get excited about things like the OED. 

*Side note* I recommend the book, The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. It's riveting!


Seriously though, Internet Ad Sales and Search Engine Marketing/Optimization (SEM/SEO) is becoming an increasingly important part of marketing. More than half of respondents to a 2013 eMarketer survey said that search engines and keywords were "more" or "much more important" than the prior year.

This thinking is detailed by the fact that 57% of marketers make use of SEO daily. SEO is not performed in a vacuum though and the social and content marketing factors play a large role in search engine marketing. The combined efforts of search engine marketing with its native results and search engine optimization with sponsored results are proving increasing invaluable to the public in their searches for anything airline tickets to video games.

In a recent article, Jennifer Van Iderstyne wrote an article with her take on SEO and the growing emphasis on content marketing, focusing less on the short tail and increasingly on the long tail. She believes that focusing on the longer keywords and keyword groups that are less popular than the more direct keywords will prove as effective in your SEO strategy. 

“If you actually delve into your potential for phrases that don’t have five figure search volume, you may find that you’re just outside the Top 10 or Top 20 for a number of phrases that you’ve just never thought about. The opportunity to perform better for those phrases is real with a little effort and the right strategy.” 

Winning multiple keywords with less competition, thus cheaper cost, can reach the customers who are looking for your product or don't know they want it until it shows up in their results. The ad services of the search engines have started to facilitate this by allowing purchase of not just individual keywords or phrases but keyword groups. Here is a shot from Google's AdWords. While doing research for a group project I came across this Google Adwords page for Bioshock Infinite. Notice these keyword groups all have low competition allowing for possible better ROI.

Compare the following screenshots. 

*Note* I searched for these terms while in Incognito.

The first screen shot I took from a google search for "Bioshock Infinite." This is a highly anticipated game being released soon from Irrational Games and Take Two Interactive Entertainment. 

The product name of a title will definitely be one of the top searches and costly, but a necessity. 

You'll notice that all the "above the fold" results are about the product. To the left are organic search results linking to the game website, the wikipedia page and news items. To the right are sponsored results for various items you can purchase related to the game.

Now look at the next two screenshots. The search terms, "Songbird" and "new infinite" are related to the game but not top terms and aren't combined with the word "Bioshock." You'll see that if you had purchased these terms you would still manage to gain results on the first page and above the fold. Neither of these results link to the main game webpage but to the Bioshock Wiki and to a gaming news site. 

If Take Two or Irrational had optimized the game's webpage for not just the popular, short tail search terms but also the more obscure long tail, they could have replaced these posts and reached more customers. 

It all boils down to remembering that sometimes the "slow and low" - many cheaper, low-competition keywords - method of SEO and digital marketing can earn you as many impressions and sales as blowing your SEO budget on one or two expensive, high-competition keywords.

Do I Fascinate You? Do I?!

Have you ever seen a company's twitter feed comprised of nothing but boring links like...

"Click here for more info ... http://bit.ly/boringlink"

"Sale! Click here for more info ... http://bit.ly/anotherboringlink"

"Friend us! ... facebook.com/boringcompany"

Would you ever click on one of the links? No.

When you're being interviewed would you answer the interviewer's questions by saying "Look at my résumé. That will answer the question?" No. 

Every interaction you have with someone, is a continuation of a story. Every conversation is another chapter in the mental book they write about you. The same goes for companies. 

Everything is a brand, even you – Yes, you ARE a brand.

Everything that you communicate from tweets and Facebook posts to stories you tell your friends tells a lot about your brand and how you communicate. Corporations and people must convey their stories to achieve whatever message they’re trying to get across, whether it is influencing others to buy their product or to hire them for a job.

According to SallyHogshead (@SallyHogshead), there are 7 triggers of fascination that everyone uses to persuade and captivate in telling a story and achieving their goals. Everyone has a primary and secondary trigger that combined forms an archetype.

The 49 Fascination Archetypes

Knowing your archetype can help you discover your strengths and weaknesses of how you persuade people and use that knowledge of both to your advantage.

After taking the test, I discovered that I have a primary trigger of Passion and a secondary trigger of Mystique forming the archetype The Intrigue. Everyone also has a trigger that they use least, their dormant trigger. Mine is Alarm

Unlike other tests, which focus on how you see yourself, this test focuses on how others perceive you. 

I was a bit surprised to see Passion score as my primary trigger. I tend to see myself more reserved though upon reflection I do try to draw people in by getting them excited about an issue/item/show as I am.  

I have taken several other types of tests before (I’m a whole-brained, INTJ with a cusp I/E) and these previous results have a definite correlation to the results seen in the overall fascination archetype. All of these tests show a prevalence to be somewhat even-keeled and to choose for quality over quantity when sharing information.

Companies would be wise to find their archetype - their strengths and weaknesses, the triggers they use to connect with their customers. 

Companies are dedicating more energy online and consumers are spending more of the sales funnel online researching companies and products. With the increased detachment, companies must engage consumers better - fascinate them. This is the first step in creating a lasting connection with that consumer that will, hopefully, shape into a lasting profitable relationship. For example, a company whose primary or secondary trigger of Mystique might prefer using Twitter where their message is delivered piecemeal. 

Listen to Sally's TED talk for her insights into how to fascinate.

For whom the bell tolls

Pop Quiz!

Q. Please identify the commonality among these companies?

Time Warner Cable

Maker’s Mark

HMV

I’ll wait…

…

…

…

Time’s up!

A.     All have taken a beating regarding their digital marketing over the past few weeks.

Starting with the least crippling digital misstep among that three is Time Warner Cable.  What will come as unsurprising to most, Time Warner Cable displayed less than stellar customer service several days ago with one of their customers. What could have begun and ended quickly became a story recounting another example of poor customer service because of poor digital strategy. With a company regularly mocked (see below), they need to step up their game and realize while they may have some markets cornered, they won't always and customers rarely forget.

Marker’s Mark has also not had the best week ever. In an email (emphasis mine), Robert Samuels, the COO of Beam, Inc, wrote that to meet increased demand the company would be reducing the alcohol content of Maker’s Mark. This created a controversy among the blogosphere that spread the news wide to many a fan and an uproar ignited. Finally, after several days the company relented. This time, using better use of all their digital means to spread the word and improve their watered down reputation. To announce the reversal, they posted on their website, Facebook and twitter yet the initial step is found on none of these. If Maker’s Mark had copied their efforts in making amends when making the announcement, this uproar might have been minimized to a begrudging whisper.

Now onto the best/worst example of digital marketing and failure to adopt and fully realize its importance in the world we live in is... HMV.

HMV is just the latest example of brick-and-mortar stores not recognizing the change in their competitive environment and increased emphasis on a digital strategy. As indicated in this blog post,

“They saw themselves as a physical store that sold music, rather than a pure music retailer.”

I agree, that this is the principle concept that led to HMV’s demise. They did not correctly identify their competitors and what their core purpose was. They didn’t adapt to the changing environment and treated digital as an add-on, something they needed to do, but they didn’t truly recognize how or why. 

There is no better evidence of their thinking then the twitter feed of the company during a recent mass firing… 

Modern companies MUST recognize that digital marketing isn’t just a fad or simply updating a twitter/Facebook feed somewhat regularly. These methods are used to create conversations and relationships with their consumers.

For HMV to recover from after this death knell they will need to work hard and use all their marketing tools, particularly the cheap, effective digital methods to reach out to consumers and influencers to recover their reputation in the hopes that they can build the company back up.

I believe that there is a chance they can recover but it will be a hard road and hard examination. They need to examine what their customers need now AND in the future. 

Engaging Brand - Sleep No More

Ask anyone who knows me well or… has spent more than a couple of hours with me and they’ll tell you that there is definitely one “brand” that most engages me as a customer.  That brand is Sleep No More NYC.

For those of you who don’t know what Sleep No More is, it is a fully immersive theatre experience that is comprised of equal parts Hitchcock, Lynch, The Shining and the 1920’s with a base of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. You, as the masked-audience (yes, you wear masks the entire night), portray guests at The McKittrick Hotel and follow around the actors as they perform scenes from Macbeth in the venue’s 100+ rooms.

You may think this is an odd choice to choose as a brand that you find most engaging. Why not Google or Apple? Why not one of the flashier, traditional brands marketing today? While I do have strong opinions and follow the story of these brands closely, neither has been able to grab and mesmerize me in its story like Sleep No More.  Yes, it does help that Sleep No More is a theatrical experience, very different from the products and services that most brands provide, but that doesn’t make it any less effective in my endorsing the brand and promoting its story. As Seth Godin wrote in his blogpost, 

"Here's my definition: A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another."

I've been four times... 

Sleep No More succeeds in several ways to draw each person into the story and want them to stay in the story.

One way it achieves this is through secrecy and exclusivity. Now, generally, you’d think it bad for a brand to keep themselves a secret, unless that IS part of the brand. Sleep No More is all about uncovering secrets and they value the customers/theatre-goers that find out about it, for they’re the ones who will discover the secrets Sleep No More has in store. Few people are willing to spoil the show and let out the secrets to anyone who hasn’t seen it BUT once you meet someone who has been, all you can do is talk about what you saw, what you missed and what you need to see the next time.  

This exclusivity is a trait that Sleep No More shared with Google and Apple. Google and Apple both started out with being perceived as exclusive brands - Google with the need to be invited to create a Gmail account and Apple for being long viewed as an exclusive brand and to this day still has an air of snootiness. 

Another way, that I believe is the strongest and most unique to Sleep No More, is its use of full immersion. From the moment you go to the Sleep No More website, you are transported into the world of an old hotel that has recently reopened and has many secrets in its dark corners from days gone by. Then once it’s time for your stay at the hotel, you enter a dark hallway, filled with an odd aroma of must, fog and history. No one, not actors nor staff, breaks character during the show. You’re left on your own to traverse the many rooms and follow the story. This immersion is the most transformative and imbeds something in most visitors who are then unable to get the need to relive the story out of their brain.

One thing I wish that Sleep No More would do is to use their social media outlets, Facebook and Twitter, to continue that story, add new aspects to it, perhaps leave Easter Eggs for those that follow to find in future visits to the hotel. To continue the story in ways unable to be done through the play would cause more people to come back and relieve it with greater knowledge of what’s going on.