Pod1 Blog

At a recent presentation on streetwise marketing Fadi Shuman, pod1 founder, discussed the impact of conversion marketing. This is the method of analysing the behaviour of online searchers for certain keywords. It details how a customer moves from the stage where they think that they want a product or service to the end stage where they convert on a site.

The concept broadly analyses the different stages that a potential customer goes through when trying to purchase an item online, regardless of what it is. This includes details of the four stages of a customer’s online decision making process: Awareness, Research, Decision and finally Purchase.

Each of these stages cause the customer to use different search terms as they progress. For example someone looking for a personal loan may go through the following process: In the Awareness stage the customer is likely to type in ‘Loans’, while in the Research stage they are likely to type in ‘Best Loans’. In the Decision stage they may type in ‘Debt Consolidation Loan’ while in the Purchase stage they are likely to type in the name of their preferred provider and the possibly product name such as ‘Picture the Loan‘

This analysis is causing a reanalysis of which terms are best for a particular client to rank for since competition for 1 word terms is normally extremely high. While it may look good for a client to rank for a 1 word terms such as ‘Loans’ they may see greater conversions for longer terms such as ‘Debt Consolidation Loan‘.

If you can’t be top for every term in a user’s search process then being no. 1 for the term used during the decision stage of their move to convert will give you a far higher chance of getting their final conversion to occur on your site. As opposed to the conversion taking place on the site of the people who ranked for no. 1 during the initial searches that occurred during the awareness and research stages. This can be due to the fact that your name is the most recent and therefore the one most likely to be remembered.

This is not necessarily standard for every searcher who visits the net, but it is equally applicable for purchases, sign ups and other types of conversions that are measured on a site. The benefits that you can gain from ranking for the longer tail and more specific terms include higher conversion volumes for the traffic you gain. This type of focused traffic means that it is imperative to capitalise on the visitors who do find you at no. 1 during the decision stage by completely ‘owning’ your brand name.

In order to own your brand name you need to ensure that as many entries, both paid and natural on the first page of the search results are for your site. While some people think that bidding on your own brand terms is a waste of money, being able to ensure your competitors are kept out of the results is priceless. Once a person decides on your product the last thing you want them to do is get distracted and end up giving the conversion to a competitor who ranks well for your brand name or brand terms.

In June 2008, Barceló Hotels and Resorts will be launching an impressive purpose built new Hotel, the Raval, on the famous Las Ramblas, Barcelona. This landmark building will be the tallest Hotel on the street, with panoramic views of the city from its rooftop terrace and pool. It will be an innovative space with modern design and facilities, in keeping with its location. 

As part of our ongoing creative digital collaboration with Barcelo, Pod1 will create a bespoke microsite to support the launch of the hotel. Due to the nature of the target audience and the characteristics of the hotel, the launch campaign will be designed to generate significant appeal within the online market and deliver against the key interests of the target customer. English and Spanish versions of the site will be launched internationally with the supporting marketing activity focusing predominantly on Europe.

The site will also be used to gather useful marketing data by incentivising users to recommend their peers to interact with the brand. The target market will be very familiar with searching the internet for hotel reviews and rates and as such these users will be looking for unique offers and added value compared to just looking for the best available rate.

Designed initially to promote the hotel launch the micro site will also form the basis of all ongoing online marketing activity post launch.

Pod1’s favourite Japanese clothing retailer, Uniqlo, has just launched their latest UT project, (UT standing for Uniqlo t-shirt). A core part of the original website design when the new ecommerce site was launched last year, the UT Project brings together a collection of over 700 unique t-shirt designs from various leading artists and designers including 1980’s artists Keith Harring and Basquiat.

For this season’s advertising campaign Uniqlo have called on the talents of photographer Daniel Jackson and features New York style icon Chloe Sevigny and Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano. A selection of this new imagery is now featured on the website’s current homepage.

A secondary campaign made up of 200 individual portraits was shot by Matt Irwin, editor of ‘Less Common’ magazine. To compile such a large collection of models required a real multi-media search for talent, including street-casting and canvassing social media mainstay MySpace, resulting in a 10-day trans-Atlantic shoot. The complete collection of photographs will be featured in Uniqlo’s next in-house magazine.

Pod1 has now been working with Uniqlo since 2002, when we were initially approached to maximise their internet presence. They needed a creative digital agency that could establish and implement a long-term online strategy. Five years down the line, Uniqlo made the decision again to trade online and turned to Pod1 to design and build a high-impact fully optimised e-commerce website.

In yet another twist in the seemingly never ending Yahoo Vs Microsoft take-over wrangle, Yahoo has announced that they will be ‘trialling’ Google’s AdSense for search service. This two week proposed trial will see Yahoo.com search results displaying Google ads alongside its own ads in the US.

The timing of this announcement couldn’t be more crucial as Microsoft looks to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp to increase their financial leverage as they prepare to approach Yahoo’s shareholders directly if their £22.4 bn takeover bid isn’t accepted in the next three weeks.

The fact is this Yahoo trial with Google could be a clever way of proving that Microsoft have seriously undervalued the company by showing what kind of revenue Yahoo could potentially generate if they were to form a business relationship with Google.

Oh and in one final piece of what is becoming an ever more increasingly complicated puzzle Yahoo is also understood to be in talks with AOL in a deal which would involve AOL investing in Yahoo so enabling Yahoo to buy back some of its own stock!

For more info on this story try visiting The Machinist

If you have missed these, they are well worth a look.

Great inspiration and in an insight into consumer behaviour.

www.trendwatching.com/trends/statusstories.htm

From Crowdstorm blog:

New research out from eMarketer again, argues that shoppers are increasingly trusting each other when it comes to finding credible information advice about products or companies:

The fact is that knowledgeable and trusted peers provide valuable advice and insight to people trying to find the right products to buy and gain the advice and information they need. In fact, JupiterResearch reckons that online social network users were three time more likely to trust their peers’ opinions over advertising when making purchase decisions:

So, what does this really mean… Well, I think that people are actually getting more savvy in how they find and absorb information and that people are now looking to credible expert sources and trusted peers compared to just lists and lists of anonymous or not-related reviews. Ultimately no-one wants to be fooled by advertising or biased reviews, and having trusted sources from experts, opinion leaders, peers, and friends – can really help people feel more confident in their product research.

Social Graph + Research + Shopping -> 2008 is the year..

Latest Sony ad… 4th installment (?) on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijbWlOd5kB0

What do we think?

Launched in November 2007 the Pod1 designed Anya Hindmarch site is performing well over target. The client has confirmed that the website is now their top selling shop compared to any of their existing bricks and mortar stores and is already 25% ahead of their pre-launch sales forecast.

The website is just one of the latest additions to the business, which has grown considerably from the very first shop, based on London’s Walton Street, to a total of thirty seven around the world. A further eighteen stores are due to be added early in 2008, which will include two luxury new London flagships on Bond Street in the West End and Sloane Street in Chelsea.

The brand is also stocked in the world’s leading department stores and boutiques including Corso Como in Milan, Dover Street Market in London, Colette in Paris, Net-a-Porter.com, Isetan in Japan, On Pedder in Hong Kong, Lane Crawford in Beijing and Saks and Scoop in the US.

Anya Hindmarch’s designs are worn by many of the world’s most glamorous celebrities including Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, Madonna, Claudia Schiffer and Reese Witherspoon.