Gregg Blanchard Logo
Marketer. Designer. Entrepreneur.
Find Me on   LinkedIn   Twitter   801.735.2006

Customer / Brand Loyalty…

November 10th, 2007

I have been thinking a lot and noticing examples of customer and brand loyalty and the communities that are created surrounding certain products and companies.  Today, Utah State University (my school) played #19 ranked Boise State University in Logan, UT.  Utah State hadn’t won a game yet this year and so it was set to be an easy with from the Broncos.  However, did this persuade their fans to stay home and watch the blowout on the TV?  Nope, nearly 10,000 BSU fans showed up, combined with many Boise natives from Logan, they outnumbered Aggie fans 2-1…AT HOME!

In the picture above you can see the student section in the bottom left and the BSU fans in the top part.  As you can see, not only did they show up in droves, but they were all fully decked out in Bronco gear, more than once we saw 3 cars in a row with multiple BSU car-flags driving down 10th North in Logan.

BSU USU Game

This family booked a hotel room a week ago for the trip and ended up having to stay in Brigham City, 30 miles away because there wasn’t a single room left in Logan!  This is an hour an a half before the game started.  These guys are fans.  I was intrigued by this because I realized that this is the epitome of customer loyalty.  If you could just create a brand with this kind of loyalty and willingness to sacrifice and work to join and be a part of the community…you would really have something!

MEC LABS – Continuity and Congruence

October 24th, 2007

MarketingExpriments.com had another one of their free teleseminar’s today on two subjects as a follow up from their “site flow disruption” episode.  Continuity and Congruence are aspects that, the more I think about it, are missing from many of the pages I have designed.  For the most part it exists because naturally our minds tend to organize things in a continuous line, but rarely have I stepped back and thought about how the rest of a page ties into the value proposition from my CUSTOMERS perspective.

I recently did a google search for “road bike derailleurs” and clicked on an Adwords ad with the title “Buy Top Bike Derailleurs.”  The landing page showed helmets and headlamps; I clicked “back” and tried the next link.  Why?  Because the link said one thing and the landing page said another.

I later searched for a free web design course and found this site mikeoconnor.biz after clicking on an Adwords ad.  Here is the screenshot:

MikeOConnor

 The link that I clicked on said “free website income.”  Instantly, this extreme example of lack of continuity and congruence illustrated the effects of not following these principles.  So, I clicked on a link that said, “free website income – get a free website and make money full or part time” the header of the page I land on reads “sports and recreation,” the header of the first paragraph is simply the web address which has a very stock paragraph on making money, then a banner ad, and then three links to different ebooks about SEO and online marketing.

I am getting four completely different messages; get a free website, I like sports, leave my site via this banner ad, look at these ebooks on making money.  How effective is this site?  I hope that Mike is not paying a high CPC for his Google ads because I anyone that came to this site would get instantly lost and probably click “back” and try the next site.

To Sell or To Contact?

October 3rd, 2007

Recently, I created a website for Lori G Bird, a genealogist who specialized in danish family history (www.danish-genealogy.com).  We initially created the site to sell them right up front.  We gave them all the information they needed and the purpose of the page was to get them to purchase X number of hours of Lori’s time for her to do genealogy work for them.  Over a three week period, the page just didn’t convert.

We then placed a form at the bottom of the page that said, “What Do You Need?”  The second visitor to the site after upload submitted a form, so did the sixth.  Since then, nearly 1 in 4 visitors have submitted a form explaining how they need all their genealogy done.  Mrs. Bird has been able to email them a couple times, explaining what she can do, explain her pricing, and then direct them to the same link that was found at the bottom of the original page where they eagerly purchase X number of hours of Lori’s time.

So, the question is…should the main point of every web page be simply to sell?  Perhaps, certainly a large online retailer would have trouble building a relationship with each of the thousand or so visitors to their site each day.  However, with autoresponders, a site can capture contact information from interested parties (perhaps lured in by a freebie of some sort) and then send a casual, comfortable frequency of messages to the prospective buyer to build a relationship, establish credibility, and then sell.

Trust is a huge factor in internet marketing.  If your visitors cannot trust you, they rarely will buy from you.  Trust is more easily built through communication than a static web page.
Link to Download My Resume Link to Second Nature Snowmaking Link to SlopeFillers Resort Marketing Blog Link to High Jump Higher Newsletter