Using flash animation helps improve viewer experience

The use of flash animation has always been a concern because of download speeds. Mind you today, this is not a problem as it was only a few days ago.

While most websites allow the viewer to override the flash from being viewed, the tendency among internet users is to just let the flash animation download.

In the early days of our website development service, I suggested the use of a marquee to allow some kind of movement on a web page.

Properly used, flash content can aid the viewing experience of a website. In this post, I feature two recent websites that have had either a new flash sequence installed, or a new site with flash as a main feature.

A long time client, Stainless Sections Pty Ltd, updated their flash content recently. Previously, they had a photo or photos move up and down or sideways to show more of the photo/s concerned.

Now, as you can see here, this includes text and has movement in more than one direction.

A division of a client of a few years is Aztex Sodablast. I like highlighting this site because of the unique way that the flash animation works. As you will note from visiting the site, the way the photos change mimics the process of sodablasting.

In a way, this resembles the use of onomatopoeia in poetry. Or, am I drawing a long bow here. Anyway, the point I am making is horses for courses.

So, why limit the approach of brining animation to your website? There is just so much scope with today’s technology.

Pluse Solutions sets up Australian site

Pulse Solutions, founded in 1997, has recently launched an Australian-based website. Since starting operations, the company has created over 1,000 websites, covering a wide gamut of industries and applications in Europe, USA and Australia.

Today, the company has expanded from the three founders to a team of over 100 specialist developers, technicians and SEO practitioners.

Pulse Solutions has always believed that "the internet should be working for you". Hence, their clients all have highly navigable and user-friendly sites that meet Web 2.0 requirements.

The company has clients around the world, ranging from small micro businesses to multi-million dollar corporations. Pulse Solutions strives, at all times, to at least meet or preferably to exceed client expectations through unsurpassed service and attention to detail.

Their development processes are continually improved and honed to meet the ever-changing nature of the web. This philosophy and approach to the web is one that has served its clients well.

In Australia, JG Marketing Services represents Pulse Solutions. At JG Marketing, we look to provide the benefit of our many years of experience in marketing services and communication and use this expertise, in collaboration with Pulse Solutions, to provide the best web-based solutions for our clients.

Our web team works hand-in-glove with Pulse engineers in the development of practical solutions that are designed to meet not only current, but future needs as well. We specially insist on building the right architecture for websites, which allow a client's site to expand for future development.

We are very happy to continue our relationship with Pulse Solutions and look forward to many years of collaboration in the exciting work that the web provides.

Funny enough, at JG Marketing, we set up our first website in 1997, the year Pulse Solutions started.

Writing a headline, some pointers

It may be something I’ve harped on about in the past, but it’s an old hobby horse, so let’s touch on headlines again.


Just about any sales message, whether in print or on-line needs a headline-a good one.

Let’s face it, the headline of your sales message is responsible for up to 80% of the response from that sales message. Hence, the success or failure of most marketing efforts rests very much on the power of your headline.


Using a print ad as an example, 10-20% of your prospective readers will read your ad. That’s it. So, if you have a so-so headline, you can lose pretty much all the prospective readers of your ad.
To capture your prospective reader, you need to grab him/her with a good, punchy headline.


In a previous article, I wrote on the use of a “how-to” statement as a great way of writing a headline. Here, I will give some general pointers on writing headlines.


As covered earlier and again here, a headline is just so important. Even poorly written ads have been successful because of the overwhelming power of a good headline. Your prospects will decide whether to read your sales message in only two or three seconds. That is all the time they will give you to scan your headline. Really, you and I are no different.



We do not READ a newspaper, we SCAN the headlines - article headlines and ad headlines. We are looking for only for what interests us at the moment we read.



A headline comprises the first words at the top of a newspaper ad. It is the title of your article, the subject line of your email or letter, or the top of your web page. Some quick pointers:
Make sure that your headline is the first group of words that your reader sees. I’ve seen fancy layouts with the headline buried in the body of an ad. So, subtle and yet so easy to miss. We’re not out to win awards for ad layouts, but to make sales.


Ads that go against this pointer put their logo on the top, where the headline should be. If you just want to get subliminal messages through, without trying to get your reader to go through the body copy, this might work. Otherwise, it’s a complete waste of time.


The headline should pull in the reader with some sort of promise. Once, you get the reader’s attention, the eyes will be pulled down to your logo, as part of your signature. Of the readers who will see your ad, something like 10-20% will have an interest in your message. If you miss out on these readers, you’ve just done your money.


The headline should not only have kind or promise, it should be catchy and noticeable. Some headlines just describe the product that’s advertise and that’s it. Ho-hum. “1 tonne widget”. So, what’s the promise. Mind you if someone is looking for a 1 tonne widget, this could be enough to pull him/her through the body copy.


Now, why not something like “You can save money with our 1 tonne widget”, better yet, “How you can save money with our 1 tonne widget”.


You appeal to the hip pocket nerve and get the reader’s curiosity going.


We will not interest all readers, only the 10-20% who may be in the market for a 1 tonne widget. And, since the reader’s curiosity is piqued, he/she will read on.



The body copy does the rest.

A look at the art of selling: ideas you can use in marketing communication

The internet is great for getting ideas. I got this letter in my email in box. I started to read and couldn't stop til I finished reading the story. It's great with good lessons we can apply to selling and marketing communication.

Thanks to Michael Masterson for writing this. I got this from another site that publishes ideas on copywriting.

One thought though is one should never underestimate the powers of one's better half.

Lessons From A Persian Rug Merchant in Jaipur

By Michael Masterson

He had an oversized mustache, a beard, and a substantial pot belly. He was wearing Gucci loafers, Armani jeans, a red Izod shirt, and a big, red turban tied Sikh style. His name was Betu. K had spent some time in his shop the day before and told me I had to meet him.

When K meets and likes a man I don’t know, the reptilian portion of my brain retracts in fear. "Who is this Mr. Adorable?" I want to know. "And what is he doing charming the wife of another man?"

In his defense, Betu was a rug merchant. And his job is to persuade people to buy from him.

Using charm to sell your product is legal. And, in fact, it’s been a defining characteristic of the Indian merchants we’ve encountered. We’ve found them to be enthusiastic salespeople, though their techniques are subtler and less forceful than, say, merchants in Istanbul. When you buy a rug in Istanbul, you feel like you’ve been beaten up a little. When you buy a rug in India, you feel like you’ve had some good, playful fun.

This brings me back to the way my caveman brain reacted when K introduced me to Betu. I was very suspicious. After all, this is the guy who had been having some good, playful fun with my wife the day before.

"This is Betu," K said, beaming.

"Ah," he said smiling and extending his hand. "Now I get to meet you. I can see in your eyes, you have the confident look of a warrior and a wealthy man, and now that you smile I can see the smile of a Raj!"

And with that, he made a sweeping bow. "Welcome to my house, Raj Masterson!"

The confident look of a warrior and a wealthy man? The smile of a Raj? I was completely unprepared for such flattery. It was quick. It was unexpected. And it was effective.

I liked this man!

That’s the wonderful thing about flattery. It can overcome great obstacles. In this case, with Betu, the primitive part of my brain had tagged him as a threat, somebody I should be leery of. So, as a potential buyer of his rugs, I was entering his store with a bad attitude. As a salesman who had probably encountered this situation several thousand times before, Betu knew just how to deal with me.

He knew he wasn’t going to win me over with rational arguments - at least not yet. He had to destroy or neutralize the negative feelings I had about him before he could begin the selling process.

Instead of paying attention to K, who, he knew, was already 90 percent sold, he focused on me. K’s bringing me back meant that I was the delegated decision maker for this purchase. How could he get me in his corner?

He chose flattery - a very genuinely expressed flattery - and it did the trick. With a warm smile, a deferential gesture, and a few dozen well-selected words, Betu broke down the wall I’d erected and had me liking him.

Three minutes later, sitting on a bench next to K and sipping tea, I was under his spell.

"Look at this beautiful rug your wife has picked out for you," he said. With a wave of his hand, two barefoot men scampered up a mountain of rugs, grabbed one, and scuttled back down. Holding one edge, they unfurled its coiled bulk by flinging it in the air. It clapped like thunder, and then rolled out in front of us.

"What do you think of your wife’s selection?" Betu asked me. He seemed very excited - as if he expected me to like it as much as K did.

"It’s very nice," I said.

"This is a very good quality," he told me. "All silk. Very easy to clean. It will last many lifetimes."

I turned to K and told her that I thought it might be too large for the space she intended.

"No problem," Betu said, as if I had been talking to him. "Let me show you the same rug in the next size smaller. See if you like that."

With another brief wave of his hand, the barefoot men rushed up and down another hill of carpets, and unrolled a smaller version of the same rug. Betu must have seen some hesitation in my eyes, for no sooner had that rug hit the floor than he turned to his assistants and shouted something in Hindi. Within seconds, similarly sized rugs were being presented to us, one after the other.

K and I liked them all. Betu explained how they were made - all the handwork involved - and had us examine them to see their quality. We were now a little confused about what to buy. Betu’s men had thrown so many carpets in front of us that we felt both overwhelmed and a little guilty. They had done so much work to please us, and yet we weren’t at all sure we wanted to buy anything at that point.

I glanced at an especially beautiful carpet that was hanging on the wall behind Betu. Immediately, he picked up on it.

"Ah, I can see that you have a good eye," he said, shouting something quickly in Hindi. This sent the barefoot men rushing over to grab the wall hanging and lay it down in front of us. K and I were struck by its beauty.

"You have recognized a masterpiece," he said. "This one is made by one of the finest families in India. It has 2,200 knots per inch."

Having bought a Persian rug in Istanbul several years earlier, I remembered that, generally speaking, the higher the knot count the better the rug. Although we had been happy with the rugs we had been looking at, they were disappointing in comparison to this much more tightly woven piece.

"How much more is this carpet?" I asked Betu.

He smiled at me playfully. "Of course, Mr. Masterson, now you are selecting a carpet fit for a Raj. The price will be much more."

He didn’t tell me the price right away. Instead, he had his men toss out dozens of these higher-quality pieces. He made sure I saw them from every possible angle and under fluorescent lighting, natural lighting, and incandescent lighting. "I want you to know exactly how they will look in your house so you will never be disappointed," he said.

By the time he had a dozen of these superior rugs laid out - and had us examine them front and back and walk over them and even spill water on them to see how they don’t absorb liquids - we were sold. I was fully expecting the price to be in the $20,000 to $30,000 range. When he finally said, "This beautiful carpet you have selected is $9,000," I felt almost relieved.

He must have been able to read my thoughts. "Okay," he said. "How many of these would you like to purchase?"

"Only one," I said. "We are just looking for one rug."

"Okay, no problem," Betu said. "Let us narrow down your choices. Tell me which of these rugs you are sure you don’t want."

Thus began the weaning process, narrowing the selection from 20-something to a dozen and then to six and then to four and then to two and finally to one.

"So how much will this one cost me?" I asked.

And Betu answered: "This is the very finest quality you have selected. This rug took one family more than a year to create. With the other rugs, I can give a 20 percent discount. But for these masterpieces, I can take very little off. I can give this to you for $8,500."

"How about $8,000?" I asked him.

He smiled and put his hands together. "I honor you, my friend. But I cannot give you the price you ask. The best I can do is $8,400."

I put my hands together and smiled at him. "I honor you too, my friend, and the best I can now offer you is $8,100."

We settled, happily, at $8,200. He was smiling. I was smiling. K was smiling. Even the barefoot workers were smiling.

"He’s a really nice man," I said to K as Betu left to write up the sale.

"What did I tell you?" she replied.

I had no intention of buying a rug when I walked into Betu’s showroom. But an hour later, I had spent $8,200 on one … and felt very good about it.

Since buying it, I have looked at half a dozen other carpet stores in several Indian cities. Based on the price and quality of what I saw, I feel very comfortable with my purchase. Since I have no expertise in Persian carpets, Betu could have taken advantage of me. The fact that he gave me a good value for my money will only make him richer in the long run. The next time I want to buy a Persian rug, I will contact him.

Since this experience, I’ve been thinking about Betu’s selling skills and how universal they are. Let’s go over some of them.

1. The flattering greeting at the door

Betu made me feel like an honored guest.

Think about the first contact your customers have with your business. Do they get a big smile? Are they complimented in some way? Do they feel like honored guests?

2. The playful buying process

Betu made me feel like I was, indeed, a Raj, and that he was my minister of rugs. I am not exactly sure how he did this. It was a combination of lighthearted banter and not seeming to care whether I actually bought anything. He conveyed the idea that he was having fun showing us the carpets. "It doesn’t matter if you buy or not," he seemed to be saying. "What’s important is that we have fun looking at these beautiful things!"

Think about the selling process your customers experience. On a scale of one to five, how would you rate it in terms of playfulness?

3. Establishing the feeling of reciprocity early on

All of the rugs in Betu’s shop were rolled up in tight bundles in tall piles on the floor. To show individual carpets to us, two barefoot men had to run up and down these woven hills like billy goats and throw open one rug after another. All this enthusiastic work made us feel a little uncomfortable. "It’s too much trouble," we told Betu. "Don’t worry," he said. "It is a great pleasure and honor to do this. You don’t have to buy anything from me. I am happy to show you these carpets."

Despite giving us permission to feel no obligation, an emotional IOU was created in my head every time a carpet was dramatically rolled out. All this work on our behalf created such a sense of gratitude toward Betu and his helpers that I had decided that if I didn’t buy a rug I’d pay them for their time. This, of course, is the marketing principle of reciprocity at work. In past issues of ETR, we’ve talked about how powerful it is.

Think about the sales and marketing process in your business. What do you give your customers? How can you give them more?

4. Paying attention to my clues

Because Betu was watching me closely, he saw me glance at the higher-priced rug - and that immediately doubled the amount of money I ended up spending in his store. I was, he realized, a customer who would spend more to get more.

In every group of customers, regardless of the product or service being offered, there are 10 percent to 20 percent who will spend much more. If you don’t know who they are, you are missing out on a lot of profitable dollars. (Remember, the profit margins on higher-end sales tend to be greater.)

Do you know who your VIP customers are? Are you watching them closely so you know when they are ready to buy the next better-and-more-expensive product?

5. Selling me emotionally on the value of his rugs before telling me the price

When I first asked Betu the price of the higher-quality carpets, he put me off until he had thoroughly convinced me (emotionally and intellectually) that these were the only carpets worth buying. By repeating the many ways these carpets were much better than the average rugs, he created in my mind a perception of value that was higher than the actual price. Once that higher perceived value was established, he knew he could tell me the price without shocking me. At that point, it was just a matter of negotiating a discount that he was already prepared to make.

Examine the way you "close" sales on your expensive, high-end products. Do you clearly establish a perceived value that is much higher than the price you are asking? How could you do a better job of that?

A good salesman closes a high percentage of his sales opportunities. A great salesman not only closes them but leaves the customer wanting more. That’s what Betu did with us. By combining the personal skills of flattery, playfulness, and attentiveness with the marketing techniques of reciprocity and perceived value, he created a pleasant selling experience for everyone involved … including, apparently, his barefoot rug runners.

----

Michael Masterson publishes the Internet's most popular health, wealth and success e-zine, www.EarlytoRise.com that mentors more than 160,000 success-oriented individuals to help them achieve their financial goals.

Masterson has been making money for himself and others for almost four decades. At one time or another, he has owned and managed multi-million dollar companies that were either public/private, onshore/overseas, local/international, service-/product-oriented, retail/wholesale/direct mail, and even profit/not-for-profit.

Masterson is the author of the Wall Street Journal best sellers Seven Years to Seven Figures: The Fast Track Plan to Becoming a Millionaire; Automatic Wealth: The Six Steps to Financial Independence; Automatic Wealth for Grads … and Anyone Else Just Starting Out; Power and Persuasion: How to Command Success in Business and Your Personal Life (all published by John Wiley & Sons); and Confessions of a Self-Made Millionaire.

Your advertising message and why people buy from you

Working and dealing with B2B clients and receiving and reading a host of trade publications means I come across many marketing/selling messages throughout each working day.

Again, I must profess disappointment at the quality of advertising in the trade press. I’m not saying that these ads are all produced sloppily in-house, a majority are professionally-prepared by ad agencies or other professional communication practitioners. And, I put myself as guilty of these same transgressions in marketing communication.

I personally make no excuses as I usually just follow client instructions, especially when clients supply the copy. And, my only input is by way of layout.
I refer to the ad message and what is set out in the ad. (However, when I am asked to develop a concept, it's another story.)

Many ads feature the client logo on top, with ad copy being either a company mission statement or an enumeration of products and services offered—the classic tombstone ad, or ”name, rank and serial number ad” as this is also known.

At best, these types of ads are of value only as subliminal reminders of an organisation’s presence in the marketplace. Unfortunately, at worse, these are not only ignored, but could be a way of proving to the market that the staff of the company concerned is just too busy to take time to prepare the right message or really is not interested in getting more customers.

Am I being too harsh?

Well, maybe. But consider this: when putting out a marketing communication, the point of view is not “I” or “we”, but should really be “you”. Yes, you the customer or prospective customer.

And, to really make an impact on the reader, the aspect certainly should be what’s in it for the reader.

Again, I refer to a promise to the reader. This is usually of one or more benefits the reader would get from buying or using the advertiser’s product or service.
When Dove sold its soap to the public, the company did not just offer a means of achieving personal hygiene, but one of “younger and smoother skin”. The emphasis was on the moisturiser in the soap.

The slant of the Volvo ads was on safety. The focus was not on the car itself, but on the safety shell, built into each vehicle. Volvo now has another slant, but the “Staying Alive” message is still at the back of my mind because it was memorable. And more importantly, the promise was safety, not just the driver, but the driver’s family who are in the vehicle with him (her).

(Funny though, that the safety cell was not invented by Volvo, though the company would certainly be remembered for relating this with its cars. It was developed by Mercedes Benz, who did not patent the technology as the management of the company wanted to share this with the rest of the world.)

I digress, but you get my drift. The principal consideration is not that you as a marketer are there put a message across because you love your organisation or your job, it’s because you as a marketer exist because of your customers. No customers, no you.

And, your customer doesn’t care about your company, your mission statement, your product (or service) offering, but on what your company can do for him or her. Yes, what’s in it for me (the customer).

So, the point of view and the message is a promise of something that must just be too good to pass up.

And, put simply the more enticing the message the greater the interest the reader will have to go beyond the headline, read through the body copy and then contact you for more details.

Communication: Getting to know your customers

Earlier this week I attended a discussion panel run by Ebay. It was for PayPal actually. I jumped at the chance. Why?

Wow, these are real people. They want to get my thoughts and want to hear from me. How great is that? Plus, heck, I have an unresolved issue and maybe I could meet someone who could assist if I needed help.

Yes, not an email address, or a help desk, a real person.

This, folks, is something that is quite relevant today, especially for the larger organisations out there. Human contact is lost. And, with many organisations, the only contact is via electronic means. Wow, how impersonal.

Of course, there is the old "1800" number. And, invariably, you get to speak with someone with a foreign accent, no offense to the people that man call centres, but it does feel that there is another degree of separation with the organisation that you dealt with originally.

The point I'm trying to get at is that as a marketer, one has to know his/her customer and not just empathise and relate to that person, but communicate with that person.

In the old days, market surveys would have been the go. Today, focus groups are more the way the bigger organisations go about this.

Focus groups are in the main used to run ideas by them and get a chance to fine tune the message. This is what did happen in the panel I joined.

There were several people, other than the discussion leader (who was from a market research company), from Ebay. And, not only did they give us a fair hearing, they engaged in discussion and one of them got my details and offered to help me with a difficulty I had with the dispute console.

Mind you that was several days ago. And, I haven't heard from her since that discussion panel. (Postscript: I did get an email, with an apology for not getting back to me as the lady caught the flu.) Which leads me to the final point: make sure your customer matters. If you promise to do something, do it.

Or, you may get some irate customers venting their spleens in their blogs out there and undoing all the good work you have done over a long period of time.

Worth thinking about, isn't it?

First impressions count: what about your logo?

At the Prospect's Awards evening, I sat beside a gentleman who was unhappy with their company logo. I offered to help him in revitalising this, and got me thinking.

If you were to go for a job interview sloppily dressed, with hair unkempt, clothes dissheveled and looking like you not only need a bath but a shave as well, how do you expect to get that job you applied for. Even if you’re the most qualified, if the job is for an executive position, you should go to the interview dressed the part.

First impressions count for a lot. Likewise for your communication pieces.
If your brochure, business card, logo or other communication piece looks like it was done in matter of minutes on your word processor, what does that say about your company?

With the resources available today, there is really no excuse to get the communication piece done professionally. And, this doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Let’s take the logo as a starting point. This visual communication piece is the first representation of your company. While literacy is not a problem like it was two centuries back, when logos (or trademarks) had to really be very recognisable, as many people could not read, the logo should at least be memorable.

By memorable, I mean this must have some impact on the reader. Impact here also means legibility, right use of colour, visual appeal and so on.

Logo is a term taken from logotype, a symbol, used as a trademark or brand for a company or its products and services.Trademarks were, as the name implies, used by traders and merchants to identify themselves. Today, logos (trademarks) are used by all sorts of organisations, including governments, clubs, etc.

Logos and trademarks are not just mere words or symbols they are many things. This is specially a means of identity for an organisation, product or service. It is a means of differentiating these from others especially in the same field and, of course, a communication piece.

Logos communicate information to the reader things like value, origin, quality and so on.

Logos, especially trademarks, add value to organisations, products and services. They are valuable assets that are legal property. As such, many organisations spend a lot of time and money to protect their use.

As a communication piece, it should first be legible. Secondly, it should be memorable and stand out from the crowd. A quick logo, done on a word processor just won’t do.

Going back to the first impressions, what would a logo that looks quickly done and is not legible say to a prospective customer? Would you deal with someone from a company that really didn’t put too much thought into its logo? Does the logo appear like it was a backyard operation?

Wouldn’t you rather deal with a company that looked professional and smart? And, these are things that the logo will communicate to the reader.

So, if you’re considering updating your logo, why not get some professional help to get the job done right. At the very least, consider legibility, memorability, impact and remember this must make a good first impression to whoever reads this.