MySpace directing to Facebook & Twitter to promote Bruno

Gotta love that even though the Bruno ad site is hosted on MySpace, it links off to Facebook and Twitter.

http://www.meinspace.com/bruno



Appearance on the Tonight Show was hilarious, and definitely post-Leno era.

Facebook for the Internet Retailer

This is a companion supplement to my June 26, 2009 ClickZ article

To-Do List for Facebook and E-Mail Integration

Recently, Facebook began to give individuals the ability to replace their regular Facebook URLs, which show a user number instead of a name, with a "vanity" URL of their choosing. (For example, I changed my URL on Facebook to http://www.facebook.com/ed.henrich .)

Few of the Internet's leading retailers have taken advantage this opportunity. In this post, I'll cover a quick survey of the top 20 Internet retailers Facebook presence and websites.

Of the top 20, I found that 17 had a presence on Facebook, but only 8 have adopted the new vanity URLs that make it easier for customers to find these pages.

Most of these "microsites" are still small. Only Apple and Victoria's Secret have attracted over one million fans.

Home Page	Vanity URL	Facebook Landing Page	# of Fans
Amazon		Wall	58
Staples	www.facebook.com/Staples	Application	7,943
Dell	www.facebook.com/Dell	Wall	31,587
OfficeDepot		Wall	96
Apple		Wall	1,361,913
OfficeMax
Sears	www.facebook.com/Sears	Boxes	24,643
CDW		Wall	554
Newegg		Wall	2,056
BestBuy	www.facebook.com/BestBuy	Wall	20,163
QVC		Wall	15,596
SonyStyle
Walmart		Wall	677
Costco		Wall	52,480
JCPenney	www.facebook.com/JCPenney	Application	11,940
HPshopping.com
CircuitCity		Wall	4,559
Netflix	www.facebook.com/Netflix	Boxes	36,765
Victoria's Secret	www.facebook.com/VictoriasSecret	Application	1,428,143
Target	www.facebook.com/Target	Wall	451,528

If you'd like to compare the Facebook pages to the Home Pages of the top internet retailers check out these two albums.

Facebook Fan Pages - Top Internet Retailers



Home Pages - Top Internet Retailers


Email Signups on Facebook

The top ad on the Sears Facebook landing page says “Become a fan today. Click here to get your free $10 Sears coupon now.” Clicking on this add leads you to another page where they collect email address.

{Click on any screen shot or slide show to enlarge.}





Lenovo has email address integrated into their Facebook landing page.


Links to Facebook Pages on Home Pages
Of the 20 sites I checked, only two had links to their Facebook pages on their website home page.

• J.C. Penny in top nav
• Circuit City bottom right
  

Circuit City also uses their email to send consumers to their Facebook page.



SWYN - Share With Your Network

Within the top 20, only J. C. Penney and HP asked consumers to share the email with their network. (J. C. Penney coded directly, HP used 3rd party Share This), which allows the company to reach out to all of the customer’s Facebook “friends”. This reaches a much larger group than the usual “share with a friend” button.

Thank you Chad White and the Retail Email blog for sharing several emails.



J. C. Penney



HP



I've included several additional examples in this Picasa album.

Barack Obama knows the value of a Quick Signup - Do You?

Lots of marketers struggle with getting home page real estate for their email sign ups.

Follow our President's lead. Put a prominent quick sign up at the top right of your website home page.

Don't be lame. Links to forms are so last year & last President.

Barack Obama's Home Page
Click Image to View Full Screen





George Bush's Home Page
Click Image to View Full Screen



George Bush's Subscription Page
Click Image to View Full Screen




Some Like Macy's Don't Collect Email on Home Page
Click Image to View Full Screen


Wal-Mart Does a Quick Signup, but on Footer
Click Image to View Full Screen

Circuit City RIP

Circuit City closed the last of its stores this Sunday.

Here's a look back at their website for the last year and a half (starting January 2008).

View the slide show or click to go to Picasa album which will provide more viewing options.

Guidelines for Presentations

We give lots of presentations. Most of them aren’t good, mine included, so I’ve developed this guideline to inspire us all to do better, and to organize some of the basic tips on creating great presentations.

Inspiration

If you want inspiration, one of the best public libraries of great talks is TED.com . Most of this has nothing to do with email marketing, but is an awesome source of great thinking by persuasive speakers. There is a lot we all can learn by watching the greats.

Persuasion

The number one goal of your presentation should be to persuade your audience to do something. If you don’t expect them to DO SOMETHING and CHANGE after you speak to them, then don’t waste your time or theirs. Every business presentation is about persuasion.

If you believe in your idea, sell it. If you don’t, stay home.

Guy Kawasaki gives great, persuasive presentations. As a former Apple evangelist, you’d expect that. He had to compete with Steve Jobs. His 10/20/30 Rule for PowerPoint is a classic. If you are looking to improve your presentations do two things.

1. Focus on persuasion. Ask, “What do I want your audience to do?” Then focus only on facts that support them making that decision.
2. Read Guy’s blog linked below, and follow his advice for keeping in short, and clear.

10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint – Guy Kawasaki

- 10 slides

- 20 minutes

- 30 point or larger font

You think 20 minutes isn’t enough to get your story across? Watch the hundreds of AMAZING stories told in 20 minutes or less at TED.com, and you’ll know it can be done. After listening for 20 minutes to any of these speakers you’ll know MUCH more, and likely be persuaded to adopt their point of view.

Focus on problem first, then our solution. A typical slide order might be

1. The Problem
2. Your solution
3. … Evidence necessary to persuade them that your solution is the best solution
4. Projections and milestones
5. Status and timeline
6. Summary and call to action

Another great read is Seth Godin’s blog post Really Bad PowerPoint or in his ten-page ebook. Seth’s tips:

Four Components to a Great Presentation

1. Make yourself cue cards. Don’t put them on the screen. Put them in your hand. This simple device will keep you from putting words on slides just so you can read them.

2. Make slides that reinforce your words, not repeat them. Create slides that demonstrate, with emotional proof, that what you’re saying is true not just accurate.

3. Create a written document as a leave-behind. Put in as many footnotes or details as you like. Then, when you start your presentation, tell the audience that you’re going to give them all the details of your presentation after it’s over, and they don’t have to write down everything you say. Remember, the presentation is to make an emotional sale. The document is the proof that helps the intellectuals in your audience accept the idea that you’ve sold them on emotionally.

4. Create a feedback cycle. If your presentation is for a project approval, hand people a project approval form and get them to approve it, so there’s no ambiguity at all about what you’ve all agreed to.

The reason you give a presentation is to make a sale. So make it. Don’t leave without a “yes,” or at the very least, a commitment to a date or to future deliverables.

What makes for a great presentation?

“The home run is easy to describe: You put up a slide. It triggers an emotional reaction in the audience. They sit up and want to know what you’re going to say that fits in with that image. Then, if you do it right, every time they think of what you said, they’ll see the image (and vice versa).” – Seth Godin

What Can Your PowerPoint Presentation Learn from TV Commercials?

Think about it. TV commercials tell as story and sell you in 30 seconds. That’s talent! This MarketingProfs article is a great summary about how to use TV ad techniques to make your presentation better. The steps, in brief:

1: Kaboom Them Into Waking Up!

2: Always Tell A Story

3: Use Suspense, Not Mystery

4: Don't Bore Them with Your Solutions. Bring Up the Problem!

5: Reduce Risk

6: Let Your Audience Know They're Not Guinea Pigs

7: Close the #@$%*&^ Sale!

8: Bring on a Quirky Finale!

The book, Say It With Presentations by McKinsey’s Gene Zelazny is a classic and a quick read. I can’t do it justice in a brief summary, but here’s my best shot, with a little editorial.

Design the Presentation

Why are you giving this presentation?

Answer this question seriously before you even start to create the presentation.

Whom do you want to convince?

Designing a presentation without an audience in mind is like writing a love letter and addressing it To Whom It May Concern. - Ken Haemer, AT&T

There is no such thing as a dumb audience. If they don’t understand, it’s because you can’t communicate. – Henry Golub, American Express

It’s not what you say that counts, it’s what they hear. – Red Auerbach, Boston Celtics

How much time do you have for the presentation?

Determine your message?

This is the part that should be like a TV commercial. If you can’t come up with what you would say if you only had 30 seconds, then don’t bother wasting an hour of someone’s time. You need to get the message right before you create the story.

Craft the storyline.

Write the introduction.

- Purpose

- Importance

- Preview

Plan the ending.

- Summarize major points.

- Spell out the recommendation

- Present your action plan

- Ask for agreement and commitment

- Close off with “next steps”

Build a storyboard

Deliver the Presentation

You are the star! Not your presentation. If that makes you uncomfortable, stay home and send a written report. The presentation used to be known as a “visual aide”. That’s what it is, just an aide. You are the star.

The three things that matter in your delivery:

· Confidence

· Conviction

· Enthusiasm

Great delivery takes practice. Practice makes perfect.

REHEARSE!

Churhill rehearsed, Kennedy rehearsed, Martin Luther King rehearsed, Clinton rehearsed, Obama rehearses.

Don’t kid yourself. No matter how great an orator is, they rehearse. You’re kidding yourself if you think you can even be GOOD if you don’t rehearse.

ClickZ Column - Segmentation: Yes, You Can!

I started writing a monthly column for ClickZ today. My first column is titled, "Segmentation: Yes, You Can!" I've found that while the idea that segmentation is the "right thing to do", many marketers struggle to actually get the job done.

In the column, I address some of the barriers I've heard, and how marketers I've worked with have overcome and achieved great success.

Free Shipping Offers Steady - Week of 12/13/2008

This week the number of companies offering unconditional free shipping held steady at 20% of our top 100 retailers. Overall the number of free shipping offers is down slightly from last week. See chart below (click chart to see bigger version).



We've seen a couple of switches back and forth this week amongst competitors.

Home Depot dropped a conditional free shipping at $149 offer, while competitor Lowes upped their offer from conditional at $49 to unconditional.

Likewise, last week Golfsmith offered free shipping at a $99 threshold, and now offers no shipping offers. But competitor Dick's Sporting Goods who had offered nothing last week now matches Golfsmith's offer from last week - a $99 threshold.