37 Ways You Are Confusing Your Customers

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Ever consider that what you are doing might be the reason your conversions aren't happening? Take a quick look at these no-nos...

Transcript of 37 Ways You Are Confusing Your Customers

Page 1: 37 Ways You Are Confusing Your Customers
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Intr

o When  you  do  business  online,  communica2on  is  everything.  If  your  marke2ng  isn’t  clear,  poten2al  customers  get  confused,  and  when  customers  get  confused,  they  leave  before  they  ever  know  what  it  is  you  offer.  

Here  is  a  comprehensive  list  of  37  different  ways  marketers  and  businesspeople  confuse  their  customers,  and  how  you  can  avoid  making  the  same  mistakes.  

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Social Media: Twitter

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#1 Fruit  of  the  Loom’s  TwiEer  account  has  three  tweets  posted  in  a  three-­‐minute  2meframe  from  2011.  They  aren’t  exactly  gaining  social  momentum  with  this  account.  If  a  service  isn’t  part  of  your  strategy,  don’t  sign  up.  

Inactive Twitter Accounts

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#2 If  every  other  word  in  your  social  media  message  is  a  hashtag,  maybe  you  don’t  know  how  these  work—that’s  what  customers  think.  If  your  hashtags  aren’t  deliberate  or  meaningful,  you  aren’t  using  them  right.  

Hashtag Overuse

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#3 McDonalds  tried  their  hand  at  forcing  a  popular  hashtag  this  past  January  when  they  started  encouraging  people  to  share  #McDStories.  Their  plan  backfired,  and  gross  stories  of  fast  food  nightmares  began  filling  the  hashtag.  Forcing  posi2ve  customer  sen2ment  can  backfire  and  do  more  harm  than  good.  

Forcing a Hashtag

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#4 New  TwiEer  users  have  a  randomly  generated  “egg”  user  picture  when  they  sign  up.  This  should  be  obvious,  but  your  user  picture  is  a  branding  opportunity.  If  you  interact  with  users  without  changing  your  user  picture  to  something  that  represents  you,  you’ll  be  ignored  in  a  heartbeat.  

Avoid the Egg

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#5 Businesses  should  ac2vely  track  men2ons  of  their  name  brand  on  social  networking  services,  and  interac2ng  with  users  that  men2on  you  is  a  great  strategy.  That  doesn’t  mean  you  should  act  on  every  single  men2on,  though:  replying  to  any  and  every  men2on  of  your  brand  can  come  off  as  obsessive  and  creepy.  

Hyperactive Brand Name Tracking

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#6 Does  your  content  translate  across  mul2ple  mediums?  Automa2c  share  systems  that  distribute  your  new  content  across  all  of  your  social  networking  profiles  can  oYen  botch  the  sharing  ac2on  by  including  too  much  unnecessary  text  or  parsing  content  in  a  way  that  doesn’t  seem  natural.  Customers  pick  up  on  this  as  a  sign  of  laziness,  and  will  respond  to  it  accordingly.  

Automatic Social Sharing

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#7 Another  pet  peeve  of  mine:  locked  TwiEer  accounts.  TwiEer  is  about  social  sharing  and  interac2on.  If  you  aren’t  willing  to  unlock  your  TwiEer  profile  and  make  your  content  public,  there’s  no  reason  to  use  the  service—unless  you’re  trying  to  look  like  a  weird  social  media  stalker  business  on  purpose.  

Unlock Twitter

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#8 Poten2al  customers  can  tell  if  you  don’t  understand  a  social  media  service  or  you  aren’t  familiar  with  how  the  site  “works.”  If  you  join  TwiEer  to  promote  yourself  and  never  share  anything  or  interact  with  others,  people  will  avoid  you  on  principal.  Learn  how  to  be  a  social  media  user  before  you  start  promo2ng.  

Understand the Service

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Social Media: Facebook

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#9 Social  media  profiles  provide  space  to  share  informa2on  about  you  and  your  business  with  other  people.  Again,  this  is  another  branding  opportunity—fill  these  out!  A  blank  About  Me  sec2on  makes  you  look  untrustworthy  and  unworthy  of  new  business.  

Don’t Be a Ghost

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#10 Do  you  interact  with  your  Facebook  fans?  They’re  interac2ng  with  you,  and  if  you  aren’t  willing  to  return  the  favor,  you’re  chasing  poten2al  customers  away.  

Facebook Disengagement

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#11 There  is  actually  a  content  strategy  called  “annoyance  marke2ng,”  and  it  can  work  some2mes—if  you’re  careful.  Social  media  is  not  the  best  place  to  make  this  strategy  work:  consider  that  with  each  post  you  make,  you’re  interrup2ng  your  customers’  personal  space  with  marke2ng  efforts.  Customers  are  generally  not  recep2ve  to  that,  so  make  sure  you  provide  some  value  with  each  post,  instead  of  chasing  them  away  with  annoying  disrup2ons.  

Being Annoying

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#12 Images  and  visual  content  go  a  long  way  online.  WriEen  content  for  social  media  without  a  visual  component  is  basically  throwing  away  a  good  exposure  opportunity.  Even  if  you  have  to  spend  extra  2me  finding  some  sort  of  relevant  image,  the  poten2al  reach  you  earn  by  calling  out  your  content  with  a  visual  cue  is  worth  the  effort.  

No Show, All Tell

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#13 Consumers  spend  maybe  two  seconds  deciding  if  a  promo2onal  post  is  worth  reading.  Stuffing  your  social  content  with  keywords  like  you  would  write  longer-­‐form  content  is  a  great  way  to  make  your  posts  look  like  a  fishy  sales  pitch  to  poten2al  customers.  

Keywords Galore

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#14 Don’t  send  customers  to  your  social  profiles  if  they  can’t  see  any  of  your  informa2on.  If  your  Facebook  profile  is  completely  locked  down,  people  will  leave  without  ever  looking  further  into  contac2ng  you.  

Open Your Privacy Settings

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Web Content

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#15 I’ve  wriEen  about  this  extensively  before:  there’s  nothing  I  hate  more  as  a  consumer  than  content  that  isn’t  accessible.  

There’s  no  reason  to  write  over  customers’  heads  unless  you’re  qualifying  your  customers  by  scaring  away  anyone  that  doesn’t  understand  what  you’re  wri2ng  about.    Writer’s  oYen  don’t  realize  they’re  doing  this  un2l  somebody  else  points  it  out,  so  be  careful.  

Writing Over Your Customer’s Heads

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#16 Just  like  your  menu  should  express  clear,  immediately  recognizable  intent,  your  2tle  lines  should  be  clear  as  well.  Is  your  product  the  best  in  the  market?  Then  say  so,  don’t  hint  at  it.  Vague  headlines  are  a  major  point  of  frustra2on  for  poten2al  customers  because  they  can  be  misleading.  

Vague Headlines

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#17 Don’t  write  content  based  on  assump2ons  about  your  target  market.  Customers  start  to  scratch  their  heads  when  they  read  content  that  is  obviously  directed  at  them,  but  doesn’t  actually  apply  to  them.  

Making Assumptions

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#18 Marketers  like  to  use  “do  you  need  this?”  taglines  and  have  worn  them  out  for  years.  It’s  supposed  to  make  the  customer  tell  themselves  “oh,  I  guess  I  do!”  We’re  smarter  than  this  now.  Once  in  a  while  these  are  okay,  but  don’t  hinge  your  en2re  conversion  on  a  2red  marke2ng  gag.  

e Rhetorical Question

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#19 Businesses  will  oYen  repurpose  their  printed  marke2ng  materials  for  online  use  by  simply  throwing  the  image  or  raw  content  online,  without  changing  it  or  op2mizing  it  for  the  web.  This  is  a  big  no-­‐no:  large  images  (like  print  ads)  are  difficult  to  navigate  online,  and  consumers  are  very  frustrated  when  there  aren’t  interac2ve  elements  where  they  should  be  an2cipated.  Repurposing  print  content  for  the  web  is  fine,  but  be  smart  about  it.  

Print and Online Are Different

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#20 Marketers  oYen  throw  QR  codes  into  their  promo2onal  material  because  it’s  cheap  and  easy.  QR  codes  have  a  bad  reputa2on  for  requiring  lots  of  effort  to  produce  minimal  value.  Don’t  use  a  QR  code  without  making  the  value  of  a  scan  immediately  apparent  and  worthwhile.  

QR Codes Can Back#re

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#21 Hyperlinks  are  a  major  distrac2on.  If  you  fill  your  page  design  and  content  up  with  them,  it’s  tough  to  focus  on  the  actual  content.  Make  every  link  count,  don’t  load  up  content  with  links  to  every  liEle  relevant  thing  you  can  think  of.  

Mystery Links

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#22 I  was  reading  an  ar2cle  today  about  a  service  that  checked  if  your  password  had  been  stolen  aYer  a  recent  hack,  and  I  counted  14  anchor  text  links  in  the  content  of  the  ar2cle.  The  actual  service  was  one  of  the  last  links  on  the  page.  The  rest  were  links  poin2ng  directly  to  other  ar2cles  wriEen  by  the  same  news  site.  Ugh!  If  your  link  content  is  important,  make  sure  customers  can  find  it  easily.  

Over Anchoring

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#23 Pos2ng  anchor  text  or  a  link  promising  something  incredible  or  valuable,  then  having  it  link  directly  to  one  of  your  conversion  pages  is  decep2ve.  Customers  don’t  appreciate  this,  and  although  it  used  to  be  a  popular  content  strategy,  now  it  just  makes  customers  lose  trust  in  your  brand.  

Link-Bating is Old News

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#25 Your  web  content  shouldn’t  be  designed  solely  to  sell  your  products  or  services.  You’ll  earn  more  conversions  from  content  that  empathizes  with  customers’  problems  and  needs.  Emphasize  that  you  are  providing  a  valuable  service  instead  of  just  cour2ng  a  sale.  

Appreciate Customer Needs

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Website Design

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#26 Small  businesses  oYen  design  their  websites  so  that  everything  they  possibly  offer  is  crammed  into  an  overly  busy  homepage  menu.  Don’t  throw  your  en2re  business  at  customers  when  they  first  arrive.  Use  your  head  and  guide  users  through  your  services  with  call  to  ac2on  cues  and  deliberately  designed  paths  through  your  content.  

Overloading Your Site Navigation

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#26 Another  mistake  small  businesses  oYen  make  is  pulng  2tles  on  their  naviga2on  page  that  aren’t  specific.  Making  a  menu  item  that  simply  reads  “Lovelies”  instead  of  a  buEon  that  says  “My  Products”  is  a  great  way  to  lose  poten2al  sales.  Your  naviga2on  needs  to  make  it  absolutely  clear  what  customers  can  click  on  and  what  they  can  expect  on  the  other  side.  

Vague Navigation

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#27 Many  small  businesses  make  the  mistake  of  trying  to  align  themselves  with  massive,  mul2million-­‐dollar  corpora2ons  right  from  the  start.  Most  of  your  poten2al  customers  aren’t  members  of  Fortune  500  companies,  especially  in  the  B2B  market.  If  your  services  rival  large  corpora2ons’  abili2es,  that’s  a  great  sales  point.  Make  sure  that  your  bold  claims  aren’t  making  your  services  seem  inaccessible  to  everyone  else,  though.  

Aiming Big

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#28 If  you  aren’t  providing  an  anchor  link  to  your  info  every  single  2me  you  say  “Contact  Us,”  you’d  beEer  make  your  contact  page  absolutely  visible  somewhere  nearby.  Users  that  want  to  contact  you  will  get  confused  and  leave  if  they  can’t  find  your  contact  informa2on,  and  it  is  typically  an  aYerthought  in  site  design.  

Hiding Your Contact Info

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#29 If  you  have  mul2ple  customer  targets  you’re  trying  to  market  to,  you  should  offer  different  pages  that  offer  content  specifically  tailored  to  them.  “Universal”  content  marke2ng  doesn’t  exist,  and  is  usually  just  a  way  to  make  “vague  content”  sound  beEer.  

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

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#30 It’s  okay  to  cater  to  mul2ple  target  markets,  but  you  can’t  provide  everything  for  everyone.  Content  and  naviga2on  design  that  appeals  to  the  broadest  demographic  truly  targets  no  one,  and  your  conversions  will  reflect  your  confusing  targe2ng  tac2cs.  

Tighten Your Focus

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#31 Not  all  customers  will  convert  as  soon  as  they  land  on  your  page.  Having  an  automa2c  follow-­‐up  built  in  to  your  page,  like  a  newsleEer  opt-­‐in  or  a  “Get  More  Informa2on”  link,  is  a  great  tool,  but  only  if  you  don’t  slam  your  conversions  with  too  much  follow-­‐up,  too  fast.  

Be Considerate in Your Followup

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Offers and Discounts

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#32 It’s  all  too  common  for  products  to  be  listed  on  business  websites  with  absolutely  zero  descrip2ve  content  provided.  Give  customers  more  than  a  name  and  a  price,  or  they’ll  start  to  wonder  why  exactly  they  should  buy  it.  

Provide Adequate Information

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#33 I  recently  saw  an  awful  discount  for  a  digital  entertainment  product  online:  pre-­‐purchase  four  unreleased  pieces  of  soYware  and  get  them  the  day  they  come  out.  The  “premium”  price  was  $50,  and  each  piece  of  soYware  was  $15  each.  Great,  so  I’m  saving  $10  on  one  piece  of  soYware,  and  that’s  only  if  I  even  want  to  purchase  all  four,  which  I  don’t.  If  you’re  going  to  offer  a  deal,  offer  a  good  one.  

Don’t Offer False Value

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#34 Scan  this  QR  code  and  check  in  on  Foursquare  and  leave  a  review  on  Yelp  and  print  this  Groupon  offer  and  THEN  you  can  have  your  15%  off?  No  thank  you.  You  can  provide  condi2onal  discounts,  but  don’t  lock  customers  out  by  making  it  unnecessarily  difficult.  

Nobody Likes to Jump rough Hoops

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#35 If  you  have  a  2ered  customer  rewards  system,  don’t  set  the  bar  for  joining  a  higher  level  too  high,  and  make  sure  the  increased  value  is  worth  the  price  of  reaching  that  point.  If  your  2ered  reward  system  doesn’t  provide  value  that  is  immediately  apparent,  it’s  probably  underwhelming  or  confusing.  

Tiered Rewards Can Discourage Customers

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#36 I  can’t  even  count  how  many  2mes  I’ve  received  email  offers  that  expire  by  the  2me  I  see  them.  Don’t  send  out  email  offers  that  expire  24  hours  aYer  the  email  goes  out—give  your  customers  some  lead  2me  to  act  on  your  deals.  

Offers Must Be Timely

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#37 There  are  a  few  online  shops  I  am  happy  to  be  a  repeat  customer  on.  I  just  wish  that  every  now  and  then,  I  could  get  a  10%  or  15%  discount  for  my  next  visit  aYer  I  check  out.  Don’t  let  customers  think  that  you  don’t  want  their  business  again  in  the  future.  

Offer Repeat Business Incentives

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