titles for titled customers

This made me smile - so I thought I would share it.

I was looking to make a purchase on the Orvis.co.uk website. Now, Orvis cater for - how should I put it - a better class of customer. Don't for one minute assume I am in that league, they just had a jacket I liked the look of. Anyhoo ... back to the order - and normally, when asked for your title, you are given the choice of Mr, Mrs, Ms ... maybe Doctor - but take a look at Orvis's options.
One negative, however. Before placing an order I joined a mailing list for which I was promised a discount of £10 from my first order over £50. The only detail they had was my email address, so I assumed that when that address appeared on an order I would get the discount. But I didn't. If I remember, I'll give them a ring tomorrow.

Footnote: I also like this nice touch in the order's confirmation email. Can't see that too many folk will share an email address, but still ...

this form goes to the bottom of the class

So imagine you are a sixth former - or the parent of one - and you just want to take a look at what a few universities have to offer. Let's suppose you want to take a degree in marketing but are particularly interested in online marketing. So you just want to look through the marketing programmes to make sure e-marketing is included [not all UK universities teach the subject]. So you go to the websites of the various unis hoping that in a couple of clicks and typing in your name and address [or, for switched on organizations, just your post (zip) code and house number].

Sadly, at the University of Sunderland getting a prospectus 'ain't quite that simple. Here's the form you have to complete [click here for the real thing].

I make that 15 fields that must be filled in, and another raft of options you may or may not be interested in - including requesting information that should be available on the website anyway.

But don't worry, you do get a 'personalised VIP web page' - whether you want one or not.

Neither does the page include that old-fashioned facility: the telephone number. Or maybe an SMS number? Remember, I am just making a general enquiry. I don't even know my [or my child's] A level results yet. In marketing terms, I am right at the top of the buying funnel - not half way down - which is what this form is designed for. If you disagree with my analysis, you have to disgree with this too: website usability for improving online forms.

And finally ... there is no statement on how your email address will - or won't - be used. The Data Protection Act is quoted - but does that cover using your email for other promotional purposes? Or passing it on to other interested parties? Legal requirement or not, it is good practice to include a message outlining such things.

Oh, and I nearly forgot. If you go to the prospectus page it sits on the following URL:
https://sunderland.hobsons.co.uk/emtinterestpage.aspx?ip=student16.
Two things:
1 - that form is sitting on the domain [and so, website] of a third party - Hobsons. In my opinion, perhaps a questionable move as the univsity has no control over that domain, site or page eg if Hobsons' server goes down, so does that form. Unless Hobsons agreed to hosting a fourth level domain of theirs on someone elses server - an equally poor idea even if it is technically viable, and
2 - why not host the prospectus for Sunderland University on either:
Sunderland.ac.uk/Prospectus
or
Prospectus.Sunderland.ac.uk
Of course I know nothing about these domain name issues. Oh, sorry, yes I do - I've written a book on the subject: Choosing the right domain name - a marketing perspective

link building amateur hour, me thinks

This is an odd entry as it is about this blog!

Most [I hope] of you will know that having more links into your website will normally raise your standing with Google. One 'spammy' way of doing this is to tour blog sites and add comments, but include a link to your website in those comments - so developing many links going to your site. This is usually done by using software programmed to go and find blogs and insert comments.

On this blog, I have it set up so that I check the comments before I publish them. And here is one comment that arrived for checking today:

Note that there are three links to the company's website embedded in the text. How do I know it's spam? Look at the message: 'Hi Dear' !!! The blog entry being commented on is not a podcast, and 'very thanks' what's that mean?

Of course, if I'm wrong, I look forward to hearing from the Toronto Marketing Company.

convenience, not price

I've been making this point for years - indeed, there is an example in my book - but shopping online is not all about saving money, and just today I had cause to confirm this belief.

I wanted a couple of digital pictures printed as old fashioned hold-in-your-hand photos. So I went to photobox [note: this is not a promo for that organization, I'm sure there are dozens of similar services out there, I just happened to have used them before]. At 10.35am I placed the order. At 6.35pm I got an email telling me the pics had been despatched and at 10.20 the next morning they arrived through my letterbox. That's less than 24 hours from order to taking possession. Cost: 10p per photo plus £1.49 postage = £1.69.

The alternative would have been to [a] drive into town, park the car, walk to Boots [or similar] and printed the pictures, return to the car and drive home. The printing cost is around the same and the car park would have been around a pound, time taken about an hour, [b] caught the bus into town and back, walking to the shop [saving the planet?], cost around a pound each way, time taken around an hour and a half or [c] walked into town - cheaper but takes a couple of hours and it was raining.

So there you go - unless I had wanted the pictures in my hand on the same day seems to me that it was £1.69 well spent. Saving an hour or more of my time was worth much more.

I think this is probably a spam email

I usually simply delete spam without reading it [hmmm, how do I know it is spam if I don't read it?], but this one came in on my university email's spam filter.
Email's promising tax refunds are fairly common - but not from a design company in Hong Kong. Come on spammers, you can do better than that!

offer - what offer?

It is a fundamental of marketing that to be successful, any promotion must be appealing to the potential customer. As I have said many times - online is no different. So when I got this email I asked myself; "who will be interested in this offer?" I would have to be travelling this week [I received the email on Saturday the 14th], but surely, if I have a trip planned, I'd already have booked my hotel? Plus, Thursday isn't included in the deal. And the deal isn't available on Thursday night. Oh, and the small print under this ad says; 'All rates are subject to availability at the time of booking and may not be available at every hotel every night'. Or what if I had already booked with Travelodge and had paid a higher price?

coming soon - for the time traveller

I recently came across the concept of tan-though T shirts and so went looking for them online. One site I came across was that of safer-suntan.co.uk. The product looked reasonable, but availability seemed to be a problem. The first colour was listed as being available in M, L and XL - unfortunately, the exact same sizes that were not available.
It was a similar situation with the camel shirts, it's a good job new stock is arriving two years ago.
As a footnote: This website uses a third party for its online sales facility. Nothing wrong with that, it is common and - particularly for small businesses - sensible. However, when the user clicks on the link on safer-suntan.co.uk to 'enter the e-store', the URL becomes:
https://sslrelay.com/s77608230.oneandoneshop.co.uk/ [and a whole lot more gobbledy gook].
Note there is no sign that the store has any connection to Safer Suntan UK. Indeed, two domain names are listed in that URL, but neither is safer-suntan.co.uk. It might make some think twice before handing over their credit card number and other personal information.

good job it's not a Christmas present

For reasons that I won't go into, I spent several hours today killing time in the lovely town of Harrogate - and I called in one shop called Orvis. They had a nice jacket - but not in my size. The staff told me about the website, so when I got home I took a look. Selecting my size I found there was a problem with availability ...

Yep, that's the end of December before it can be dispatched. That's five months away. Hmmm. Furthermore, in the shop it was on sale - 30% off, but no sign of such an offer on the website. Consistency of pricing on- and offline is an issue, with best practice normally being 'same price' for all channels. I know I would have been sick if I had bought online and then seen the jacket in the shop for 60-odd pounds less.

As a footnote: this is only my suspicion based on my retail experience - but I suspect that this particular jacket is being discontinued, to be replaced later in the year with a new style. This would explain the long lead time for online orders and the discount of what sizes remain in the shops. If I'm right, why not just say that? Indeed you could actually make it into 'good' news, and collect email addresses of folk who want to be informed when the new style is available.

As is the case in all my entries to this blog: if Orvis's reputation management team pick this up [which they should - if such a team exists] I would be happy to amend my assumption if I am wrong.

Footnote: as you can see, someone from Orvis did contact me and we exchanged emails with regard to the issues - he concluded by saying my comments would be passed on to the appropriate folk.

not exactly nectar to my lips

I was signing up for a Nectar card and as part of the procedure I was - naturally - asked if I wanted to get emails with details of promotions, offers and so on. I ticked the boxes for 'no' [in itself, a questionable practice - ticking for 'yes' is more ethical] but on the last one this pop-up appeared.
Now, if you read it slowly it is not misleading - but for most people [it's a usability thing] if you tick something and a pop-up appears with 'OK' or 'cancel' as the options, clicking on 'OK' confirms your action. In this case it does the reverse. A bit sneaky you Nectar people.

you're where?

It is the case that the search engines look for key words in the text on a website - and having those words at the beginning of the content is deemed to be best. But - and it is a big but - you should never [ever, ever, ever] sacrifice the user for SEO. The text should be written for humans, not search engines - in other words, the content should make sense to humans.

And here is an example. Whoever is responsible for this website's content obviously thinks that getting the keywords 'Moorside, Bingley and Bradford' is more important than making the owners look like blithering idiots.

Want to test my opinion here? Try reading that first paragraph as if you were answering the phone at that garage.