Top of Mind Awareness

Did you know that simply walking through a doorway can make you forget what you were doing? It's true! A study conducted by Gabriel Radvansky and Notre Dame found that if you walk through a doorway you'll forget the mission you were on.  Which explains all those times you've walked from one room to another and thought "What did I come in here for?"  Doorways act as an event eraser.  Strange but true.

Our brain has the ability to do wonderful things, especially when it comes to memory.  We get to recall our most pleasant events years later when triggered by a sound, fragrance or sight.  We can force ourselves to remember the multiplication tables for quick reference when we need them. And we can remember that really cool company that we saw last week advertising those widgets that we knew we would need at some time but . . . can we really?

The "old school" advertising rule was that people could remember 7 things plus or minus 2 items.  That's where we come up with the "navigation should have 10 links or less" and "7 is a lucky number."  But it turns out that's not really true either.

Try this experiment - name 7 brands in 5 seconds.  No cheating!  How far did you get? If you are like most of us you maybe could come up with 4 then started to struggle.

Obviously if you want to make sure someone remembers your company name, you'll need to do a good job of making sure you get it out there repeatedly because people go through doorways all the time!  Seriously though, it's getting to be more of a challenge daily to get people to remember to call you instead of your competitor or the first sign they see on the highway.

How do you do it? Repetition for starters.  When they see your brand in social media, in an email, on a search engine result page and on a website the sheer repetition starts to set in.  The bad thing is, when you stop the repetition the brand falls off the top of their mind and is replaced with some other brand.

If you want them to remember something on your website - make it really stand out! No kidding! Turns out all the bold, italics, Times New Roman in the world doesn't replace the eye appeal to the memory like a graphic artists worst nightmare of a font catastrophe! (From a study by Princeton and Indiana University)

Oh, and about that doorway - I don't know this for a fact but I bet when you move from one page to the next on a website a similar effect happens which is why you need the contact information on every page (what was I looking for again?).

So now that you know a bit more - will you remember it? If you use your hands while talking about this concept you will - guaranteed! But that's a whole 'nuther blog post.

Turn a Facebook Friend into a Facebook Page Fan

This post was suggested by one of our readers - you can suggest too by using the box in the lower right of this page!

If you're like most business owners on Facebook you've got "friends" who are actually customers or clients of your business.  That's fine, it's great to know that they think enough of you to want to be your friend. But if they are just a friend, they miss out on all the great business related items on your actual business page like: news, promotions, staff highlights, fun photos and more.  So if you're like me, you need to convert those friends into fans.

Here are a few things to try:

• First, use the conventional method of inviting your friends to "like" your business fan page.  Here's how that's done:   

• First, go to your business page on Facebook. From that page you'll see the admin panel which is divided into sections.  The lower right section has some of your friends listed and the words "invite friends."  To make it easy on yourself click "see all" to the far right.  This will bring up a box of all your friends. 

• Check to make sure that "Search All Friends" is selected from the drop down menu on the top left in the box. This will show you all your friends on Facebook.  The friends that are already fans or have already been invited are grayed out leaving the friends you have yet to invite in full color. 

• Check mark the box next to each friend and when you are finished selecting, click the "submit" button on the bottom right of the box.  This will automatically invite your friends to become fans.

Now, let's say you've tried that and got a few new friends but not everyone.  Okay the next step would be to  put an announcement on your Facebook wall (timeline) and let them know you've got a cool new page and you need their help to get more fans.  Link directly to your business page in the post.  That should bring in a few more friends.

When you see your customer "friends" online, send them a message using the Facebook chat and ask them directly to like the business page.  Be sure to have the link ready to send them in the post to make it super easy.

Okay you've tried those options and you've still got a lot of friends who are customers and you need them to become fans.  Now is when you have to get really creative. And I would say at this point bribery is not out of the question.  How about a discount for a limited time only to those who are fans of the business page?

How about posting a question on your business page and giving something away to a few of the correct or best answers? Once you post on your business page you can personally "like" it and "share" it with your own friends and timeline which will elicit interaction.

Hancock fabrics (one of my favorites) has a great thing going where they are asking fans to post photos every Monday and awarding gift cards to their favorites. Funky Threads has been successful simply sharing their creations on both the business page and her personal Facebook page. Use your imagination and if you find something that works well please share it here!

Caring Ties

This morning I received an email from Peter who owns the company behind a new mobile app called "Caring Ties."  He asked me to take a look at his website and give him a call.  I thought it might be interesting to write about the suggestions I gave him to increase the number of conversions, or in this case downloads.

To start, I read the website over and I can honestly say I like the product.  As families become more involved with the care of aging loved ones and even with youngsters it's hard to keep track of all the important information like medications, medical needs, vaccinations and the like. Communication can be missed or misconstrued.  The Caring Ties app is great for keeping everyone in the family on the same page.

Now, on to the website:

The first thing that strikes me is the almost universal sign for remembering with the string around the finger.  The design is clean, makes great use of white space and the image is striking.  The thing that isn't apparent is why I need this app, what problem does it solve.  It's a simple question of motivation - why should I look any further at this website? Doesn't Facebook, email, cell phones and the like tie families together?

The second panel of the rotating banner doesn't really give any further reason to get the app.  Just more features.  

My advice: 

• Focus on the problem and how the app solves the problem.
• Use real people, faces, families to convey the problem and the secure feeling the solution can provide.
• Forget about features, tell me the benefits.  Why is it important to have the reminders? 
• Use the blog and testimonials to give real life examples of how this app will help.

In addition, the text on the website is very sparse and doesn't really have any words people would use to look for anything similar.  I suggested that while rewriting the text to focus on the problem, solution and benefits the natural language will be better for people searching for tools to help them in caring for family members.

I am anxious to see the changes in place and find out how well the changes work towards increasing the app downloads.  It's a great concept!

What should I write about today?

If you're a blogger or if you've been told that you need to be blogging for your company you have probably encountered the question of what to write about.  So this is a blog for people who should be blogging or anyone who needs to develop content for websites, social media and etc.

First - don't think so hard! It's not about coming up with some mind blowing idea.  Most of the time when you write about the first thing that comes to mind you'll do fine.   Unfortunately, the thought of "what to write about" often causes immediate writer's block.  I know, it happens here all the time.

When you need to come up with items for social media think small, quick, easy to grasp:

• Quote of the day
• Unique "national day of" (find them on the Hallmark website)
• Tips on using (or related to) your product / service
• Link to specific pages of your website
• Links to articles related to what you offer
• Links to your other social media outreach sites: Facebook, Google+, Pinterest etc.
• What's new in the company: products, services, people, projects etc.

Now that won't help you when it comes to writing longer posts so I came across a cool little tool to help you get "unstuck."  It's clever really.  Go to this website and download the Google spreadsheet.  Be sure you log into your own Google account and "save a copy." Now in the top left cell type in whatever subject you want to explore and the spreadsheet does the rest.  You'll get immediate links to all sorts of articles, information related to the topic which can help you get a start on your next blog post.  Still need help? Contact us!