Quality Content Still Matters

Google has seriously been shaking up the world of search engine marketing, but 2012 is bound to get even crazier. Since the introduction of Google Panda that aimed to reward sites with rich and high-quality content rather than those stuffed with keywords, the updates to the Caffeine ranking algorithm that was said to impact 35% of searches to produce more up-to-date and relevant results, and the new SSL rules in Google Analytics that doesn’t allow the entrance keyword to be captured if the user is logged in to his or her account, web marketers have had to find better ways to capture data, measure results, and refine their strategies. However, if Google keeps smacking us upside the head with changes that blow our tried and tested methodologies out of the water, at least we can count on one thing to increase our chances of success: good quality content.

According to Kuno Creative, it is hard to maximize organic search visibility without good quality content. No more are the days in which websites can be stuffed with keywords or links to bump up their Google rank and claim the prize of being the top result on the search results page. Since the introduction of Panda, bloated websites like this don’t stand a chance. Website owners must consistently update their websites with fresh content to “keep the Panda happy” and to maintain their prime real estate. For many web marketers, this opened doors to yet another opportunity to optimize: content marketing.

Content marketing, in a nutshell, is one of the most important strategies to have in place right now. Along with social media, it is what keeps your content relevant in Google’s ranking index and increases organic traffic. To maximize results, establish a plan to update certain content areas of your website on a weekly or monthly basis. Whether that means dusting off your blog and utilizing your best writers to create top-notch content or keeping your portfolio up-to-date with case studies, videos of client testimonials, or digital e-books, your target audience is waiting for you to create meaningful and insightful content.

One of the most important things I have learned while creating content is that if you want to blog, you should blog because you want to. You should write genuinely and honestly to your target audience. Remember that every word is a direct reflection of not only your brand, but yourself. By producing content that is real, it will speak to users. It will get them to act. It will inspire you to create more, and in return, it will attract more listeners. It sounds easy, doesn’t it?

To web marketers, it will always be a challenge to set the right content marketing strategy in motion. There is not a “one size fits all” approach to content marketing that guarantees a safe spot in Google’s search engine indexing system. It will be a continuous cycle of measuring and refining to find the strategy that not only works well with your overall marketing plan, but also increases your brand’s online visibility and influence.

Other Game-Changers?

2012 will surely be a year in which everyone can agree that content – whether it is Tweets, videos, or blog articles – truly matters. I look forward to seeing what trends and technologies will emerge in fast-paced world of web and search engine marketing this year. What do you think will be a game-changer in 2012?

In case you missed it, here are my game-changers for 2012:

• Part I: Social Integrates with Search
• Part II: Video Content Explodes
• Part III: Quality Content Still Matters

The first month of the year is drawing to a close, but we are still curious to hear what others are saying about the state of the web in 2012. While technology may seem like it moves at the speed of light, we can count on Internet sales and marketing to adapt as needed. As search engine marketing experts are supercharging visitor engagement though social media and content marketing, website owners are taking note and making big changes. This is the year in which quality content is necessary for not only search engine optimization, but visitor engagement, conversion, and retention as well.

Keyword-Stuffing No Longer Works

A few years ago, it was quite easy for your website to secure a top ranking in search engines and drive a lot of traffic just by writing content loaded with keywords. Website content authors took advantage of this and would seize every opportunity to insert a keyword here and there to ensure prime real estate in Google’s search results. However, instead of finding the answer or solution to your search query, oftentimes what was returned to you was empty, meaningless content.

Take, for example, the following sentence: “We are an Indianapolis company located in Indianapolis, which is in the central part of Indiana, which is where many other Indianapolis companies reside.”

Although this is a bit of an exaggeration, it is obvious that this sentence was written to merely drive traffic and rank high in search results. Many websites might have performed well with this optimization trickery, but it has proven to be an ineffective and insincere method. Now that our search engines have gotten smarter and have upgraded their algorithms to sniff out lousy websites, website content authors can no longer rely on keywords.

Don’t get me wrong, though: keywords still are an important factor in the SEO equation. You still need to focus on strong keywords and terms to acquire new visitors to your website. However, now you really need to strategize about how your website content is going to engage, convert, and retain these visitors.

Engage Your Visitors

Your content should speak to the needs of your target audience and present solutions to their problems. Likewise, it should also entice your visitor to want to learn more about your company, products, and services. To take your engagement to the next level, set up a social media and email marketing strategy that will allow you to interact with your visitors on a more authentic level.

Convert Your Prospects

If you write content without regard to what it is your visitors are looking for, then what’s the point? It’s like throwing bait into a lake without putting it on a hook. By focusing on quality content, you create more opportunities to engage and earn the respect, trust, and (hopefully) the desire of those who visit your website. And when you have the respect, trust, and desire of your visitors, you are more likely to turn that opportunity into a golden one and, more importantly, that prospect into a loyal customer.

Retain Your Customers

It is important to plan to update your website content accordingly to keep it fresh and relevant not only in the search engines’ indexes, but in your visitors’ minds as well. By getting your visitor to come back to your website on a consistent basis, you know that your company will come to mind whenever they have a need for your products or services, regardless of search engine rank. Likewise, make sure the social media and email marketing strategies you have in place engage all of your visitors.

How will you engage, convert, and retain your website visitors this year? Please share your thoughts with us – we welcome the discussion!

Video Content Explodes

Did you know that videos account for 50% of all online traffic as of January 2012? Did you also know that 85% of Americans watch 1.3 billion videos a day? These statistics may seem surprising at first, but in reality, they make perfect sense. With websites like YouTube, Vimeo, Hulu, and Netflix, it has become increasingly easy for users to access high-quality video content either for free or at the cost of a fast food lunch at Arby’s.

How many times have you researched a product online to only find that there are no video demonstrations or tutorials to aid you in your final decision? According to GoMo News, users who are exposed to videos are 437% more likely to engage with your brand. This number is significant and speaks to the importance of video content. I know that as a consumer, I am more likely to make an online purchase if I see a video that shares more detail and offers me a solution to my problem.

As a user of these aforementioned online video services, it does not surprise me that video usage is skyrocketing. After all, people are visual creatures. We are more influenced by brands that engage us with color, texture, sound, and stunning theatrics that speak to our needs. Likewise, we are often charmed by companies that can offer us a solution by showing us a story with real characters and real problems.

This does not mean, however, that a video must be produced to fit Hollywood’s standards or be on par with an Oscar-worthy plot line. A simple 1- to 2-minute video usually tells a better story than three paragraphs of incredibly descriptive sentences that would make even Virginia Woolf cringe.

Not sure where to start or what your first online video should be about? Here’s a couple of questions to get you started:

• Who are you?
• What do you believe in?
• What is your culture like?

If you remember from a previous article, it was once said that your culture is your brand. If this still doesn’t click or ignite a quick response from you or a co-worker, then now is the perfect opportunity to rethink your marketing strategy for the new year. You should really think long and hard about this before jumping onto the video bandwagon.

If you’ve exhausted your brainstorming sessions and are still scrambling to create a video that aligns with your company’s marketing goals and overall message, then click here to check out some basic video ideas that will work well with any brand or industry.

Stay tuned for part III of III!

The Internet landscape is constantly sprouting successful ideas, innovations, and technologies and growing despite a less than stellar economy. This gives us reason to look ahead to what the new year will bring. If you’re anything like me, you look forward to the surge of predictions for how the next 365 days will pan out. Not only does it give us an idea of where the web is heading, but it also gives us room to prepare.

The year 2012 will be an exciting and interesting year for web marketers, SEO experts, content creators, analytics gurus, and the like. While we cannot predict how the year will turn out exactly, we can anticipate and start to plan for the impact of Google’s social search, the explosion of video content, and the emphasis on meaningful content.

Social Integrates With Search

Last week, Google introduced a little something to the web that got most web marketers in an uproar. The update, also known as Google Search, Plus Your World, was introduced as a way for Google to continue its transformation of the search engine into something more. According to Google, the transformation will not only allow the world’s most popular search engine to not only understand content, but also people and relationships as well.

The reason why most web marketers have spoken up about this is because it affects the way that Google search results are displayed. Instead of the standard list of top-relevant websites, it will now filter in content from you, a friend, or someone you may know. Likewise, you will now see relevant Google+ pages and profiles while searching for a topic or area of interest. While this may not seem like a big deal to the average web user, it is a note-worthy move on Google’s end that will indefinitely change the way we search for information.

Google Search, Plus Your World may not have been welcomed with open arms by the web marketing community, but it is the start of something significant. We still have work to do to build a social web that is easy, intuitive, and smart, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the year 2012 will give us the tools we need to refine the way we socialize and communicate on the Internet. Likewise, it will encourage businesses to invest in a sound social strategy to help them connect to not only current customers, but potential ones as well.

If you are not utilizing social media or have not setup your Google+ page, now it a great opportunity to do so to increase your visibility to Google users. If you are still unsure of what Google+ has to offer or how to set one up, here’s a great article to help you through the process.

What do you think of this new search feature? Will you use it?

Stay tuned for part II of III!

So obviously there are plenty of people that still need to know why they need one. Below are some of the most common reasons that businesses do not have websites and why those reasons don’t hold up under further scrutiny.

1. My business doesn’t need a website.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m not saying that there aren’t some exceptions to the rule, but I can hardly think of a single type of business that wouldn’t, in some way, benefit from having an online presence. According to InternetWorldStats.com, in North America alone, there are about 270 million internet users. That’s roughly 80% of the population. And if your customers are global, that’s only 13% of the world’s internet users. Let those numbers sink in for bit. To choose to not advertise to that many people is unthinkable.

Even if your company doesn’t exactly sell something online or provide a service that uses the web, you’d be surprised still at how many people will seek information about you from the internet first, before any other means.

2. It’s too expensive.

I have two thoughts on this one; the first one being is that it isn’t as expensive as you think. It really depends on what you want your website to do. A static, brochure type of website will cost a lot less than having your own Facebook. Its important to first find out what your needs are as far as an online presence. If you find that you need a large and complicated site, odds are that this article doesn’t concern you anyway because you already know that you need a website. Static brochure websites aren’t expensive at all compared to other forms of marketing. With the right planning and forethought, the entire process can be streamlined into a very inexpensive and cost effective project.

My other thought on this is that, while the goal is to not spend too much on a website, you also don’t want to spend too little. Sure, your teenage nephew might be able to make a website, but I’d be highly dubious of how professional and effective that website would be when it’s completed. A website is your online business card. To many customers, it will be their first impression. You don’t want that impression to be that you are unprofessional and unwilling to put effort into your own website.

3. It takes too much time.

On the contrary, having a website can actually save you a great deal of time. The time involvement is front loaded. It may require extra time while creating the site, but once it’s done, it’s done. Adding additional content is, in most cases, relatively quick and easy. And again, the time a website will save you in the end in invaluable.

For instance, simply making a well thought out Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to your website can not only save you time from having to repeatedly answer the same questions and concerns, but it will also save your customers time as well. Putting some photographs of the product or service on your site will ease customer concerns and keep you from having to explain things that can be said with images.

That is just one example that will open up large amounts of time for your business. I could probably write an entire post of the time-saving benefits of a website, but I’m sure you get the idea.

4. It’s too complicated.

If you are trying to create a website yourself and you don’t know a thing about web technology, then yes, it will most certainly be complicated. However, if you are having a website created for you, then no, it’s not complicated at all. As I said in the previous section, once your website is done, it’s done. Adding and updating content is relatively easy at that point, especially if you have a good Content Management System (CMS) to make things even simpler for you.

Once again, giving the proper forethought on what you want your website to do will be what you spend most of your time thinking about. The process of making your website live can be handled by most web development companies. This makes the process of having an online presence much less complicated and painful than many people think.

So as you can see, there aren’t many compelling reasons to not have a website for your business in today’s world. By not having one you are missing out on, literally, millions of potential customers. You are opting out of one of the most cost effective forms of marketing. You are more than likely using up your valuable time doing tasks that your website could be doing for you. And you are not utilizing one very simple and powerful tool to promote your company, vision, and ideas.

On Tuesday, October 18th, 2011, I had the warm opportunity to attend a luncheon sponsored by the American Marketing Association to listen to Jeb Banner, the CEO of SmallBox, discuss the future of search engine optimization in the ever-changing, fast-paced world of web marketing.

As someone who understands its increasing importance and value, it was not surprising for me to hear that companies are currently in the middle of a big shift. More and more companies are losing control of their brands while more and more customers are holding the reigns that drive the ideas behind these brands. In other words, companies are no longer the leaders; instead, they are now the ones being led. How did this happen?

The Past and Present

A long, long time ago in the ancient days of the World Wide Web, marketing followed a top-down branding called the shotgun approach. This worked well for its time, but it was quite difficult for companies to measure effectiveness due to a lack of data and metrics. In today’s world, however, companies are implementing a targeted-sniper approach. This approach relies on Google’s search engine rankings to drive data and metrics, which are being aggressively used to measure effectiveness. However, the reliance on Google’s search algorithm had paved the way to an uneven playing field.

One of the most interesting tidbits shared was the details of how some companies were implementing shady SEO practices to increase their Google ranking. One company in particular found a way to increase traffic to its website by giving its customers lousy service. This resulted in an increased number of written reviews (which were obviously negative) that helped to bump up their rank. Suffice to say, this company is no longer in business. It makes one wonder, how does Google circumvent this unethical behavior to ensure that deserving brands are awarded with prime real estate?

Introducing Google Panda

Google responded to this behavior by introducing Panda, a change to their algorithm, to the Internet world in February 2011. This change not allows Google to identify and flag low-quality pages on the Internet, but it also allows them to factor in a new criterion to the ranking methodology: the user experience. Since Google now has the authority to weed out the weak, companies can no longer depend on a bucket list of successful keywords to drive traffic to their website.

So, what is the goal behind Panda? Google has made it pretty clear that they are seeking to reward the deserving brands behind these high-quality websites. This is great news for companies who wish to push their web marketing efforts to the next level. Whether that is a pursing a website redesign, completing a content overhaul, or launching a social media campaign, it is important to understand that at the root of all these efforts – your culture – is what matters the most.

Your Culture is Your Brand

The most important idea I took away from the presentation is that your brand is a reflection of your company’s culture. In order to vocalize your company’s brand effectively, you must start by identifying your culture. It is greatly important to understand what your core values and mission are in order to uncover your brand’s voice. A quote by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, was shared during the discussion, which I believe rings true to my previous sentiments: “Your brand is a lagging indicator of your culture.” If brand and culture are two sides of the same coin, then they need to be treated like so.

To ensure that your customers are leading your brand down the right path, it is critical to invest in your team and culture. Likewise, it is equally important to build, enforce, and nurture a strong and healthy marketing foundation. A healthy foundation can be achieved through a number of measures, including (but not limited to) creating meaningful content, interacting with your audience, and measuring your influence.

Create Meaningful Content

Even if you develop a stunning website that follows every “best user experience” guideline, if you disregard the creation of meaningful content, your website will lack in quality and will face the wrath of Google Panda’s flagging system. It is becoming increasingly vital for companies to develop content that is not only diverse and consistent, but valuable as well. Storytelling is at an absolute premium right now, so now is the time to share your story and connect with your customers. To ensure that you are opening the doors to conversation, your content should give customers something to talk about, that “something” being whatever engages their brains and/or hearts.

Interact with Your Audience

Have you ever noticed that the best conversations typically occur in the kitchen at parties and get-togethers? You are not the only one to notice this. This observation of the social web was brought up during Mr. Banner’s presentation to emphasize the fact that we need to “go to the kitchens on Internet”. This may mean doing research to discover where the conversation is and what exactly it is about. An effective way to join the conversation is to simply share your content with your audience. Engaging in meaningful conversations through online communities, social media, and hotspot blogs is just one way to develop long-lasting relationships and increase awareness of your brand.

Measure Your Influence

The targeted-sniper approach to web marketing allows you to measure the effectiveness of your efforts through a variety of online tools. Tools such as Klout and Bit.ly allow you to measure online influence, social media metrics, real-time traffic, and analytics data. Even if you are utilizing the best practices for web marketing, it is still important to continually measure and refine the process. If your brand’s voice is not being heard loud and clear by your customers, then now is the perfect opportunity to get them to listen.

The Future: Keeping the Panda Happy

When Google instituted the change in their algorithm, it was understood that the world of search engine optimization would be forever changed. Previously, we had relied on the tricks of the trade to drive the traffic and rank, but now we see that in order to be successful in Google’s world in both the present and future, we need to use and understand the right tools and methods.

Meaningful content, relationships, and data increases the overall quality and experience of your website, which not only makes your customers happy, but Google Panda happy as well. And when Google Panda is happy, your brand will surely be rewarded.

Imagine this: you are at the supermarket, skimming the racks of glossy magazines, and one happens to grab your attention. Not only because of its breathtakingly beautiful cover, but because the headlines make you want to open it right then and there, in aisle eight next to the dog food, to devour the contents of the magazine. You know that every word, sentence, and paragraph will be four dollars well spent in the checkout line. However, before you commit yourself to this purchase, you open the magazine to find nothing but blank pages. You scramble through the pages of the magazine, flip it upside, and shake it by its spine only to see that it was nothing more than a pretty thing that caught your eye. How can this be?

In reality, you will likely never encounter a magazine that wasn’t filled back-to-back with shiny words and pictures. In other words, a magazine will surely capture your attention with its design, but it will retain your attention with its content. Content and the way it is presented through design are essential in any medium that needs to communicate a message, idea, story, or solution to a user. A website is no exception.

The Problem

Lately within the web community, there has been more passionate discussion about where exactly content development fits into the web development puzzle. It seems to be the jigsaw piece that gets thrown back in the box for another piece, because it just doesn’t seem to fit anywhere just yet. Content development often gets treated the same way; it is an afterthought, a delayed reaction during the web development process.

The problem seems to be, where exactly does content development fit into the web development process? Should content be written during the design phase? Should content be written after the development phase? Or maybe once website testing is finished and content is all that remains before the website can be launched to the public?

More and more web designers and developers are pushing for content to be written during the design phase. Not only are some designers crossing their arms and rejecting the idea of placeholder text in design compositions, but some are requesting that content be delivered before design even begins. The belief that is shared among these designers is that without meaningful content, it is impossible to deliver a design that most effectively communicates the content. And if content is as equally important as design, why shouldn’t they feel this way?

However, there are still those who believe that placeholder text has its place in the design phase and that content is not necessarily required. The fact that most websites are developed on content management systems lends itself to the idea that the content is easily modifiable by the user. Therefore, a design should be dynamic and able to adapt to changing content without sacrificing the overall message.

Although the discussion of content development has the tendency to ignite strong reactions from individuals on both sides of the fence, it is universally agreed upon that content and design need to work together to communicate as one.

The Solution

There is no correct answer as to where exactly content development needs to fit into the web development process. Every project is unique in that its budget, timeline, or constraints may prevent content from being developed until the very end. In a perfect world, content should be proactively pursued at the beginning of a project to understand what needs to be written, when it will written, who will need to write it, and how the content will relate to the message, idea, story, or solution that you are communicating to the user.

One way to make the process of developing content easier is to create a content matrix. Not only will a content matrix hold you accountable for the content that will need to be developed for each page within the website, but it will also provide a visual representation of all the opportunities you have to engage the user. This makes the process of developing content seem much more organized and thoughtful. Likewise, it also helps to stimulate the dialogue between the designer and content writer to make certain that design and content are working together to communicate as one.

Content is as Important as Design

Without meaningful content, the mediums in which we communicate would cease to exist. If every book, newspaper, and magazine was bound in covers designed to visually excite and engage us, every single one would be meaningless without content bound and inked inside the white, leafy pages. After all, wouldn’t it simply be decoration? What purpose does that serve in communication?

A website is no exception. Without content, a beautifully designed website is nothing more than a decoration. A website’s purpose is to serve as a source of information, which means users demand and will continue to demand content that has value. However, this content is only meaningful if it articulates a specific message, idea, story, or solution to the user by working together with a solid design. It is often said that content is king, but it is equally important to say that design is the castle in which the king resides. We need design to captivate our attention and kick-start a pleasant and visually stimulating user experience that knocks us off our feet. However, we need content to maintain that attention and keep us there, sitting on the floor, locked, engaged, and wanting more.

Businesses love buzzwords. Many businesses will change their entire direction, sometimes against their better judgment, in an effort to attain the competitive edge the new “term” will give them. As quickly as trends come and go on the Internet, there simply is not enough time to research these new ideas thoroughly before implementing them. This leaves businesses not necessarily using the best practice or fully utilizing new concepts as they come down the pipes.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is one of these terms that has been spreading like wild fire. To compound the issues mentioned above, SEO is dictated by constantly evolving algorithms that are kept under lock and key by Search Engine companies.

Most people believe that the goal of SEO is to be “number one on Google.” This dogmatic mantra resonates through marketing meetings with cult like fervor. So much so that businesses are at times, losing site of the big picture.

The big picture is: the goal of your business. If your goal is to be number one on Google, then by all means, chant the mantra and go for it. However, most businesses are either offering a service or selling a product. With that in mind, while you are optimizing your site for search engines, make sure you are optimizing your site for customers.

It doesn’t do any good if you have a high rank on Google, but your website drives customers away in droves. Focus just as much on your site’s usability as well as its “findability.” SEO should be just one more tool in your marketing box, getting the same amount of attention as all of the others. An increase in traffic doesn’t equate to an increase in business. It simply increases the OPPORTUNITY to increase business.

While SEO is used in the context of being a magic bullet, know that it isn’t and use it for what it is originally intended and nothing more; and that’s simply making it easier for customers to find your site. The operative word here is “easier.” Not “the only” or the “best;” just easier. SEO, when working with other marketing initiatives will produce great results, but think of your marketing like a race car. When all the parts are functioning properly, the car will be able to stay competitive on the track. But regardless of how much work you put into the engine, your car won’t be going anywhere with flat tires.

Imagine going to your city’s downtown area, taking out a bullhorn, and randomly yelling, “Who wants a [fill in your company service or product here]?” You would most likely have people walking away from you and making sure they don’t come across you in the future. But if you took that bullhorn to a specific target market or industry event and asked the same question, you would have better success gaining people’s interest. By tailoring your website content to be more specific, you will get better business development results.

Your website is the perfect platform to easily communicate and market to your prospects. If you write your content with a scattershot approach, you will not be able to capture the attention of your target audience. But if you are able to define who your specific target is and then write website content specifically for them, you will increase your prospect engagement levels.

Creating a Persona
A persona is a sketch of the type of customer or prospect you serve. By understanding who your audience is and what interests or obstacles they face, and then tailoring your content with valuable insights to that, you will have the right people engaged with your website and your company. By providing valuable and consistent content tailored to their wants and desires, it will make people eager to come back to your website to consume more.

Here are 6 ways to better define a persona:

• Who is the Decision Maker? – Your website content might be heavily read by the individuals who want to buy from you, but it could be their boss who makes the decisions to go with you. Understand who the decision maker is for each persona.
• Define the industry they are in – By tailoring your content to a specific industry, you will be able to better resonate your solution to specific interests of problems that their industry faces.
• What are their interests? – Create a list of topics that this persona would be interested in. By working with your business development team or marketing team, you can quickly understand what topics are being brought up the most.
  Also, by reading industry blogs and attending industry events, you will begin to see trends in your persona’s interest.
• What is their job title or function – Your list of potential job titles for this persona could get quite large. Make sure you narrow it down to a few specific job titles. I read a stat that 64% of people read content that is specific to their job title.
• Company Size – Is the company large or small? Try to be specific here. A company with 450 employees may be considered large to one person, but small to another. So try to make the company size more specific by documenting the annual revenue or employee number of the company this persona works in.
• Where are they located? – Define the geography of this persona. They can be in a specific city or region. By defining the location of your persona, you will have much better success with laser-focusing your content.

What Does Your Persona Want to Read?
Now that you know who your persona is, you want to understand what information they want to retain from you. Look closely at your persona and you will be able to easily identify what keeps them up at night or what information they are looking for. Now you will be able to write your content specifically for these items and how your company’s solutions can help the persona.

Here are 3 ways to help you know what to write about:

• What are their problems? – Create a list of the problems or challenges your persona faces.
• What are your solutions? – Match your solution to each problem.
• Are they familiar with my topic? – On a scale of 1 to 10, determine how simple or complex your content should be.

By creating personas and understanding what they want to read about, you will be able to narrowly focus your website content for better success. You have ultimately reduced the amount of variables while increasing the visitor retention to your website, and ultimately created a stronger and more trustworthy relationship. There is not a limit to the amount of personas your company can focus on, so create as many as necessary. Also, as an idea, at Galvin we use a spreadsheet to document our personas, which gets tailored often. It’s a simple spreadsheet with a row along the top that lists the persona’s attributes and interests; on the left, there is a column that lists each persona we want to target. Make sure you visit this spreadsheet often and keep it updated.

Sales and marketing is an initiative of corporate websites and the content on those websites need to nurture and “close” the visitor. Here are 3 simple suggestions on how to portray free versions of your software.

Set Expectations
Free trials are oftentimes necessary for SaaS solutions playing in a competitive arena. But whether you are giving it away for free or for cost make sure you set the expectation on what is included in the version you are going to sign up for. Below are two examples from Salesforce.com and Surveymonkey.com.

Salesforce.com creates a grid view of their various versions and what the user will expect in each of those versions.

SurveyMonkey.com shows exactly what the user will receive with their free version and paid versions.

Don’t Overcomplicate. Less Might be Better
Most likely your SaaS solution has complexities that take time for the user to learn and understand. Don’t feel that you have to provide these in the free version. Although these features might set you apart from the rest the mere complexities of them could overwhelm the user and thus give the impression that your software is too complex and not easy to use. Give the user enough features to wet their pallet on the potential of your software for them to use during their trial period. Remember, you are still in “sales” mode and you ultimately want the user to buy from you. Give the user enough to get them interested to move onto the next stage of your sales cycle.

Remember to Upsell
For the features that are turned off in the free version you should still provide an experience so the user can learn about the features they don’t have but could have. If you have a feature in your free trial version that is not accessible then allow a user to click that feature so they are sent to a page that explains the benefits of that feature if they buy or upgrade.

In closing, your free trial version is to help the user become a paying client. When a free version is being used they are simply trying it out. When you get a free sample at the grocery store you only get a sampling but that is what you expect. They don’t expect a 3 course meal and you wouldn’t give them one. Keep it simple, don’t overwhelm them and keep helping them.