Where to land?

Product launch was official on this past Monday, May 23rd. The impact is still being monitored. The PR piece went on wire and we are seeing a number of outlets picking up the story. And, in addition to the reporter/analyst mentioned last time, we also got some coverage in other trade rags without having to brief them. For a few hours we were quite concerned with a reporter because she misquoted a technical spec which makes our product look stupid. Anyway, with a bit of pleading and arm twisting, we got it fixed. Just got off the phone with our PR agency and it sounds like we will have a more in-depth coverage in the print edition of a trade rag that mentioned us on their website.

On the launch day, Monday, I got an e-mail from a customer saying that our regular contact is no longer with the firm. Life happens and, usually, this is a non-event. But, it just so happen that this regular contact has agreed and been prepped to talk with reporters about the launch. And, it just so happen that a reporter wanted to talk with a user/customer for a quote to file a story on the product launch in two hours. So, for a few hours, I was in a seriously scrambling mode - calling and begging. It was not a pretty sight. Long story short, we manage to secure a pinch hitter in about two hours but it moved beyond the reporter's deadline so she filed talking only with an analyst with no customer quote. Thinking back, I do not know if there is anything I could have done differently. Usually, I would love to have several customers that reporters can call in, but our install base is just starting and there are very few people who have production usage experiences and be willing to talk...

I think the verdict is still out on how successful this launch is. First week does not give you a good sense of how everything will play out and fit in the bigger scheme of things. We still have two analyst briefings to do later in the week. We will see how that one goes.

The experiment with landing page continues. Now that we have a bit more data point and it does indeed look like converting the paid-ad link to a landing page where the user cannot go anywhere else is the trick to force a conversion event. The number is approximately double of the usual rate. So, the latest for me is that I have converted all the url's for all of the paid-ad's Google and Yahoo to the landing page. With a bit of luck, we will see an avalanche of conversions. (Dreaming is free.)

I think I have mentioned that I am running a $25 promo through Google paid-ad's where if you search for specific key words and click on the promo link, you become eligible to receive $25 if the conversation goes as far as a demo. This promo has run for three days now and it has been an unqualified failure to date. I saw no conversion event. The number of click-through increase just a little bit so maybe the paid-ad made a bit of difference. But, the key thing is that nobody has signed up for the promotion. I have a few theories about this. Looking at the chain of events for this promotion to work: 1. the key word selection need to be board enough to get enough impression but narrow enough that the eye balls are self/pre-selected in terms of likely customer. On that count, the campaign gets nearly 150 impressions with a 4% click-through rate for the past three days. These numbers are comparable to the numbers generated from prior period. 2. The text of the paid-ad: I have created a 2x2 matrix with headline and text alternating between the most attention grabbing line from existing campaign (a known winner) and some flavor of "Get $25". The idea is to find out if we get more click through via the known winner or with $25. So far, on an individual ad level, one of the "Get $25" ad is slightly ahead of #2 which is the known winner. On a combined level (remember it is a 2x2 matrix), the "Get $25" is ahead a lot more. But, the number of data point is simply too small to be particularly meaningful right now. So, I have even thrown into the mix today a new ad that has similar language but instead of showing "$25" it just mentions that you will get a prize. Will see what happens. 3. Landing page. My personal feeling is that this may be a major contributing factor for the low conversion rate. The landing page is serviceable in all technical dimensions. But, it is definitely not inviting and, I suppose, could even be considered a bit scary given the number of fields that are asked. On the other hand, unlike the super-duper landing page mentioned above, this landing page actually provides a bit more details about what the product is and how it works. So, maybe it is a matter of people being even more self/pre-selecting and decide that this product is not a fit. I do not know. Not yet. I will try a few things to see if we can rectify this situation.

Yahoo has good customer service. After I filed my complaint about not getting a decent bang for the buck with Yahoo, I got two phone calls for a bit of hand-holding the follow day. That gets extra point from me. Unfortunately, they were not able to solve a good deal of my issues at their level. The limitations are technical in nature and I basically have to live with it for now. So, the unfortunate truth is that Yahoo pad-ad still sucks. Sorry to say.

Did I mention that we are working with Harte Hanks to do telemarketing calls? Last week, we spent quite a bit of time going back and forth to finalize a script for the caller. This week is for test calls and final adjustment before commencing the program next week. Today, I got a phone call saying that as part of the test call, we got a person interested in the product and wants us to call him at 11:30, a lead. So, that was exciting. Unfortunately, the information came to me after 11:30. So, I do not know if our sales people were able to connect. But, let us think of it as a good omen. We are scheduled to hear the testing calls tomorrow. This should be an interesting exercise.

Not sure if you have to deal with the billing side of things. I do, for marketing related activities. Harte Hanks drive a hard bargain. The invoice indicated that the payment term is net 30 (you have up to 30 days from receipt to pay, for those of you so luck as to not have to deal with billing). However, I got a call from the account manager that they must receive one half of the payment before they can continue with the test calling and program launch. Man! That was unpleasant.

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