Hello, Bing

There’s a new search engine on the block and it’s called Bing.

Microsoft officially launched its new search product today at the D: All things Digital Conference, and CEO Steve Ballmer said it will replace the current Live Search offering beginning June 3rd.  The perennial search also-ran hopes their new product will be a game changer, and a (gorgeous) new promotional website describing the offering certainly offers a lot evidence to support such an ambition.

Bing will incorporate Microsoft’s adCenter, of course, and anticipates offering better targeting to advertisers. If you run PPC ad campaigns via adCenter for Live Search on our Yield Web Marketing Suite, there will be no interruption in service and your ads will display on results pages in Bing once the new service is fully live.

So what’s new and different about Bing? Here’s what we know…

Landing Page Calls-to-Action that Inspire

Tips to Increase Clicks – And Conversions

Okay, so we’ve talked about developing a landing page that keeps people on the page (versus letting them wander around your Website) and writing punchy headlines that draw people in to your page.

Now we’ll talk about calls-to-action.

When people think of a call-to-action, they hear a big beefy loud-mouth infomercial guy pitching cleaning products to consumers:

AND WHEN YOU ORDER THE PRODUCT RIGHT NOW, WE’LL SEND YOU NOT ONE, BUT TWO PRODUCTS – ALL FOR $24.95 PLUS SHIPPING AND HANDLING.

THAT’S TWO FOR THE PRICE OF ONE WHEN YOU PLACE YOUR ORDER RIGHT NOW THROUGH THIS SPECIAL TV OFFER!

In fact, I hear from companies that have actually removed calls-to-action from marketing collateral and Web pages because it’s “too salesy.”

In truth, a call-to-action is simply verbiage that tells people what to do next:
•   …

Extending Our Team: World Class Advisors

Building successful companies isn’t just about building great products, though that’s critically important.   There are many ingredients that enable companies to reach their full potential.  And, most of the ingredients start out with finding great people.  When my co-founder and I started Yield Software, we tasked ourselves with finding the most talented professionals in the software and marketing arenas.  We took the philosophy that quality will always win out over quantity.  Over the last three years, we’ve assembled a remarkable team that I’m extremely proud of.

It is also vitally important that a company identify and work with key individuals in their industry to accelerate the success of the company, especially in competitive segments.  These individuals, while not employees of the company, can provide the guidance, counsel and connections to enable your company to grow rapidly…

Add Muscle to Your Landing Page Headlines

Five Easy-to-Implement Strategies

In my last blog post, I covered how to develop a landing page that increases conversions by limiting people’s options to explore other areas of your Website.  As I discussed in the post, you have many elements on the landing page that can make or break conversion rates, and one of those elements is the headline.

In his book, Tested Advertising Methods, John Caples explains why headlines are so important:

“In most advertisements, no matter how striking the illustration, the headlines are critically important. The majority of the public reads little else when deciding whether or not they are interested.”

The same holds true for landing pages – which are basically direct response ads designed to get people to take some sort of action.

So how do you add some muscle to your flabby headlines? Whole books have…

Increase Landing Page Conversions: Limit Options to “Explore”

Four Steps Toward Better Conversion Rates

Transactional landing pages have one purpose only: to get people to take one specific action, whether it’s filling out a form for a white paper, purchasing a product, or even subscribing to an e-newsletter.

Yet many companies lower landing page conversion rates by providing opportunities to browse for related goods and services or offering all kinds of back-up information to support their offer.

In other words, if you’re trying to get people to sign up for your Webinar and on your landing page you have links to your Website, YouTube video, and white papers, you’re encouraging people to click away from your landing page – perhaps never to return.

I call this “Distraction Interaction.” Think about what happens when you go online to do something:

Initially… you open your email client to send someone…