Friday, February 10, 2017
Sunday, February 5, 2017
The Attention Span Myth - Roy Williams
The Attention Span Myth
Commentators say that people today have a shorter attention span than in the past, but Jerry Seinfeld and I don't believe this is true.
"There is no such thing as an attention span. There is only the quality of what you are viewing. This whole idea of an attention span is, I think, a misnomer. People have an infinite attention span if you are entertaining them." - Jerry Seinfeld
"If you are entertaining them."
I believe it's presumptive to say that today's generation is more easily distracted than previous generations. It is accurate, perhaps, to say they are more often distracted, but might not their forefathers have been just as often distracted had they carried electronic worlds in their pockets?
The truth is that people today have a low tolerance for boredom. Combine this with the constant availability of entertaining attractions and it's easy to see why this question of attention span keeps popping up like a prairie dog.
Of course people today can pay attention. But why should they?
"We frequently forgive those who bore us, but cannot forgive those who we bore." - Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
We are insulted when people turn their attention away from us, especially when we believe what we're saying is important.
You can blame today's generation for bad manners and a short attention span. You can blame video games and smart phones. You can blame poor parenting and too much television. You can blame Alfred E. Neuman. You can blame God.
Or you can realize that attention will always turn toward whatever stimulus is most interesting. You can see the competition for attention is fiercer today than it has ever been. You can see that we need to up our game.
Our ability to gain and hold attention depends entirely upon our ability to stimulate the curiosity of others.
Can you stimulate curiosity? If you can't, you will not hold attention. Not in your ads, not on the telephone, not face-to-face.
I tell my business partners, the Wizards of Ads, not to be offended when someone in the audience begins texting or playing a video game, but to take it as a signal to add some sparkle to their talk; do something more interesting than the distraction; win back the wandering mind. They are now among the most riveting speakers in America.
So what will it be? Will you blame the audience or blame yourself?
If you blame the audience, you eliminate all hope of improvement because there is nothing you can do to fix the audience. You must then conclude that society is circling the drain. "America is in decline, blah, blah, blah".
But if you blame only yourself for not rising to the challenge of increased competition, that problem is easily solved:
All you have to do is become more interesting.
Begin by entering your subject from an unusual angle.
"Jerry Seinfeld and I don't believe this to be true."
Use examples that are relevant to the audience.
"...electronic worlds in their pockets."
Specificity is more interesting than generalities.
"...this question of attention span keeps popping up like a prairie dog."
Don't over-explain. Let your listeners figure it out for themselves.
"You can blame Alfred E. Neuman."
Unusual intonations and inflections captivate the ear and make it difficult to quit listening.
Talk faster than usual. Our speed of hearing greatly exceeds the speed of speech. Nothing bores people faster than taking too long to say too little.
Deliver big ideas quickly like boulders in an avalanche. Rapid distraction is a machine gun that requires you to collect bullets in advance.
You can no longer just make it up as you go along.
The future is a magical world that will belong to those who can gain and hold attention. How much of that magic would you like to own?
And that's why it's called - you have wondered, haven't you? - "The Magical Worlds Communications Workshop."
The next 3-day session begins November 5, 2013.
Preparation and practice. These are the keys.
Let us hand them to you.
Roy H. Williams
Commentators say that people today have a shorter attention span than in the past, but Jerry Seinfeld and I don't believe this is true.
"There is no such thing as an attention span. There is only the quality of what you are viewing. This whole idea of an attention span is, I think, a misnomer. People have an infinite attention span if you are entertaining them." - Jerry Seinfeld
"If you are entertaining them."
I believe it's presumptive to say that today's generation is more easily distracted than previous generations. It is accurate, perhaps, to say they are more often distracted, but might not their forefathers have been just as often distracted had they carried electronic worlds in their pockets?
The truth is that people today have a low tolerance for boredom. Combine this with the constant availability of entertaining attractions and it's easy to see why this question of attention span keeps popping up like a prairie dog.
Of course people today can pay attention. But why should they?
"We frequently forgive those who bore us, but cannot forgive those who we bore." - Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld
We are insulted when people turn their attention away from us, especially when we believe what we're saying is important.
You can blame today's generation for bad manners and a short attention span. You can blame video games and smart phones. You can blame poor parenting and too much television. You can blame Alfred E. Neuman. You can blame God.
Or you can realize that attention will always turn toward whatever stimulus is most interesting. You can see the competition for attention is fiercer today than it has ever been. You can see that we need to up our game.
Our ability to gain and hold attention depends entirely upon our ability to stimulate the curiosity of others.
Can you stimulate curiosity? If you can't, you will not hold attention. Not in your ads, not on the telephone, not face-to-face.
I tell my business partners, the Wizards of Ads, not to be offended when someone in the audience begins texting or playing a video game, but to take it as a signal to add some sparkle to their talk; do something more interesting than the distraction; win back the wandering mind. They are now among the most riveting speakers in America.
So what will it be? Will you blame the audience or blame yourself?
If you blame the audience, you eliminate all hope of improvement because there is nothing you can do to fix the audience. You must then conclude that society is circling the drain. "America is in decline, blah, blah, blah".
But if you blame only yourself for not rising to the challenge of increased competition, that problem is easily solved:
All you have to do is become more interesting.
Begin by entering your subject from an unusual angle.
"Jerry Seinfeld and I don't believe this to be true."
Use examples that are relevant to the audience.
"...electronic worlds in their pockets."
Specificity is more interesting than generalities.
"...this question of attention span keeps popping up like a prairie dog."
Don't over-explain. Let your listeners figure it out for themselves.
"You can blame Alfred E. Neuman."
Unusual intonations and inflections captivate the ear and make it difficult to quit listening.
Talk faster than usual. Our speed of hearing greatly exceeds the speed of speech. Nothing bores people faster than taking too long to say too little.
Deliver big ideas quickly like boulders in an avalanche. Rapid distraction is a machine gun that requires you to collect bullets in advance.
You can no longer just make it up as you go along.
The future is a magical world that will belong to those who can gain and hold attention. How much of that magic would you like to own?
And that's why it's called - you have wondered, haven't you? - "The Magical Worlds Communications Workshop."
The next 3-day session begins November 5, 2013.
Preparation and practice. These are the keys.
Let us hand them to you.
Roy H. Williams
Friday, October 7, 2016
Site Links Update
Today I moved forward on the site links. Developed new copy copy and got many questions answered. I called Google and they were very helpful. Site links should be showing up soon and it will be very interesting to see the results. I still need to craft a landing page for some of them or at least provide the answers to the links implied question.
Also updated the bids on heat a later with some interesting results. I will need to watch my spend very very closely to make sure it does not get out of hand.
Ad words rep said that more than one listing can have site winks so next week I will have to check that and grab screenshot.
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Good Day Adwords, Landing, Page, Hotjar Update
A long overdue overhaul and update to my ad words ad copy, landing pages, shopping pages, shopping pages met a tags, and hot jar testing.
This was a day and a half project yet I did everything that in the past I had delegated and depended on other people to do. Maggie – ad words, Tanya – programmer – others for page layout and it was quite a learning experience.
Most of the ads originally at the beginning of the day had a price point in the copy. After reviewing the competitive search results page is many times my ad price was not competitive and probably kept people from clicking. I change the focus to where I have three brands with replacement doors at 199 on those brands I lead with the 199 price point and in a sub headline mentioned the three week wait. For the other brands I focused on quick ship times and how you do not have to wait three weeks to get your doors. Tomorrow I will be working on site Extensions with a special landing page to focus on some of the challenges of mine prefab fireplace doors.
There is still much work to be done to totally review in a line all the messaging from the ad down to the actual product pages. It is a big job, but should've been done long long ago. With organic traffic down severely and a loss of rankings it is going to be critical that I make the PPC program as officiant and good as possible.
Most of the ads originally at the beginning of the day had a price point in the copy. After reviewing the competitive search results page is many times my ad price was not competitive and probably kept people from clicking. I change the focus to where I have three brands with replacement doors at 199 on those brands I lead with the 199 price point and in a sub headline mentioned the three week wait. For the other brands I focused on quick ship times and how you do not have to wait three weeks to get your doors. Tomorrow I will be working on site Extensions with a special landing page to focus on some of the challenges of mine prefab fireplace doors.
There is still much work to be done to totally review in a line all the messaging from the ad down to the actual product pages. It is a big job, but should've been done long long ago. With organic traffic down severely and a loss of rankings it is going to be critical that I make the PPC program as officiant and good as possible.
I actually did all of the HTML changes on the landing pages. I did it in about an hour and a half this morning after working on it some last night to figure out the system. Not a bad exercise. Could not use the WYSIWYG editor and was forced to actually get in the code. One such small/made everything bold – but Sam help this morning.
I have set up movies, finals, and heat maps for the landing pages and hot jar it will be interesting to review in a few weeks. I must make an annotation in analytics to make sure that I captured the date of all these changes. Praying for great results in two weeks.
Below is a checklist of important items that must be carefully address on all pages to make sure the campaign is optimized.
Below is a checklist of important items that must be carefully address on all pages to make sure the campaign is optimized.
I also updated the forecast. 30 day rate of sale is 40% behind last year. Very very concerning I just did the forecast to reflect that trend with a deep concern that we would actually be in the red for the year. But it looks like even with a 40% drop in the fourth quarter we should still be able to show a profit. Small profit but better than losing money. I hope this gives me time to get the business in order, make plans for smaller sales and sized company, and find new ventures.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Superior FP Door Ad Walk Thru
This superior walk-through is part of the ad words campaign update. In this I will be reviewing:
– Add
– Pages landing
– Category pages
– Establishing a baseline metrics
- reviewing category pagemet at title description 81 and copy
– Add
– Pages landing
– Category pages
– Establishing a baseline metrics
- reviewing category pagemet at title description 81 and copy
Based on the following screenshot I need to review and edit the following:
Sub links on add
Meta-description on organic listing
Need to address the shopping ad for 129 in some sort of ad copy and page copy need to review my meta-description
Meta-scheme*data not showing up on my listing
Amazon listings showing up Glenn about me
Google plus listings showing up while I am logged in.
See incognito screenshot not much difference except my add is number one in Google plus listings are gone.
Sub links on add
Meta-description on organic listing
Need to address the shopping ad for 129 in some sort of ad copy and page copy need to review my meta-description
Meta-scheme*data not showing up on my listing
Amazon listings showing up Glenn about me
Google plus listings showing up while I am logged in.
See incognito screenshot not much difference except my add is number one in Google plus listings are gone.
What is behind the sales drop? Loss of rankings, weather?
The sales slump is turning into a real problem. In August and September I was able to justify the drop is due to weather. But now as I review rankings I am sure that that is a big contributor. The problem is how much of the 30% drop is whether and how much is loss of rankings???
When I look at ad words data it shows significant drop in impressions. My gut feeling is that is an indication of weather. I need to go back and see on a month by month basis when this occurred, the problem is I shut off ad words during the summer so I will need to go back and compare November December 2015 data to see if the impressions were down then.
It looks like last year during the same 14 day period that the impression count was way up, possibly indicating higher search volume
Conversions were up significantly too. So people were shopping and buying.
Notice the low click thru rates - reinforces the opportunity for improvement.
There is data to support it being the weather when I look at Google trends, but it is not enough for 30%.
When I look at ad words data it shows significant drop in impressions. My gut feeling is that is an indication of weather. I need to go back and see on a month by month basis when this occurred, the problem is I shut off ad words during the summer so I will need to go back and compare November December 2015 data to see if the impressions were down then.It looks like last year during the same 14 day period that the impression count was way up, possibly indicating higher search volume
Conversions were up significantly too. So people were shopping and buying.
Notice the low click thru rates - reinforces the opportunity for improvement.
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