"Learn From Their Multi-Million Dollar Mistakes!"
Here is a classic example of what NOT to do when conducting
business online. That is, unless you can afford to throw away
millions of dollars.
Have you seen those ads by x10 for that tiny camera that you can
hook up to your computer?
It is estimated that as many as 1/3 of ALL people surfing online
have been exposed to their advertising campaign. Those are HUGE
numbers.
Visit their web site if you need to refresh your memory of them
and their ads: http://www.x10.com/
If they were to be judged by exposure alone, then you might
think that the advertising campaign has been a great success.
However, it has largely failed to convert surfers to buyers and
that is the true test of a successful online ad campaign.
So what happened to x10?
They sunk an enormous amount of money and faith in the pop-under
window form of advertising through Yahoo, the online version of
the New York Times, at the MSN web site and via the pop-up
window that opens as you download something off the Internet.
The pop-under or pop-over windows are not a problem in and of
themselves. The problem with x10 seems to have been the narrow
focus of their product offering.
X10 has too narrow a focus.
They are getting a lot of hits on their web site with over 25
million visitors monthly. Yet 70% of their visitors leave in the
first 20 seconds!
That is a LOUD chorus of people saying they find NOTHING of
interest or value at that web site.
It says a great deal about the products they offer and the
design of their web site.
Since then, x10 has tried to bring in a slightly larger range of
products but it still seems very narrow.
What went wrong?
X10 failed to partner with a significant array of related online
businesses that could have brought it an added source of revenue
via commissions.
Such a huge flow of traffic and they cannot tap into the
pocketbooks of their visitors.
Even small business online can partner with the likes of Dell
Computer, Delta Airlines, Visa Nextcard and American Express
through such affiliate programs as are offered by Linkshare,
http://www.linkshare.com/
Our web site is TINY by comparison to x10, yet we have managed
to increase our overall revenues by over 1000% directly because
of affiliate commissions.
Better to sell something for a commission that to lose your
visitor forevermore.
What else could they have done with such a huge amount of
traffic?
They could have offered visitors a referral affiliate program so
that they could refer friends and family and perhaps earn a
little something for their trouble.
X10 got off to a slow start here also.
They now have a program in place but all they offer you to earn
is a credit to be used on those products that no one seems to
want to buy anyway!
How about some entertainment?
They completely lost sight of the "sticky" value.
Here you have a company that offers these great looking little
cameras that will fit into the palm of your hand yet all they do
is DESCRIBE it!
They could have easily become a major "ENTERTAINMENT" center for
those millions upon millions of visitors.
All they had to do was to hook up those cameras to "SHOW" people
how they worked!
Visitors would have had a reason to stay longer than just 20
seconds and they would have had a great reason to come back for
more.
The "Viral" effects of word-of-mouth, (or is that
word-of-mouse?), would have kept those millions of visitors
coming to their web site daily yet also it would have also
allowed them to scale back on their advertising campaign
expenditures.
And seeing practical example of how a product works helps the
product to sell itself.
A little creativity at x10 would have gone a long way.
It just goes to show you that even if you have millions of
dollars to spend for exposure and you get millions of visitors
to your web site, it won't do you any good if you don't know
what to do with them.