SmartSymbols^tm

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.”
-Steve Jobs

In the past product makers and marketers could selectively show product information of their choosing. It took an effort for potential customers to find more information - reviews, tests, and other relevant info. Now, all information is available instantly through hyper-accessible channels; consequently there is very little effort needed on the customer’s behalf to find out all there is to know about the product, whether they are shopping online or at the actual store.
(NOTE: Illustrations below have been adapted from the “Secret of the Conversion Funnel“.)

What Does this Mean?
New type of advertising is here, it’s called research and transparency. You have to present all information about your products that you know of, show what social networking buzz our products generate, provide 3rd-party reviews and “how-to” visual guides on product usage and, very important!, keep this information up-to-date.

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Is This a Must or a Nice-to-have?
I think it is a must, and here is why: if we don’t provide all the research and transparency information right there, on our site, then others will. That presents one big problem - if there is some OTHER place where our customers need to check or get a second opinion, they will leave OUR site. In other words, we will have the mother of all e-commerce problems: b-a-a-a-d conversion funnel (more on that here: http://bit.ly/6pNos).

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What’s more, in the world where thousands of content creators (bloggers, twitterers, etc.) compete for people’s attention, as soon as they find something “unofficial” about your product, it will be posted everywhere, instantly. Why? Because it is a story. It may not be a big story, but it is a story nevertheless, and when “monetizing the eyeballs” any story is worth money, which means people will do it.

The Good News
The wonderfully good news is that both the information and technology are available (sorry, had to plug SmartSymbols here). And if you use this correctly, then you will be ahead of the game and maybe even become a “go-to” site for the product relevant information. Not to mention, people will buy more of your products. After all: more engagement = more customers = more conversions.

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“What this means is that we shouldn’t abbreviate the truth but rather get a new method of presentation. ” - Edward Tufte

In addition to the Compass icon , that we discussed in the Secret of the Compass Icon article, SmartSymbols for Books has a number of other interesting icons. In this article we will discuss the Author icon .

Author Icon
Author icon provides basic summary about the author, such as his or her bio, books they have written and additional books related to the one you are viewing. An example would be an audio version of a book and other books in the series. You can see Author icon in action below, just put your mouse over to activate.

The neat thing about the Author icon is that you can put up-to-date interactive information right there. Example: a map of book signings for this week, something that is very easy to do with SmartSymbols - all we need is dates/times and locations; the map will show up automatically. Because all updates are instant anywhere SmartSymbols are displayed - you can update the info as often as you wish.

Other Uses
If you would like to collect feedback from readers and route it to the author, you can put a message textbox right into the icon pop-up to simplify the process.
In addition, you can pipe-in a feed directly from the author’s website.

There are many possibilities for the Author icon, the key is to figure out which information is the most interesting and relevant for your readers and site or blog visitors.

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Here is a picture of a “purring engine” of a 1957 Chevy Bel Air. It is well done: a simple picture for a simple message, executed perfectly (found on Plan59.com).

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What other information or a message that is typically considered non-visual can we convey graphically? I think the sky is the limit.

Here are some thoughts, with examples and without. (Click on the pictures to enlarge, the actual visualization is not what you might think at first):

• Reliability
  [DON'T HAVE AN EXAMPLE, e-mail me at stas dot antons at smartsymbols dot com if you have one]
• Vision (Video - 2019)
  
  Click to enlarge
• Expertise (Visual Resume)
  
  Click to enlarge
• Scale (A LOT of toothpicks)
  
  Click to enlarge and scroll down

Bottom line - visualization of non-visual things, is the best way to convey the essence and the spirit of the message.

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SmartSymbols offers a Compass icon, it looks like this: (here is the link to a larger subset ).

There are many good ways you can use it - show where your dealers are located, or where your book’s plot is taking place via Google Maps.

But there is another way you can use Compass icon - highlight the neat places where your product is being used. It could be particularly powerful if the location is distant and interesting - it allows your visitor’s mind explore and wander, it adds a completely different aura to your product.


Here is What I Mean
Find out (or if you know this - that’s even better!) if there is an expedition in some exotic location, and one of the explorers is using your product, be it a camera, a jacket or a book. For example: if you make cameras - maybe Discovery’s Blue Planet has been using it in some of their most interesting diving locations?

If you build cars - are they delivering humanitarian supplies somewhere to someone in need? And of course, if you write travel books - what is so great about the places you are writing about, show us some pictures, highlights, historical facts - something - but only when we ask. (That is one of the wonderful things about interactive icons approach )


Interactive Maps
Of course you can embed interactive maps into the Compass icon, Google Maps for example. The neat thing about Google Maps is that you can overlay destination information, such as photographs. Here is an example of a photo set from Carcassonne.



The beauty of this approach is that all this information is hidden behind the Compass icon, and it is only displayed to the website visitor when s/he is looking for it, which is the very foundation of permission marketing.

Takeaway
Compass icon can be a strong customer engagement tool if you use it creatively. Yes, you can display dealer locations and retailer outlets where your product is sold. But don’t stop there - use this powerful technology to extract your visitors from mundane minutia of the day and carry them to exotic places, connect them to interesting people and build product associations that last.

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“He who wished to secure the good of others, has already secured his own.”
–Confucius

Here is my take on how a brand could create and increase its “Twitter-worth”. The diagram below summarizes the process, gives objectives and provides specific actions. As you can see, the process relies on gradual, organic building of the Twitter-worth and creating brand loyalty. (Click to enlarge the diagram.)

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Setup
The process requires that we would create a main brand account and a brand support account. Main brand account is our face to the outside Twitter-world and can be used to provide updates on special events, interviews, awards won and other marketing and PR materials (no spam though). A brand support account is designed to communicate with customers: warranty updates, new service locations, etc.
(Example: If Toyota Motors where to ask me for an example I would provide the following structure: brand accounts - Toyota Cars, Toyota Truck, Scion, Lexus; each one could be paired up with customer communications account, i.e. brand support).

Execution
If we follow the steps outlined in the diagram, we would need to remember the following:

1. We cannot stop our Twitter campaigns - we need to continue the ongoing effort. Just like with any marketing initiative you cannot just stop.
2. Our ultimate goal for each of the followers is make them Brand Ambassadors - people who love our brand; Examples: BMW, Ironman Triathlon, Apple. Keeping this goal in mind will help us decide which tweets we want to post from brand and support accounts.

Last Note
While it may seem that we are creating too many accounts, in fact we are not.  Remember, these types of consumer communications are very cost effective: a small number of representatives per account can take care of the entire brand communication.  Take a look at the diagram again, notice that each account serves its specific function dedicated to a particular brand. As long as we stick with the plan and continue to improve our “twitter-worth” in a way that provides useful info to our customers, we will continue to increase the number of Brand Ambassadors who will in turn increase number of followers and so on.

The Very Last Note (added on October 14, 2009)
I have been asked if the sheer number of followers can be equated to the Twitter-worth. The answer is “it depends”. If the followers are there for the information, and on their path to become customers, then the answer is “yes”. But if the followers are there just to build up their own number of followers then the answer is “no”. Long-term approach is more efficient in this case.

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“Like all dreamers I confuse disenchantment with truth.”
-Jean-Paul Sartre:


When people come to our e-comm websites we want them to stay and buy the stuff we sell. And in our dreams they behave the way they supposed to: they come to our site, look at our products, select the one the like most, and buy it. In other words, our conversion funnel ideally should look more like a straight pipe. (That proper, dream-like behavior is documented in the diagram below.)

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But our dreams are often brutally crushed by our visitors’ “incorrect” behavior: instead of staying on the site and buying stuff, they wander off to do “research”: they look at reviews, forums, Facebook and Twitter, and do other things that make them leave our site. And once they are gone off, it is so painfully hard to bring them back! No wonder I called that diagram the “The Curse of the Conversion Funnel” (see below).


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I believe that the goal of e-business sites is simple - keep the visitor on the site until the purchase is made.

How can we accomplish this?

The solution is to bring all the outside activities (a.k.a “research”), into our website. If we do that, our e-biz property will look like the diagram below.

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Notice that the last diagram is awfully close to the first - “dream” - diagram. In addition, most research activities that a visitor performs are the same, but the big difference is that now we are providing the info the visitor wants when she wants it, and where she wants it. Consequently the visitor never leaves us. In other words - if we could structure our e-comm site just like in the last diagram, we would accomplish our goal.


There is another point to be made here. If you just compare the complexity of the the two diagrams, our visitor’s life is now a lot simpler. And being an online shopper myself I would certainly choose the simplified and the quickest path to my purchase, as long as I feel that I am making an informed decision.

Wouldn’t you?

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“Any problem can be made clearer with a picture” - Dan Roam

Solar Backpack Demo has a Social Networking icon, you can see it below, it’s the last icon in the backpack SmartSymbol stack.

(Just hover your mouse over it to see it work).

Why do we need it?
It turns out that one of the biggest worries companies have when it comes to using social networking in their marketing strategy, is a concern that they have no control about what kind of comments will appear in association with their products. Which really means that we don’t want bad comments.

It is a valid concern, to be sure, but that is exactly why it is important to control and direct the flow of the social networking information, and employ a strategy that works with social networking, instead of hiding from it. People will find the tweets and blog posts about our products, whether we like it or not. Why not bring them all together on our terms?

The picture below describes what is behind the social networking icon in SmartSymbols (click on picture to expand).

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So what?
As you can see from the diagram, with Social Networking icon we can aggregate all our product-related “buzz” of our choice, and present it to our customers and audiences, while minimizing the possibility that our customer may leave the site (something that we must avoid at all costs).

The reality of implementation of any of today’s social networking strategies, is that it takes planning, time and effort. And the better tools we use to automate the process of delivery of the fruits of our work - the better.

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Seeing and Observing
One of the most important things that Sherlock Holmes taught us is that seeing and observing are two different things.

Our goal however far more challenging: not only do we need to make all our customers as observant as Sherlock Holmes, we also need to make them understand the entire “case” quickly, in 1-3 minutes if possible.

How can we do that? A good start is taking an approach that is 180 degrees opposite of the one taken by Mr. Holmes’ foes: we have to make things clear, so the customers do not need to have special powers in order to figure out what is the story behind the product. The case should be opened, and closed quickly.

The beauty of this approach is that we actually do not need to tell the entire case right then and there, we just need to give visitors enough confidence so they know that additional details are available for the asking, right then and there.

When we present our product and its story clearly, our potential customer will feel like Sherlock, without spending time trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together, i.e. without being a Sherlock. It is, in fact, our job to be a Sherlock and weave the entire product picture into a coherent and logical story.

The way things look, just seeing a product soon will not be enough. To stay competitive, we will need to give our customers enough clear info in a concise format, allowing them to come, glance and observe what we are trying to tell them.

Why am I talking about this?
Why do I dwell on this once again? Because of my fascination with conveying key information through visualization. Pictures allow a reader to zero-in on a specific area of a product or service quicker, because we can reduce complex and multi-dimensional message to a visual representation of the essentials that can be absorbed at a glance. Now, I realize that this is not entirely true - observer of a picture is more likely to notice only the part of the picture that make sense - but that is precisely the point: the more simple messages we can pack into a smallest amount of real estate that can be observed quickly, the more likely we are to give our reader information that is relevant to his or her needs.

The good news is that as soon the relevant information is noticed - we have established a rapport with a potential customer. And as soon as we established this connection, we are communicating, which is different from pitching.

The key is to have the depth behind the original “hook” (if we don’t - it’s bait-and-switch, and a customer is gone), but the depth can be facilitated and given to a customer when the it is asked for, which is the very foundation of permission marketing.

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