My Newest Launch: WhichTestWon's First Annual Testing Awards

With one big huge caveat, I love, love, love marketing and advertising awards. They're inspiring, galvanizing, career-building, and just plain fun for everyone involved. I still keep the very first award I won, DMAW's 1992 Bronze MAXI, propped up near my desk.

I learned a big lesson from that award though (hence the caveat.) I'd actually submitted two of my campaigns, both marketing high-priced business information, for the DMAW awards that year. The first was a one-page, personalized letter that was faxed to prospects. Recipients could respond by jotting their credit card number in an already personalized little order form at the bottom of the page and faxing it back. The personalization of a mass-fax campaign was pretty technically advanced at the time. (In fact I didn't know any other marketer who'd tried it.) Response rates were insane. We got way more than 1000% ROI. I was sure I'd win an award for this campaign!

Secondly, as more of an afterthought than anything, I also submitted a dimensional campaign. The package was a little cardboard box which contained a 4-color brochure, letter, order form, and a floppy disc containing a demo of the product we were offering. As always with dimensionals, costs were really high per piece. The campaign broke even, but that's it.

Guess which campaign won the award? Yeah, the dimensional that barely broke even.

I was shocked. Thrilled to have won something of course, but upset. It felt like a miscarriage of justice. I really wanted to bitch out the judges. What is wrong with you people? I felt my personalized mass fax-marketing campaign was the idea that deserved the publicity. Other B2B marketers could have copied it and made a lot of money. Arrgh!

That's when I learned that for most marketing and advertising awards, the shiny, bright "creative" object is the one that catches the judges' eyes and wins. Measured results don't matter, actual data doesn't matter. The black-and-white, one-page fax had no chance against a colorful box full of stuff.

Now I only take awards seriously when I know the nominations form *requires* response data. (A shocking number of awards entry forms do not ask for any data!) That doesn't mean that creative, strategy, competition, and other circumstances shouldn't be taken into consideration. You judge on a combination of elements. But data must be an important one of them.

So, it will be no surprise to you that my newest launch - WhichTestWon's Annual Testing Awards - requires results data. I totally understand that many companies do not want their data blared to the universe, so I also included a 'Keep my data private' checkbox on the entry form. The judges will be able to see your data, but they are sworn to secrecy!

The judges are web analytics guru Avinash Kaushik, copywriting guru Bob Bly, Vertster CEO Scott Miller and myself. We're all equally obsessed with testing creativity and results data.

If you have conducted an A/B test or multivariate test for your company or for a client since January 1, 2008, that worked out well, please do enter. Nominations are free. Deadline Friday November 20th.

My Eyes Are Bleeding and Everything's Late

My fall launch projects are 7-8 weeks off schedule. The new service was supposed to be completely live in early September. And you know, it's coming along. But, it won't be ready until late October.

What's slowing things down? It's not my team's fault, it's my own. Here I am just as I was precisely 10 years ago, sitting at the computer, working, working, working on my launch. I'm smarter now, right? Well, not brain cell-wise, but in experience, god yes. Plus, I took 4 months off before starting this new company so I'm rested. So that should make up for an extra decade of just plain age.

Nobody told me. I really didn't know. For gosh sakes, I'm only in my mid-40s! But, turns out starting a new online publishing company when you are in your mid-30s vs when you're in your mid-40s are very different things. Physically.

I'm just more relaxed in some inner cellular way. Still ambitious and driven, but able to take things slower, to savor the moments. Also, after a few 10 hour days at the computer, even with anti-glare devices, etc., it feels like my eyes are bleeding. Ow, ow, ow.

Anybody, who says that print will be extinct someday, does not have eyes older than 45. Now I understand why big important executives spend more and more time in in-person meetings as they age. It's not that they can't use their computer, or don't realize its communication efficiencies, their eyes are hurting.

Lesson learned. Actually two. One is, if you want older businesspeople to read anything on your site, make the type much larger. And it better be black on white. Secondly, when you start new businesses as you age, allow more give in the schedule for the "I am aging" factor.

So, I Finally Launched a Corporate Homepage

Only took seven months, and you know, I'm a really-web focused person. Pitiful. Honestly. One's own dog food, eating it. http://www.annehollandventures.com/

My Newest Research Service Launches: Subscription Site Insider

So, now you can see for yourself why I was so nervous about that video camera. Blech. At least I covered up the worst of a bad hair day with clever use of charts and stuff.

Biggest lesson: don't use a Web developer in California (no matter how great) to build a site that needs to be posted and hosted by a team in the UK (no matter how great). No matter how great virtual teams are, time zone juggling can wreak havoc on your launch calendar.

I'd like to thank my research partners, Infocommerce Report, SIPA (Special Information Publishers Association) and Membergate's MembershipSiteOwner.com for inspiring and helping with our first upcoming Benchmark Study on the subscription site industry. Where did I get the $4.5 billion number from? I'll reveal all shortly.

In the meantime, if you yourself are an executive in online publishing, paid content or subscription sites, please take a few minutes right now to give your answers to my historic survey. Yes, you can get a copy of my Executive Summary of results for free afterwards as my thanks for participating! Here's the survey link. Thanks.

B2B Marketing vs B-to-B Marketing: Why Ultra-Precise Copywriting Online Matters

I know from tons of past research that the title of a webinar (or white paper) is the single most important element that dictates if people will register for it or ignore it. Speaker name runs second.

So, when I landed Mac McIntosh -- who is pretty much a god among gurus in the business sales lead generation world -- to be my official co-host of this month's WhichTestWon Webinar, I was psyched. But I knew I still had to work hard on the title so more business marketers would come.

First and foremost, I checked the keyword tool in my Google AdWords account. How, precisely, do business marketers describe their specialty these days? Here's the data from a precise word match of the last month's searches:

B-to-B marketing = 4,400 searches
Business-to-business marketing = 27,000 searches
B2B marketing = 49,500 searches!!!

Which really freaked me out. I mean, nobody used the spelling 'b2b' until maybe 2000. And even then, it was only the dot-commers who used it. Guess it went mainstream when I wasn't looking.

If I had used my own copywriting judgment, in a data vacuum, I wouldn't have used the term B2B in the webinar title. Thank goodness I checked first.

It's (Relatively) Easy to Raise Venture Capital These Days - As Long as You Don't Want $100-900k

As in any big recession, lots more people have been starting their own businesses. What's fascinating for me is how few actually had to. Most of my acquaintances who've started companies in the past 18 months, weren't laid off. But, they were bored and feeling tapped out at their jobs. When companies lay low to ride a recession out, inevitably your most inventive, risk-taking executives start to get the entrepreneurial itch.

My friends, often well connected 40-somethings, had no trouble finding that first angel round of $50-200k, usually called Friends and Family. Especially if you've had some career connection with the Internet, most of us have a few old bosses and colleagues who've retired, obscenely rich, to the hills beyond Silicon Valley or Austin. And then there's your 401k that's sunk so much that you may as well take out the remainder and put it into play.

Unfortunately perhaps, that early round comes in so easily that some people spend it too easily. Few people manage those first funds by assuming they'll have to bootstrap the rest of the way. I think they figure the next round will go swiftly too. So, having spent all available funds but the site or software is still only partly finished, they go looking for the next round.

And it's the second round that's the bitch nowadays. That additional $100-900k that you need just to finish off your site or service build and get it into market. "Looks great! Call me as soon as when you have some revenues and you need at least $1 million." the professional venture guys say.

I'm not personally looking for money or investing money these days. I'm just dispensing advice. My advice is:

#1. Treat each injection of cash you receive as though it's your last.

#2. Don't allow any of your executive team to spend the majority of their time fundraising unless they either (a) take no salary and are not good at anything else to do with building the company, or (b) it's going incredibly well (in which case you probably have revenues and are looking for more than $1 million.) Fundraising can easily suck all the oxygen out of the room so little else gets done... and the clock is ticking!

#3. If your vision is a mansion, but you only have enough money to build a corner of it, design and build that corner so that you can move in and live there while you save up to build the next room and the next room. Don't waste your money pouring a massive, mansion-sized foundation and then have nothing left to build anything above ground.

#4. Avoid, at all costs, going into business with friends, relatives, and former colleagues even if they are unemployed, bored to death at their companies, and/or agree to invest in the company too. The only possible exception: friends, colleagues, and relatives who have been serial entrepreneurs in negative economic times with a track record of wearing multiple hats in new, uber-tiny organizations.

Why I'm Joining StomperNet as a Part-Time Faculty Member

I was born in Concord Mass where Louisa May Alcott's Little Women was set, so I always took her character Jo's advice to "write what you know from your own life" very seriously.

Ten years ago, when I looked for ideas to start my first online publishing company, I decided to create content for the people who were just like me. I'd just spent 13 years as a marketer in corporate America, so that's who I'd write for. Marketers trying to do a better job while juggling bosses, budgets, committee meetings, new technologies, and office politics. Thus MarketingSherpa was born.

But now, a decade later, I'm just not that corporate anymore. I've spent the last ten years as a small business owner.

As you know, if you've been reading this blog, I've spent the last six months mainly in thought and research, trying to decide what step is next. I launched one site, WhichTestWon.com, partly because I adore the A/B and multivariate testing so darn much and partly just as a shot across Fortune's bow, to let her know I'm back and ready for business. It worked. The site's quite popular, plus loads of old friends and new acquaintances have gotten in touch to say hi, and often suggest partnerships.

One of them was my old friend Brad Fallon. I first met Brad when he launched, what I considered one of the best B2B lead generation microsites ever, in order to help his fiance, who was a medical industry sales rep at the time. I was so impressed I wrote a Case Study for Sherpa on his work and asked him to speak at our very first B2B Marketing Summit back in 2003. Brad was nervous, I think it was his first public speech, but he did fine.

Some time later, inspired by his own nuptials, he launched a wedding favors ecommerce site that grew so quickly that the Wall Street Journal took notice. Then, in between visiting manufacturers in China and negotiating for larger and larger warehouse space outside Atlanta, he decided to launch a cutting edge learning community to help his fellow online entrepreneurs.

It was called StomperNet. It grossed millions in its first week alone.

A couple of weeks ago, I was just leaving the office when the phone rang. It was Brad, speaking so quickly that I fear all the caffeine in the Atlanta region had been funneled directly into his veins. Now that I was independent, would I consider coming on as part-time StomperNet faculty?

At first I was reluctant because that whole "make millions on the Internet" world that the StomperNet brand seemed to represent has never appealed to me. It's not that I don't believe you can't make millions -- if pushed I could name perhaps a dozen or more online entrepreneurs who have done very well *without* hundreds of employees, venture backing, MLM schemes, or selling "how to make millions" content to other people. Heck, I made millions and I didn't do any of those things.

However, I don't think making millions on your own is normal. Having survived the whirlwind and come out the other side, I also don't think for most people that type of lifestyle is healthy. My friends who've made millions work days, nights, weekends, holidays. I get emails from them at 1:15am on Christmas Eve because they've just had a new SEO idea they're all excited about. They take risks with their savings, their marriages, their health, etc that I wouldn't recommend to most anyone.

That said, I do think it's very possible for most people with an entrepreneurial bent to make a net income of $50-150k year working for themselves online, while not losing their sanity, health, or family.

I told this to Brad. I said, "I can only help people who are already entrepreneurial in nature and probably already have an online venture going. I won't promise anyone millions, but maybe I can help them increase sales by a few percentage points."

He said that was cool and that StomperNet is for regular online entrepreneurs who want that extra edge of success. The whole millions thing is outdated -- inevitably some people will make millions while others will make a good solid living, and that's ok. These days increasing conversions and sensible business practices for steady growth are where it's at.

So I signed on. I'll be doing a monthly conference call for StomperNet members, as well as contributing occasional content to the site. I'm one of many expert Faculty, including my other old pal Don Crowther who originally came from corporate America just like me (in his case, he was brand manager at Con Agra and SC Johnson & Wax.)

It should be an interesting experiment!