Red Door Interactive: On the Internet

Official Google Blog: A fresh take on the browser

2008-09-02T12:16:00.000-07:00

So excited to try out Google's Chrome. I read the comic book and am interested in trying something new. It has been a long time since someone thought something new about the browser; maybe this is that new thought that allows us to make some bigger breakthroughs in user experience.

Why should HBX clients migrate to Site Catalyst?

2008-08-28T09:23:00.001-07:00

Well… let me tell you!

Beginning with the end goal in mind; that is, having the most optimal performing Web site, Site Catalyst offers customization. Site Catalyst offers an implementation that goes beyond the capabilities of HBX. An easy explanation that I usually tell people; HBX offers a list of options that allows your company to track certain information, whereas, Site Catalyst gives you the opportunity to tell the tool what information is important allowing you to configure the analytics tool to recognize your business goals and requirements. For example, with proper analytics planning and implementation, an analysis provided by Site Catalyst that is not capable of being executed in HBX could identify an opportunity that saves your company $XX amount of dollars. Yes, HBX has the capability of providing the same result, however, the capacity of analysis and detail that Site Catalyst provides goes further beyond.

Another customized feature that is provided by Site Catalyst includes the reports within the user interface that includes my very own metrics, or, your very own metrics, if you shall wish. Yup, that’s right! I no longer have to do math. I can create metrics, let’s say conversion rate (orders/visits) and bounce rate (single access visits/entry visits). Now let’s say, I want to know the conversion and bounce rates for all of my landing pages. I find the entry page report, I assign my new metrics, and I add it to my Landing Page Dashboard and voila! There is my report whenever I need it, without having the need to re-create it every time and actually do the math (although excel usually does that for me ;)). This type of customization in the user interface is available infinitely depending on the goals of your business.

I have a list that is growing in reasons on why to migrate to Site Catalyst, but my explanations will begin to get too technical so maybe I will elaborate later. At this point here are a few additional reasons:

Mobile analytics
Integrating data and analysis with additional Omniture products

Test & Target
Search Center
Call Analytics
Genesis

Integrating online performance to offline transactions
Correlating metrics from one customized variable to another

At the beginning, I mentioned that customization was keeping the end goal in mind. As any business professional or stakeholder in a company, that end goal is striving for the best possible performance, even when your business goals have already been surpassed. How do YOU measure those business goals?

Bottom Line! The Omniture acquisition of Visual Sciences has offered Red Door Interactive and all of Visual Science’s clients an opportunity to upgrade and improve current analysis and reporting.

The Branding Value of Search

2008-08-27T17:19:00.002-07:00

As early as 2005, we've been writing articles saying that the SERPs provide branding as well as direct response. Here is some recent survey data from Google and Yahoo! illustrating this.

Google commissioned a study through Media Screen to measure the impact of paid search ads on organic search terms for four consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories: cosmetic, beverage, food/snack, and household/laundry.

Respondents were asked to complete a brand survey to measure the brand impact on aided awareness, unaided awareness, purchase intent, and purchase consideration after being exposed to search results.

Key findings:

When the test brand appeared in paid search positions, unaided awareness and purchase intent increased for that brand.

The survey also observed the impact on competitive brands and found: When the test brand appeared in paid search positions, unaided and aided awareness decreased for other brands.

Yahoo! did a similar study with Media Vest and found that a sponsored search link has a positive impact on unaided awareness. Conclusions were that search provides branding for consumer packaged goods.

Source: Google CPG Blog

Note: There are other studies and sources to support the branding value of search; if interested contact me directly.

Google Changes Quality Score Algo for AdWords

2008-08-26T10:15:00.001-07:00

As announced last week on the AdWords blog, Google is making some changes in the way it calculates your AdWords quality score. This will happen over the next few weeks and is based on feedback from users and advertisers.

· Removal of the minimum bid requirement. This will be replaced by "first page bid," which is the bid estimated to get your ad on page one. All listings will be eligible to appear, and positioning will be based on quality score and maximum bid amount.

· Quality Score will now be calculated at the time of each search query.

· Keywords will no longer be judged "inactive for search."

These changes will produce a lot more listings for any given search phrase if advertisers are willing to pay. It remains to be seen if advertisers will pay more to be on the first page. If the past is any indication, they probably will because paid search is effective, affordable and accountable if you have the advertising budget.

Google will make these quality score changes to a very small set of advertisers over the next few days with a full rollout in the coming weeks.

Source AdWords Blogspot

No One Reads on the Web

2008-08-25T15:28:00.006-07:00

Well, let me clarify that.

People online will read copy if you really grab their attention. But chances are, they’re also watching TV, talking on their cell phone or doing some sort of work-related activity while they're online.

They’re not just multi-tasking. They’re multi-focused. Welcome to the multi-media world.

So what does this mean? Creating an engaging online presence is more than important, it's everything. You’re not just competing with FaceBook, you’re competing with Dancing With the Stars and a text message from that hottie from the gym.

Here’s what the folks at eMarketer say about online multi-taskers:

Consumer Satisfaction Soars on Google

2008-08-20T14:48:00.001-07:00

As reported on AdAge, Google leads in search satisfaction. Satisfaction increased a whopping 10.3 percent in this year's American Consumer Satisfaction Index. It looks like Google's efforts to improve the user experience through universal search and personalization have paid off. Other factors like being named ubiquitously in the news doesn't hurt, either.

Other search engines remained stable or declined slightly. AOL gained (3 percent), Yahoo! and Ask dropped (2.5% and 1.3%, respectively), and MSN remained the same.
This year's survey gives the highest satisfaction score to Google (86), with other portals trailing. Yahoo!'s score was 77; MSN's, 75; Ask's, 74 and AOL's, 69.

Conducted by the University of Michigan and ForeSee, the American Consumer Satisfaction Index began their annual consumer satisfaction surveys 14 years ago.
The report notes its consumer satisfaction data correlates with market share data from Hitwise. In June, Google had 69.2 percent market share, up from June last year at 63.9 percent.

ForeSee President Larry Freed attributes the big gain to word of mouth about many of Google's non search products. "On one hand, there's a simple and basic interface to search," said Freed. "But Google is also known as an innovative company and has other great apps that are slowly starting to gain market share. ... As they launch these things, sometimes it takes a while until users get to know it."

Source: AdAge
Source: SearchEngineLand

New Business Week Site to Function As Social Media Wiki

2008-08-19T13:11:00.002-07:00

Business Week magazine will go public in late September with "Business Exchange," a Web site consisting of topic pages that resemble social networks. That means it will allow user-generated content and popularity rankings.

Available from Business Week's Web site, the topic pages will feature links to articles and blog posts from many different sources including auto-generated aggregated content from competitors. Topic pages can be as narrow as "Toyota Camry" or as broad as "the auto market," thus serving as topic verticals. The purpose is to gain new readers, funneling them into niches that will attract advertisers.

What's interesting is that users can post articles, creating a new page by choosing the subject and title, and writing a brief introductory description. Users can also add new material to an existing topic page. However, this requires editorial approval and objectionable posts will be removed. They promise editorial review in 24 hours.

Source: New York Times

Search Engine Activity

2008-08-14T17:19:00.001-07:00

Search is closing the gap with email as the most popular Internet activity.

Pew Internet and American Life Project 2008 shows that the number of Internet users making search engine queries on a typical day has increased to 49 percent, inching closer to the 60 percent of users checking and sending email on a typical day.

Full Report: PEW/Internet

My Look Into Mobile's Future

2008-07-28T15:52:00.002-07:00

Staring at my cell phone this morning I had a vision. I know it sounds a little nutty, but it wasn’t one of these psychic visions – in fact it probably just the result of all of the research I have been doing on this subject. It was more like in the movies where the character looks into the mirror but sees a different world behind it. That’s what happened to me, only it wasn’t a mirror, it was just that piece of glass that shields the LCD screen from being directly pressed against my ear, and the world that I was peering into was clearly the not-too-distant future.

But this is when I realized the opportunity that this future holds.

My vision stared while staring at my Google Map application. I had typed in a local coffee shop to get their phone number, but instead of the typical resutls (address, phone number, etc.), there was also a coupon presented as part of the results. I’ve heard of mobile couponing before. That was not what I found interesting about the vision. What I did find interesting was that it was tied to a particular location, which had shown up as the result of a query I put into my mapping application. Here I was just looking for a coffee shop, but they offered me a coupon… on my phone, for that store, as part of a search! Brilliant! My vision didn’t actually showing me going to that coffee shop and presenting my coupon, but I’m willing to bet I would have gone.

As that vision spirited away, I saw something else. I was reading the news on my cell phone’s internet browser and I was presented a mobile ad (I think it was Spiderman Episode 12 or something). Anyway, I clicked on the ad (I mean of course I did… some mobile ads campaigns have shown click-through rate of up to 10%), but instead of going to a lame static mobile optimized page it opened in my YouTube application and played the movie trailer. Once the movie trailer wrapped up, the phone went back to my browser app and landed on Fandango.com showing the theatres nearest me and the show times. I bought tickets! My phone did all the work for me. I loved it!

(Since my vision this morning, I have come to find out that AdMob, a mobile ad network, is already experimenting with things similar to this.)

My vision ended there, but what I took away from it was this. We are currently there, right at the Mobile frontier. We should learn from the lessons of those who also found themselves on the frontier - like the pioneers during the California Gold Rush. The poor sap that showed up last also went home with empty pockets.

I guess what I am trying to say is this. I am not the only one who is seeing this vision. You have a choice, either you venture into this frontier early (before this vision becomes reality), or be the poor sap that shows up last and goes home with empty pockets.

Integrated Campaign for the San Diego Zoo

2008-07-25T16:35:00.004-07:00

The San Diego Zoo has a great tradition of utilizing outdoor. This recent campaign is no exception. It is draped on billboards, buses and trolleys. Vibrant illustrations of mythical creatures such as gryphons, unicorns and sea serpents are paired with the headline, “If they’re not here, they probably don’t exist.” The illustration style is reminiscent of the colorplates you would find in a book published by the Museum of Natural History.

As a creative, I love it. It’s a different direction for a zoo to take in their advertising. And I welcome the lack of anthromorphization that has characterized the recent campaigns. (For the longest time, adding human characteristics to animals in their marketing was big no-no.)

But from a strategic point of view, does this campaign tie into the Zoo’s ongoing commitment to conservation?

When I saw the interactive component, the answer is yes.

The page has web cams of the mythical creatures and they disappear. A headline reads, “Don’t let today’s animals become tomorrow’s mythical creatures.”

A great example of using interactive to complement an offline campaign.

Worldwide Internet Ad Spend Grows at Phenomenal Rate

2008-07-15T09:25:00.002-07:00

IDC's Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast estimates total worldwide Internet advertising at $65.2 billion in 2008, climbing to $106.6 billion in 2011.

However, compared to traditional advertising, Internet advertising still trails by substantial margins. For instance, it trails direct mail by over $30B, and spending on TV and print ads is nearly twice as much as online ad spending.

The IDC report shows the following:

Keyword ads will dominate Internet advertising through 2011, getting over one-third of the annual online ad spending budget worldwide.

Display ads are next in popularity with over 20% of annual worldwide spending through 2011.

Classifieds are next, with almost 19% of all online ad spending per year.

Rich media ads will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 50% during the 2007-2011 forecast period.

Additional highlights from the study:

The US will lead the world in both total advertising spend and online ad spend throughout the forecast period with expenditures of over $265 billion and $45 billion respectively in 2011.

Over $5 billion will be spent worldwide in 2008 in each of the top four categories of online ads: adult content and gambling, information, electronics, and computing. These categories will continue to lead in 2011.

Source: IDC

A cause for celebration

2008-07-11T12:50:00.002-07:00

My life changed today. This day, July 11th, 2008. It’s a momentous occasion, an occasion I plan to celebrate for years to come. But like any good occasion, it needs a name. I’m going to call this glorious day “iP app Day”.

You may be asking yourself, “What is iP App Day?” and, “Why, even if I did know what this mysterious day stood for, would I celebrate it?”

Well, iP App Day is short for iPhone Application Day. It’s the day that the first iPhone applications became available to us common people, and it’s a day that I believe will change the marketing forever.

Certainly there have been major advances in phone marketing technologies – but I believe none are remotely as important as this one. Now it’s easier than ever to literally be within one touch of a finger to your customers.

iPhone users can now log into the iTunes store and download custom applications for their phone from such categories as Business, Education, Lifestyle, News, Social Networking, and so on. Now, do not be confused, I am not celebrating the basic unbranded applications that are sprinkled around the application store. What I am celebrating are the fantastic branded applications that will put our client’s brands literally in the palms of the customer’s hands.

Doing a cursory search around the “store”, I see brands like EBAY, Travelocity, Twitter, FaceBook, SalesForce, Frommer’s, and the MLB – I’m sure with hundreds of brands to follow. I stopped in at the Travelocity store, where I found a handy tool to pick up. It was the Travelocity Gnome app. I said to myself, “What the heck. I’ll throw him on my phone.” After all, he was free!

Besides, he’s handy to have on my phone. I don’t travel a lot, but I could see how it would be cool to be able to check flight times on the go, book a flight, or check security wait times. I could see how many of these applications could be handy… but I don’t think that’s the whole point.

I’ve looked at my phone now a few times in the past couple hours and every time I see that welcome screen, there it is, the Travelocity app staring me in the face – and that, I think, is the point. Sure it will lead to increased bookings, etc., etc., but every time I see that app there, it’s just a little more brand enforcement. It’s benignly advertising to me… “Travelocity, Travelocity, Travelocity”. Who do you think I’m going to think of first the next time I have to book a trip?

All that aside, I can see amazing opportunities on the horizon. How long will it be before Pizza Hut offers an iPhone application to order pizza at the touch of a button (With the new GPS functionality of the phone, you likely won’t have to even type in the delivery address - the phone will send all of that information for you), or Wal-Mart has their weekly coupon book available as an application.

I could go on and on, but do I really need to provide any more reasons why we should all be celebrating “iP App Day”? Let’s break out the balloons!

The Road to the New Dew

2008-07-07T22:53:00.005-07:00

Has Mountain Dew joined the ranks of CNN's Ballot Bowl and MSNBC's Race for the White House?

It’s hard not to get inundated, especially in our industry, with social media. Clients ask: how do you rate social media and viral marketing as successful? If it gets people talking about your brand, engages them in an interesting and relevant “with the times” manner, instigates action among a network of people, and in this case - got me to venture back into the land of unnaturally yellow drinks.

Yes, Mountain Dew. I used to love them; I am actually not sure why I haven’t had one in years. This time, they aren’t yellow, and I was persuaded by compelling TV commercials during election coverage. You know what? I DO want to take the Road to the New Dew.

While this site seems to have been around for a while already, no matter – it’s acceptable to stay undecided up to a point. Apparently Mountain Dew had its own Primary season, with interactive games for users to create the 3 final flavors (Flavor, Color, Name, Logo, Label) which somehow all ended up with gingseng in them. Now is decision making time… I am sure we are all a little OD’ed on politics, so why not take a break and campaign for a new energy drink (we all need them and love them). And rest assured, a 3rd party isn’t going to screw things up for the rest of us.

Things I like:
Witty campaign news ticker, state-by-state results, campaign count-down clock.
You can create an video without too much effort – just pick & arrange the elements.

Things I don’t like:
You have to have the MyHtml app on facebook to post campaign posters.

All three flavors are available this summer in case you want to become familiar with the issues before committing. I guess the worst outcome would be that the winner just tastes bad, no matter how cool the campaign was. I am supporting Voltage on flavor alone until I can make it downstairs to the 7-11 (Plus, the logo looks like the Las Vegas sign).

Last but not least, please click on my campaign poster to check out the dewmocracy.com site (and help me become a Recruiter of the Week)!

Gestural Computing

2008-07-01T18:13:00.004-07:00

Virtual nods to Steve Prentice from Gartner for his paper "Gestural Computing: The End of the Mouse" referenced in this month's eWeek in an article called "Whither the Mouse?" by Scott Ferguson for the inspiration for this post.

For a moment, think about the multi-touch screen from the iPhone and the wand movement of the Nintendo Wii. Then, layer on facial recognition technology, electrical activity in the brain, etc. We've had the touchpads from laptops and that funny little eraser-head thing in the middle of keyboards for a while. We've also had fun with the webcam feature that lets you put animated hats, masks, etc. on people in real-time in video. All of these things are either here or close to here in some way or another and we are on the cusp of all of it coming together whether it be in Windows 7, or otherwise.

Right now in our industry, we depend on a mouse for a lot. We, at times (and should more than we do), make accommodations for ADA compliance, but, for the most part, we rely on a user's mouse (and only one of the available buttons) to help them navigate what we produce. Our jobs are about to change; usability and creativity is about to jump to a whole new level. Are we ready to make this leap? Are we ready to accomodate for the next generation of navigation? Imagine all the new fun we can have when users are flipping away at our sites and applications as Tom Cruise did in the Minority Report. It's an interesting time to be us.

Search Engine Indexable Flash Sites

2008-07-01T11:01:00.001-07:00

As reported on TechCrunch, Adobe now provides a way for search engines to read SWF files and index all information contained therein. Therefore, any text or link in a Flash application can now be indexed.

Evidently Adobe is releasing technology to Google and Yahoo enabling them to crawl and index SWF files, making them searchable. This will give searchers access to millions of Flash files.

As pointed out by TechCrunch, this will not take Flash sites to the top of the SERPs any time soon because in the past, Flash files were difficult to find and link to.

Source: TechCrunch

Google Infers User Intent Through Ads Viewed

2008-06-30T09:49:00.001-07:00

The New York Times reports that Google is using its own brand of behavioral targeting by serving ads to users based on the ads they previously viewed.

That means if you view ads for certain items, Google would put 2 and 2 together to later serve you ads for related items. A search for canoes and vacations might elicit ads for trips to Vermont.

Source: New York Times

The Importance of Web Design in Search

2008-06-29T09:16:00.001-07:00

Have you seen the new "visual" search engines, Viewzi and SearchMe? They both give you a preview of the websites in their search results. You can see a thumbnail of the page before you click.

With Viewzi, you type in your query and then pick among many different formats: video x3 view, 3D photo cloud view, basic photo view, simple text, web screenshot, etc. Then you see the thumbnail in that format before downloading the page.

With SearchMe, you type your query and then select categories below (advertising & marketing, search engines, computer networking, business news, radio or search all). Then you see some nice size thumbnails you can click on to download the page.

This makes Web Site and page design more important than ever. While Google isn't doing this yet, Ask provides page previews.

Imagine how such a feature might affect search marketing as the trend toward social and visual interaction takes hold on the web. The impression your page preview makes before eliciting a click will be crucial as web design and content drive traffic.

Google and Yahoo Dominate Mobile Search

2008-06-19T12:00:00.002-07:00

Nielsen Mobile reports that Google and Yahoo lead Microsoft in mobile search. Google and Yahoo together account for 79% of the mobile Internet search market, which breaks down:

· Google 61%
· Yahoo 18%
· MSN 5%

Nielsen reports mobile search usage frequency as follows per person:
· Google 9 searches per month
· Yahoo 6.7 searches per month

The top 3 mobile search categories for Q1 2008 were reported as Information, Local Listings and Websites/Navigation.

Source: Nielsen Mobile

Google + Yahoo = no MSN

2008-06-13T09:36:00.002-07:00

Google and Yahoo signed an agreement yesterday that will potentially give Yahoo $800 million in extra annual revenue and $250-$450 million in additional operating cash flow; pending anti-trust review

The deal could go on for 10 years with an initial 4-year period and option to renew for two 3-year periods at Yahoo's discretion. If the deal is canceled before the initial 4-year period, there is a $250 million penalty. That makes it hard for any deal with Microsoft because obviously, Microsoft would want to negate the arrangement with Google.

Yahoo also has an employee severance plan in place that would require payment of $2.4 billion in potential severance payouts to departing workers, making it too expensive for any future Microsoft deals. Yahoo investors are currently suing over this severance plan.

If the Google-Yahoo deal goes through, experts say there's no hope for Microsoft in Search. Google co-founder Sergy Brin said, "We are very excited to be working with Yahoo and that Yahoo remains a very strong company." Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang said, "Clearly, it's time to move on."

Yahoo will continue its regular search results and many of the PPC ads generated by Panama, but some search users in the US and Canada will also see Google ads that will give Yahoo a cut of the fees paid to Google by advertisers. Google ads will be placed next to selected Yahoo search results.

Google and Yahoo also agreed to combine their Instant Messaging platforms, and Yahoo may also help Google improve its display ad business.

Microsoft said in a statement that it is still open to its alternative offer to buy Yahoo's search business; however Yahoo is not willing to sell the search business because it feels search is key to its display advertising business.

In the meantime, Icahn is still trying to replace the Yahoo board with his own group of nominees and has accumulated 10 million shares in Yahoo and has options to buy 49 million more. Yahoo's Board meets on August 1.

Source: Seattle Post Intelligencer

A Delightful Little Blogging Application

2008-05-30T18:15:00.003-07:00

Is the idea of maintaining a blog just too much? Installing software on your server, learning an admin interface, and of course all that writing every day... It can be intimidating to get started, and sometimes it's a challenge to stay caught up.

Until a few weeks ago I had a blog on one of my personal sites. The latest post was over a year old. I just didn't get around to it, and it was too much of a chore. But recently I discovered a fun alternative: Tumblr.

It's a very simple, easy-to-use, fun (and free!) blog-scrapbook-sharing kind of thing. You can post text, photos/videos (from your phone, even), audio, Web links, quotes, and chat sessions. More stream-of-consciousness than a classic blog, and less ephemeral than Twitter. In fact, Twitter.com uses it for their own Twitter Status page!

It took me less than a minute to sign up and get started. This is the kind of user experience people mean when they talk about not just usability, but delight. Glee, even.

I'll probably put my new Tumblelog on my own site, just to play with it. Get your own, then post the link in the comments here. And sorry to ruin your weekend... You were probably planning to go outdoors or something.

Online Advertising Is Strong and Search Dominates

2008-05-24T08:48:00.001-07:00

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers report online ad revenues totaled $21.2 billion in 2007, a 26 percent increase over 2006. The "2007 Internet Advertising Revenue Report" states 2007 Q4 Internet advertising revenues were $5.9 billion, 24 percent higher than Q4 in 2006.

eMarketer charts US online advertising revenues from 1997 to 2007, showing $0.91B in online ad revenues in 1997 versus $21.21B in 2007.

Search Leads the Way

The report shows search revenues at $8,805 million in 2007 with 41 percent market share. Display ads are second with $4,455 million and 21 percent market share. Consumer ads accounted for 55 percent of 2007 Internet advertising spending, an increase from 52 percent in 2006. eMarketer also reports online video ads will boom by 2012, along with paid search and classifieds.

Source: eMarketer

Blogging about tweets about blogs about social media

2008-05-19T10:48:00.001-07:00

In this article, Jeremiah Owyang, Sr. Analyst at Forrester Research: Social Computing, discusses some important points to consider when hiring an agency to provide social media services.

It seems appropriate that I heard about this blog post via Jim Durbin's Twitter post this morning.

Follow me on Twitter, or friend me on Facebook!
Linda

Customer Lifetime Value Panel @ RDI

2008-05-13T17:11:00.003-07:00

On May 6th, Red Door hosted a panel discussion on Customer Lifetime Value that included a number of industry experts.

Red Door Interactive President, Reid Carr started the session with a quick introduction of the panel and the topic at hand. He pointed out that acquisition and conversion strategies often dominate the focus of Web marketers at the expense of retention and extension strategies. This leads to a lost opportunity for engaging with your customers and creating long-term value instead of one-off conversions.

At that point, the panel discussion kicked-off with speakers, Rick Enrico of Juice Media, Susan Tull of BlueHornet, and Katelyn Himes of La Quinta Hotels. Instead of providing a transcript of the entire session question-by-question, I’ll just summarize the main points made by each individual during the Q&A.

Rick Enrico proclaimed that the future of marketing lies in automated one-to-one communication with customers through multiple touch points. By leveraging data from marketing channels such as mobile, social, search, and email; companies can segment their users by behavior/interaction/analytics and then generate content that is hyper-relevant to each segment. Companies should use segmentation and relevancy to replace “batch and blast” in their marketing communications. Moreover, companies should move towards a pull marketing strategy in which they give customers a choice about how they interact with the brand. One customer may want to be contacted by mobile text message when a specific product is available, while another may want to be contacted by email when the company is offering special promotions. By giving customers the option to choose the content and the medium, companies will generate better customer lifetime value.

Susan Tull focused on email communications and started by pointing out that marketers have been talking about automated one-to-one marketing communications for ten years, but that now the tools are available to implement it effectively. Marketers need to get started with segmentation and one-to-one marketing now or they will be left behind. Companies should take a “crawl, walk, run” approach so they aren’t intimidated about acting now. You can worry more about advanced strategies when they get further into the process. One easy strategy to get started with is email link segmentation. Look at what links people are clicking on in your emails and segment those people into groups based on their behavior. Then follow-up with those various groups with relevant messaging based on the links they originally clicked on.

Susan stressed that the first thirty days after someone opts in to email is typically the best/most profitable time to engage with them. The rest of the panelists nodded in agreement. Companies should send a series of messages during that period to encourage the customer to engage with the brand and/or make purchases. With regards to analyzing results, many marketers are mistakenly judging the value of a campaign by looking at one-off transactions when they should really be looking at customer lifetime value.

Katelyn Himes gave the in-house marketer’s perspective on customer retention and value. Companies should leverage behavioral data to further engage with their target market. For example, La Quinta saw their email response rates nearly double when they segmented respondents and non-respondents and sent a special follow-up message to each group. Marketer can also see great value when they create event-triggered email campaigns. Event-triggered emails tend to be more relevant to the user and may increase their patience and receptiveness in receiving other promotional offers via email. By analyzing and segmenting users based on recency, frequency, and monetary value (RFM), companies can be more strategic with who they market to and how they market to them. Lastly, Katelyn stated that companies should treat their customers like a spouse. Give them a chance to provide feedback, listen to their feedback, and take the necessary actions to create a happy long-term relationship.

In the end, the whole panel agreed that customer perception is reality, and that testing is crucial to any marketing efforts that a company undertakes.

Good Copy Is Good Usability

2008-05-12T17:43:00.002-07:00

Usability consultant Caroline Jarrett submitted an article to UsabilityNews.com about an issue that's near and dear to my heart - the usability of writing. She says: "USA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES PLAIN LANGUAGE ACT
The answer is that the USA House of Representatives passed the Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2008. It achieved bipartisan support, passing with a massive majority of 376-1. The lone opponent, the aptly-named U. S. Congressman Flake, issued this commentary on the topic: “Bad bill. Voted no”."

In her article, Ms. Jarrett offers some books about writing clearly. (I'll add my favorite, "Why business people speak like idiots.")

She discusses the similarities between good technical writing, and good usability. I have long held that there is no distinction - or at least no clear line where one stops and the other starts. The goal of each is to make things clear, easy, and empowering for the reader, application user, or site visitor. Use language, images, and concepts that are appropriate for the audience. Anticipate questions and provide answers. A Web app or site can have the most sensible flow possible, but if the steps or pages are labeled in a cryptic or overly-stylized way, people might well end up being very confused when trying to use it.

The designer/writer may have created something brilliant and elegant, and they know exactly what they meant by it, but that counts for nothing. Others have to "get it" - that's the only measure that counts in communication.

One point Caroline Jarrett didn't quite touch on, is usability testing for content. Just as we test applications and Web sites to be sure people use them easily, we should test instructions, online help, and getting-started guides, to be sure they support the reader as we would hope.

Papa John's Hits $1 Billion in Online Sales

2008-05-08T08:55:00.002-07:00

Yes, that's billion, with a "b".

According to this article on CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/biztech/05/08/papa.johns.ap/index.html, "In the past seven years, Louisville-based Papa John's International Inc. has made a lot of dough from online ordering -- more than $1 billion to be exact."

"Since launching its Web-based ordering in 2001, Papa John's said it has invested more than $15 million in online ordering technology. Customers can place online orders up to 21 days in advance. Another function lets consumers repeat their most recent orders with just one click."

According to the article, Papa John's online sales have been growing at more than 50% per year. Online orders and orders via text messaging (introduced last year) now make up 20% of their sales.

The article also discusses Domino's Pizza Tracker, where customers can check the up-to-the-minute status of their pizza. How fun!

Pizza Hut's online orders have reportedly grown six-fold in the past 3 years.

Great, I wasn't hungry... Now I want a pizza...