• Aug212008

    Writing for the web

    Posted by Gene in Marketing, Usability

    Jakob Nielsen has studied writing for the web in depth, what hasn’t he studied about the web in depth? But he has some really good points to make that I think anyone planning their new website should take into consideration.

    Here’s my synopsis:

    Web pages have to employ:
    scannable text
    bulleted lists
    meaningful sub-headings
    one idea per paragraph
    the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
    highlighted keywords
    half the word count than what you think

    He’s not kidding around, he tested his thesis in true scientific fashion and found: “when we combined three ideas for improved writing style into a single site, the result was truly stellar: 124% better usability.”

    Listen to the man.

  • Jul022008

    Flash can now be indexed by Google/Yahoo, insert sarcasm, Yipee!

    Posted by Gene in Marketing, Web Development

    Adobe announced yesterday that they have helped Google and Yahoo to index flash files on the web and it’s gotten a lot of coverage.

    Adobe is providing optimized Adobe Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines.

    As Jay says, “let’s keep this under wraps“. I agree.

    I understand why Flash is so tempting, it’s neat after all. But I still fail to understand why your “rich Internet applications” need indexing? Please advise…

  • May082008

    Lance Winslow scares Chuck Norris

    Posted by Gene in Random Stuff, Marketing

    This absolutely has to be the most wacked-out “about” page i’ve ever seen: http://www.lancewinslow.org/founder.shtml

  • Feb182008

    The Call To Action (CTA)

    Posted by Gene in Marketing

    Fadtastic has an excellent post on Calls to Action or CTA’s as we in the biz know them:

    Many web designers argue that the commonly used “click here” is inadequate as a CTA because it does not convey why the user should take such an action.

    It is commonly acknowledged that an effective CTA will inform the user as to why they should follow it. For example if we came across a “register now” CTA it informs us as to WHY we need to click it. “Click here” is an expression which fails on the informative front.

    He goes on to say:

    The best word to use is “Free”. Marketeers all agree that “Free” is the most powerful word. So whatever it is, whether it is a free product or simply free information. A killer call to action then would include the command “click here” with the incentive of “free”. “Click here for a free sample” for example.

    Matt makes a good argument for both “click here” and other informative words for your CTA — which is the common thought in design circles. I think either one could be effective, you have to make sure you usage is on target in both cases. The key seems to me to make sure you offering is worth clicking for, start there and the clicks will follow.

  • Jan092008

    10 Things you need to know about CONSUMERS for 2008

    Posted by Gene in Marketing

    OMMA (Online Media, Marketing & Advertising) Magazine recently had a truly interesting series of articles, that I felt very relevant to many of our clients. This top 10 list is about your consumers. We complain about them but really where would we be without them…

    1. They’re mouthy (they love you or hate you).
    2. They would rather listen to each other than to you.
    3. They’re moving targets (think cell phones).
    4. They’re snackers, constantly scarfing down tiny chunks of media.
    5. Ads will support your content better than subscription fees.
    6. They love gadgets (widgets, mini-apps, etc…)
    7. They’ve gotten over the privacy thing.
    8. They play games (40% of households have a video game console).
    9. They love online video.
    10. They still use search engines, Alot.

    Source: OMMA

  • Dec192007

    10 Things you need to know about METRICS for 2008

    Posted by Gene in Marketing

    OMMA (Online Media, Marketing & Advertising) Magazine recently had a truly interesting series of articles, that I felt very relevant to many of our clients. This one relates to the notion that marketing/advertising that takes place online is the most accountable of all the advertising mediums, this is true in general but it’s all relative…

    1. You need to also measure participation, not just visitors.
    2. New ways of gathering intel and metrics is coming, stay tuned.
    3. There are some big partnerships, in the metrics realm, on the way.
    4. People will begin to hate those “fancy” scrolling (JavaScript) ads.
    5. You should be more transparent in your traffic reporting to your audience.
    6. Ad targeting technology companies will rise.
    7. Video ads will grow up.
    8. Neilson plans to measure TV viewership across the Internet and TV combined.
    9. Comparing different online advertising will get scientific.
    10. Marketers will still not figure out what consumers want and will tolerate as far as rich media ads.

    Source: OMMA

  • Nov132007

    Buckleys

    Posted by Gene in Marketing

    Well it is that time of the year again, flu season… Here is an ad for a Canadian flu medicine, Buckleys, they even have a myspace page. This is a pretty courageous ad campaign, as I certainly have never lamented the taste of any cold or flu medicine. I’ve also read that the makers of NyQuil actually engineer that foul taste, because in their tests they find that people prefer the nastiness because they think the medicine works better the more horrible it tastes.

  • Oct232007

    Google Analytics - How to

    Posted by Gene in Marketing

    This is a great article on Vitamin about Google Analytics - you should defnately have Google analytics setup on your website…

    Read this Exerpt:

    5 Aspects of Online Marketing

    1. The Campaign: The campaign is the high level marketing activity that you’re conducting. Think of it as a bucket that holds other activities. For example, you may conduct a big “back to school” marketing campaign. This campaign might involve an email blast to your newsletter subscribers, a special paid search campaign, and some banner ads. All of these activities are part of the “fall-sale” marketing campaign.
    2. The Medium: The medium is the mechanism that is used to push the message to the customer. Continuing the fall sale example, the campaign has multiple mediums because we’re using multiple mechanisms to reach the consumer. We’re using email, banner ads and paid search. All are different mechanisms for pushing the message out.
    3. The Source: The source identifies who is delivering the message to the customer and helps us better understand the medium. For example, there might be three sources for the paid search component of our campaign: “Google” for Google AdWords, “Yahoo!” for Yahoo! Search Marketing and “MSN” for Microsoft AdCenter.
    4. Term: The term is only used for paid search tracking and identifies the keyword that the visitor used in their search. It should be noted that you do not need to use a term. Every search engine will, by default, pass a keyword to your site and Google Analytics will capture and store that keyword. However, not every search engine will pass along the exact term that the visitor entered.
    5. Content: The content attribute is optional and stores information about the ad that the visitor clicked on. For example, we may want to send out two versions of our email newsletter during the back to school campaign. The emails will be sent at the same time, but will contain different formatting. We say these emails have different content. Using Google Analytics we can identify which ad performed better for us.

  • Oct012007

    P3 Client Visual Ice on Adage.com

    Posted by Gene in Marketing, Our Clients

    moonlight-promo092707.jpg.
    Our client Visual Ice Marketing00 gets some great coverage in Advertising Age’s online publication adage.com, check it out for the full feature

    Thanks to a technique CBS calls Visual Ice, shoppers will see the name of the series and its premiere date, which is Friday, on the door of a supermarket freezer. When the door is opened, the image of a moon and the lead character, Alex, become visible.

  • Sep272007

    If you build it, they will not come

    Posted by Gene in Business, Marketing

    Midlandsbiz.com recently asked me to write a “business advice” article for their online magazine. Hopefully it can help someone out there understand online marketing a little better.

    “I often ask my clients when we are starting a new website project, what are your plans to let people know about your website? Almost every time they have never thought about it”. Gene Crawford, President and co-founder of Period Three, a full-service web-design agency in Columbia, discusses practical ways to improve traffic to your website.

— Next Page »

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