Archive: July 2008

Marketing minds can get so caught up in the creative process that we lose sight of how the recipient (aka the only person who really matters) is going to read our direct mail.

Picture this: the prospect arrives home from work with a bag of groceries propped at the hip and a kid or two tugging on an arm. They grab the mail, drop the groceries, peel the kids off and stand over the trash to “sort” the mail.

Gulp. That’s a harsh reality.

But that’s why we get paid–to break through at this most critical moment. Dean Rieck, a direct marketing freelance copywriter full of wisdom on this topic, shares his wisdom on this topic in this excellent article.

Spreading the newspaper out on your kitchen table to snip snip snip away at coupons is becoming a frugal act of the past. According to survey conducted by Simmons/Experian Research and Coupons, Inc., 36 million Americans printed coupons online last year, an increase of 10 million people from 2005.

Steven Boal, CEO of Coupons, Inc. addressed this emerging promotional tool in this press release. “A new generation of shoppers is discovering coupons on the web,” he explained. “And printing coupons is becoming a regular part of a consumer’s shopping routine.”

The report–2008 Printable Coupon Consumer Pulse (pdf)–found that 73% of Coupon Clickers are more likely to open an e-mail if a coupon is offered, and 64% are more likely to click on a banner or search listing if a coupon is offered.

Other notable findings:

• Over half of online coupon printers are more likely to click on an ad banner or open an email if it is enabled with a coupon.

• 83% of online coupon printers are more likely to print a coupon if it is relevant to their reading content.

• 77% of online coupon printers state the value of the coupon affects their willingness to provide personal information

Delivering coupons online gives marketers some major advantages, including dynamic offer testing and personalization opportunities.

Have you ever clicked on a coupon? Entered a promotional code? How do you think online coupons should be put to use?

SolutionSet believes in a collaborative approach to conceiving, designing and developing solutions. It is imperative to develop the proposed solution with the client team as they know their business best and it is SolutionSet’s role to blend its expertise with those of the client. SolutionSet pursues a blended Waterfall and Agile Methodology to Define, Design and Develop for Project the solution. This combined Methodology drives the SolutionSet Project Governance Processes.

The blended Waterfall and Agile Methodologies ensures a dynamic approach to delivering a solution against business requirements. The value in the Waterfall approach is emphasized in the Define and Design Phases where it is imperative to document in a detailed and iterative manner “what” you are trying to build (the Requirements) and “how” you are going to build (Design Document) the desired solution. In the Development Phase, SolutionSet adopts a more collaborative Agile approach to developing the application. The value in this approach is that requirements are realized in components and individual issues are worked out while the larger application is built. This allows for dynamic reaction to requirements which may need to be realized in a fashion other than originally conceived.

In each case, a clear and concise project process is documented for both internal and client teams ensuring that all parties on are on the same page. Finally, it is imperative for a successful engagement to embrace the client throughout the process and delivering iterative versions of all deliverables to that the teams collaboratively build the solution. In this way, the client is part of the development of the solution.

Lesson #1: Always test your messaging.

Experienced direct marketers would never mail their lists without testing the effectiveness of various copy treatments. So why are websites missing this critical learning stage? (Especially working in such a malleable medium.)

Direct marketing is a strict numbers game: the copy that gets the best response wins. But a good response is never enough. The copy is challenged, refined, and tested. Again. And again. And again.

Author Steve Jackson, writing on the blog Copywriting Help, asks the question: Why can’t the same apply to website marketing?

From Copywriting Help:

“The first month with the headline “Just On Site, Improve the way you do business online” only 15% of readers went onto do another action and stayed on the page (reading presumably) more than 3 minutes. With the headline “Do you know if your website is a success or a failure?” 50% completed another action and stayed on our website for more than 3 minutes. A terrific improvement when you consider it was only one line of text we changed.”

Whether in the mailbox or online, marketing without measurements is just, well, advertising.

More from the source…

I briefly mentioned the word Personas in my earlier post on Card Sorting and the fact that it played an important role in User Centered Design. In this post I’m going to try and cover the why and how part of Persona development.

Wikipedia provides us with a very accurate and powerful definition of the term Personas.

“Personas are fictitious characters that are created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product”; Link

Let’s analyze this statement a little further, particularly this part of it “represent the different user types within a targeted demographic that might use a site or product”

Every site or software product has a targeted audience and if you are able to effectively talk to your audience, your service will be successful. In order to communicate with your users effectively you need to know who your users are. What interests them and why they would be interested in what you have to offer.

This is where personas come in and Wikipedia’s definition rings true.

Now that we know what personas are and how they are helpful to the successful development of a solution lets talk about how you go about creating a set of personas.

The “fictitious” part in the above description referrers to the character being fictitious and not a real person, but the characteristics of that persona should be based on real data that you gather by interviewing real users of the service or similar services. The more users you interview the greater the accuracy of your character.

Your interview should investigate the age, occupation, social background, computer and internet familiarity, education and work background amongst other daily tasks that they would typically perform.

From this list, social background is very interesting. This should delve into what they do as hobbies, what television shows they watch, what magazines they read, what they do typically do when they get online and what kind of sites they visit.

All of this data can be used to construct a character or number of characters that represent your user base. It’s helpful to give them fictitious but accurate imagery (E.g.: a sketch of what that user might look like. What types of clothes they would wear), and a line or two of how they would describe themselves.

This gives us tremendous insight on what motivates our users and how to communicate with them. What kind of language the site should use to convey key messages efficiently. E.g.: if your typical user is a frequent reader of “The New York Times”, “Forbes” and “The Wall Street Journal” the copy text you use on your site and the tone of conversation should reflect the type of language they are used to.

Another important aspect of personas is that it helps guide feature and functionality discussions based on who your users are by zeroing in on their needs and requirements. This prevents the development of an application with very complex grid functionality with 10pt fonts if your target audience belongs to an older age group and don’t have much familiarity with the internet or software applications; even though it might be very cool to have.

Once again these are just a few advantages that personas give to the development of a successful website/Application, but I hope it has sparked your interest in the subject area and given you a base from which to learn more about Persona development and the User Centric Development process as a whole.

The keen eyes at Designerside found 42 websites using wood treatments. So grab your favorite polish (we’re partial to Murphy’s Irish Soap) and stroll through these beautiful samples.

Makeeda sniffed out this cool compilation of Photoshop tutorials. Nature in action? Yup. Dealing with bed head? You bet. Typography that pops? Right here.

Ready for some alliteration? The Crayola Crayon color code has been cracked, as seen on COLOURlovers. The approximated hex code and RGB value of 120 colors was deciphered by ColorSchemer.

A swoosh here, a dash there, and voila! Beautiful swirls appear. DesignReviver spun together this mix of swirl designs.

In an article published in the Atlantic Monthly, author Jeffery Goldberg literally goes headfirst into the subject of brain scan technology and how it can provide deep insight into consumer behavior. After being exposed to a series of images, Goldberg learns he sympathizes with John McCain, has conflicted thoughts about Hillary Clinton, and really, really likes Bruce Springsteen.

This use of this technology could help marketers jump the focus-group hurdle of bias in self-reporting. Goldberg continues:

“The commercial implications of this nascent science became quite obvious to me at a certain point in my debriefing. FKF [the neuromarketing firm] already has a list of corporate clients, Bill Knapp told me. He would not name the companies, but he said they are all interested in measuring the “strength of their brand iconography, where it lives in the brain, what is attracting people to the brand, and what is pushing them away.”

More from the source…

You know the scene.  It is 3am body time.  Dinner was a carb-lovers medley of pretzels, peanuts, and those horrible faux cheese crackers.  The cinematic offering is “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”. The kid behind you is doing his best David Beckham.  And the guy sitting next to you snores like a bullmoose and should seriously consider switching to salads.

For most travelers, red-eye flights are about as appealing as watching an all-night Alf retrospective. You won’t die from it, but you certainly won’t enjoy even a minute of it. But sometimes, those dreaded red-eye flights are the only option to maximize time spent at home with your family.  I’m going to depart from our usual blog fodder on web development to share some best practices I’ve developed throughout my own checkered history of red-eye travel.

The Planning…

There are a couple of worthwhile sites to hit.  SeatGuru prevents you from being the schmuck stuck sitting in the non-reclining seat and TripKick prevents you from getting the funky smelling room located right outside all the elevator traffic.  TripIt builds slick consolidated itineraries by parsing forwards of your email confirmations. This site tells you the electrical setups in different countries and this one finds places to charge up in the airport. WiFiHotSpotList is self-explanatory and useful.

The Flight…

You’ll notice a lot of people peacocking their eye masks and neck pillows.  If that works for you, great.  But I’ve never found them particularly comfortable or necessary.  The one accessory that is a “must not forget” are earplugs (noise canceling headphones are great too, but are bulkier and costlier).  Unless you love the melodic sounds of engine noise, wailing babes, and PA announcements (”look everyone, the Salt flats!”), bring a pair of earplugs.  They take up no space and should have a permanent home in your carry on laptop bag, purse, whatever.

For the pharmacologically inclined, I like Ambien. It works fast, you’ll get a solid 4-5 solid hours of sleep, and it does not produce as much post-sleep fog as some other pills.  Always take it right AFTER takeoff and not before.  You do want to be passing out on Ambien when they announce your flight is (surprise) delayed.  That’s a good way to wake up missing something of value (e.g. your wallet if you’re in New York, or your kidney if you’re in Bangkok.)  If you want to avoid catching the guy in 22E’s cold, spray your nose with saline spray and pop an Airborne before the flight.

Lastly, make *sure* to tell the stewardess that you want to sleep undisturbed and that you pinkyswear to fasten your seat belt.  If you forget (and are using a blanket), they will almost definitely wake you up when there is turbulence because they cannot see/confirm that you are buckled.  As someone prone to growling at people and the occasional inappropriate outburst, this has kept me from being deplaned in plastic handcuffs.

Also once you land, I love those single shot eye drop dispenser (Allergen makes nice ones).  Saves your eyes and take no bag space.

The Arrival…

The most common travel plan goes something like this…  Arrive at 6am feeling like crap.  Check in to a hotel and crash for maybe an hour or two.  Quick shower and then go mumble through your presentation while your audience yawns and catches up on email.  I did this routine for a couple of years and found the short sleep didn’t help and usually made it a lot worse.

Instead, I like to (in advance) find a gym near my morning meeting that has the following amenities: showers, lockers, towel service, and a steamroom.  It does not really matter what exercise you do as long as you break a sweat.  Exercise will give you a lot more energy than a 1-2 hour fitful nap and helps conquer jet lag.

A lot of nice gyms will also have a spa attached and if there is time I will book a morning massage and a schvitz (the link is for those of you not named Kaplinsky, Anan, or Kilimnik).  This will really work out the kinks from a night spent sleeping vertically and the 30-50 minutes of quiet gives a great opportunity to rehearse your presentation.

Top this off with a light breakfast and a tall coffee and you’ll be totally ready for a day of meetings.

Some Caveats…

This routine will have you in great shape from 10am to 3pm.  By 4pm though, you’ll start to crash hard.  If you’re presence is required for drinks that evening, make sure to grab a nap first.  Sleep deprivation combined with alcohol will produce a Beavis meets Weekend at Bernies disorder.

The expense report police are likely to freak over the gym and/or massage.  Just help them run the numbers.  A short stay in a hotel room is going to cost anywhere from $100 to $300.  The maximum cost of a day at the gym is $20 and a massage is $100 (gym fee gets comped with the massage).

Happy Flying.

(Video courtesy of Common Craft)

If you’ve got four minutes, take a look at this wonderfully simple video explaining social media–a great primer for those who throw around buzzwords but aren’t really sure what they mean. (i.e. “I’ll Web 2.0 this real good!”)

How do you measure the ROI of a community website???

SolutionSet offers almost every possible solution that a client could need via the web and has extensive experience building all kinds of websites (political sites, ecommerce, brochure sites, marketing sites, community sites, etc.). In my time here, I have been amazed by the level and range of skill that we offer clients. One area where we really excel is building custom community websites. SolutionSet has developed more than 40 community websites for a number of clients ranging from startups like Education.com to large corporate clients like Autodesk and eBay. The types of communities that we have developed take on a lot of forms including developer communities, corporate intranets, paid subscription communities, and communities whose business model is to sell ads.

Before addressing the ROI question, I would like to mention that to build an effective community it takes certain level of experience, expertise, and time to do it right. This is why custom community projects tend to be high cost projects as well. The technical architects at SolutionSet are very strong at taking the clients goals/requirements, breaking down the flows and logic as to how the site will work, and then developing a technical design that will allow the community to scale. It is a true value to our clients to know that they can lean on a team that can build something that is custom to their needs. Our job is very easy when clients who understand the value of a community site approach us for projects. They see our past work and trust that we will be able to execute on their needs. Where things can become tricky is when we are dealing with a prospect who wants to build a community site but they are not exactly sure why. When dealing with a prospect like this, we often face the question, “What is the ROI of a Community Website?” While many have found this question to be somewhat difficult to answer, I will give it a try.

There are both qualitative and quantitative answers that address the ROI question.

Qualitative

• Community websites foster brand loyalty
  • If users find that a company’s community site enhances their overall experience, whether it be researching a product, learning how to build a product, or finding the support they seek, they will perceive that company to be superior than alternatives.
  • They will continue to come back
  • The converse is if they can’t find the support they need, they will have no problem searching for it somewhere else
• Community websites can help to enhance your product
  • We find this to be the case largely with developer communities, but it applies in support communities as well
  • The following example from a survey for developer communities
    • “Our management wanted to find out where the holes were in the API before we published it. Our community gave 43 bug reports in the first 3 hours of us putting it out – Awesome”.
  • Gaining feedback from clients can make you aware of problems earlier which speeds up the time it takes to fix the problem
  • Polling a community about what types of products they would like helps companies forecast and make huge company decisions with less risk
    • Dell’s Ideastorm website used leveraged community to gain insight into what features customers wanted. This resulted in a Linux box being produced, which was a huge change from the long term relationship Dell had with Microsoft
    • Starbucks is trying to gain the same kind of insight from its customers with its “My Starbucks Ideas” Site.
    • The point here is that community can be effective in a number of cases for a number of products.
• Community website can serve as a marketing tool
  • Sales Portal Communities for OEM provides sales reps with a lot of critical information that helps them sell their product more effectively. If you are the only supplier that offers this kind of support, the OEM is often biased towards working with you
  • Communities can create a buzz around a product before it is released as the word can spread to a lot of people quickly. This can help ensure a launch that far exceeds expectations

Quantitative

• Reduction in both customer service & tech support
  • “43% of support forums visits are in lieu of opening a support case.” (Cisco, 2004)
  • “In customer support, live interaction costs 87% more per transaction on average than forums and other web self-service options.” (ASP, 2002)
  • “Cost per interaction in customers support averages $12 via the contact center versus $0.25 via self-service options.” (Forrester, 2006)
  • Bottom line is that a well architected Community will save a company a lot of money in support costs.
    • Customers will be able to find the information that they seek more efficiently as well as you are levering the entire group, and not just one individual
• Page Views - The more companies invest in community the more pages views they get
  • This is critical for clients whose business model revolves around selling advertisements as the more page views you have the more real -estate you have on your site to sell adds
    • SolutionSet keeps this in mind as they develop the information architecture of the sites we build
    • Making it easy for users to find desired content promotes page views as well
    • There are also filtering tools that can be leveraged to enhance this process
  • “Community users have four times as many page views as non-community users” (McKInsey, 2000)
• Brand Loyalty
  • A little funny that this one comes back, but the truth of the matter is that community members spend more money than non community members.
  • “Community users spend 54% more than non-community users.” (eBay, 2006)
  • If your community is based around the products that you offer, the users of the community will spend more money with you. This is directly related to perception of your products.
    • People understand that products are not perfect, but if they can find information that helps them make an informed buying decision as well as find support if a problem exists, they are very happy with their overall experience. This brings them back as customers.

There is much to be gained from building a community website. The reason people have such a difficult time answering the ROI question is because it is not as overt as other aspects of their business. The truth of the matter is that the decisions that we make everyday are impacted in large part by community. In order to see the true value of an online community, you may have