Archive for December, 2006

I’m truly hopeful that this gentleman finds someone to help him with what looks to be a very ambitious web project. But what I wanted to point out is how they are probably excluding the cream of the crop by their contact technique:

1. using blind carbon copy and a mass-email to god-knows-how-many web firms. This is the equivalent to throwing it on the wall and seeing what sticks.
2. providing almost no information except that they want a site like a (six-digit-website-here) and saying “send a quote.” I know of no reputable web firm who would spend 15 seconds on a quote for this. If any web firm can send a quote based on this request then we have ourselves proof of psychic powers here, folks.
3. Using ad-sponsored email. Now, this is a little bit controversial, but hiding yourself behind an anonymous email address is not a very good first impression. First off, it has the look of spam, or possibly a scam of some sort (this one probably wasn’t) and secondly, my spam filter marked it as suspicious.
4. Using an extremely undescriptive subject “website”. Minor nit, but there is a correlation between someone serious about what they’re doing and someone just banging out emails.

I’ll be updating my blog to Wordpress over the holiday, so probably not posting much in terms of real content. If anyone out there has tips (thanks for yours, Andy) I’m always happy to hear them.

I think it was Dilbert who said “Gift Certificates are like cash, only less useful.”

It’s true! I honestly don’t “get” gift cards as a consumer, but I do understand their commercial appeal. Especially around this time of year. The National Retailers Federation says that $25 billion (5%) of all retail purchases will be gift cards this holiday. That’s a lot of money tied up in easily lost plastic. And it means that many more purchases will be made after the holidays, giving merchants a chance to adjust discounts to recover from poor merchandising decisions even more than the usual after-Christmas sales allow.

Merchants make TENS OF MILLIONS in profit from UNUSED gift card balances. Now THERE’S a racket! Right now I have four gift cards in my wallet. Each of them has about $2 in “change” on it. I’ll never use it. I’ve been in each of these stores several times - and forgotten each time. Ah… the system, it works perfectly!

As a consumer, I feel that if you can’t think of anything to give someone, and you want to do something nice for them - go to the bank and get some cold, crisp cash - or top up a debit card - or a paypal account.

Then… they really DO have a choice… Hey, and if they have a few bucks left over, they can buy a candy bar.

Another tacky blow-up decoration hits the dust. And the guy was slashing with such vigor (joy?)… Frosty just keeps on smiling. “So many decorations, so little time.” The guy’s mugshot is priceless - he can’t even hide his smile. Video Included.

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I’ve been subscribing to RSS product feeds this year and watching them with amusement as the deadlines for holiday shipping arrive. Procastinators must surely feel the pressure as these warnings cross their screens.

**HURRY, TIMES RUNNING OUT**
**Dont’ Delay - It’s TIME TO BUY!!**
You Must Hurry - We are ready to ship
Order before noon or Santa will leave without you!
Free Overnight Upgrade
*Today Only*

I would say absolutely NOT. I’ve never, ever seen a good one.

Recent MEC tests show founder video on a subscription product actually can hurt conversions! They found that the person sometimes couldn’t see or hear the video for technical reasons, and that this would hurt the chances of conversion. Now, we didn’t see what he/she looked like, but let’s assume for a moment they were average looking.

But if they did manage to complete the video, conversion did manage to rise as the visitor continues the process.

My take away: For video use on landing page, make sure you use a rock-solid video transmission mechanism such as Flash and test the bejeezus out of it. Use good web-video production techniques (e.g. no panning if it’s not needed.) with awareness of compression and make sure the video covers only what video is best at covering.

Every time I’ve entered this conversatoin with a client, there is an instant “twilight zone” switch that gets thrown.. So I carry around links to the “At the Whiteboard” section over at ZDNet. This is the best use of human involved web video I’ve seen for any purpose. It gets right to the point and does a great job.

What I would love to see is this style of video combined with a service offering in a A/B test to see if it improves conversion.