Fireworks are synonymous with July 4th and celebrating the day. While watching the festivities this year with my family, I wondered why do we keep coming back year after year? Why do we feel we haven’t properly observed Independence Day until the last spark dissipates from the sky?

How can we market better by learning from the attraction principles of fireworks and how it has been anchored to July 4th? What if anything can we apply to our businesses.

...continue to read "Can You Bring Fireworks to Your Business?"

Recently, while on a Market Motive conference call with Shoplet’s founder and CEO, Tony Ellison (a fan and reader), we noticed an interesting method of presenting Point of Action assurances at the shopping cart page. Visitors simply hover over links to read more purchase assurance and website policies. No click involved, and best yet, it doesn’t remove you from the checkout process.

Shoplet makes it effortless for visitors to have their questions answered on the spot, when they need it…

...continue to read "Convert More Visitors with Confidence"

Traditional banner ads can be frustrating. They’re easy to ignore. And all too often, the landing page on the other side of the click doesn’t fulfill the promise of the ad.

So why not try something new, like placing an ad on Facebook, where captive users are forced to see it right there in their news feeds?

That’s Virgin America’s strategy. But is it anything new?

Despite the hype, social media ads are rarely different than traditional banner or pay-per-click ads. The landscape…

...continue to read "Why Virgin’s Banner Ads Work, Even on Facebook!"

They say it’s better to be born lucky than rich. Guinness stout definitely has the rich part down (pun intended), but it seems they were a bit short on viral marketing luck this St. Patrick’s Day.

Guinness made a valiant attempt to make St. Patty’s a national U.S. holiday with their Petition 3-17 campaign. Their argument: Since there are nine times more Irish-Americans than there are people in all of Ireland, and since people of all ethnicities already miss work on…

...continue to read "How Guinness Might Have Converted One Million"

Holidays are a great time to advertise. Because of the emotional context, marketers know people will be especially attracted to holiday-themed ads. Valentine’s Day is no exception: You can almost set your clock to the sudden rush of banners strewn with cheesy hearts, bears and candy kisses.

Banner ads, once clicked, usually evoke the confusion of Alice’s rabbit hole more than the come-what-may optimism of Forrest’s box of chocolates — either way, you don’t know what to expect.

Grabbing attention is tough, and…

...continue to read "When a Banner Ad Becomes a One-Click Stand"

As a Conversion Analyst, I review hundreds of websites in a given week. So when I come across unusual design elements, it doesn’t exactly surprise me, but it does catch my eye. Crutchfield has gone the unconventional route by placing the “Add to Cart” button on the left-hand side, despite the fact that visitors are accustomed to seeing important calls to action on the right.

Why would Crutchfield go against the norm?

While there’s a good amount of info on this product…

...continue to read "Are You a Call to Action Lefty?"

Recently, Mashable reported that “The worldwide leader in sports” is opening up its collegiate arm, ESPNU.com, to user-generated videos. The service, known as Campus Connection, will allow students, faculty and fans of all colleges and universities to supply the videos, including play-by-play analysis, sideline reporting and even televised events. Much like NASCAR.com, where fans have transfered their enthusiasm for a niche (if it’s possible to call millions of die-hard fans a “niche”) sport into a thriving photo and video-sharing community, ESPNU…

...continue to read "ESPNU to be a Fast Follower of NASCAR"

In the world of social networks, Facebook is getting all the buzz. But despite Facebook’s much-blogged-about $15 billion valuation, MySpace rules the roost when it comes to total members, unique visitors and advertisement dollars. In fact, according to Alexa.com, MySpace ranks as the 3rd highest trafficked website in the US (sixth place worldwide), while Facebook sits at a respectable fifth in the U.S. (seventh place worldwide). So why would College Tonight, a new social network geared toward, well, college students actively going…

...continue to read "College Tonight Tries to Convert the Facebook Fatigued"

While searching for new sneakers, I decided on a pair of Pumas. I love their style and color options, and they always have the newest selections. The same goes for their website. It’s chock full of flash — literally. I normally don’t mind the extra attention to design — in fact I appreciate a beautifully designed website — but Puma.com has made it difficult to find any products.

Landing on the homepage, I was hypnotized by the Flash and interactive design, which must…

...continue to read "A Simple A/B Test Suggestion for Puma.com"

One word: Fulfillment.

I recently purchased a set of Sony Ericsson earbuds from Amazon.com. I already knew the type of earbuds, which color, and even the model number I wanted to order. (That’s what we call a “late-stage” visitor.) Amazon didn’t have to do much to convince me to buy. All I wanted was a clear product image, showing what I could expect with my purchase.

...continue to read "How Amazon Lost Me (and My Money)"