Whether you’re a first time reader, or having been reading our blog for years, we value your readership and want to give you an update regarding some changes at FutureNow that will impact GrokDotCom.

You may have noticed that some Grok contributors have been less present on our blog lately. Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg have left FutureNow to capitalize on opportunities in professional speaking, blogging, writing, and online marketing advisory.  Bryan’s new website can be found at www.bryaneisenberg.com. Please join us in…

...continue to read "Changes and Non-Changes"

Lots of talk about redesigning websites lately. Maybe it’s because summer is ending, and the Holidays are right around the corner (for e-Tailers, that is)?

First, there was Jeff Sexton’s post about asking the right Persuasion Architecture questions before redesigning, which was inspired by a Seth Godin post. Then, Jakob Nielson had some good thoughts from the Usability camp about redesigns and how radical they should be.

Mr. Nielson’s thoughts resonated with me given that our OnTarget product is generally focused on incremental improvement of clients’…

...continue to read "Website Redesign Roundup"

Did you know that Ogilvy was not the first to use the “electric clock” comparison in a headline?

I came across this bit o’ trivia while writing my post on Ogilvy’s preferred ad layout.  I found it written up by Robert Rosenthal at Freaking Marketing, who had done the detective work to find and scan in this Pierce-Arrow ad that ran about 25 years before Ogilvy’s Rolls Royce campaign.

If you consider yourself a student of advertising, you’ll want to read…

...continue to read "Ogilvy’s Famous Rolls Royce Ad – Another Look"

I couldn’t help but write down a few comments and links in response to a recent Smashing Magazine post.  Designed to Sell: 8 Useful Tips to Help Your Website Convert kicks major butt, and I thought you’d both enjoy the article and a few comments/additions thrown in for each of the 8 tips:

Tip 1: Subiminal Suggestion

Basically, make sure your design elements – and most especially your pictures – enhance your credibility and put visitors in the right emotional frame…

...continue to read "Comments on 8 Useful Conversion Tips"

Jakob Nielsen’s new post regarding how to optimize for online visitor’s F-patterned scanning is a must read.  There’s a lot of sound advice there, many of it confirming or aligning with Future Now recommendations.  Stuff like:

Don’t waste hyperlink words on non-descriptive or generic words.  Make links keyword rich and ensure that customers can predict where the link will take them.  Plan and link for maximum “scent” Use plain language.  In other words, talk to the dog in…

...continue to read "Doesn’t Graphic Design/Layout Affect Scanning Patterns?"

First, if you haven’t seen it yet, watch Microsoft’s response to Apple’s infamous “I’m a Mac” campaign.

Here’s the question: what do you want to bet that Apple has been just waiting – even itching – for Microsoft to release that kind of response to their “I’m a Mac” campaign?

Why do I ask that?  Because I’d bet anything that Mac’s marketing was smart enough to engage in what Mike Smock has termed The Three Move Set.  You see, when…

...continue to read "Microsoft’s Ad Vs. Apple’s Three Move Set"

Sitting down to the watch the Sox game last night, I surfed over to my hometown paper and found an absolute gem of customer-centricity in the most unlikely of places – a cable television company. As someone who’s lived in a few different markets over the years, I’ve experienced Time-Warner, Comcast, Primestar, Cablevision, and Verizon, and I can tell you there is one common bond that stands out amongst all of Big Cable – the privilege each of the CSRs allowed me…

...continue to read "Case Study: Comcast uses Twitter to delight"

Microsoft made a bid for Yahoo!.

On paper this deal might look right, but how about the cultures?

What do you think; is it a good deal?

...continue to read "Is Microsoft Yahoo’s Salvation?"

2007 was the year “blog” became an everyday word. Only twelve months ago, blogs was seen as a fad that maybe, in a few more years, might be seen as credible by the masses.

Oh, how quickly things change. Blogs have taken over, creating a feedback loop between journalists and readers, businesses and customers, you name it — conversation has officially changed the game.

While this may not represent all of the year’s best marketing bloggery, it’s a start. Are there posts…

...continue to read "This Year in Blogs: The Definitive Marketing Posts of 2007"

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"