Google released another great tool today, Google Insights for Search. Whether you’re an advertising agency, a small business owner, a multinational corporation, or an academic researcher, Insights for Search can help you gauge interest in your relevant search terms. It allows you to compare search volume patterns (and trends) across specific geographic regions, categories (like finance, health, and sports), and time frames. You can read more about it at the Insight for Search help center or get a quick overview here.How does…

...continue to read "Insights into Google Search"

Our firm is very skeptical of surveys. They can annoy customers. The questions themselves tend to reflect the bias of the person or company asking them. At best, they offer directionally-correct information, which is often taken out of context and used to replace an old assumption with some shiny new (and equally dangerous) one.

The great thing about Web Analytics is that it allows you to see how people are using your site — without surveying them.

Our motto: “Believe what they…

...continue to read "4 Q’s Your Web Analytics Can’t Answer"

What are you doing to increase conversion?

Analytics-based optimization A/B testing Online surveys and offline focus groups Site search functionality overhaul Total site redesign Insert your own tactic du jour here

Which tactic requires the most effort and resources? Why did you choose one tactic over another? Can you articulate the risk of your efforts? Have you tried all the above, only to experience marginal improvement?

Continue reading my column at ClickZ…

...continue to read "The Risk of Conversion Rate Optimization"

Understanding the complexity of your sales topology allows you to create a more effective persuasive system

I sing this song a lot: “You sell, I buy, tra la tra la.” But that’s what it all comes down to. Whatever you’re doing, you’d like me to take advantage of it. You’re selling. I’m buying.You’ve got a process in place to manage the transaction from your point of view. Meanwhile, I have my own agenda, and you want to find a way to…

...continue to read "The Equation That Matters"

Understanding the complexity of your sale helps you design better personas and scenarios

Around here, we rarely worry about whether a client’s business is B2B or B2C or any flavor in between. Because any “sale” takes place largely within the context of a customer’s buying decision process, we look instead at how customers view the complexity of the sale.This customer-centric perspective allows us to fine-tune the personas and scenarios that make up your persuasive system based on the various dimensions of…

...continue to read "Complexograms: Thumbnail Sales Portraits of Your Personas"

Is mind mapping for you? If so, then this is our favorite software!

And now for something completely different.

We do a lot of brainstorming … projects, problems, reports, how to communicate a difficult idea. And we’re pretty visual folks around here; we work best when we can “see” how our thoughts relate.

A while back, I wrote an article about the top ten application toolsthat consistently made our day. MindJet’s MindManagerwas (and still is) on the list. It’s the tool that lets…

...continue to read "A Tool for How the Mind Works"

Toward a definition that meets the needs of marketing, analytics and customers

‘Scenario’ is making its way into more and more conversations these days. You’d like to wrap your mind around this concept, ’cause you have the sense it’s the essence of how you construct your online experience (and you’re right!). But depending on who you ask, you get a entirely different answer to the question, “What exactly is an online scenario?”So join me for another installment in my “What Exactly…

...continue to read "What Exactly is a Scenario?"

Shape the online tools that encourage your visitors and customers to market on your behalf

You’ve got yourself a stellar online experience, a mean, green construction of persuasion architecture that meets your visitors’ needs in all possible ways – for viral stuff to work, you have to begin with substance and value. Now you’re ready to encourage your visitors to become word-of-mouth marketers, spreading your glory deeper into cyberspace.

Most people who are pleased with you and your product or service are…

...continue to read "Viral Marketing Online II: How to Spread the Bug"

Don’t get caught in the “stereotype trap” when you create personas for your Web site’s persuasive architecture

You sell aromatherapy products. Are all your visitors nature-loving women who are vegetarians, do yoga, mediate, promote world peace and wear Birkenstocks?

You sell football packages for a satellite service. Are all your visitors blue collar, couch-potato-type, middle-aged guys who drink beer, eat potato chips, have medium to minimal IQ and brag about the size of their TVs?

Careful … you may be falling into the…

...continue to read "When You Create Personas, Stay Clear of Stereotypes"

Your business imperative should always shape the design, development and evolution of your Web site

I’d happily pass out rules right and left on a silver platter. If only I could. But in our business, we live and breath the fine line between “best practices” and “principles.” If we didn’t, we couldn’t help you be effective in your online efforts.

Sometimes practice and principle are a comfortable fit. Sometimes they aren’t. What should you be doing on your Web site? You know…

...continue to read "Considered Choices"