9:00 am – 9:20 am

Seth Godin on how to get your ideas to spread:

Click here to view the embedded video.

9:30 am – 10:00 am

Avinash Kaushik on how to create a data driven culture:

Click here to view the embedded video.

10:00 am – 10:10 am

Mike Grehan on the future of Search.

Click here to view the embedded video.

10:11 am – 10:15 am

CommonCraft on social media in plain english.

Click here to view the embedded video.

10:15am – 10:30 am

Please take a 15 minute networking break. Find some great people on twitter or friend some fine people on Facebook. On twitter you can follow me @TheGrok or on FaceBook @Bryan Eisenberg.

10:30 am – 11:10 am

Doug Mack, Carrie Johnson, David Daniels on Web 2.0 and what it means for retail from Shop.org.

Click here to view this presentation.

11:10 am – 12:00pm

Mitch Joel & Carrie Johnson on Social Shopping: How to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Customer Control

Click here to view this presentation.

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Enjoy your lunch break.

1:00pm – 1:20pm

Ze Frank on …

Click here to view the embedded video.

1:30pm – 1:45pm

Gary Vaynerchuk on building personal brand within the social media landscape

Click here to view the embedded video.

1:45pm – 2:00pm

Rand Fishkin on SEO for branding and blogging for higher rankings.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-SEO for Branding from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

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SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-Blogging for Higher Rankings from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

2:00pm – 2:05pm

Chris Anderson on Free! why $0.00 is the future of business.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2:05pm – 2:50pm

Bill Tancer on Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2:50pm – 3:00pm

Chris Brogan on new media’s necessary evolution for progress. Rated R for language.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3:00pm – 3:30pm
Please take a break and speak to some real people

3:30pm – 3:35pm

Andy Beal on how to monitor your competitors.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3:35pm – 4:30pm

Adaptive Path staff on customer experience and how it integrates with marketing efforts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

4:35pm – 4:45pm

Chip Heath on making ideas stick.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There were several topics we wanted to include but didn’t make it in because either;  there we no presentations of it online, we weren’t thrilled with the content available, or Iweran out of time in trying to keep this virtual conference to one day.

Some of the important topics we wanted to cover:

1. the importance of good copywriting online
2. comparing search, display, ppc, cpm, cpa, etc.
3. creating efficiencies in your marketing
4. marketing in a recession
5. Integrated Brands & Interaction: connecting your online to your offline channel
6. preparing your organization for social media
7. why organization must adopt a continuous improvement process for their marketing efforts

What topics would you like to have seen?

P.S. We made the decision to leave any of our presentations/interviews out of the agenda to eliminate any bias, but if you want to watch some of our presentations, here you go:

1. How to get your organization to start testing

2. How to use personas to increase sales

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. Using Persuasion Architecture to improve your online results

Does your organization or company have a gag reflex when it comes to testing? Never mind the medicine to fix a problem, are they even prepared to acknowledge that the problem exists?

Ronny Kohavi from Microsoft’s Experimentation Platform had a short post the other day about Dr. Ignác Semmelweis (pronounced “Eeg-natz Shem-mel-vise”, those darn Hungarians!), a 19th century doctor, whose observations (and subsequent testing) of what only a generation later would be understood as cross-patient germ infection, reduced mortality 10-fold when applied. It also ran counter to established medical opinion and Semmelweis was subsequently run out of his hospital.

Today, an organization that does that is euphemistically said to have a Semmelweis Reflex, which Ronny quotes from Wikipedia as “a reflex-like rejection of new knowledge because it contradicts entrenched norms, beliefs, or paradigms”. A related adage for this same idea, one I’m sure you’ve all heard, is “don’t drink your own kool-aid” [Admittedly, even that phrase is three decades old now -- how many readers know the events that gave rise to that reference? And who even drinks kool-aid anymore in this Snapple-VentiChai-RedBull world?]

Now, the lesson is not that anyone with an opinion (and a bullhorn) should be considered a prophet and possibly tomorrow’s saint; no, there really are plenty of kooks in the world. The Semmelweis Reflex is not only reserved for groups who are, hmm, let us say, “ignorant of the facts”. Rather, the Semmelweis Reflex is just as prevalent and possibly more dangerous in a group that considers itself experts in its field — the ones who should know better than to reject new knowledge out of hand — just like those fine well-intentioned doctors at Semmelweis’ Vienna medical research institution.

Does your organization not give testing the weight it deserves because you “know” such-and-such is true? Is your conversion rate maxed out at 2% because “that’s the way it’s always been”? or “that’s what everyone else in my industry gets”? or “I really know what my customers want”? Perhaps you indeed do; if so, testing and re-confirming core assumptions is always healthy.

Ronny’s post (download the PDF he provides) is absolutely worth its quick read (and worth sharing with HiPPOs) and it just might start you thinking. And the next time time an expert — and (gulp!) even an expert at FutureNow — tells you that such and such is true, feel free to question it! Ask for evidence, or better yet — try a small experiment of your own to confirm that idea.

And make “because I say so…” a phrase best reserved for children’s bed-times.

Editors Note: John co-authored Always Be Testing with Bryan Eisenberg and is FutureNow’s Chief Scientist. John worked as an astrophysicist at NASA (on parts of the Hubble Telescope that work). So when John talks about the science of testing, we listen since when a mistake on a NASA multi-variate test occurs the impact can be a lot worse than that of an inefficient “Add-To-Cart” button.

The first reviews on Amazon are live (including the first time that I have seen a video review for a book). Daniel Waisberg writes:

When I first saw that this book was coming to light I had mixed feelings. On one hand, I was hunger for more testing knowledge, both theoretical and practical. On the other hand, I am always apprehensive when books talk about tools. However, the book impressed me as a comprehensive guide to Online Testing. And when I read the following (p.18), I was sure the book is what the market needs:

“The important thing to keep in mind is that the Google Website Optimizer is a tool. (…)It cannot do your thinking for you. It cannot plan your tests. It cannot produce the creative. It cannot interpret your results beyond demonstrating numerical significance and confidence. These things are up to you. If you want the tests you run on the Google Website Optimizer to be meaningful and to provide the intelligence you need to make well informed marketing decisions, then this is the book you need.

“The authors cover very thoroughly the Why, the What, and the How of Online Testing. All you need to know from the value of testing to how should you get started. The examples are very enriching and illustrate the power of testing and the bottom line: Testing = $$$.

Part I covers the Why; the authors delve on the power of testing and provide some amazing examples of it (including a masterpiece on Amazon’s testing efforts). In addition they walk us through the Google Website Optimizer and provide powerful tips on the tool.

Part II covers the What and the How; the chapters are structured in a very actionable way: “Questions to ask”, “Exercises”, “What to test”, and “Apply this to your site”. As you read you can implement the tips instantly. A few examples of what to test are: usability, look & feel, searchability, product presentation, up-sell/cross-sell……

Part III covers some technical aspects of testing. The authors provide interesting information about Google website Optimizer scripts, statistical tests, and other special issues.

*The book is well structured, insightful and action oriented: exactly as online marketing should be! I warmly recommend it.*

Thank you Daniel for the kind words. I hope you get as much out of the book as Daniel did. The book is selling on Amazon for $19.79 and includes a $25 Adwords coupon. That’s a pretty good ROI

The official launch of the book will be at Search Engine Strategies, San Jose on August 18th. If you are going to be there join me for a book signing courtesy of Google and the fine support of the SES crew. I’ll also be at SES doing a presentation with Group Product Marketing Manager for Google Analytics, Brett Crosby titled “Pay Per Conversation.” I hope you can join us.

2 Webinars to Improve Your Conversion Rates

If you can’t join us live then make sure to sign up for the Always Be Testing webinar with Tom Leung and myself. This one is going to be extra interesting. We’ll be covering some interesting case studies and how to start testing in your orginzation (large and small). You can register here and if you missed last month’s Always Be Testing webinar you can see it here.

I also recently completed a webinar with Wes Funk,  Director of Online Marketing for Omniture titled “Using Personas to Skyrocket Conversion.” You can view it on demand. If you want to understand the power of using Personas to enhance your segmentation and content planning, this webinar is a must see.

Which Do You Prefer?

We’re also conducting our own “A/B test” on the covers of the book. When you get your copy you can go and vote for your favorite Always Be Testing cover. Or you can always head to the website to find out more about the book before you order it.

The presentation was remarkably transparent. Raul is an engaging presenter, who established a wonderful rapport with the audience. I obviously cannot share everything in his presentation (you just need to attend next time), but he did put forth this elegant framework of principles which  apply to many companies who want to present better online.

Value: Immediately upon arriving to a page a visitor must see the value that you offer. For Walmart, it is there brand promise and they use various techniques to do this.

Assortment – Highlight the best and then show the rest of their wide assortment.

Easy – Everything about the experience must be easy. They want it to be easy to find and easy to buy. Raul showed examples of all the efforts they make to keep their categorization consistent and improve internal search.

Content – Have great product info, multiples images, etc. He spoke about the value of Rating & Reviews (they work with Bazaarvoice on this) and the importance of showing product availability across channels.

Simplicity is what makes these four concepts so powerful, and obviously Walmart.com has been achieving outstanding results because of it.

Continuous improvement is what it is all about.

If you need some help getting that process working effectively in your organization, I’d love to talk to you about it.

Congratulations to Scott, Larry, Artemis and the rest of the Shop.org and NRF teams for putting on another great event.

With those words echoing in our heads, Bryan and I were chatting about this brilliant tutorial post by Garr Reynolds on his Presentation Zen blog, where he shares a presentation for Dr. John Medina’s new book, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School.

You can see the presentation here or view it full screen at SlideShare:

| View | Upload your own

I can’t wait to read Dr. Medina’s book, but flipping through Garr’s presentation again got me thinking about Seth’s post, where he insists that conference organizers owe their audiences “surprise, juxtaposition, drama, engagement, souvenirs and just possibly, excitement.” We couldn’t agree more.

But wait… what about our upcoming NYC seminars, just two weeks from now? Are we really promising “surprise, juxtaposition, drama, engagement, souvenirs and just possibly, excitement”? Well, yeah, I guess we are. That’s something to take seriously.

While I can’t promise you that Bryan’s slides are all as pretty to look at as Garr’s, I can promise that our event attendees won’t be keel over from “death by PowerPoint”. That’s the good thing about seminars like these; they’re face-to-face and interactive, and everyone gets to walk away having learned something instantly relevant to their own online strategy. And they get to ask questions. Lots of questions. Besides, how could you be bored in New York when you get to make fun of both of our losing baseball teams choose from 6 gazillion menu items at our 14,000+ restaurants?

Our presentations went over the high-level basics of creating personas and planning content that speaks directly to your personas. We had a full house for our session and I’ve received lots of insightful questions since from audience members. Overall, the feedback has been extremely positive. But what struck me most was the coming of age of the notion that personas ought to be an integral part of any online marketing plan.

This really excites me, to see people so open to a concept that Future Now has proved effective in almost every interaction. The sheer number of seminars about visitor behavior and the number of times I heard “persona” used in comments and questions suggested a bold new era for interactive marketing.

The rest of the conference was equally thought-provoking. I thought it showed a deeper level of thinking and debate than I’ve witnessed at past industry conferences. (Hats off to Danny Sullivan and the crew at Search Engine Land!)

If you’d like to see my presentation, here it is:

For more in-depth instruction on how to creating personas for your business, read Part 1 and Part 2 of Howard Kaplan’s series on “How to Get Started with Personas.”

If you’d like help planning your online content strategy with personas, contact us.

[Editor's Note: Brian Bond is VP of Marketing and Product at Future Now.]

I’ll give you his top three, but you’ll have to read the post for the other seven and Bert’s analysis.

Top Three Best

1) Gov. Mike Huckabee — What but for communicating would get a presidential candidate so far so fast?
2) Dr. Mehmet Oz — He became “America’s Doctor” in one short year, because of his communications (and Oprah of course.)
3) Al Gore — Even if he hadn’t won the Academy Award, Al Gore would get the communicator’s comeback of the year award.

Top Three Worst

1) Alberto Gonzales — He not only lied, but showed he was lying because of his behaviors.
2) Michael Vick — When you want your public AND the judges empathy, it is not the time to ‘˜gut it out’™ and put on a stone face.
3) Robert Eckert — The Chairman of Mattel was caught in a toy recall disaster probably not of his making, but ‘˜the buck stops here.’

This is a long post with lots of worthwhile meaty commentary.

Read the “Top Ten Best (and Worst) Communicators of 2007” for yourself.

P.S. Barack Obama has proven to be an excellent communicator. It’s not just what he is saying but how he’s saying it that’s turning people on. I’m registered as an Independent, and I’m not yet committed to any candidate, but he’s making a great case for himself.

Here is some video footage of my presentation from the last eMetrics Summit San Francisco this May. Maybe this short clip will wet your appetite for the event and perhaps even get you thinking about optimization and the opportunity cost game.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Hat tip to Barry at RustyBrick for pointing out Dashalytics, a Google Analytics Mac dashboard widget. If you have multiple websites, no problem. You can easily have multiple widgets open to track statistics on multiple sites.

The widget allows you to see:

• visitor traffic overviews
• details on visitors
• pageviews
• bounce rates
• averages
• time on site
• new visit percentages
• browser types
• connection speeds
• top pages
• referring sources in percentages and actual sources
• top keywords
• and more

You can download it from the Apple website.

Simple and better looking number ahead…

Click through for a brief video overview of a One-Page Proposal. The one-page proposal is a communication tool that can get an idea moving forward, cut through the clutter, and get to a decision–quickly.

Isn’t communicating effectively always harder than it seems?