Henry Ford perfected the assembly line concept in the automobile industry many years ago, and it has been utilized successfully in many industries since. Before Ford implemented the highly successful assembly line, instead of focusing on what each skilled worker specialized in and passing the car down the line to the next worker, the skilled workers crafted cars one at a time together as a team. Ford’s introduction of the assembly line resulted in the development of affordable cars (decreased…

...continue to read "Who’s Working Your Website Assembly Line?"

In my earlier days with FutureNow, I  was a part of a team that was responsible for transitioning clients from signing the contract to getting work from the analyst. Essentially what I did was “take their temperature” to see what they’ve done so far, what resources they have available internally and externally to implement, and understand what different tools they were already using to aid them in their optimization efforts.

One thing to note is that many, perhaps even most,…

...continue to read "Data Diving – What’s In Your Dumpster?"

Well, Grokkers, the Holiday Season is officially upon us–Happy Black Friday! Most of FutureNow’s good advice about optimizing for the Holidays has already been given, and hopefully you’ve been busy acting on it.  Many merchants are about to lock their sites down so no major code changes will put their Holiday transactions at risk.

Staying in a mediocre hotel in Albany, NY (with mediocre WiFi) got me thinking about another optimization tactic that we forgot to post about this year: SITE PERFORMANCE.

[Note:…

...continue to read "Who Is REALLY Ready for the Online Black Friday?"

I just finished reading a “prediction” post called 9 Digital Trends for 2010. While some of the predictions were pretty expected (e.g. Facebook will continue to have an impact in 2010), a few of them really made me think.

The #9 prediction was that there would be “more Flash, not less” on websites in 2010.  The authors posit that Flash on websites will experience a resurgence online in 2010 due to increased adoption of broadband, improved track-ability, and new options…

...continue to read "Will You Flash Your Visitors in 2010?"

We marketers are very busy people. In today’s challenging economy, with its rapid digital pace and customers empowered like never before, the demands are never-ending. So, we love things that make our job easier. Or at least appear to.

According to one definition:

Marketing automation is the use of software to automate marketing processes such as customer segmentation, customer data integration (CDI), and campaign management. The use of marketing automation makes processes…

...continue to read "Beware Marketing Automation Without Data Clarification"

Personalization, done effectively, is a lot more than making product recommendations or using technology to welcome a visitor by name. Smart personalization is the process of providing more relevant content and offers to your visitors based on their preferences and behavior.

I call it persona-lization.

Thankfully, today’s technologies have come a long way from those that would recommend “customers who bought my book ‘Call to Action‘ should also buy clean underwear.”

For over a decade, I’ve been railing about demographics’ limited…

...continue to read "The Power of Persona-lization"

It’s a commonplace on the Internet that the traditional 30-second TV spot is dying.  What with increasing media fragmentation, the new “attention economy,” and TiVo/DVR’s, etc, etc.

Of course, there have always been some level-headed voices of dissent, but it was still interesting to read this bit of research on the effectiveness of fast-forwarded / DVR-ed ads.

Turns out that viewers have to pay attention to their TV Screens in order to fast forward through ads.  A real shocker that…

...continue to read "Early Rumors of Commercial’s Death Greatly Exaggerated"

Use the power of words. According to AdRants, Holland-based CoffeeCompany, with help from THEY, has started promoting menu items through people’s WiFi menus. Instead of using the typical network names for their WiFi network they experimented with wittier names to “motivate” people into paying:

“By continuously changing the names of their store networks to such things as OrderAnotherCoffeeAlready, BuyCoffeeForCuteGirlOverThere?, HaveYouTriedCoffeeCake?, BuyAnotherCupYouCheapskate, TodaysSpecialExpresso1.60Euro and BuyaLargeLatteGetBrownieForFree, the chain is able to both promote items as well as guilt patrons into realizing free WiFi…

...continue to read "Turning Free into Paid…"

Ying Cheng and I share one thing in common – we hate pink phones.

OK, actually, we share a few things in common.   But one of them is an interest in technology designed specifically for women.   Too often, we see big companies who want to reach out to the women’s market, so they simply take an existing product and make it pink.   We’re both members of the “no pink…

...continue to read "No Pink Phones – A New Twist on Technology for Women"

I recently attended a presentation put on by the good people from a great new SEO blog called Janeandrobot.com. Their mission is great: “Design for people, be smart about robots, and you will achieve long-lasting success.”

They’re bringing a balance back to the sometimes-crazy world of SEO enthusiasts.

I’m not an SEO expert, but it’s an interest of mine. I attended with a friend who’s a talented web/software developer, so I enjoyed seeing him “nerd-out” in his element of very, very technical…

...continue to read "2.0 Technology, Search Engines, Conversion, and You"