Tuesday, November 25, 2008

What Web Developers Really Need To Know

Is it PHP? CSS? XML? SOAP? (There was one developer who temped here for a while who could have used a little soap occasionally, but that’s a different story…)

Nope.

It’s Excel. I spend at least 40% of my time in Excel crunching numbers, organizing data fields, making flowcharts, creating true wire-frame content inventories, etc. It is by far the most useful tool there is to organize one’s thoughts. It can be opened and manipulated by every client, helping to break down the “scary tech” barrier.

(Yes, and I do it all on a Mac. Reprazent!)

Thursday, November 20, 2008

When Google Analytics Drives Creative

While working on a general marketing program for a newly launched brand and product line, we hit a roadblock on the e-commerce conversion rate. There was not enough data available to trace back through the buyers’ activities to see what caused them to pull the trigger, so instead we did an inventory of all site traffic and broke the information down by state. We discovered that 19 states were really the major contributors to overall traffic and time on site. Then we did an e-mail blast targeted at those states with a very focused appeal, and watched our overall traffic rate more than double. Conversion stayed the same, but the overall sales number doubled.

Check out this shot of the traffic: even with the scale removed you can see that the difference was dramatic. (Opens in a pop-up)

From there we were able to work back through the successful sales to find where we needed to change the approach to convert more browsers into buyers.

There are a wide range of factors that also affect the traffic and sales for this particular brand, but it was a lesson that we have been able to repeat successfully - in one form or another - for other clients. And while Google Analytics is certainly not perfect, it gives us a handy periscope to make changes to a program if needed.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

MySpace - The Pain, The Itch, The Swelling

The Pain: It starts with having to improve the appearance of a MySpace page (especially one for a musical act)...because the site hosts so much information (and I mean SO MUCH) it has some pretty severe limitations on what one can do visually and content-wise.

The Itch: You get the itch to do more and more once you see some of the metrics surrounding this soc-net phenom (©2008 Tony Long): nearly 80% of 12-17 year olds use MySpace at least weekly which is four times more than any other social network (Forrester research); and MySpace users visit the site 20% more often than the closet competitor in the social networking category (comScore MediaMetrix).

And these are 2006 numbers!

The Swelling: The swelling is, actually, awareness: when your client starts to friend other MySpace users, and they warmly and promptly friend back! It really is old-fashioned grassroots outreach the new-fashioned way, with a cup of sampling mixed in.

After digging into it, we know that MySpace is not for everyone…probably not even right for most. But when it’s relevant it’s fantastic.

One might say that the itch and the swelling help you to forget about the pain. One might also realize why I’m neither a doctor nor a poet…nor a musician: see if you can find my MySpace page, built to serve as the testing ground for our client…

Monday, November 10, 2008

Bake Sales Fall Victim to Push for Healthier Foods

The regulatory focus on school nutrition has been gaining ground nationwide in recent years, amid concerns over childhood obesity and a lack of access to healthful food. Sixteen states have set standards for so-called competitive foods that compete with meals, like à la carte cookies, cinnamon buns and soft drinks. And, yes, this even affects bake sales. The old-fashioned school bake sale, once as American as apple pie, is fast becoming obsolete in California, a result of strict new state nutrition standards for public schools that regulate the types of food that can be sold to students.

If bake sales are out, “healthy” fund-raisers, like carwashes and balloon-o-grams, are in. New traditions are replacing old ones: a “Healthy Halloween” vegetable platter for kindergartners; power bars and apple slices at the after-school homework club; a Caesar salad-making class, a weekly organic produce stand and “nutrition breaks” replacing snack breaks. Anna Wong, a kindergarten teacher, incorporates “good foods” versus “bad foods” into the curriculum and offers her students healthy snacks, including edamame — her version of preventive medicine.

“We talk about the word ‘courage,’ ” Ms. Wong said of her young students. “That means being brave enough to try new things.”

For more about healthier foods in schools, click here.