Mind on Marketing

The Wharton School publishes a weekly e-mail newsletter, Knowledge@Wharton. It includes many interesting articles on the results of research conducted by professors there. (Full disclosure: my Dad was on their faculty for many years, my brother-in-law, Pat Harker, was Dean there until he  recently became president of  University of Delaware, and my brother John has [...]

One of my favorite books on web usability is Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think. He says that usability is not “rocket surgery,” it’s common sense, and that anyone who’s interested can learn to do it. “After all,” he comments, “usability really just means making sure that something works well: that a person of average [...]

You’ve done a great job of driving people to your site using Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In, etc. Now what? Once they get there, you’ve only got a few seconds before they decide to stay or move on. With hundreds of millions of sites, your users have a lot of options, and limited time. If they can’t [...]

When someone arrives at your web site, make sure they know what your site is about. These usability considerations are a key part of how effectively your site communicates what your business does. Here are some of the main things that should be on your home page and carried out in design and content throughout [...]

Came across a posting in Jakob Nielsen’s usability site, useit.com, the authorititave source on web site usability. Titled 10 High-Profit Redesign Priorities, the piece provides a nice framework for planning your site’s makeover. He comments that his ideas are not the “latest over-hyped stories the trade press loves to cover,” but instead, give users what [...]

Today I attended an workshop that was jam-packed with information on SEO, social networking and more. How to Cost-Effectively Drive Audiences to Your Website was presented by Todd Tweedy, CEO of Audience Machine, and David Robinson, Creative Director and co-founder of Birch Studio. I’ll be sharing what I learned in the next few posts.
One of [...]

Marketing has always been about building and sustaining relationships. We’re all very “wowed” right now by social networking–Twitter, Facebook, Linked In — learning what they’re about and how to use them. However, marketing via social media takes a long time. First you learn what each one is and how to use it, then you find [...]

These are my top ten usability tips, based on the work I do with clients and the problems I see most often:
1. Be clear on your business and marketing plans. If your business is undergoing an identity crisis, wait until you’ve resolved it.
2. Know your audience and focus on them, not you. Talk to your customers and [...]

A colleague here in Charlottesville, Jason Hull, (Principal, OpenSource Connections) is a pioneer in using technology and a leader in our regional technology community. Last week I noticed his email signature in a message I received, and it’s a great example of how to promote your site, blog and network connections. Jason lists the URLs [...]

Thought I’d provide some very simple and straightforward marketing goals that you could address through your web site–priming the pump:
Improve customer satisfaction: provide content that answers questions customers often ask about issues related to your business. Provide interactivity via a blog where customers can leave questions and comments. If you do this, be prepared for [...]