The customer is the advertiser
The customer is the marketer; that’s what social media is for. The customer is the advertiser; that’s what Google is for.
In a world where people have lots of time and there is very little education and very little information, traditional marketing and advertising thrives. We are not living in that sort of world.
The Celtic Tiger […]
Nobody cares about your new app
Stop talking or writing about your new app, video, Twitter feed or Facebook page. Start making your customers’ lives simpler, faster, cheaper.
“Dear Gerry,” the email from John Kavanagh, Loyalty Marketing Manager for Aer Lingus begins. “As a valued member of our Gold Circle programme I am delighted to be contacting you with news of the […]
Cloud computing is all about self service
Cloud computing is about services, but more specifically it is about self service. What people want more than anything from self service is speed and simplicity.
Do you remember the days when you walked into a shop and bought software by the box? How did you judge the software? Well, for starters the box needed to […]
Technical documentation is the new sales
We want more detail. We want more facts. The Web changes the nature of how we make decisions.
“It’s really easy to install,” the friendly sales rep said. “Even my mother could do it.”
What the sales rep obviously didn’t tell me was that his mother was a fully qualified electrician. And what was I going to […]
Web management requires minimalism
The most important decisions in web management are what you don’t do, what you take away from your website rather than put up on it.
Recently, while I was in Norway, I met Dag Wigum, the CIO of Schibsted, a Scandinavian media group with a highly successful web presence, particularly in the area of buying and […]
Are marketing images damaging your brand?
On the Web, traditional marketing images are increasingly being seen as useless annoyances by customers. They undermine the credibility of the brand.
The two webpages were trying to get you to sign up for test drives for supercars. They were identical (pictures of the cars, video, etc.) except for different headlines:
LIFE IS SHORT. JUST DRIVE
DRIVE FIVE […]
The problems with FAQs
Links are signposts. They are promises to the customer. They must tell customers where they are going and what they will get when they get there.
The essential problem with the Frequently Asked Question is that it is not useful or helpful. In Ireland it is mandatory to pay an annual license for your TV. I’ve […]
It’s not what people say, it’s what they do
Never make management decisions for a website based on opinions. There is often a Jekyll and Hyde difference between what people say and what they do.
SIMS is a hugely popular simulation game. They wanted to improve sign up for optional registration for those who had purchased the game. At one stage they tested two […]
Web customers care about tasks, not goals
Talking about customer goals is the biggest mistake a website can make. That’s how you lose the impatient customer.
A couple of months ago we needed to find a new house cleaner. I went to lots and lots of house cleaner websites and became more and more frustrated. The typical website had a big silly picture […]
When do you have too much information?
Modern organizations have armies of people trained in producing and publishing information, but there is a huge and growing lack of people who are skilled at organizing, analyzing and prioritizing it.
The Christmas 2009 airline-bombing attempt in the USA showed what can happen when there is too much information and too little skilled analysis. “It’s […]
