1 – They’re easy to read, easy to absorb and easy to forget. 2 – The main message they communicate is that you’re no more original than the other 1.4 billion writers (see point seven). 3 – They never fail to disappoint. 4 – It’s almost impossible to maintain quality. Points 1-3 may be semi-reasonable, but 8-10 will be little … Read More
Money back guarantees, rebates and the dilution of trust
What is an unconditional money back guarantee? We’re not talking about complex ideas here. No questions asked should mean no questions asked. But the money back guarantee ain’t what it used to be.
Photoshooting a McDonalds burger: honesty or multi-layered deceit?
Why Your McD’s Burger Doesn’t Look Like the One in the Ad has left me feeling slightly confused and dirty. In it, the director of marketing for McDonalds Canada shows why there’s such a gap between reality and what’s presented in their ads. A few questions spring to mind. – Did Isobelle really write to McDonalds and ask that question? Really? … Read More
Outweighing the pain of upgrading software
The psychology of pain is fascinating. We can remember incidents involving pain, yet we can’t precisely recall what the pain felt like, other than the fact that it was unpleasant. We can recall tastes, smells, sounds, images and touch with far greater clarity. Yet the more recent the pain, the greater our recall of the sensation, and the more we … Read More
Confessions of a late Twitter adopter
I’ve been using Twitter for forty-two months, have around 10,000 followers, and have tweeted in the region of 3,000 times. For the first forty-one months I received a total of 560 visitors, almost all of whom spent an average time of 1-2 seconds on our website. Low quality is an understatement. During the forty-second month of Tweeting I received 16 … Read More
Twitter actually works (at more than procrastination)
Something unexpected has happened to me. I’ve finally seen the light. I now understand how to use Twitter for my business. Three years ago I wrote Twitter Flu – Win a $100 Amazon gift voucher, where I offered a $100 Amazon voucher for anyone who could tell me how to use Twitter for my business. Four months later I raised … Read More
There’s a war on data – and we’re all going to lose
Your website’s data isn’t abstract, academic or a goal in itself. It’s a means of understanding your visitors – where they come from, what they’re looking for, what they do once they arrive and more. If you’re against the concept of analytics, you’re effectively against understanding how people interact with your website and your business. Which is why many businesses … Read More
The Myth of the First Impression
You only get one chance to make a first impression, but every interaction has the opportunity to be the one that lasts.
Still ignoring your mobile users? So are we.
I just looked in the Google Analytics accounts of 25 different companies, to see how many visitors are using a mobile device. The figures ranged from 0.5% to 10.3%, with an average of 4.9%. Most companies, ourselves included, choose to ignore the problem.
Today’s inspiration: spam
Don’t ask me how this started, but I’ve become very intrigued by spam. The figures are incredible: around 130 – 150 billion sent every day, and only a 0.0001% response rate is needed to make a profit.
