1 column, 2 column or 3 column?

I came across an interesting question on Linked-In about web page layout design that gave me the opportunity to write down some thoughts on design strategy and the importance of testing.

Linked-In user, Harekrishna Patel, asked which web design layout give the best conversion rates– 1 column, 2 column or 3 column? Of course, as most usability and design professionals should know, best results are usually discovered through testing. There really isn’t a set “science” in this regards, though as with anything else, there are plenty of best-practices to use as starting points. Click here to read the full discussion and other user’s responses.

The best advice would be to create a few concepts and then use eye-tracking testing or other usability testing methodology to have a better idea of what works.

Having said that, here are some general thoughts that might help guide you:

The usual approach to page layout is to consider your customer-response priorities. So, if you have multiple “actions” you are going to offer, those should be laid out according to priority (the most important element should stand out, be above the fold, and preferably towards the left where the eye first tends to scan).

If you are going to have a lot of copy, this can be laid out on one column, with a second column providing Call To Action banner or button that summarizes what you are asking the customer to do (Sign up, subscribe, contact us, download, etc.).

Home pages tend to work well with 3 column because most of the times you are providing a menu-list of various topics, services, or product offerings — the customer would choose where to drill down.

Once you start looking at inside pages, a 2 column approach will probably provide you with the most useful real estate for your content, which you’ll want to test as far as what works best.

Overall, web design best-practices really isn’t as simple as “1 column, 2 column or 3 column” — You’ll want to take usability, navigation, layout, color, your customer’s demographic, and other unique factors related to your industry or/and products to develop an effective web site.

Building your email list: day one

I-Media Connection has a valuable article on what an organization can do to build an email list from scratch. You don’t have to be a web-marketing guru to execute on these ideas. If you have a website, you should be doing this already.

You can pretty much summarize it into 3 basic steps:

• It’s best to focus on organic growth
• Don’t require so much info that it keeps people from filling out the form
• If you must, choose a reputable list-rental service

This is rather simple and very basic, but so many organizations don’t take the time to execute on these baby steps.

The good news is that there are several ways to grow your lists organically that will enable you to amass a loyal following of happy customers. The first thing you want to do is put a sign-up link on every page of your website — and don’t hide it with small text or bury it at the bottom of your page. Put it in a prominent position that won’t get ignored. As you drive people to your website through various marketing and advertising programs, there should be an obvious path that leads respondents to a simple form for opting into your list. Making it easy to sign up is key, and that involves careful consideration about the number of steps that you require and the amount of information you request.

Confusion about the core strength of email

Morgan Steward wrote some great thoughts in today’s Email Insider e-newsletter. The basic thought is that our peers don’t understand the value of what we do. He gives several reasons why, but one in particular resonated with my own personal experience.

Email lives at the center of a conflict between things that are urgent and things that are important. In a recent interview, I asked an email manager at a Fortune 500 retailer, “How often are you asked to execute something in email that you believe is detrimental to the long-term success of the program?” The answer: “Probably three or four times a week!” As ambassadors for the channel, we need to help our peers understand that email’s strength lies in its ability to deliver highly targeted messages to subscribers and to increase lifetime value — creating the link, creating trust, between buyer and seller. Though email can be delivered quickly and have an immediate impact, that does not mean speed of execution is email’s core strength.

In fact, speed and urgency run counter to email’s core strength. Building lifetime value takes time, planning, and thoughtful consideration. There is nothing urgent or last minute about it. “Lifetime” implies patience and meaningfulness. We need to constantly remind our peers that email only thrives when important messages are prioritized over urgent messages.

Email will only truly shine when marketers start looking at long-term strategic value of customers and how email plays a key role in building engagement. Traditional marketing professionals need to stop looking at email as the “quick & easy” way to communication with consumers.

Awesome start to 24

Just finished watching the first 2 hours of this season’s premier of “24″. Great show! I ejoyed it, and as usuall, was left waiting to see the next epsiode. My wife and I will be watching tomorrow night for sure.

Insight into Design for Mobile

Web and Social Media Consulting Services now available

Check out my new Consulting Services page on the nav above to read more about how I can help your business or organization. From evaluating off-the-shelf software solutions, to helping you implement a custom-made web site, I can provide goal-oriented support and solutions that fit every budget.

Internet collaboration still in infancy

I’m about half way through Wikinomics, by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams and came across this article today.

The age of public collaboration over the Internet is still only in its infancy, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales told AFP in an interview.

The 42-year-old web guru, in an effort to show Wikipedia’s impact thus far, referenced a recent trip to a slum in India where he “met this young man on the street who told me that he had used Wikipedia to pass his 11th grade exams.”

I was glad to see Wales acknowledge that for certain creative processes, the individual is still the best way. I am all for collaborative work, but as humans we are made to create, so it is naive to think that anything will replace that.

He acknowledged collaboration has its limits, noting that if “we said we want to write a novel about loss, and redemption, probably not so much public collaboration, that’s really an individual vision and a view of the world.”

“But for basic factual information, I think having an open public dialogue and debate and democratic process, seems to be very powerful.”

Writing your LinkedIn Profile Summary

A close friend asked me for some thoughts on writing a LinkedIn profile.

I noticed on someone else’s profile that they had put their Summary in the third person. I had done that with mine, but now I am about to start a serious excursion on looking for a new job. Should I re-write my Summary into the first person and overall, do you have recommendations on what I should put in there?

Here are my thoughts.

I would write a LinkedIn profile summary in first person. Third person can have the effect of making you sound arrogant or full of yourself. In a competitive job market, being personable and nice to work with can make all the difference when hire-decision time comes. You want to create that positive first impression right of the bat. It’s probably fine to write in third person for a printed document like a bio, or brochure, but in the case of a “social network” it has a more personal connecting intent, so first-person is probably more effective. That’s just my intuition opinion, so if you disagree or know otherwise, I invite you to share in the comments section.

Here are some other tips:

Start your LinkedIn profile with the job you want in mind — that’s your vision. Look up a few ideal job descriptions in openings being posted on Monster.com or other job sites and analyze the key words and skill-requirements companies are asking for.

Based on these, while staying honest, craft your profile making sure to cover those key points. Make sure to not get to granular (ex. I know how to use photoshop) unless that granular skill set is very important to the role. Sometimes alluding to a skill without being specific will get you an interview, because now the person has to interview you to know more. Of course, you don’t want to be so vague that you don’t stand out among a pile of candidates — it has to be clear from your profile that you are qualified. But because its the web, keywords (search) are the key factor to an effective profile.

Basicly, your summary should be a “match” to your ideal job. I am assuming, of course, that you are qualified for your ideal job.

If the job description says, “Opportunity requires an experienced interactive marketing professional with proven results in developing small to large-scale consumer and B2B web sites and integrated email campaigns” you would write your profile to say, “I am an experienced interactive marketing leader with proven results in developing small to large-scale consumer and B2B web sites and integrated email campaigns.”

Now — if you know you’re interviewing with a specific company, don’t copy off their specific job description, or edit it enough and “make it yours” so its not “clearly” a copy/paste–the HR rep might not appreciate it and it will come off as being dishonest (…again, make sure to modify to ensure accuracy and honesty in regards to your abilities and experiences).

On a side note: An important thing to remember about job hunting is that even if you don’t have every specific experience or skill set asked for, you may have skills that compensate. For example, years ago I was hired as a web designer. The job posting required knowledge of JavaScript, and experience using Macromedia Dreamweaver. I had been doing some copy/pasting of JavaScript (though I don’t know how to program it much) and had been working with MS FrontPage. So, I indicated these things when I sent in my resume and cover letter, and also indicated that I had a strong ability in rapidly learning new software and a solid understanding of the key concepts behind JavaScript programing. I got the interview and I landed the job. I was using Dreamweaver to complete HTML code on the first day of the job — I walked in with 3 fat Dreamweaver books I picked up the Barns & Noble discount pile. My new manager thought it was funny, but was surprised when I completed a pile of Web Help Desk requests within hours of having them assigned.

So, in short, don’t fear not having every skill set required– just make sure to communicate other skills you do have that compensate for the one you are missing.

Identify Shoppers by Past Purchases… and by Sight

One of the memorable scenes in the Minority Report (Tom Cruise), a Gap billboard mis-identifies Cruise’s character by the “donated” implanted eyeballs he is “wearing.”

“[Cruise] walks into a shopping mall, where his new eyes are scanned with a telltale spark. Mistaking him for the eyeballs’ former owner, a nearby Gap billboard exclaims, “Hello, Mr. Yakamoto! Welcome back to the Gap! How’d those assorted tanktops work out for you?”"

Find more videos like this on AdGabber
Marketing Vox has an article on this and covers how several retailers are using RFID to do something similar. Make sure to read to the end of the article where they cover the new cutting edge stuff.

The most exciting new technology for vigilant early-adopting marketers is that of facial recognition:

Cameras embedded in digital screens that can record and identify customers as they roam stores or make purchases.

Facial-recognition technology, like those of YCD Multimedia, capture a person’s image and analyzes features (size and shape of nose, eyes, cheekbones and jawline) against their databases.

The result is a near-instant classification of a customer into a particular demographic (age, sex, even ethnicity), creating the possibility of serving highly-targeted advertisements to individual shoppers, not groups.

Of course, one can already here the shouts of protest over privacy issues (legitimate, but not insurmountable I think).

Tech firms and marketers hope to avoid privacy issues by taking care not to capture or store personally identifiable information about consumers. In June, for example, facial recognition firm TruMedia Technologies committed never to record or store video from the tracking systems in its billboards.

Cool stuff.

Twitter co-founder on Obama text strategy

Short and rather shallow piece on Twitter and political communication strategy. I was hoping for some more in-depth thoughts from the founder of Twitter, but then again, Cavuto didn’t really ask heavy questions. This is the equivalent of a tiny McDonald’s hamburger — fast-food business television.

Somewhat interesting nevertheless. I went ahead and added Obama and McCain to my Twitter “follow” list — maybe I’ll find out who Obama’s running mate is going to be over the weekend!