Tag Archives: Website Optimization

The Evolution of Profiling: Asking Less but Getting More

Let’s face it, nobody likes filling out online forms, but when we get something of value in return, then we are willing, provided the form isn’t a mile long. The concept of progressive profiling, introduced a few years back, helps companies reduce form length while still allowing them to gather the data they require. The idea was to combine implicit, behavior-based data (e.g. email open rates, Web site visits, white paper downloads) with explicit information acquired through a sequence of Web forms (vs. just one long form) in exchange for high-value content. Initially, this process helped companies boost form submissions and decrease form abandons. Yet over time, marketers determined that visitors often were unwilling to provide additional information at multiple intervals and that available implicit data did not completely fill the gap.

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Are You “Working Blue” With Your Marketing Copy?

I see a clear “taking the easy way out” parallel between comedians who resort to profanity instead of carefully honed monologues, and b-to-b writers who use the crutch of profound-sounding “filler” words or phrases. These let us use complete sentences even if we haven’t mastered a topic enough to explain it clearly. They also lull us into thinking we sound reasonable because it’s no different than all the other copy out there.

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Learning From Outliers

While we’ve all become accustomed to seeing footage of coastal areas being battered by hurricanes, Irene had a surprising impact recently on the northeastern United States. Some places got hit ...

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Name Your Own Web Domain: Implications for B2B

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has opened the door to the creation of new generic top-level domains (TLDs). Now, in addition to the 22 existing TLDs ...

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Why Create a B2B Communications Center?

The need to improve the coordination of communications across an organization is driving large companies to establish communications centers that optimize the function at global, regional and business unit levels; ...

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Is B2B Mobile Marketing Here Yet?

For at least the past five years, various pundits have breathlessly predicted that each subsequent year would see the widespread rise of mobile marketing in B2B. We’re still waiting. Sure, ...

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A B2B CMO New Year’s To-Do List

Instead of more new year’s predictions, we present another post on the imperatives B2B executives must address in 2011 to optimize and evolve their business: Relative Targeting. With fast-growing economies ...

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The Declining Role Of Microsites

In the B2B marketing world microsites have been the workhorse of “adaptive” marketing. Because of their versatility, the ease with which they can be deployed, and their targeted and focused ...

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Technology, Meet Vision: B2B Websites and Flying Cars

For most of my childhood I was certain that flying cars (or at least personal jetpacks) would be a common part of everyday life by the time I was an ...

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