Astonishing new functionality from Amazon
Do a search on Amazon and it now searches the CONTENTS of the books, not just the titles. Amazon.com: Books Search Results: “permission marketing”
Functionality is the new marketing.
Free hot spots are a Purple Cow.
Free hot spots pay dividends – Computerworld
“That means Wi-Fi service brings in more than $100,000 per year per outlet in return for an investment of about $8,000 per restaurant for wireless infrastructure, Wooley says. The largest continuing cost is backhaul to the Internet over 1.54Mbit/sec. T1 circuits, Wooley says. Since the cost of a T1 circuit varies from $300 to $700, depending on what part of the country you’re in, he says Schlotzsky’s would average those costs to induce existing franchisees to offer the service. (New franchisees will be required to offer free Wi-Fi, Wooley notes.)”
My note to Susan
I ran into an old colleague (old as in we worked together on Guts in 1990, so don’t tell me you’ve been online a long time, okay?). Susan is a very talented web designer, and like most web designers, she’s sort of in between the “oh boy, we need a website, let’s hire someone!” stage and the “oh no, the economy is in the tank, let’s cut costs!” stage.
I promised to drop her a note about the burgeoning niche I see for web designers, and here it is:
Susan,
Within two years, companies are going to spend about $5 billion a year on search engine advertising, adwords, keywords and other smart ways to get strangers to click on over to their sites.
Further proof that the web is now officially a direct marketing business.
YET, at the same time that all these companies are aggressively spending to build the right kind of traffic (not the, “hey, I tricked you with a popunder or seduced you with a bikini” ads) they’re dropping the ball.
Less than 10% of these advertisers regularly measure results.
Far fewer than that are changing their offer pages hourly.
What a waste.
People like Andrew Goodman (his site is Traffick | Minding the Internet Search Engines’ Business) understand this. They realize that test and measure and evolve is the secret to direct marketing. There are no once-and-for-all secrets. It’s a process, not an event.
So who’s going to do this work?
I think it’s going to be the next generation of web designer.
I think it goes like this:
You say to the prospect: I will work with you to build a four-page engine of revenue. The idea: the client loads it up with targeted traffic that he buys by regularly trying and testing adwords and other relevant, measurable media. Then, I will regularly, constantly tweak (or redesign) the four page site to turn those strangers into friends (and maybe, if your product is great and your followup is appropriate, you can turn those friends into customers).
The thing is, it’s probably cheaper to constantly measure and evolve and redesign a four page offer site than it is to build the annual 400 page website overhaul. And there’s no question it’s more effective.
It takes patience. It takes a lack of ego. It takes a willingness to be creative and to try new stuff, to measure what works and to do it more.
The great news about direct marketing is that when it works, you know it worked. That makes it easy to get new clients.
The future belongs to disciplined designers, talented copywriters and patient, honest and respectful clients/marketers.
Have fun with it!
Windham mountain and sharp-eyed readers
I had no idea so many of you read this stuff so closely! Yes, Windham Mountain has a website that doesn’t tell you where they are. Yikes!
I’ve pointed it out to the folks there. I bet they’ll fix it soon.
PS Yesterday on the Shuttle, I found an entire magazine devoted to online gambling.
This is how ideas spread
A “Sneezer” quote in the Wall Street Journal, not from me…WSJ.com – Network Ad Campaigns For New Fall Shows Are Falling Flat
Unrelated web news
Take a look at this collection of actually intelligent celebrity interviews.
You’ll spend a few hours, but most of it won’t be wasted. Okay, most of it WILL be wasted, but it’ll be fun. Harris Online: Radio Show RealAudio
I don’t usually point to websites I like…
But my friend Ingrid just sent me the site she’s been working on for a while. I’m delighted that she and her colleagues came to a seminar in my office… I think they did a fantastic job with Windham Mountain. Check it out if you want to see a relatively flash-free, effective, nicely designed site. Go Ingrid!
My friend Miller
…is going trick or treating as a telemarketer.
She says that since they’re not allowed to call anyone at home any more, she’s got no choice but to go door to door.
Miller is 12.
#
A.Word.A.Day–Today’s Word (In case the link has changed, here’s their definition, which I LOVED):
octothorpe (OK-tuh-thorp) noun
The symbol #.
[The symbol # is derived from a shorthand way of writing lb, the abbreviation for the Latin libra (balance), just as $ is a shorthand way of writing US. Octothorpe is an alteration, influenced by octo-, of earlier octalthorpe, probably a humorous blend of octal (an eight-point pin used in electronic connections) and someone whose last name was or ended in “thorpe”, and whose identity is subject to speculation. It may be James Edward Oglethorpe, an eighteenth century English philanthropist, but more likely it is an Olympic athlete, Jim Thorpe. In the early 1960s, Bell Labs introduced two special keys in its innovative touch-tone telephone keypads, “#” and “*”, for which it needed fresh names. Having eight points, “octo-” was an obvious first element. Since the engineer involved in introducing this innovation was active in a group seeking the return of Jim Thorpe’s medals from Sweden, he whimsically added “-thorpe”, creating octothorpe. (Jim Thorpe was disqualified because of his professional status, but his medals were restored posthumously.) The “#” is also known as a pound sign, crosshatch, number sign, sharp, hash, crunch, mesh, hex, flash, grid, pig-pen, gate, hak, oof, rake, fence, gate, grid, gridlet, square, and widget mark.]
Some other eight-based words, other than the obvious octagon, octave, and octopus, are octamerous, having eight parts or organs; octane, a type of hydrocarbon in fuel and solvents; octant, the eighth part of a circle; octonare and octapody, a verse of eight feet; and octonary, pertaining to the number eight.
“In Boise, Idaho, US West is testing a system it calls Voice Interactive Phone, or VIP. By dialing the octothorpe (#) and 44, then saying ‘Messages,’ a subscriber can retrieve voice mail.” Gene Bylinsky and Alicia Hills Moore; Fortune (New York); At Last! Computers You Can Talk to; May 3, 1993.
White Collar Spam
Nick Usborne coins a useful new phrase. nick usborne’s excess voice: White Collar Spam. I would adjust it slightly, to include stuff from “real” companies that is certainly spam but the sender is so clueless that she doesn’t realize what damage she’s doing to the brand… until the fan gets hit. I’ve gotten this sort of spam from Citibank, for example.