MarCom Professional

Experts in "usability" gathered in London today to discuss several issues surrounding this topic. The meeting had been called by TechSmith, the producers of Morae the leading usability testing software.

It became apparent during the discussions that usability testing is often seen as something that is performed at the end of the development of a web site. Businesses often perceive usability testing as some kind of process driven function that merely works out if the buttons are the right colour or the sign up box is in the right place.

Usability adds value

However, usability is much more than this; it's about working out whether or not your web site visitors, for instance, are delighted with their experience. More...

Lance Armstrong, Tony Blair and Mark Zuckerberg all have at least one thing in common. They are amongst the 100 most influential people in the world according to Time Magazine. If you have been living in a time warp, Lance Armstrong is the world's most successful professional cyclist who beat cancer to become a world champion racer. Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister is currently a special "peace envoy" to the Middle East. And Mark Zuckerberg? Well at the age of 23 he is the head of the world's eighth most popular web site, Facebook. However, these three have an additional factor in common. More...

Online business owners need to target their offerings in a much more refined way. Evidence is mounting daily that Internet users expect web sites to be devoted to their specific needs. For instance, let's say you offer software on task management. You could have a site devoted to managing tasks explaining how your software helps improve things for people.

Many businesses would then "target" their offering using little nation flags so users could choose the "experience" most likely to meet their needs in the USA, or the UK for instance. But this is not enough. People expect much more. Indeed, as one study reported in Brand Week magazine suggests, Internet users are actually put off if advertising is not specifically targeted to individual needs. More...

Writers who have physical trauma heal faster than people who do not write. Strange as it may seem, studies have shown that physical problems heal more quickly if you write down your feelings. No-one is quite sure why, but the evidence of a mind-body link is so great that even ultra-conservative medics have to agree there is "something in it".

Probably, the act of writing about our feelings helps release some hormones which are involved in the cellular healing processes of our body. It's well known amongst doctors that patients who think they are going to get better, generally do. More...

Writers who have physical trauma heal faster than people who do not write. Strange as it may seem, studies have shown that physical problems heal more quickly if you write down your feelings. No-one is quite sure why, but the evidence of a mind-body link is so great that even ultra-conservative medics have to agree there is "something in it".

Probably, the act of writing about our feelings helps release some hormones which are involved in the cellular healing processes of our body. It's well known amongst doctors that patients who think they are going to get better, generally do. Whereas those who think they are getting worse, usually decline afterwards. More...

Your web site visitors can be manipulated. Indeed, successful web sites do this with great care. They lure you in, almost hypnotically, and get you to do whatever it is they want, such as buy something from them.

Copywriting expert Joe Vitale is the pioneer of "hypnotic writing" in which he suggests the use of words to help "hypnotise" your readers into doing your bidding. Imagine that - being able to get your web site readers to do whatever it is you want.

True enough, the words are important, but the "whole package" you present to people also makes a difference as to whether or not they are going to be persuaded by your material. More...

Researchers at the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California have just published their report on the consequences and benefits of children going online. However, embedded within the report are some interesting facts that every online business needs to think about.

Firstly, the annual study shows a dramatic shift upwards in the use of "online communities" of all kinds. Plus it reveals the kind of online groups that people are joining. Even though "social networking" sites are popular, the researchers have discovered that the most popular online communities are those related to specific hobbies. More...

You will make more money if you get inside each customer's head; really get inside and start to think exactly like they think. We all know that marketing is about providing what people want, but new research, published in the journal Psychological Science, suggests that we need to do much more than simply finding out basic needs and desires.

Psychologists in Chicago at Northwestern University looked at the comparative value of empathy and perspective taking. Their investigations showed that during negotiating sessions, those individuals who showed empathy towards their "opponents" were less successful than those who undertook "perspective taking". More...

Google quietly changed it's terms and conditions for advertising yesterday. Up until now, advertisers using Google AdWords have been banned from using the brand names of their competitors in their adverts; now they can.

This has spawned all sorts of suggestions as to how businesses might capitalise on the change. One example I read was if you are Sainsbury, you can now use the word Tesco in your online advertising with Google. Fine; but what value does it bring you.

Let's take a look at some statistics. Wordtracker tells us that every 24 hours just over 1,200 people type in the word "Tesco" and a mere 500 or so type in "Sainsbury" or "Sainsburys". More...

Trainers are available on all sorts of Internet subjects. Want to learn how to do "SEO" (search engine optimisation)? well, there's a course on it. Like to discover how to "monetise" your web site? There's a course on that too. Perhaps you'd really like to learn about corporate blogging. Well, guess what, you can have a training course for all your staff on that as well.

However, new research on obstetricians confirms what I've long suspected - that training courses themselves are of little effect on their own. The study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine shows us that training courses had little impact on the practice of doctors. More...