Welcome to the Purestone Blog
Our blog is about all things digital, from e-marketing to social media we'll cover the lot, and throw in a bit of fun too.
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Is this the beginning of the end for IE 6?
It would appear that the end is nigh for IE 6 (Internet Explorer) with Google announcing that it will not be supporting this problematic web browser from 1st March on both the Google Doc’s and Google sites apps.
Add to this that You Tube no longer supports IE 6 and you start to realise that some of the most heavily hit sites / applications are all ditching support for IE6.
With the realease of Windows 7 expect to see the current IE 6 user base (between 10% and 22% depending on whose statistics you see) diminish more over the coming months.
“What do I need a designer for?”
This is a question uttered by many of those who have at some time invested in a new brochure, website or maybe a logo. “I can do that myself” – and why not, you are entitled to do so, you have Microsoft Word, you know what looks good… right?
It is very easy to dismiss the creative craft as ‘fluffy’ and assume that any individual with a design program and an ounce of creativity merits the title ‘designer’. But perhaps the role of a designer needs to be considered a little deeper. Let’s start with when you need a designer: simply stated this is whenever a corporate asset is audience-facing. In the case of your website or company intranet, not only does design consider the creative elements like colours and logos, but it is also responsible for usability and accessibility. Usability because there is no sense in investing thousands of pounds in integrated state of the art online technologies if the user doesn’t know where to log in. Accessibility; not just about considering the blind using a website, this is also about people who are dyslexic requiring text to be laid out in a logical way, or those accessing your site through a mobile phone. These are all users, all must be considered. A designer is there to think about these people, and knows how to talk to them.
“Can I use anyone who calls themselves a designer?” Well that is entirely up to you. You may know a chap around the corner working from his bedroom who says he can do it for a song, but… if he was any good surely he would be working in a studio? It is important to feel confident that you are getting what is best for you and your business, and that it is being represented in a way that best reflects your service. Good design can enable your business to operate on many levels. Don’t let a poor design be the deciding factor in someone placing their business elsewhere.
Getting a designer with the right attributes to take your business forward is paramount; as I have said it is not just about the ‘fluffy’, although that is a large part of it, but also requires experience and understanding of what has come before. Deciding to include or exclude/avoid certain elements on this basis is critical to the success of a design and its impact with the target audience.
So simply taking a brief and deploying based solely on the requirements without considering historical elements can lead to ineffectual design. On the flip side of this, consideration/incorporation of what has come before can lead to a more successful result. An example of this is the 2008 Obama election campaign, which drew considerable inspiration from the Kennedy Campaign and the iconic imagery of Dr King Jr. This influences the target audience, promoting an emotional response and trust in something /someone they know little about, largely by association. This is no mistake, the designer with his understanding of design and historical knowledge was able to use it to great effect: experience can give you something a little more.
Understanding how to overcome challenges is another thing that comes with experience. These may be challenges faced many times before, but finding a fresh approach to a solution is what adds value. An example of this can be found in the TaylorMade Center of Excellence site; this is a professional fitting service offered to TaylorMade customers, their site needed to be an engaging brand supported flagship for the service and act as a transaction booking facility. The solution to this was developing a flash site that worked as an online brochure and information source, with frequent calls to action to a simple calendar based booking system. The culmination of which has surpassed revenue expectations in the first year.
Getting it right first time. Now this is something every designer strives towards, and the longer you have been a designer the better you become at taking a brief and ensuring you have all the elements you need to produce the goods at the first attempt. Experiencing the feeling of utter rejection when a client throws the best part of two weeks’ work to the floor and tells you, “I don’t like it but I am not sure why” gives you even more incentive to get it right. This is, however, all part of being a good designer; if you don’t fall, you can’t learn how to pick yourself up.
Ultimately, fifteen odd years’ training and learning and a team’s collaborative experience of working with some of the most difficult… sorry… selective clients gives good designers an understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Design is still very much a collaborative effort between the client and the creative; it needs to be based on trust and belief. When this works the results can be… more than you expected.
Bilbo
The Importance of Being Earnest (with Data)
- ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’ DVD box set
- ‘The Beatles’ Rock Band PS3
- ‘Zulu’ on Blu-ray
- Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
- Tomy Octopals Bath Toy
What is this? I’ll tell you, it’s a list of the last five things I bought from Amazon!
- Sirloin steak
- Mixed salad
- Kellogg’s Bran flakes
- The Times
- Nurofen
What is it? The contents of my shopping basket and I’m on my way to the checkout. It’s a simple process, I just hand over my Amex card, my reward card and the job is done. And just before I came in, I used the same cards to pay for my petrol.
So where’s the rub? Well, if we fast forward a month or so, I will get ‘recommendations’ from Amazon – based, not only on what I’ve previously bought, not only what I’ve ‘viewed’ but also based on what other people who bought what I bought, have then gone on to buy!! Clever isn’t it? And then the lovely supermarket sends me some money-off vouchers for – wait for it – Fillet steak, own label Bran Flakes and Australian red wine (well something must have caused the headaches!).
In the data world, there is no emotion, no judgements, simply a set of binary transactions that it needs humans to write business rules and interpretations around. Of course it’s a bit more than just knowing I’m a closet Barrister, how I probably vote or what my likely household income is. In both cases the Retailer has built up a profile of me through the choices I make (and don’t make). My newspaper may hint at who I’m likely to vote for in an election and what kind of social demographic I fall into. My nightly purchases may indicate I’m single and the lack of nappies and baby food means it’s a safe bet I’ve no children under four. But hold on a minute – you bought the ‘Tomy Octopals Bath Toy’?? True – but it was for my nephew (age two) and simply a ‘rogue or unusual’ transaction as far as data trending is concerned.
Great lessons in how to use customer data, gathered through transactions, and then used to generate relevant, compelling offers. It’s an example of data mining and it’s used by more and more companies across the world. I’ll bet your supermarket/garage/High Street retailer does it, and it’s something you’ve probably bought into. But how do I, as a small B2B organisation, apply these strategies to my business?
In marketing, data mining’s used for quite a few purposes. Amongst other things, it can help companies identify their best prospects and segment their markets to personalise communications between themselves and the prospect. It can produce timely, relevant campaigns – reminding you that we’ve got a new version of the product you bought/lease finance you needed/coffee beans you use. It can also increase their cross-selling opportunities among existing customers, and help retain them. And it really is as easy as that – you hold all the data within your organisation – in spreadsheets, in Accounting systems, in CRM platforms, in website databases. So you know what customers have previously bought, what prospects and customers have viewed on your website, you know what they’ve clicked in your emarketing campaigns. You just need to access that information, pull it together, then use the information to create dynamic, relevant communication strategies for all your customers, both existing and potential. Simple in reality and in practice – it just needs an organisation to fully appreciate the value that can be generated by using data to properly profile and communicate with audiences.
10 Measures By Which To Rate Your SEO Agency
Customer Satisfaction
Your SEO Agency should be able to provide testimonials from satisfied clients. Satisfied clients should be happy with the following points.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/many-satisfied-customers
Actual Results
The SEO Agency should be able to provide evidence of ranking improvement. Measures should also cover the volume of traffic and number of conversions.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/great-results
Regular Communication
Communication should be regular, frequent and be proactive. Monthly KPI reports will show how well your agency
measures against agreed targets.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/monthly-kpis
Understanding Your Business Model
There are 4 key online business models. Can your SEO agency name them and explain the differences between the measures?
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/what-do-you-want-from-your-site
Understanding Your Customers
Your SEO agency should be able to provide evidence of creating visitor personas for your site. Who uses your site? What do they want? How do they get what they want and convert?
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/who-are-your-customers
Structured Strategy
SEO is not rocket science, but your SEO agency should provide a structured approach to optimisation. How will they increase visitors? How will they improve targeting?
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/use-tried-and-tested-methods
It is Impossible Guarantee Relevant Number 1 Rankings
Beware of any agency guaranteeing number 1 spot. Is this term useful to you? Will it drive targeted traffic to you? Why aren’t your competitors there?
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/watch-out-for-cowboys
Provide Clear, Reasonable Pricing
SEO is very labour intensive for the agency. The cheapest option is not always the best investment. If you receive a very cheap quote ensure you understand a full breakdown of what you get.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/avoid-really-cheap-quotes
Have the Ability to Link into Current Trends
Social Media is a good way of driving targeted visitors through to your site. There are many simple ways of linking SEO with Social Media to improve visitor conversions.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/link-with-twitter-and-facebook
Offer a Range of Service Levels to Match Your Requirements
SEO should be tailored to your needs. Ensure that your agency understands how you work to get the most out of SEO.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/fully-managed-or-standard-service
Dirty, dirty Data – necessary evil or the Fountain of Eternal Marketing youth?
Data seems to be coming to the fore again. In every context data forms the central part of every direct marketing campaign- be it off or online. In the ‘old days’ you had a very good reason to keep data clean and current – at the very least you saved the postage and production cost of your direct mail piece! With the advent of digital technology, have we as marketeers got lazy in our data hygience? It’s tempting to say yes, as many Organisations see online marketing as cheap, inpersonal and simply a cheap media choice. Yet those Companies that keep data clean, update email & postal addresses, capture interests, integrate with transactional knowledge ( who bought what & when) open the door to ‘Holy Grail’ marketing – the ability to create dynamic, personal and RELEVANT campaigns to every customer & prospect, every time. Little surprise that we see such high response and conversion rates for Clients where data is clean and the commuication is personally relevant. A check list of what you can do to keep data clean :
- Remove ‘unsubscribes’ from your data ( if you are one of our Clients this happens automatically)
- Download ’soft’ bounces and get them checked
- Capture all referrals and add them to your CRM data ( we frequently profile Organisations using this technique – it is amazingly powerful)
- Run an annual ‘cleansing’ – de-duplication, merging and updating data for incomplete,incorrect or missing fields, PAF files and against SIC code. This is a cheap service we provide but it repays the investment many times over.
- Integrate your web analytics with your CRM
The Company Blog & Looking After Rabbits
To blog or not to blog?
Many months ago when planning the latest iteration of the Purestone website the inevitable subject of the company Blog arose. A furious debate ensued…
Pro Bloggers:
“We HAVE to have one. We’re a digital marketing agency for christ’s sake. We need to suck our own sweets.”
“It will help our SEO.”
“It gives the company a face, personality and tone of voice well beyond what the website can.”
“It empowers people within the business and gives them an open avenue in which they can communicate and express themselves.”
“I run my own blog and contribute to others so it’s second nature for me.”
Anti Bloggers:
“If it’s not updated on a regular basis it will do far more damage than good.”
“Why should we conform? We’re not an industry sheep in how we go about our business so why start now. Unless there’s a business case and justification for it then surely it’s just a pain in the backside?”
“I’m worried about someone saying the wrong thing and making us look bad or like we haven’t got a scooby.”
“Just who’s going to administer it? Add to it? I’m not, I can tell you that for free.”
By virtue of the fact you’re reading this then clearly we opted to have a company blog.
Above are just some of the soundbites from what was a colourful conversation. Of course, this situation, is by no means unique and we’ve sat in many, many client meetings watching and chairing this exact debate. There’s no simple answer. It needs discussion and it needs an eyes open approach. The potential risks and dangers of running a blog are significant… which nicely leads me onto the main point of posting this entry…
If you’re going to set up a commercially focussed blog then it needs regular content and a marketing strategy of its own to generate interest and traffic. Now, the more observant of you and those who regularly visit Purestone will be thinking ”you need to look at your own blog mate”. You’d be right. We have fallen at both these hurdles.
Now I could say that we did this on purpose as part of an experiment to gauge the damage an unkempt blog can have on a company. No one would really believe me though. The truth of the matter is that despite starting with the best intentions it’s fallen away and the distance between posts has grown. It reminds me of when I was 8 and I wanted a rabbit. “James, you will look after it and feed it every day won’t you? I don’t want to have to be looking after it when you lose interest’… “Yeah, of course, I’ll make it the happiest rabbit ever.” After 6 weeks ‘Pluto’ (my new rabbit) was not happy. His feeding wasn’t probably as clockwork as he’d have liked and his claws (?) were getting a bit on the long side.
When we discussed the blog there were many people in the room nodding enthusiastically and commiting themselves to getting a new rabbit/blog. The difficulty is that we live and breathe digital, day in, day out and we’re so busy doing this for clients that we inevitably fall down the priorities list. Not ideal by any stretch but a reality that most companies are faced with.
So if you’re considering a blog please read and heed the above.
Pluto died at 8 years old, he was a happy and content rabbit after my Mum intervened and looked after him.
James Smee.
Bad Rabbit Keeper of the Year – 1985 – 1993
Pluto the rabbit
Useable Design: Nature vs Nurture
In the ever evolving world of interactive design, delivering solutions that are relevant, engaging and visually pleasing comes second to delivering something that is usable. In order to do this you have to consider the task that is being asked of the user, and say “what is the most intuitive way I can answer this question?”.
You can appeal to the two ways a user answers a problem, understanding through “Nature” and “Nurture”. Nature: what is natural for us to do without thinking, and Nurture: what we have learnt and expect to do, based on our experiences.
Defining a process through a creative journey can be done in many different ways, many prefer to take the “Nurture” root as this is in effect looking at what has been done previously to answer the same question, and adapting that, often even taking the same creative base style, you will see many re-worked versions of Microsoft products as people believe due to their market penetration they must be doing it right, but are they?
The Nature approach is more for the fearless and brave hearted designer. Take a question, and design the answer how you believe it should work, don’t ask what the user want as they have a preconceived idea based on their experiences… which may not be the right answer, just the one they know. If the design is truly intuitive the answer will be found through natural investigation, and who knows your answer my start to set people’s expectations.
Both methods are valid in their own right, but the outcome should be the same… “this is really easy to use”.