2010 is shaping up to have a number of tight political races.  The Wisconsin Governor’s race will likely be one of them.  A very important component of any political campaign these days is how well the web is utilized.

In this post, I take a look at the websites of each of the three candidates, Scott Walker, Mark Neumann, and Tom Barrett, and evaluate them based on their homepage performance, promoting email signups, usage of video, and available supporter tools and resources.

First, a quick overview of the candidates’ domains:

• Scott Walker: ScottWalker.org – Has held and used this domain since 1999.  Announced run on April 28, 2009
• Mark Neumann: MarkForGov.com – Announced run on September 8, 2009 with traffic data for the site showing as starting in July of 2009.
• Tom Barrett:  BarrettForWisconsin.com – Launched February 18th, 2010 (very late) – Announced run on November 15, 2009.

Compete.com Data

Barrett clearly has some catching up to do, however the data indicates the race (at least in terms of site unique visitors) is narrowing.

Unique visitors in month of January

• Walker: 4,052
• Neumann: 3,651
• Barrett: 1,251

HOMEPAGE
In this section I take a look at the homepage of each site and outline positives and negatives.

Walker

Positives

• On entry, an overlay prompts the user to sign up for email updates.  A cookie is placed on your computer and the site remembers you so you aren’t bothered every time you visit the site with the signup form.
• High up on the page is a list of the ways a supporter can take action and a call to create your own “spot” (more on supporter tools and resources below).
• The “What’s Your Take?” section highlights recent comments from site visitors.  This is a good way to grab the attention of site visitors.  See the “Negatives” section below for more.

Negatives

• The prominence and size of the callout for “MyScottSpot.org” does not match its importance.  This is one of, if not the most important call to action of the site.
• Within the video/presentation area, there are only three frames and each includes a quote and a photo of a citizen with a concern.  Upon clicking these, a page merely reiterates the quote and presents you with another link to “See what Scott says about [topic].”  One would think that there is a video associated with these callouts featuring the citizens concerns.  The actual content is a bit underwhelming.
• There is a video player integrated within the homepage, however it is too small to expect someone to watch the video in this space.  It would make more sense to incorporate the videos in the main presentation area above.
• The “What’s Your Take” section only displays three handpicked comments.  It initially appears as if your comment may immediately be submitted to the site, however this is not the case.  It’s understandable why the campaign wouldn’t want comments posted directly, but the site shouldn’t give the impression that it accommodates this action.
• There’s a “Breaking News” section, however it’s very far down the page in small font.  Easy to miss.

Neumann

Positives

• The site elevates where you can find the candidate across the major social media properties very high on the page.  They take the most prominent position of all the candidates’ sites.
• The main presentation area on the homepage is well-designed and does a great job of calling out the key areas of the site and the tools available to supporters.  A much better job is done here than on the Walker site.
• Next to the presentation area, the site includes a photo of the candidate and a quick summary of why he’s running.  The Barrett site takes a similar approach.  More effective than the hand/card graphic on the Walker site.
• The “How Can I Help?” section in the right column clearly and succinctly summarizes available features coupled with recognizable icons.
• Instead of a pseudo comments section, Neumann showcases the latest from his blog.  This is a good approach, however see the Negatives section below.

Negatives

• The sign-in form for the user account area should be much higher on the page, perhaps as a permanent spot in the header.  Yes, there is a “Login” link up there, but it’s easily missed.
• Even though “Contribute Now” belongs in a prominent place, it should be preceded by at least a sentence or two enticing the user to take that step.  Clickthrough rates would likely increase.
• The blog section shows the entirety of each post.  This limits the ability of the user to scan the posts, read a quick summary and then decide which is worth clicking through to.  It’s easy for other posts pushed far lower on the page to be overlooked.
• Perhaps it was decided to show the full content of each blog post so some content was alongside the overly long series of callouts in the right column (8 in all).  If the blog posts were reduced to a title and summary, more room would be available to present these callouts in a more effective grid form.  Removal of redundancies would also help such as the “Endorse Mark Neumann,” which could be integrated within the “How Can I Help?” section.

Barrett

Positives

• The main navigation on this site is large, clear, and obvious.  Each button feels like a call to action in itself.  A strong point for a political candidate’s site.
• An email list is the lifeblood of any candidate, and the Barrett site calls out the signup form most prominently of the three sites.
• The initial frame of the presentation window includes a welcome video from the candidate.  Unlike the other two sites, you can watch this video right from the homepage in a window large enough for comfortable viewing.
• The presentation window’s frames are easily navigated and each includes a summary of call to action destination.
• The blog area lower on the page features each post’s title and summary, with a link to the detail.  This is better for presentation’s sake as well as for tracking of most popular posts.
• In general, the site is well-organized and easy to scan.  The homepage doesn’t attempt to cram in every conceivable callout.

Negatives

• Similar to Neumann’s site, the “Contribute” button would be more effective moved underneath the candidate’s photo and intro paragraph giving the user more of a reason to take action.
• The site does not summarize or callout the ways a supporter can get involved.  This may be because in general the options are limited compared to the other candidates (a rather big negative).  More on this in “Supporter Tools & Features” section below).

EMAIL MARKETING

Each candidate site is relatively similar in that they prominently call out the email signup form.  The Walker site is the most up front about this as mentioned previously, by greeting first-time users with an overlay.

After entering your email address, however, each takes a different approach in terms of gathering more information.

Walker

The Walker site requires confirmation of your email address in order to start receiving updates.  Obviously this was implemented to limit the amount of junk accounts created, but it creates an unnecessary level of friction for the user.  A better practice would allow the user to finalize their subscription and begin receiving messages right away.  The campaign could utilize behavioral targeting to force those who never open emails to validate their address later on.

Neumann

• Neumann smartly combines the email signup process with the ability to create an account at the same time.  The screen reiterates the email address.  The email address functions as the user name and a password can be selected and confirmed to create an account.
• It may not be clear to some however, what the, “publicly support and endorse” checkbox is actually for.  What will the campaign do with your information should you check this box?  A simple “What’s this?” which reveals an explanation would be helpful.
• After submitting the form, you’re directed straight to your account dashboard.  An email is sent to your address asking you to validate your email address; however this doesn’t prevent you from using the system.
• From the user account, you can specify in-depth the types of emails you want to receive. These range from general campaign updates to specific activity within the community such as friend requests, event and blog postings, and comments.

Barrett

The Barrett site unfortunately doesn’t prompt you to create an account, however it does introduce one feature the others don’t.  A check box at the bottom of the form reads, “Sign me up to receive text messages on my phone.”  Surprisingly, this is the only campaign utilizing mobile notifications.

VIDEO
Some observations regarding the candidates’ use of video:

Walker

• The tiny homepage video mentioned previously, is definitely a negative, and the main video page isn’t much better.  This page is simply a scrolling list of embedded YouTube players with a .wmv file at the bottom.  There is no way to share to easily share or bookmark individual videos other than the default embed/URL YouTube features.  The entire page can be shared via email but this is only moderately useful.
• Despite being able to boast the longest-lived website, there are only five videos.

Neumann

• Best practice dictates publishing videos on your site directly and integrating the content within the user account area.  When not possible, a fully-branded YouTube channel is a good second choice.
• The Neumann campaign’s YouTube channel integrates the website’s graphics as well as key calls to action such as to contribute or visit other social media profiles.  The channel’s profile information is filled out in detail and includes a “Why I’m Running for Governor” intro.  Well done overall.

Barrett

The Barrett site is sort of a hybrid between the other two in terms of video.   A single page on the site highlights only three videos with many of the same faults as the Walker site.  They do have a YouTube channel (pictured above), however little thought was given to integration of brand or overall look and feel.  The channel lacks an overview statement and calls to action.

SUPPORTER TOOLS & FEATURES
Each site featured tools and resources for supporters; however these differed significantly from site to site.

Walker

The Walker site offers tools both outside and inside the login.  Outside the login there are a series of universally accessible pages on the site under “Get Involved.”

• Volunteer: A simple signup form with check boxes for ways to help
• Social Networks: Basic directory of the social media profiles the campaign maintains
• Attend Events: This is a great feature which offers a detail page for each event and often a link to registration or more details.  Each event can be mailed to yourself or a friend
• Scott Walker Store:  Not a bad idea to make it easy to buy T-shirts, stickers, signs, and other merchandise to show your support.  This ecommerce store even handles paid event registration

The ability to create a “MyScottSpot.org” also exists and offers a very full-featured experience with innovative tools.

• Similar to LinkedIn’s “profile completeness” MyScottSpot measures “impact points” and plots where you are on the scale from being a new “Recruit” to becoming an “Operative.”  A page summarizes how their “Personal Impact Engine” is calculated.
• Your to-do items are summarized on the dashboard with each one displaying its potential score getting you closer to “Operative” status.
• Recent blog posts are summarized neatly in the right column.  The main site would benefit from this approach as well.
• Lower on the dashboard are recent comments separated by official comments and user comments.  You can post a comment any time, however there is a 500 character limit.
• You can form or join a team (by county) or recruit friends or create groups (no groups at time of review).
• You can RSVP for events or invite others (import contacts from your email system or select friends on Facebook).
• Repository of all media including documents, images, videos and audio
• Built-in feedback submission form available on any page

Neumann

The Neumann “Personal Dashboard” area is also very advanced and similar to the offerings of the Walker campaign.  From here a supporter can manage their profile, interact with other supporters, and learn of ways to get involved.  Features include:

• Invite friends: Includes pre-populated verbiage to make it easy to send.  Contacts can be selected via your own online email account, uploaded file, or manually added.
• Full profile management and summary including your recent blogs and events, groups you belong to, a summary statement of why you support the candidate and important issues.
• The ability to create a blog, share your posts, read others’, and search.
• Events are integrated within the account area along with RSVP capability, social media sharing tools, and even Google Maps integration!
• Groups:  None exist yet, however the system allows you to create one based on a variety of issues and start inviting your friends. (UPDATE: Some groups do exist however I missed this in the interface.  See comment thread below to read my recommendations for improvement.)
• Send and receive messages to/from the campaign and other supporters
• Fundraising: Create your own fundraising page, set financial goals and manage its content.  From there you can choose friends to invite and ask for their support.  Very impressive.
• Ability to search blog posts, team members and groups separately

Barrett

The Barrett campaign doesn’t offer an actual account, however there are dedicated pages under, “Take Action.”

• Contribute: A succinct and well-designed form allowing a supporter to quickly donate in pre-set amounts or “other.”
• A basic volunteer form which actually lacks suggestions for ways to participate.  Not good for those who want to help but need some specific ideas in order to convert.
• A separate “Join Our Campaign” form which doesn’t explain itself and is too similar to the “Volunteer” form.
• “Intern With the Campaign”:  A lot of details are provide here in terms of responsibilities.  This much thought should have been given to the “Volunteer” and “Join the Campaign” forms as well.

MY PICKS

Each of the three sites has strengths and weaknesses; some subtle, some glaring.  Of course, there are a number of other criteria one could review the sites by but are beyond the scope of a single blog post.  Here’s my take at scoring the sites based on the criteria discussed above (1-5 with 5 being highest):

YOUR THOUGHTS

As always, comments are encouraged.  In what ways do you think these sites excel or fail?  Please play nice, and keep the discussion focused on digital features and tactics, not politics.

Expert Review, Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media Competitive Analysis, Internet Marketing, Mark Neumann, Political Website, Scott Walker, Social Media, Tom Barrett, User Interface Design, Wisconsin Governor's Race

By now, you’ve probably seen all the top-rated ads either during the game itself or afterward online and picked your favorites.  Most of the ads had some sort of mention of their web address, but not all of those sites greeted you with anything special upon arrival.  Here are four that went the extra mile to create experiences to make the most out of their massive Super Bowl ad expenditure.

Boost Mobile - boostmobile.com/shuffle

Right or wrong, Boost brings back the 1985 Bears in an odd (to put it mildly) spot featuring McMahon in a motorized chair getting a spray tan and other antics.  The site is in all Flash for which it loses some points from an analytics perspective, but at least it’s a unique URL which makes it easy to segment their traffic.  There’s also an ever-present banner that calls out Boost’s unlimited mobile plan so users can take the next step toward conversion.

Among the fun features are:

• An extended version of the ad as well as behind the scenes clips.
• Downloads and Fun Stuff including wallpapers, ringtones and a Ditka-shaped waffle currently for sale on Ebay!
• McMahon’s Headband: links to McMahon’s Twitter accounts
• Mike Singletary Party Police:  During the game and soon after you could rat out your friends for their faux pas during the game (asking what the score is, touching all the wings, etc.).  You pick a message and a recorded Mike Singletary would call their number (after the friend approves this via an email link).  The feature is no longer live, but here’s a screenshot.

You might have the shuffle song stuck in your head along with some weird imagery for a while, but it’s still a fun and engaging site and does a good job of integrating the brand.

Dove Men Care - DoveMenCare.com

While not as entertaining as the Boost Mobile campaign, a vanity URL directs you to a well-designed, targeted site which features the ability to play the ad along side prominent links to product, overview information, and special offers.  The site is a nice blend of Flash and XHTML/CSS to maximize both look and feel yet still provide quick page load times and easier tracking of key metrics such as product pages view, social media sharing, and offer signups.  It’s clear you’re in the right place if you visit the site as a result of seeing the ad, but the Dove smartly doesn’t allow the ad to take up all of the valuable screen real estate.  There’s also a nicely done shower curtain effect and a Drew Brees cameo.

Volkswagen PunchDub – VW.com

The automaker’s call to action in the ad is to play PunchDub on VW.com.  Sending  traffic straight to VW.com/PunchDub would have helped them with entry page analysis to segment ad-driven traffic, but that’s a minor negative compared with the overall quality of the site’s execution.  Upon arriving at VW.com, the normal site remains intact, but the presentation/branding area showcases the PunchDub game and a video player to watch the commercial.  VW dealers are getting into the act with “PunchDub Days” special offers and deals that are “So good it hurts.” Ouch.

In a new twist on share with a friend, the game lets you “punch” a friend by selecting a model, choosing a photo, and then picking your attack type and reaction sound.  You then connect with Facebook and send the pain on to one of your friends.  Give it a try, it’s well done, and you might find yourself up on the “Leaderboard” which is a stock ticker-style run down of the most punches, weekly winners, and top vehicles.

For back story you can learn from Sluggy Paterson, the outspoken man who started the whole punching tradition (it was initially the face, not the shoulder!) and even follow him on Twitter.

Overall, VW offers a seamless integration and a great user experience.

HomeAway - HomeAway.com

Everyone remembers the Griswolds and HomeAway brings them back with gusto.  A prominent callout on the homepage leads to an immersive experience that still keeps the site’s main navigation easily accessible.  You could spend half a day watching videos and playing with all the features but here are some of the highlights:

• Of course, the ad itself, but also a newly-created, 2-part short film (with smartly-placed quick 10-second pre-roll ads from HomeAway), as well as clips from the classic films.
• Win a Dream Vacation contest by submitting your own hotel vacation stories.  Entries from others are featured on the site which can be rated.
• Impressively designed Flash video game featuring the Griswold’s Truxter station wagon.

These are just a few examples of good executions tied to the Big Game.  Which ads do you feel were best supported on the web and took customer engagement to the next level, or were just plain fun?

Expert Review, Flash, Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Analytics Flash, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Super Bowl, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Graphic Design

Martha Coakley’s failed Senate run has led many to review the key differences in strategy between her campaign and Scott Brown’s.  It’s pretty clear that Brown took the web seriously and Coakley seemed to largely ignore many of the social media and web analytics strategies and tactics that swept Obama into office.

Ad Age and Social Media Today have taken a look at (and criticized) Coakley’s overall digital and social media’s approaches.  This post narrows in and serves as a reminder of web analytics best practices which can mean the difference between coming in first or a distant second.

The Obama campaign tracked digital metrics obsessively yet ingeniously with great success.  The techniques they used are just as applicable today as they were over a year ago.

Dan Siroker was a Google employee, who in December of 2007 decided to take a leave from Google and assist the Obama campaign in setting up a web analytics methodology.  He was there for a month, came back to Google for a stint, then in July quit permanently to join the campaign full time through to the general election as director of web analytics.

As a measure of their success, of the $656 million raised by the Obama campaign, $500 million of that was raised online compared to $201 million the McCain campaign raised overall. ($201 million does not include the federal campaign funds McCain accepted).

In November of 2009, Siroker gave a presentation at Google about his experiences and the campaign’s web analytics wins.  In it, he outlined five key lessons learned, which are excellent guidelines for any web analytics initiative be it for a political campaign or business marketing.

Lesson 1: Define Success with QUANTIFIABLE Success Metrics

Setting goals such as, “drive traffic via PPC” or “use the email channel to maintain a dialogue with our audiences” are not specific enough to gauge success.

Instead, Siroker’s team set quantifiable goals related to cost per click, signup rates, money raised per email recipient, and many more.  He said, “We always had more to do than we had man hours to do it.”  As such, having very targeted goals was essential to ensure time expenditures could be justified.

Lesson 2: Question Assumptions

The team utilized Google Website Optimizer to determine which landing pages and creative content pulled its weight.  As an ad-hoc survey, Siroker asked the audience of a series of images and calls to action, which combination they thought was best received by splash page viewers and resulted in the most sign ups.  It turns out the audience’s assumptions were wrong (so were the analytics team’s originally) and it required multivariate testing to get to the truth (“Learn more” and the “Family Image” were the winners).

Getting the version right meant over 4 million more people signed up for the email list between the time they ran the experiment and the election!

Lesson 3: Divide & Conquer

This lesson demonstrates the power of segmentation.  As Avinash Kaushik puts it, segment or die!  Data takes on a whole new meaning when you can know as much as possible about the people who generated it.

This was illustrated by the team’s donation button experiment.  In it, they sent donation solicitations and tested different donation button verbiage (Donate Now, Please Donate, Why Donate, Donate and Get a Gift, and Contribute) with each audience (never signed up, signed up but never donated, previously donated). The results varied significantly based on who the visitor was when they got there.

Winning combinations:

• Never signed up: Donate and Get a Gift
• Signed up, never donated: Please Donate
• Previously donated: Contribute

Monetary results: tens of millions of dollars in additional donations.

Lesson 4: Don’t Reinvent the Wheel

This lesson goes to show that it’s not how much you spend on technology; it’s how much you invest in talent.  One would think that a presidential campaign which broke all sorts of war chest records would use its means to select the most robust and most expensive analytics tools on the market.  In fact, Siroker’s team used many free and open source tools.  These included Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, Trends, and App Engine, TextMate, Open Reports, and DbVisualizer.

Lesson 5: Take Advantage of Circumstances

After Sarah Palin made a remark at the Republican National Convention in an attempt to undermine the perceived value of being a community organizer, the Obama campaign immediately sent out an email to their list protesting this notion.

The recipients responded.  From that one email the campaign raised $10 million.

Think of your own organization.  How close are you to putting these lessons into practice?  Do you have examples of challenges or success stories?

Don’t pull a “Choke-ley” and underestimate the power and benefits of digital marketing, social media, and web analytics.  Know where you stand before you’re passed up by a Brown blur.

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Email Marketing, Google Analytics, Google Website Optimizer, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics, Website Testing

Continuing to tread on the territory of the major paid analytics vendors, Google Analytics just announced a number of new features that raise it to yet another level. These powerful, time-saving additions allow you to spend more time analyzing and interpreting your site’s performance, and less time foraging though the data.

Among the major additions are; automated and custom alerts based on significant changes in your data, advanced table filtering, expanded mobile reporting, the ability to share advanced segments, and more.

What do these new features mean for your business? Quite a bit. Read on for the details.

Engagement Goals

You’ve always been able to set goals for transactions such as purchases, downloads, leads and so on, and then determine which traffic sources or site content are top performers. However, sometimes a site’s goals are simply to increase engagement with the site and are not transactional in the traditional sense.

Now you can measure the engagement and branding success of your site by setting thresholds for Time on Site and Pages per Visit.

Example: For your software product marketing site you determine that a Page per Visit rate of 10 or more indicates high engagement with your content and significant interest in your product. With this Page per Visit threshold set, you’re now able to monitor whether recent content cross promotion efforts are positively or negatively affecting this new and important metric.

View the Google video:

Expanded Mobile Reporting

With mobile marketing maturing rapidly, and applications growing in number exponentially, this is a very timely addition.

Google Analytics has allowed you to track visits to your main website from mobile operating systems, but now you can track the performance of your mobile-optimized sites on any mobile device regardless of the device’s ability to run JavaScript.

iPhone and Android app developers, rejoice! You’ll be able to use your favorite free analytics tool to gauge your apps performance as well.

Example: You’ve just launched a new location-based app, which makes restaurant recommendations. Until recently, you could only track downloads and general feedback. Now you can uncover usability issues, and the most popular screens and features within the app to guide its improvements.

Advanced Analysis Features

Want to know which organic keywords are your top performers? The introduction of the advanced segments feature made this task easier, but the new Advanced Table Filtering makes narrowing down a lot of data on the fly a snap.

You can now filter any table of data by custom parameters, quickly narrowing down the results and removing the noise.

Example: When viewing the Network Locations reports, you want to see which organizations sent visits but filter out all the telecommunications companies which don’t help your analysis. Further, you want to see which organization showed high engagement and are repeat visitors. While it’s possible to set up an advanced segment to accomplish this, this type of filter can be done on the fly from any list report.

View the Google video:

Unique Visitor Metric

Good news for custom reports. Now “Unique Visitors” has been added so you can see how many actual visitors (people) are represented in each report as opposed to just overall visits.

Sharing Segments and Custom Report Templates

Very convenient new feature! Formerly, if a new advanced segment were created it would only be available via the profile it was originally created for. Now, just click the “Share” button and a URL is generated which you can easily send to a colleague. Advanced segments can also be copied so you can build upon existing ones rather than starting from scratch. This is also a huge plus for agencies, which utilize the same rough segments for multiple clients.

Analytics Intelligence

Here’s the big one that many were waiting for. Google Analytics is now much smarter! It proactively monitors for events that are significant and then issues alerts. The events could include a spike or drop in traffic, or any major change in goals or behavior patterns.

There is even a slider control that lets you adjust the sensitivity. Move it further to the right and more events will be flagged. Move it to the left and events will need to be more significant to register.

Example: Your site experiences a 250% increase in average referrals from Facebook on a given day. This is logged in Google Analytics automatically and is retained so you can look back overtime for patterns or responses to campaigns. You can also elect to have this alert emailed to the appropriate people.

Custom Alerts

As the title suggests, you can tell Google Analytics to watch for the events that are important to your business. Daily, weekly, and monthly alerts are possible and can also be viewed in the interface or emailed directly.

Example: A hardware ecommerce site manager wants to be alerted when the average order size for lumber drops 20% or more for the contractor segment. Once set, the manager can be alerted of this event instantly.

View the Google video:

Some of the features are live now, others will be rolled out in the coming weeks. It’s great to see Google Analytics continue to mature. These features offer more actionable and meaningful data with powerful options analysts will appreciate.

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Google Analytics, Internet Marketing, Web Analytics

Website testing and optimization involves the utilization of software to compare the performance of two or more versions of a page or process to determine which version is the most effective in driving desired user behavior.  Tools such as Google Website Optimizer and more robust options geared toward the sophisticated enterprise such as SiteSpect, are available to automate (as much as possible) the process of conducting A/B or multivariate online tests.

Web analytics expert, Eric T. Peterson of Web Analytics Demystified and website optimization software creator, SiteSpect, recently teamed up to release a white paper entitled, “Successful Web Site Testing Practices.”  This must-read document provides a road map for setting up and leading a web testing team within an organization and leveraging it to yield definitive and dramatic results.  Below is our take on some of the highlights of their recommendations.  However, we strongly recommend you read the document in its entirety and take full advantage of case studies, testimonials, and direct examples including a sample test plan approval form (highly useful)!

Best Practice #1: Form a Great Testing Team
Your testing team must have a mandate for improvement.  This means they need to be charged with improving the website’s condition in a measureable way and be able to clearly demonstrate and communicate results to stakeholders.  It’s crucial to include your organization’s top talent in this team; those folks with the clout and track record to spark enthusiasm and buy-in throughout the company.

Eric T. Peterson labels the project manager and the executive sponsor as the two most important roles within the team.  We couldn’t agree more.  Without a carefully managed process and unwavering support from executive management, objectives can be unclear and the powerful force of entropy can take hold quickly.   Of course, without a key executive at the helm of this initiative, team members will find themselves, as Eric puts it, dead in the water.

The author also values the ability of the project manager to think from the perspective of an end user.  After all, it’s the user interface that’s being optimized, and without a firm grasp of user’s needs and the distinct problems or challenges they face when using the site, tests will be misguided and ineffective.

The efforts, updates, successes and even failures of the testing team should be broadcasted throughout the organization.  Allow for a platform for team members to showcase their results.  Ensure this is not merely one-way communication.  Follow the lessons of social media and allow for comments and suggestions in a structured way.  Demonstrating top-level commitment of both time and critical resources communicates the importance of the initiative.  The changes that incrementally occur to the site as a result of testing won’t be alarming to departments.  They’ll appreciate being informed and involved, and will be far more likely to lend their support.

Best Practice #2: Get Your Stakeholders On Board
Like any website redesign, web analytics, or social media endeavor, without management’s support for your testing initiative, you can essentially guarantee failure.

Be sure to work with management from the very start.  Illustrate to them exactly what you wish to achieve and the results you can expect, communicated in bottom-line financial predictions.  Communicate that a data-driven culture is one that strives to make web improvement decisions based on performance and demonstrated merit rather than assumptions.  As a result, an organization is better able to compete in the marketplace.

Best Practice #3: Write a (Formal) Testing Plan
There needs to be a structure through which requests for testing are considered.  Without this, individuals may try to “skip in line” to push their desired updates through based on their own agenda. They need to understand that a prioritized queue exists and suggested tests must be justified by answering the following questions:

1. What is being tested?
2. Why is it being tested?
3. What are the expectations for the test?
4. What are the measures of the success for the test?
5. What are the risks associated with running the test?
6. What internal resources are required to run the test?
7. Who is requesting the test?
8. By when are the results needed?

As mentioned earlier, the white paper authors have included a valuable sample test plan intake form that expands on the above questions.

Best Practice #4: Think about Measurement
Your web testing program should integrate and collaborate closely with your overall web analytics efforts.  This takes extra consideration and possibly technical expertise to ensure data available through analytics tools (such as audience segments) can be applied to tests.  Metrics and KPIs that have been established within a web analytics program should dictate to a large extent which tests should be undertaken.  Make sure one hand is talking to the other.

Also consider how your tests impact more complex measurements such as “return visitation rate” and “lifetime customer value” beyond just clickthrough metrics.

Best Practice #5: Clearly Define “Success” and “Failure”
Success means different things to different stakeholders.  It can range from obvious financial gains, to user engagement, to fewer support calls.  An important point that the author points out is that even a “failed” test yields some measure of success.  That is, you now know more about what doesn’t work thereby narrowing the field of possible creative or interface options getting you closer to the winner.  Don’t view missing the objective as a failure, but rather a learning experience which has actually moved the process forward.  The only real failure is a test that is not properly designed, carefully executed, done within a vacuum, or without executive buy-in.

Best Practice #6: Test Your Test
With this best practice, the author reminds us that while testing is absolutely worthwhile and a potential boon to any company, it’s also “hard.”

Be aware that expectations must be set.  This isn’t going to solve all the issues of the website in a month, quarter, or even year.  This is a long-term shift in the thinking of the company to become data-driven.  Certain technical implementations of tests may be trickier than others and will involve the IT department.  Legacy systems can affect the types of tests that can be conducted.  SEO initiatives can be impacted.  Other departments may push back due to perceived technical or business risks.

Be aware of these challenges, but don’t let them discourage you.  Things of great value don’t come easily, yet are worth the effort.  Set expectations to mitigate disillusionment.

Also, make sure testing periods are long enough to yield a statistically significant sample size.  Isolating factors (individual changes) sufficiently so one can determine which is responsible for better results is crucial as well.

Best Practice #7: Clarify Your Testing Timeline
Testers often forget to take day parts and weekends into account.  To ensure you’re not giving too much weight to lunchtime, early morning, late night, or weekend visitors, allow for enough time to collect a representative sample.  The author recommends a 7+1 strategy so you test over an entire week, but also add one day at the beginning of the test before you actively track results.  This allows the test versions to take hold online across the sample and for any last-minute changes.

Those with more time available can opt for a two week test, in this case a 14+1 timeline.   Good things come to those who wait.

Best Practice #8: Communicate Your Test Results with Actionable Analysis
Some great points here.  As always, it’s best to customize one’s report based on the audience.  When communicating the results to the stakeholders who originally requested the test, go into significant detail.  Reiterate the purpose of the test, the timeline, resources used and extensive information on the results.  If external events occurred during the test such as a major news mention or campaign, illustrate how the results were affected.

The rest of the organization should receive a broad overview.  A big picture, clear summary of the results and the impact on the website and company is sufficient to foster a sense of involvement and ongoing support.  Whenever possible, communicate the financial impact of the test.  As Mr. Peterson puts it, a phrase like, “and we expect this change to result in an estimated $20,000,000 in incremental revenue every year” is hard to ignore.

Also, check out the white paper to see a ready-to-use email example of how to broadcast test results to the organization.

In addition, in-person presentations are always best.  Follow these meetings up with postings to your communication platform be it a blog, wiki, online project management tool, or even Google Wave.  Allow enthusiasm for the results to go viral.

Above all, include actionable recommendations along with your results.  Clearly state what next action steps should be taken to capitalize on the success of the test.  Use this opportunity to suggest additional tests to keep the optimization ball rolling.

Best Practice #9: Test Different Audience Segments
The most revealing tests will be those that utilize targeted audience segmentation.  Knowing that a certain change increased conversions by 5% for all visitors is somewhat helpful, but knowing that same change resulted in a 20% increase for a key target audience is far more valuable.  Next action steps are more obvious in light of this information and those steps are more likely to have greater impact.

Directly reference audience segments when presenting test results to stakeholders to better grab their attention.

Best Practice #10: Mine for Deeper Opportunities
Once the testing program is up and running, and the team has a few wins under its belt, in-depth data analysis and statistical modeling is the next level to strive for.  Companies that are already utilizing robust applications such as SAS, or SPSS have an advantage, but this is not an absolute requirement.

Analysis and comparison of offline data or qualitative voice-of-customer data alongside test results can yield insights that are not immediately obvious through the testing or web analytics tools alone.  The author points out that a significant competitive advantage will be had by those companies who truly leverage their online data.

Your Experience?
We’d love to hear your thoughts on web testing and optimization.  Have you recently formed a team or are you considering it?  What methods and/or tools have brought you success?  What real world challenges has your organization overcome (or is still struggling with)?

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Project Management, Web Strategy Consulting Google Website Optimizer, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Project Management, Website Testing

Podcasts remain one of the best ways to keep up with the latest trends and to learn new methods and approaches.  Whether listening while getting ready in the morning, during commutes or business travel, or even while working, there are more options than ever before as the medium has truly matured.  Even better, the vast majority are free.  Make the most of your downtime (in this economy, there may be more than usual), and never stop learning.

Below are some of the best podcasts that we “keep an ear” on:

INTERACTIVE INDUSTRY & TECHNOLOGY

Boxes and Arrows (Site | iTunes)
As the preeminent website for information architecture and user experience design professionals, it should come as little surprise that their podcasts are highly valuable as well.  Regular interviews with IAs, authors, and a variety of professionals can be heard along with full recordings of conferences and keynote speeches by some of the best in the biz.  Save money on air fare and conference fees.

CNET News Daily Podcast (Subscribe options)
Daily updates on all things tech.  Get insight on the latest Google inventions, what Apple is up to next, Twitter news, the top gadgets, and much more.

Marketing Edge (Subscribe options)
Albert Maruggi, a 25-year marketing veteran from Provident Partners has been publishing this podcast since 2005.  Each episode is around 30 minutes and features a combination of interviews, insights, and analysis related to internet marketing and social media in particular.  Recent topics include, Is there money in Communities? and Using Experts to Get Better Media Coverage.

Internet Marketing (iTunes)
Hailing from the UK, Andy White of Wire World Media hosts this monthly podcast which goes into a fair amount of detail on specific tools and tactics.  You’ll benefit from latest SEO trends, Google Analytics tips, and blog and podcast promotion to list a few.  We’ve only recently picked up this one, but it’s becoming a favorite.

Boagworld Web Design Advice (Subscribe options)
Another British podcast, Boagworld is info-heavy with minimal fluff.  Episodes tend to lean more toward development topics, but marketing strategies and tactics are also regularly covered.  Prepare yourself for some pretty heavy accents.  It’s a bit like Spinal Tap delivering the latest interactive news and tips.  This podcast goes to eleven!

Internet Marketing This Week (Subscribe options)
Mostly informal, this podcast requires a bit of sifting through conversational chatter, however there are always some good nuggets to be discovered. Four marketing experts scattered across the country Skype and conference call in each week to review the top stories.

BusinessWeek: CEO Guide to Technology (Blog | iTunes)
With varying frequency (most often monthly), this podcast highlights important technologies affecting business, with only the details top management needs to know.  Rachael King, the regular host, is by-the-numbers, and a little stale, however the guests she interviews spice things up and and are knowledgeable experts from a variety of industries.

BusinessWeek: Technology and You (RSS | iTunes)
Steve Wildstrom has been publishing this column in BusinessWeek since 1994 and every week offers this engaging podcast.  Steve puts all the latest gadgets and software to the test and his breadth of experience yields some great reviews.  The iTunes page for this podcast shows some bad reviews, however these are old (from 2007) and the issues they raise (mostly in terms of production quality) have since been resolved.

NPR: Technology Podcast (Subscribe options)
A handy-dandy summary of all related technology coverage across NPR over the last week.  It doesn’t get any more convenient than this.

Marketing Yak (Marketing Sherpa) (iTunes)
Most of us are aware of the great tutorials and reports from MarketingSherpa.  Here’s its closely related podcast.  They seem to be on hiatus right now (last publishing from November of 2008), but the past episodes are still available and worthwhile.  Hopefully they’ll ramp things up again soon.

BUSINESS & PRODUCTIVITY

Here are a couple general podcasts that are worth your time.

BusinessWeek
Behind This Week’s Cover Story with Executive Managing Editor, John Byrne offers in-depth interviews with the writers of the latest cover story.  If you read BusinessWeek, this is must-listen material.  Also, The Business Week hosted by Assistant Managing Editor, Jim Ellis, give you a summary of the week’s major business events along with interviews with the publication’s major columnists.  The Business Week is available in both audio and video.

David Allen Company Podcast (Subscribe options)
Getting Things Done personal productivity guru, David Allen serves up highly actionable tips every week to help you organize your hectic life.

HUMOR

All work and no play…  Be sure to throw some laughs into your podcast mix:

Car Talk (Subscribe options)
Resist the urge to set your car on fire and blow off steam with Click and Clack.  Test your brain with the weekly puzzler and laugh along as the two brothers poke insults at one another, read hilarious fan emails, and occasionally help people with their car troubles.

The Onion Radio News (Subscribe options)
America’s Finest News Source is hilarity at its finest, now in podcast form.  Don’t miss hard hitting stories such as “McDonald’s Unveils New All-Beef Bun.”

The above list is a just small sampling of what’s out there.  What’s on your iPod?  We’d love to hear about your favorites.

Information Architecture, Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Development, Web Graphic Design, Web Project Management, Web Strategy Consulting Information Architecture, Internet Marketing, Podcasting, Social Media

Microsoft just can’t seem to win these days.  Their huge roll out for 2009 complete with expensive television ads is an effort (Bing) designed to compete with Google’s oldest product.  Shortly thereafter, Google responds with a tool that may revolutionize business e-communication as we know it.

Google Wave is living up to its name by causing more than merely ripples in the blogosphere.  Unveiled at the 2009 Google I/O Developer Conference, the hour and 20 minute YouTube video has received over 2 million views and more than 4,400 ratings (overall five stars).  While not scheduled for release until later this year, Google presented the tool to a highly enthusiastic crowd of select developers and subsequently provided them with accounts to start playing with.  A number of APIs were developed, and Google hopes coders will take full advantage of them, creating a myriad of new tools and apps designed to utilize the power of Google Wave.  Bolstered by this supporting framework of related applications, Google will enjoy firm footing when they launch the tool worldwide.

Below are some of Google Wave’s key features and some insights on how they’ll impact the way you communicate online.

A Permanent Home for a Discussion
When your discussion “goes wave”, from that point forward, you’ll be able to instantly add participants and reference it from any other wave or point online.  Similar to an email thread, you’ll be able to see the history of a discussion, however Google Wave does so much more to group the history as well as notify participants of any updates.  Being Google, the built-in search function received a lot of attention.  As such, searching for waves is powerful, instantly updating the results as you type a query.  You don’t have to rely very heavily on your organization skills, and gone are the tedious days of sorting messages into proper folders.

Streamlined and Realtime Collaboration
Many of Google Wave’s features are forehead-slap-inducing; the kind where you’ll wonder why humanity has trudged along without them.

• Instant sharing and linking: You can add new participants to a wave simply by dragging them from the contact list into the wave itself.  Similarly, you can link to any other wave by dragging that wave from the list into the current wave.  It automatically creates a neat link at a point of your choosing formed with the title of the wave you’re linking to. Photos?  You guessed it; just drag and drop from your desktop.
• Inline comments: You’ve seen inline comments in Microsoft Outlook or some other email client.  These go further by neatly containing the statement along with the user’s avatar and a timestamp.  No more alternating colors.  It’s obvious who said what and when.
• Playback:  Big wow-factor here.  A person new to the wave can get caught up by viewing a post-by-post playback at their own speed.  That person can add comments to any point of the discussion contextually.
• Editing: Here’s a great way to disseminate meeting notes.  Post your notes as a wave.  Any person can edit the notes and their notations will be clearly identified.  If you have viewed the original message before, you’ll see any changes the next time you view the message. If you see a message for the first time that has multiple edits, you will be able to see who contributed to the edits, but won’t see the markups. To see those, use the playback feature. You’ll know who changed what and can select any version you want as the final and then send it on as the official version as a new wave.
• Instant messaging: This feature elicited some major applause at the conference.  You can see comments being posted to a wave as they’re being typed; backspaces and all.  This is an optional feature, but when enabled, eliminates having to stare at a “typing” status while the other party keys in their complete comment.  In fact, two people can update a wave at the same time and both participants will see each other’s updates as they’re being typed.
• Integration with blogging: Waves can be instantly added to a blog and future comments are synced with the wave.  Reach multiple audiences at once.  Even photo captions are synced.

Enhanced Communication Power Through Wave Extensions
It’s incredibly easy to embed and share a wide variety of online media within your waves:

• “Searchy” lets you do a quick Google search and instantly add results to your wave including destination links, images, videos, even maps.
• Twitter: Can install a “Twave” which is a wave of tweets. Posts within this portion of a wave will automatically post to Twitter.
• “Buggy” integrates a full featured bug tracking program with easy options to change assignees or comment on specific bugs using waves.
• Automatic language translation:  During the demo we saw a conversation between a French speaker and an English speaker being translated in real time. Wow.
• Forms and polls are native to waves and can be directly embedded. Add whatever fields you want and solicit information from your wave participants.
• “Linky” automatically creates links (google.com).  No need for “www” or “http://”

Mobile-ready on Day One
The team demonstrated interfaces for both the Android and iPhone operating systems.  You’ll be able to access your waves from anywhere without waiting for a separate app to be developed.

Many companies are accustomed to using some combination of email and instant messaging as part of their normal project communication.  The more savvy also utilize online collaboration/project management tools.  One thing’s for sure, the introduction of Google Wave will make them reevaluate their methods.  A strong reason they’ll be willing to do this is of course, the standard Google price of free.  For long discussions across multiple people, or even mini projects, a single wave could likely handle all related communication.  A big missing element, however, is the ability to manage tasks and assignments, but a third party app (if not an enhancement by Google) will likely surface relatively soon following launch.

In general, email’s dominance in corporate communications will quickly wane and a number of us won’t be too sad to see that.  Google Wave demonstrates that there truly is a better way to collaborate.  Get ready to rethink.

Interactive Industry News & Events, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Project Management Google Wave, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Project Management

APIs (Application Programming Interface) have a way of turning things on their head and shaking things up.  When you open up a major platform to developers, very interesting things can happen.  Think about the Google Maps mashups, or the iPhone app store.

Google’s changing the game again, and giving paid analytics vendors a serious run for their money,  this time by releasing an API for Google Analytics.

Many companies have already leapt on this integrating Google Analytics data within their tools.  Using campaigns in Google Analytics to track email marketing performance has been possible, but requires separate tagging of URLs.  Using the API, MailChimp (great email tool), now allows for a single checkbox selection to add tracking code to all email links.  Clickthoughs of these links are tracked using Google Analytics, and then sent right back into your Mail Chimp account reporting.  If you’ve also setup Google Analytics ecommerce features and/or goal tracking, Mail Chimp will be able to report on email marketing performance in terms of ROI for the campaign, revenue created, average value per visitor, goals completed, and conversion rate.

ShufflePoint is particularly impressive in that they’ve already integrated Google Analytics with Excel and PowerPoint.  This takes things one step closer to creating truly custom dashboards and custom calculations (major differentiating features within Omniture) with very little financial investment.  Using ShufflePoint, you define the custom calculations, pulling specific metrics straight from your Google Analytics profile(s).  Then, each time you open the Excel spreadsheet or PowerPoint presentation, a simple click of a refresh button updates all data instantly.  A massive timesaver in terms of data entry, as well as a professional presentation to stakeholders with automatically updated data.

Other integration examples include, mobile phone apps, a variety of apps from YouCalc, content management systems, and more.

Many developers currently feel like kids in a candy store and are getting started by diving into Google Code, joining the developer community and keeping updated via the email list.

We look forward to integrating these new methods and tools into our own services and plan to blog about the best-in-class inventions as they spring up.  Stay tuned!

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Web Analytics API, Web Analytics

On March 12th Google announced yet another ground-breaking service with major implications: Google Voice.  The internet search giant is now jumping headlong into the highly competitive world of telecommunications.  Just like other areas Google has firmly dipped its toes into such as online advertising, analytics, office software, and others, Google Voice seems poised to redefine how many of us use phones in general.

The service is currently only open to users of GrandCentral, the company Google bought in 2007 and has been quietly building upon ever since.  Google plans to offer the service to the public in the coming weeks.

David Pogue of the New York Times wrote a great article (and produced a demo video) that provides an in-depth look at the service.  Here is a breakdown of the major features:

• One number to ring all your phones:  Create a new number with Google Voice using any area code you choose, then set the service to ring one, multiple, or all of your numbers simultaneously.  If you really want to be reached, you’ll now truly have that ability.  This includes your text messaging as well.  All calls, voicemails, and text messages can be manged from a visual interface via Google’s website.  Text messages can even be sent from the web via your account using a full-size keyboard.
• Call screening from any phone: Those using desktop phone systems are accustomed to being able to listen to a message that goes to voicemail as it’s being recorded, but this is a new thing entirely for mobile phone users.  Google Voice will give you the option when a call comes in to take the call, send it to voicemail, or listen in as the caller records their message (you can pickup the call at any time).  You can also have new callers record their name prior to being patched through to you.
• Just like Skype, you can place calls via the Internet for free, directly from Google Voice.  You can also make calls from any phone and have your Google Voice phone number show up in the caller ID.
• Dominate your voicemail:  Similar to the iPhone’s visual voicemail, any voice messages will be associated in your account with specific calls which can be played back at any time.  Two other game-changing features have been added.  Messages can be automatically transcribed into text which can be archived and searched.  Voicemails can also be forwarded to someone else. No more having to decipher that 5 minute misdirected voicemail from the long-winded caller before you can pass it off to who’s really supposed to act on it.  Just send them the original message and it’s off your plate.
• Conference calling for up to six people at once:  Many people have plans with major carriers such as AT&T where you can setup three-way calls.  Many others have web conferencing accounts with companies like GoTo Meeting or WebEx which allow for larger groups (between 11 and 15 on average).  Google Voice will soon offer a free conferencing system which handle the capacity of most remote meetings.  These calls can also be recorded and stored…for free.
• Received a call on your office line, but need to jump in the car to head to the next appointment?  You’ll be able to transfer a call to any other number within your account.
• GOOG-411: Voice activated, automated directory assistance.  Just dial in, say what you’re looking for and where, and the service will send you a text message with the results.  Google provided an app for the iPhone earlier this year facilitating voice searches, but this takes it to the next level.

What does all this mean?  The real impact is of course, yet to be determined, but the major phone providers as well as internet-based phone services such as Skype and Ribbit.com, may find some very steep competition in the coming months.  Google will likely integrate this service with its other offerings such as Google AdWords, Analytics, Docs, and more.  Also expect to see an API released which will unleash a flurry of innovation from start ups.  Think CRM integration as an obvious first step.

The highly-likely integration with Google Analytics will be very interesting.  Various call tracking systems already exist, but can be expensive and of course, are not always integrated with your analytics tool.  Imagine being able to generate multiple unique numbers, post them on your website and be able to track calls as conversions within Google Analytics.  Similar to in-site search, voicemail transcriptions could also be mapped to specific pages.  Over time you could see what terms frequently come up in customer service calls which can provide great insight as to what content your pages are lacking.

One thing’s for sure, the telecommunications industry will never be the same.

Interactive Industry News & Events, Web Analytics Call Tracking, CRM, Google, Web Analytics