Knowmad Blog

I’ve been thinking a lot about the value of website audience research while working on audience research for a client. To be honest, we haven’t always done this research. You’re probably surprised at the honesty and I cringe a little now while admitting it.

It’s not that we didn’t know the value of audience research. We all know that it’s important to know who your audience is whether you’re writing, performing or creating a design. Otherwise, how can you ensure quality or perform well?

Sometimes, we just did it informally for an internal guide and didn’t deliver the research to the client. Other times, sadly, it just got skipped because there was no budget. So for a dark time in Knowmad’s history, we didn’t formalize the audience research process and it wasn’t fun.

These days, I don’t know how we designed a site without this valuable and easy to obtain information! Crazy, I know. I also know we’re not alone here in having skimped on the audience research step in the past so I thought I’d share some insight into our ever-evolving process. Read the rest of this entry →

One of my favorite questions to ask prospective clients is why they have or want a Website. Granted, in 2010, it’s de rigueur for a business to have a Website. However, building a Website just because everyone else is doing it is an unsatisfactory reason that will produce limited results at best. If you don’t have the time and budget to build a serious Website, you should consider this strategy. Otherwise, there’s really no excuse to ignore this important question which can be used to define your goals, create a strategy & measure the success of your efforts. Read the rest of this entry →

Last week, Kmart and Sears Holding Co. came up in my news reader, announcing kmartdesign.com and other web initiatives by Sears Holding Co. to boost the Kmart brand performance and sales.

Kmart isn’t a place I shop, which isn’t saying a lot because I’m not a big in-store shopper. I can’t say I’ve even been on the Kmart website until reading this news nugget. The brand doesn’t strike me as modern, so it made me curious about how the company is using the web and what results they might achieve.

After a quick search, I found that Kmart has several initiatives on the web including a mobile app (kmart2go), mygofer.com and kmartdesign.com. Business strategy and the web are two of my favorite topics so I began to wonder…

What can we learn from Kmart?

Here’s what stands out to me about Kmart’s web strategy, none of which is surprising and gives us a great example to look at for web strategy.

• Clearly define business goals
• Segment and target specific audiences.
• Offer presentation formats specific to the target audience
• Use Social Media to augment existing marketing, PR and sales strategies

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As a long-time investor in IBM stock (my dad purchased this stock back in the 80′s and it helped put me through college), I receive their annual reports. For years, this 100+ page book wound up in the recycle bin. Last year, however, I began reading it to learn more about how IBM runs its mammoth operations. What I learned was eye-opening and worth sharing.

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Facebook is an important marketing communication tool for businesses of all sizes. Businesses are using Facebook Fan Pages to promote brands, send out event invites, broadcast company updates, conduct crowd sourcing research and otherwise stay in touch with a loyal customer base. From international brands to your local corner store, businesses of all sizes use social networks to share the personality of a brand, encourage brand interaction and cultivate buyer loyalty.

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Your corporate website can play a critical role in your organization beyond simply communicating your products and services. It can be a key component in your overall business strategy. And it can also be a powerful tool for your sales team by gathering leads, warming prospects and supporting the post-sell process.

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We recently attended a webinar, in which, Google’s Analytics team announced it’s rolling out new features for it’s Analytics product over the holidays. You may not see these features at the moment but expect to see them soon.

One of the features we’re most excited about is called ‘Annotations’.  The reason we’re excited about this feature is because this feature will make it easier to share information about traffic changes with all users on any analytics account. If a marketing manager releases a new print campaign, for instance, they can make a note directly on the time graph. This means less time hunting down the reason for the traffic spike or dip for other account users.

“A simple note from a colleague can save hours of real work (and
frustration) for an analyst who is tasked to explain a usually dry set
of numbers.” – Google Analytics Blog

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You might have seen this screen recently when logging into Facebook, as new privacy controls were released this past Thursday.

Once you click ‘Continue’ you’re presented with a slightly confusing screen to configure new privacy settings. Your old defaults are unselected by default.

Upon seeing the new screen, I found myself just accepting the new settings and then refining the privacy controls using the ‘Settings’ link. Several settings were set to ‘Friends of a Friend’ and ‘Everyone’ where I didn’t want this type of access. I found the most important settings under the ‘Profile’ and ‘Search’ link.

Rafe Needleman has written an easy to read article on refining Facebook privacy settings on his CNET blog.

Our experience building value-added Web sites for businesses has shown us that one of the best ways to improve your Web site ROI is to implement features that enhance customer service. We’ve helped many companies leverage their website to reduce customer support costs and improve brand loyalty by adding some thoughtful features.

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Anyone who has ever personally been on a limited budget is familiar with the search for inexpensive ways to improve and extend the life of something we own. The answer usually lies in viewing the object from a different perspective.
Businesses have budgets too and in today’s environment, those budgets are being squeezed. But one area that is ripe for viewing from a different perspective is Web technology and the systems surrounding it. Savvy organizations understand how to achieve maximum utility out of their existing systems, create competitive advantages, increase efficiency and grow their businesses.

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