2008, Volume 1, Issue 3
	Podcasts User Generated Content (UGC) and Its Effect On Your Brand Thank You, DAM! (Digital Asset Management)    Blogs Focus...and Ah-hah Moments Dancing to a new world beat - America's marketers join the party Measuring Something Doesn’t Make it Taller    Must-Read Industry Articles Gartner MarketScope for Web Content Management Insights on how the Web Content Management landscape is evolving and considerations for those seeking to expand leverage of the Web as a medium to improve interaction with well-targeted audiences and market segments. Keeping Pace: The Evolution of Marketing and Branding As business marketers, it is now our turn to create fast-paced, engaging, and valuable content for end users...some strategic points to consider for keeping up with the one-to-one "ME" marketplace. By Ron Friedman, Flash By Design Search, That Was Mighty Sociable An expert in the search marketing field shares his perspective on the transformation of the search function from basic text analysis to its current iteration of tapping into the collective wisdom of social networks. By Mike Grehan, The ClickZ Network    Earnings Interwoven Announces Another Record Quarter. 19 consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth.		Ending the Great Debates For any sports fan, these hours of debate are one of the great joys in life, one of the great ways to pass the time when stuck in a traffic jam, or waiting in a restaurant for a long overdue meal. But in the conference rooms of Web-based companies, we are subject to other great debates, and these can be much more disruptive. Should our registration process be two short pages or one long one? Should we use AJAX or static HTML? Should we have red submit buttons or green ones? (Compared to the Nastia vs. Nadia debate, one must admit that these debates do sound a tad pathetic ?.) The amount of time spent on these types of debates can be tremendous. We confirmed this during a recent poll we conducted during an American Marketing Association Webcast on “How to Create Powerful Web Copy That Sells”.When asked what is the primary way that decisions are made in your company about what goes on a Website, fully 39% of the attendees responded, “A group sits around a conference room table to debate/argue about it.” When you consider that these debates often can involve 5–10 people spending one or two hours in heated debate getting frustrated with each other, it becomes clear that the opportunity cost can be tremendous. In addition to the time wasted, the impact on morale can be significant. Inevitably in these debates, the HiPPOs (the “highest paid person’s opinion”) or what I’ll call the LIONS (“Loud, Irritating, Obnoxious Naysayers”) hold sway. In fact, our poll also found that in 27% of cases, the primary way decisions are made is by deferring to senior management. The quiet, analytic, insightful employee (the Quail?) doesn’t stand a chance in this conference room jungle. Many will conclude that the effort to get their truly insightful idea across is just not worth the emotional effort. The tragedy of this dynamic is that unlike the great intergenerational sports debates in which the answer can never be proven, these Web design debates can easily (and efficiently) be answered through multivariable testing. Instead of arguing in a conference room, the great battle between static HTML vs. AJAX can be played out in real time as customers visit your site and vote with their mouse. One of the great virtues of multivariable testing and optimization that we like to point to is the measurability. Since multivariable optimization always involves running a control version along with the test versions, you can determine with pinpoint precision the value gained from a given optimization project. The hard dollar benefits can be substantial, but often overlooked is the “soft dollar” benefit of testing. We often hear from customers that one of the great unexpected values they get from a testing program is the time they save arguing with one another. As Abby Stephenson, the Usability Manager of Delta Air Lines, aptly put it, “We used to have long debates about the minute details of a page. Now, we are able to move much more quickly knowing that we will test it after we go to production.” In fact, some of our customers take it even one step further. We’ve seen customers set up office pools in which employees can bet on what will win in a current optimization project. So in addition to the annual Academy Award pool or NCAA March Madness brackets, they’ve added a monthly optimization tournament to see, scientifically, which employee knows the customers best. In effect, they’ve transformed the morale-draining process of conference room squabbling into a morale-boosting exercise. You’ll be amazed at how empowering instituting an optimization program can be for everyone in the office (except for perhaps the HiPPOs and the LIONs). You’ll be amazed how much time is freed up. Instead of arguing over the red vs. green submit button, you’ll have much more time to tackle much more important strategic discussions like brainstorming the next great product idea or analyzing the profitability of free shipping. And as a side benefit, you’ll have much more time to spend on the truly important debates: Michael Phelps or Carl Lewis? In This Issue Featured Article Customer Spotlight Thought Leadership Events
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