Smiley Cat: Christian Watson's Web Design Blog

5 Research-based Techniques that Will Improve Your Copywriting Skills

Mon, 20 May 2013 20:50:08 -0600

This excellent article from Unbounce draws upon the data from a selection of academic studies on copywriting plus persuasion to provide five best practices for improving your writing skills.

Here's a quick summary of the key points:

1. Use the 'But You are Free to' Technique

Reminding people of their freedom to choose has been shown to reduce how threatened subjects feel about making that choice.

2. Copywriting for the Three Types of Customer

Customers separate into three core buying groups — tightwads, unconflicted, and spendthrifts. Therefore, you should customize your copy to appeal to these different types of customer.

3. Making Use of Mirror Neurons

This essentially means to focus your copywriting on how the reader is feeling and thus target how they imagine something to be — for example, how they feel about a problem that your service helps to overcome.

4. Use the Power of Verbs

Use verbs rather than adjectives in your copy as they are harder to ignore — i.e., say what your product does rather than how you would describe it. For example, say that your software application searches terabytes of data in seconds rather than just that it is powerful.

5. Write Your Stories Like a Lawyer

Apparently, there are six characteristics of persuasive stories that perform best in the courtroom: delivery, imagery, realism, structure, context, and audience. These can be applied equally well to writing persuasive copy online.

30 Creative Uses of Animated GIFs in Emails

Sun, 12 May 2013 08:39:23 -0600

If your email design is looking a bit 'flat' you might want to consider using an animated GIF to liven up your design. Although not commonly used in emails due to their impact on email file size and the extra work involved in creating them, animated GIFs can act as 'design delighters' for your subscribers and bring life to your designs.

Paul Boag referried to the use of animated GIFs in website design as:

Animated gifs can breathe some much needed life into the imagery on your website. They grab the users attention and act as design delighters, making your site stand out from that of the competition."

The same is true for emails. Not only do they grab the attention, animated GIFs can serve a more practical purpose by displaying more information about a product, while doing so in the limited space of an email. For example, you can show how a shoe looks from multiple angles, how clothes move on a model, different outfit options for a jacket, or the range of colors or designs that a handbag comes in.

As I mentioned above, the main caveat for using animated GIFs in emails is the potential increase in filesize, especially if you are animating larger images. In the list of examples below, the largest ones top out at 700-800KB, and file size is recognized as one of the factors that can impact email deliverability. So, use your animated GIFs judiciously and always try to minimize the size of the image that is being animated.

The selection of emails below provide a variety of examples of creative uses of animated GIFs in emails.

Anthropologie

Art.com

[via STYLEcampaign]

Boden

Ralph Lauren

Cusp

Banana Republic

Free People

Horchow

[via STYLEcampaign]

Jack Spade

[via Litmus]

Kate Spade

Home Depot

Cusp

Last Call by Neiman Marcus

Tory Burch

Boden

Cusp

Improving Ecommerce Site Search with Redirects

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 09:18:09 -0600

Jacob Nielsen recently posted an interesting article on how to improve the usability of website search, given that users are typically so poor at using search effectively. In order to design for mediocre searchers, he cited the example of Costco, where for general search terms, such as "television", instead of returning search results, users are redirected to the appropriate category page for that product type.

For some reason, not many websites do this, particularly within the ecommerce world. To my mind, it makes perfect sense, and is what we do on Supercircuits.com. Most of the time, I would imagine that users don't even realize they are not looking at search results any more. As long as they see relevant content as a result of their search — i.e., the scent of information remains strong — they don't care where they are in the site, just that they are closer to their goal.

As a Magento user, despite having a poor search overall, it does have redirect functionality built in (along with synonyms). So, it's just a matter of reviewing your most common high-level search terms and redirecting them to the appropriate product category.

Magento edit search term screen

This also works well for content searches on ecommerce sites. Often, an ecommerce site search does not even return non-product related results (such as blog posts, or your location or contact page), or it hides them away in a separate tab on the results page. If a user is searching for your contact page, better to send them directly to that page than make them hunt for it, even if you do provide it in your search results.

I set myself a weekly and monthly task to review my top search terms (which I track in Google Analytics), which ensures that I can see if any new redirects need to be created.

Optimization Tips for Thank You Pages

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:26:46 -0600

Some years ago, I asked the question are you making the most of your thank you pages? Fortunately, GetElastic has come to the rescue with a useful collection of tips and best practices for optimizing your thank you pages.

Examples include:

Enabling guest checkout customers to create an account
Suggesting more products the customer could purchase
Offering the customer a coupon for a discount off their next order
Including an email sign up form
Highlighting other relevant content such as an app or a gift finder
Linking to a 'tell us what you think' survey
Sharing your purchase via social media

With all of these opportunities for engaging your customers, there really is no excuse for presenting a generic thank you page when they complete their purchase.

37 Examples of Abandoned Shopping Cart Emails

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 19:00:03 -0600

I'm setting up an abandoned shopping cart email program for our website. In developing the copy for the emails, my online research came up with a variety of examples of abandoned cart emails to refer to. The only problem was that they were all images of the actual emails, which made it impossible to extract pieces of copywriting that I liked.

So, as a reference for myself and anyone else who is writing an abandoned cart email, I wrote out the content from 37 of the emails that I liked or found interesting. I hope you find them useful!

The Container Store

A friendly reminder...
Get organized today!

We're still holding some great organization solutions in your shopping cart. View cart

Purchase your items today. You can even use our CLICK & PICKUP service to pick up at your store!

[View Cart]

Need some help completing your project?
Call us: 555-123-1234
Contact us by: Email
Live chat with Customer Service

Pottery Barn

Thanks for Stopping By...

If you need any help completing a purchase, let us know. Call, click or visit us at your local Pottery Barn store.

Cooking.com

Your shopping cart is still waiting for you at Cooking.com

Why Wait?

Complete your order today.

[SEE WHAT'S IN YOUR CART ->]

We noticed that you did not complete your order during your last visit to our site. Just in case you were interrupted, we have saved your cart for you: Click here to view your shopping cart.

If you had trouble checking out or found something confusing, please contact our customer service department by email at support@cooking.com or by phone at (555) 123-1234 for assistance.

Also, remember you can use My Wish List to save your favorite products in one place. They'll be easy to find when you want to make a future purchase. To save a product, just click on "add to my wish list" on any product page, or directly from your shopping cart.

Thank you for visiting Cooking.com!
Cooking.com

ProFlowers

10% off to Finish Your Order!

We noticed you were close to sending [product name], but didn't! Maybe you didn't notice weekday shipping costs less? Come back for a 10% Off discount, plus a free glass vase with any flower order.

CafePress

Return anytime to purchase your saved items (we're always open).

Thanks for visiting CafePress. You picked out some great merchandise. We saved it all, so when you're ready to buy just return to your shopping cart.

[GO TO YOUR SHOPPING CART >]

Thanks for shopping with us. We're here if you need us:

Shoot us an email: Fill out our online form (we'll try to get back to you within 24 hours).
Give us a ring: Call toll-free: 1.555.123.1234 (Monday - Saturday, 9 am - 9 pm EST)
Drop us a note: CafePress.com, Customer Care, 1850 Gateway Drive, etc

Neiman Marcus

HURRY! BEFORE THESE ITEMS SELL OUT
We have saved your selected items, but remember many of our popular and limited-edition styles sell out quickly.

PLACE YOUR ORDER SOON!

THANK YOU
for visiting NeimanMarcus.com

Below are some of the items currently in your shopping bag:

[three sample products]

[CLICK HERE TO VIEW ENTIRE SHOPPING BAG >]

Dell

YOUR SAVED CART IS ABOUT TO EXPIRE.

We know you sometimes get sidetracked. That's just business as usual. So this is a friendly reminder to complete your purchase with Dell. Your saved cart is about to expire at 5:59AM CT on MM/DD/YYYY.

Follow these three easy steps to check out and you can get right back to work:

1. Click on 'Retrieve Your Saved Cart below.
Log in to Dell, Hit the green 'Checkout' button.
Complete your purchase within two days.

It's that simple. Thanks again for considering Dell as your technology partner.

P.S. If you purchased within the last 12 hours, please disregard this e-mail. And thank you for your business!

[Retrieve Your Saved Cart]

Questions? We will Call You! Mon-Fri 7am to 7pm [CLICK TO CALL]

Zappos

Come See What Your Shopping Cart Has Been Up To!

Hello [name]!

Have you met Dash the Dog? He keeps the Zappos.com site running smoothly so our customers can shop with ease! Dash has been looking after the items you left in your shopping cart. While Dash doesn't mind watching your order, he wants you to know that your items have been asking for you and would like for you to return.

If you'd like, you can buy your items now, and pay using PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover. Plus, we always have fast and free shipping, so you don't have to wait long for your order to arrive!

Since Dash has been known to chew on shoes and other items left unattended for too long, we suggest you come back and purchase your items soon!

Items In Your Zappos.com Shopping Cart:

[sample product + boilerplate about prices being subject to change]

With Love,
The Zappos Customer Loyalty Team

Sam's Club

Still Shopping?

Your online cart still contains something from one of your recent visits to SamsClub.com.

For more product information:

Look for the green diamonds which highlight when member ratings & reviews are available for an item.
Watch for the Ask & Answer feature, available on select items and categories, where you can post questions about a specific item.

If you experienced any technical difficulties while placing your order, please contact a Member Services representative.

We appreciate your decision to be a Sam's Club member and strive to provide you amazing service and savings.

Sincerely,
Your Sam's Club Member Services Team

[Login to View Your Cart]

OpenSky

Hi [name],

We saw that you didn't get a chance to finish your OpenSky order.

There is still time to complete your purchase, just visit your shopping cart. Buy hurry! Many of our items sell out quickly and we don't want you to miss out.

If you have any questions about product details, our return policy or OpenSky in general please feel free to email or call us at 555-123-1234.

[Finish your order]

Piperlime

YOUR SHOPPING BAG MISSES YOU.

We couldn't help but notice that you left a few items in your shopping bag.
Well, you might want to come back to get them. They're not reserved so they could sell out.
(We've see it happen, and it's not pretty.)

Free shipping just got faster!
You'll now get your order in 3-5 business days. And as always, we have free returns.
Have any questions? We're here to help.
Just go to our Customer Care page or give us a call at 1-555-123-1234.

Get the goods

L.L.Bean

Final Reminder—There Are Items In Your Shopping Bag

Completing Your Order Is Fast and Easy

Thanks for visiting llbean.com. This email is to remind you that you recently added one or more items to your Shopping Bag.
We'd like to invite you back to complete your order - it's fast, easy and your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed.

[Complete Your Purchase]

Please log in and click in your Shopping Bag to complete your order.

Williams-Sonoma

Shopping Basket Reminder

Thanks for visiting williams-sonoma.com! This is just a quick note to remind you that you have items saved in your shopping basket. Still need time to decide? No problem. Your basket won't expire until Month DD, YYYY.

Have product or ordering questions? Email customerservice@williams-sonoma.com or call 1-555-123-1234 7 days a week, 4:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. PT.

[COMPLETE YOUR ORDER NOW >]

S&S Worldwide

Courtesy Reminder
We Thought This Might Be Important To You.

Dear Valued Customer,
During your last visit to our site you put the products listed below into your shopping cart but you didn't checkout.

We want to let you know that we have reserved these items for you.

All you have to do is click here to return to your cart and complete the purchase. You can call 1-555-123-1234 to place your order by phone.

Order any of the items from your shopping cart now and receive Free Shipping if your order totals $59 or more!
Please use offer code E3037.

Sincerely,
S&S Customer Service Team

[Return To Cart Now]

Drugstore.com

forgot something?

During a recent visit, you left one (or more) items in your shopping bag. This is a reminder that we clear inactive bags periodically.

There's still time to complete your order. Just click into your shopping bag and continue to checkout.

Thanks!
Ron
Director of Customer Care

Crocs

Hi [name]
are you ready to complete your order?

We noticed you still have some things in your shopping cart — if you need help with sizes or have questions, please call, email, or chat and we'll do our best.

To complete your order, just log in.

Thanks for shopping with us!

[view your cart >]

Kate Spade

psst… you've left something behind.

TO HELP MAKE UP YOUR MIND,
enjoy 15% off your entire purchase.

ENTER CODE [promo code] AT CHECKOUT
HURRY THIS OFFER ENDS 2 WEEKS FROM TODAY.

[VIEW CART]

Crutchfield

We think you may have left something behind

The items below were left in your shopping cart recently. If you have any questions about these products, we're here to help. You can email us, call in to speak with an Advisor, post a question in our forums, or visit our Learning Center to get the answers you want. We're passionate about electronics here at Crutchfield, and it's our goal to help you get the most enjoyment possible from your gear.

[product details]

We're here to help.

Call us for one-on-one advice 1-555-123-1234
Email us at advisors@crutchfield.com
Ask a question in our Forums.
Visit our Learning Center.

Eastwood

Just a Quick Reminder!
You Left Something in Your Shopping Cart.

Dear [name],

We've noticed that you put some items into your shopping cart during your last visit to our site, but you left without completing your order. If you had a problem with our checkout process, please let us know.

For your convenience, we have listed the items you had in your cart below.

Just click here to return to your cart and complete your purchase. Or call 1-555-123-1234 to place your order over the phone. We're here to help!

Your friends at Eastwood

[RETURN TO CART NOW! >]

Havaianas

Did you forget something?

You have items in your shopping cart. Come back and complete your online purchase before these items sell out. Hurry - they're going fast!

[Complete Your Order Today >]

Victoria's Secret

Dear valued customer,

Thank you for your recent visit to VictoriasSecret.com. This is a reminder that the items we are holding in your shopping bag will expire in a few days.

To complete your order, click here to view your shopping bag. You can review your selections, make changes, add more items and proceed to checkout.

If you have questions about your product selections or need assistance in completing your purchase, please call our Customer Care Center at 1.555.123.1234.

Sincerely,
VictoriasSecret.com Customer Care
service@VictoriasSecret.com

Movies Unlimited

Dear Movie Lover,

Thank you for visiting MoviesUnlimited.com. You left our site without completing your order. The items listed to the right are being kept in your shopping basket at MoviesUnlimited.com for fast, convenient checkout. Simply click the red button below to process this order now, and to save $5.00 on your order.*

[SAVE $5.00 ON YOUR ORDER NOW!]

Thank you for shopping with Movies Unlimited.

*Minimum order is $25.00.

Omaha Steaks

Thank You…
for shopping at Omaha Steaks!

We noticed you have a few items in your cart. Due to popularity, some items can sell out quickly. Don't delay, click through & continue to checkout!.

[Checkout]

Our Unconditional Guarantee
If you are not absolutely thrilled with your purchase from Omaha Steaks, for any reason at all, we'll cheerfully replace your purchase or refund your money, whichever your prefer.

Need help completing your order? Call 1-555-123-1234 to speak to a Customer Service representative.

Pear Tree Greetings

DON'T LEAVE A GOOD THING BEHIND

You left something wonderful in your cart. Take another look and see what's waiting for you.

[view cart >]

LOFT

a friendly REMINDER

Since many of our popular items sell out very quickly, we are holding the items you selected in your shopping bag—come back soon to place your order.

Here are the items currently in your shopping bag:

[selection of product images]

CLICK HERE TO VIEW YOUR SHOPPING BAG >

Zappos (again)

It Wants You To Complete Your Purchase.

Hello [name]!

Don't you just hate it when shopping carts are needy? Us too. That's why we're sending this email. Your shopping cart won't stop bugging us. Just click on the big orange button to access your cart. Please, we beg of you.

[PROCEED TO CART]

Vistaprint

Reminder to Complete Your Order Before [date]

Dear [name],

We wanted to remind you one last time that the following items are still in your Vistaprint shopping basket, and need to be ordered very soon if you'd still like them:

[product details]

These items will expire on [date], at which time they will be deleted. After this time, they cannot be recovered..

You can complete your order now. Simply visit your account and sign in.

If you have any questions, please take the time to visit our comprehensive FAQ page. You should find what you're looking for here.

Thanks for your interest in our products.

Warm regards,
The Vistaprint Customer Support Team

P.S. Did you know you can make use of additional offers and excellent discounts? Just click here!

From You Flowers

ORDER NOW & WE SHIP IT FOR FREE!

We were so sorry to see you leave our site a few minutes ago. If you come back now we will be waiving the $14.99 Service Fee on any order that you place! From You Flowers offers Same Day Delivery anywhere in the US when your order is placed before 3pm in the recipient's time zone!

COME BACK &
[SHIP IT FOR FREE]
A $14.99 VALUE

SHOP->

BEAUTIFUL & FRESH
STARTING FROM ONLY
$29.99

Urban Outfitters

You Have Items In Your Shopping Bag…

PLACE YOUR ORDER SOON, BEFORE THESE ITEMS SELL OUT!

SIGN INTO YOUR ACCOUNT

[details of products in cart]

Costco

forget me not.

During a recent visit to costco.com, you left one (or more) items in your shopping cart. This is a reminder that we clear inactive carts within 48 hours of adding items.

There's still time to complete your order.*

Click here to log in and continue to checkout.

*Please remember that merchandise availability is not guaranteed until you check out.

HSN

Dear [name],

We noticed you have at least one item in your hsn.com shopping bag. Our inventory sells out quickly so place your order today while supplies last. Don't miss out!

[View My Shopping Bag]

Need help completing your purchase?
Call us free at 1-555-123-1234 or send an email.

Happy shopping!

SmartPak

Did you forget something?

Hi [name],
Thank you for visiting SmartPak!

We noticed that you started an order but it was not completed. Our products have been tested and approved by our staff horse and dog owners and your order is 100% Happiness Guaranteed. Plus, all orders over $75 ship free every day!
With our price match, if you find a lower price (after factoring in shipping costs) from any major equine catalog, simply contact us and we'll match it.

To complete your order, you may login to your account, reply to this email or call us at 1-555-123-1234. Please let us know if we can answer any questions or help you complete your order.

Sincerely,
SmartPak Customer Care

[Return to Cart >]

Best Buy

THANKS FOR VISITING BESTBUY.COM

We noticed items left in your cart. Here are some resources that you may find helpful in placing your order:

Help Topics
Find answers to commonly asked questions.

Store Pickup
Get it same day. Free Store Pickup when you buy online.

Perfect Match Promise
30-day price match guarantee, phone support and return policy.

Items Left in Your Cart

[product details]

View your cart >

christopher & banks

Forget something?

We'll hold your item as long as it is in stick. Just visit us at christopherandbanks.com and click on Shopping Bag to view your items.

We hope to see you soon!

[shop now]

Sears

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for visiting Sear.com. We see you have recently added the [product name] to your shopping cart.

To proceed to checkout, please click here. Or take a look at some of our other top-selling items.

Check out some other common alternatives to the products in your cart

[examples of related products]

Net-A-Porter

A gentle reminder…

We've noticed that you have an item in your shopping bag. Don't miss out on your favorite pieces — make your purchase now!

DID YOU KNOW…

Expert Fashion Advisors will help you find the perfect fit.*
Our unrivaled customer care is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
We offer free and easy returns.
Signature packaging ensures your purchase is wrapped up in style.
We have a same-day delivery service in London and Manhattan.

SHOP NOW >

*Contact our Fashion Advisors on 555-123-1234

Prezzybox

Come back and get get free delivery!

Dear [name],

We noticed that you recently put products in your shopping cart but didn't complete your order. Why not come back to the site and we'll pay your delivery costs for you. Your free delivery code is COMEBACK and will be valid for one week until [date].

We really appreciate your custom.

Prezzybox HQ

*Available on UK standard delivery only.

Until next time
Polly and the Prezzybox Team x

Shar Music

Can we help you with anything?

Thank you for visiting sharmusic.com!

As a courtesy, we'd like to remind you that there are still items left in your shopping cart. Because of the popularity of many of our items, we cannot guarantee that items left in your cart will continue to be available. If you have any questions, please feel free to call us at 555.123.1234 (US and Canada only) or simply reply to this email.

If you would like to purchase the items in your cart, please click on the button below:

[Return to shopping cart]

Thanks again for visiting us and we hope to see you again soon!

Best regards,
Shar Customer Care

Building Your Online Reputation

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 07:22:46 -0600

This post by Seth Godin on building your backlist (or as I think of it, building your online reputation) struck a chord with me.

As a hiring manager working in online sales/marketing, one of the first things I do when reviewing potential candidates is to Google them and see how active they are on the web. Do they have a website/blog, a portfolio, a Twitter account, Instagram account, etc.

The internet is very transparent and makes it ~~easy~~ easier for employers to see if candidates not only practice what they preach in their resumé but also have a real passion for the work they are applying for. If I'm hiring you for a creative position, why can't I find examples of your work online? If it's for a marketing position, where can I find evidence of you sharing your expertise and interest in the subject?

It also enables me to see if there are any obvious red flags that would potentially exclude the candidate from the next round, or at least give me pause for thought.

The thing is, all this takes time to develop, which is why you shouldn't wait until you're looking for employment to start building your online presence. As Godin points out, if you do build your backlist in a deliberate, thoughtful way it will pay dividends in the years to come.

Forbes Doesn't Care About the User Experience

Sat, 30 Mar 2013 18:19:45 -0600

Check out this slideshow from Forbes about America's Most Miserable Cities. Other than the paper-thin amount of reporting going on, the main thing that strikes me is the amount of advertising on each page.

Click the image to view the ad-ridden full-size version:

The content is completely crowded out by the ads, making it an unpleasant experience to read. In fact, ads covered approximately 318,000 px of the page whereas the content represented about 340,000 px (generously including the social sharing buttons under the slideshow image).

This means that is only about 6% more content than ads. It's easier to see the split if both the content and ads are highlighted:

According to Google's own guidance on what constitutes a low-quality page:

Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?

If this slideshow is not an example of low quality content according to Google's definition, I don't know what is. Please Forbes, I understand you generate your revenue through advertising, but don't forget about the user completely.

Easily Create iOS and Android App Store Badges

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 20:03:05 -0600

We've started adding app store badges to the web pages for our products that come with a smartphone app, and I wanted to make it easier to do so. Fortunately, I discovered that Apple and Google now provide badge generation tools to make this process easier than ever.

iTunes Link Maker

The iTunes Link Maker lets you create links or badges that link to content on any Apple web property, including the App Store. To create a download badge for your app, first select "iOS Apps" from the Media Type dropdown and enter the name of your app in the search field.

From the list of results, click on the iPhone or iPad link. This brings up a pop-up window which gives you options for linking with a large or small button or with text only. Here's how they look:

Small button:

Large button:

Text link only:

BLACKHAWK (v1.3.0) - Supercircuits Inc

Google Play Badges

To create a badge that links to your app on Google Play you need to follow a similar process. Unfortunately, it is not as straightforward as Apple's version. To find your app, you have two options. The first lets you identify it by the 'Package name'. "What's that?" you ask? Good question.

If you look in the package name input field you'll see default text that says 'com.example.android'. This actually refers to the ID of the app which is visible in the address bar of your browser when you are on the app page in Google Play (please let me know if there is any easier way to find this).

So, using Angry Birds as an example, when I am on the Angry Birds app page the URL in the address bar is:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rovio.angrybirds&feature=search_result#?t=blahblahblah

And therefore the package name is com.rovio.angrybirds. I agree that this is about as unintuitive as you can get.

The alternative is to use 'Publisher name' but this causes your app badge to link to a search results page which doesn't appear to work. Try it for yourself — enter Rovio as the publisher name and see if you get any results when you click on the badge you've created once your click 'Build my badge'.

So, use the package name option, and once you've created your badge it will look like this:

Device Art Generator

On the plus side, Google offers a handy online tool for making your app screenshots display inside a Nexus device. Apple does not offer an equivalent service, although FrameApp appears to do the same for a range of iOS and Android devices, and PlaceIt works similarly but embeds your screenshot within a stock photo that includes a smartphone or tablet device.

15 Online Tools for Creating Great Content Ideas

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 09:46:50 -0600

Hot on the heels of the 'awesome' content idea generator, I came across this handy collection of online tools for generating content ideas — a very useful resource for content marketers to crack through stubborn cases of creative block.

Some of the tools on this list are pretty well known, but there are a few that I was not aware of, such as Topsy and Soovle. In addition, I would recommend these resources for yet more content ideas:

Alltop
Hacker News (use the search in the footer)

If you have any more suggestions for tools for brainstorming content ideas, please let me know in the comments.

Web Design Trends to Help You Spring Clean Your Resumé

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 20:33:09 -0600

This post from Andy Budd on web design trends is fascinating as it shows how once popular terms such as information architecture and interaction design are falling out of favor when compared with UX design and responsive design.

All of which leads to the question — are you targeting the right keywords in your resumé? I'm not sure that I am.

SEO vs. PPC

Are you focusing on organic rankings or trying to buy your way to the top?

HTML5 and CSS3

Are you part of the modern web design revolution?

Android vs. iOS

Are you backing the right mobile horse?

Content Marketing vs. Link Directory

How are you building links to your site?

Looking to Hire an Email Marketing Manager

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 08:16:49 -0600

It's been a while, but I'm hiring again. I'm looking for an Email Marketing Manager to create and manage email campaigns for the Observint Technologies portfolio of companies.

This is a great opportunity for someone with relevant email marketing expertise who wants to take ownership of really building this important channel for us. You will be responsible for coming up with campaigns, writing and sourcing content, working with our designer and developer to build the emails, managing lists and sends, and providing reporting and analysis. In short, you get to do it all (with plenty of support from me).

You will be responsible for creating newsletters, webinar and event invitations, and, most importantly, (lots of) regular marketing and promotional emails for our two main online stores, Supercircuits.com and SecurityCamerasDirect.com.

If this all sounds interesting, please check out the Email Marketing Manager job posting on our website and drop me a line.

Create Awesome Article Headlines in Seconds with the Content Idea Generator

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:42:49 -0600

It's ~~sometimes~~ often hard to come up with great ideas for articles. That's why I found this content idea generator to be such a useful online tool. It seems like a bit of fun to begin with (much like the LinkedIn recommendation generator), but it actually generates some good headlines, and more importantly, sets the creative juices flowing.

Here are some web design-related headlines I created in just a few minutes:

The 11 Best Web Designer Twitter Feeds to Follow
17 Facts About Web Designers Everyone Thinks are True
What Wikipedia Can't Tell You About Usability
How to Stay Popular in the Usability World
9 Facts About Copywriting That Will Impress Your Friends
The 10 Best Resources for Copywriting
How Not Knowing SEO Makes You a Rookie
11 Myths Uncovered About SEO
The Unconventional Guide to SEO
How to Cheat at Web Development and Get Away with It
The Only Web Development Resources You Will Ever Need
13 Insane (But True) Things About Web Development
Why Information Architecture is the New Black
The Evolution of Information Architecture
20 Things That Won't Happen in Information Architecture
5 Things You Don't Want to Hear About Information Architecture
Information Architecture in 5 Easy Steps

How about that for a collection of thought-provoking blog headlines?

So, that's the hard part done. Now all you have to do is go and research the article, write the article, proof-read and edit the article, find, edit and add images, post the article, proof-read the article one last time and check links, share the article, reach out to influencers, reply to comments and delete spam, and then … do it all over again. Easy.

Two Great Guides to SEO for Large Websites

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 09:08:45 -0600

The latest Moz Top 10 email from SEOmoz had a couple of articles that I found particularly useful for people managing larger websites, such as online stores or newspapers.

The first, A Technical SEO Guide to Crawling, Indexing and Ranking introduced me to the concept of crawl budget, which is the amount of resources/time Google is going to spend crawling your site, and therefore determines how many pages get indexed.

Clearly, you don't want Google to index lots of low value pages (for example, caused by navigation filters) and miss your higher value pages (such as your product pages or articles). There are a few ways to try and control this, such as rel=nofollow, which the article covers.

The second article is a Guide to Site Navigation for SEO. This article is useful because it looks at the implications of having too many navigation links on your site. For example, if your global drop-down navigation links to every category and sub-category on your site you could be reducing the amount of 'link juice' passed to lower level pages.

In addition, if you are using category page filters to make it easier for people to browse for products, you could be inadvertently creating thousands of low value pages, which both uses up your crawl budget and reduces the page authority being passed from these important category pages.

To improve how category navigation and filters work for the Magento store I manage, we installed the Improved Navigation extension from Amasty. It's well worth checking out if you're a Magento user.

Bonus article: if you regularly have to deal with stakeholders or clients who insist that calls-to-action must be above the fold, this article debunking the above the fold myth should help provide some evidence to the contrary.

Lessons Learned from Launching an Online Store on Magento

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 06:14:52 -0600

For my day job, I manage a number of online properties, including a couple of online stores. We recently relaunched our main ecommerce store, Supercircuits.com, on Magento Enterprise Edition. Here are my thoughts about the experience.

The Supercircuits website was running on an custom-developed ASP.Net ecommerce platform, which I inherited when I joined the company. Over time it had become increasingly unwieldy, hard to update, and buggy, and I was desperate to move on to a more modern ecommerce platform.

I'd been interested in Magento for a while as it appeared to meet all of our functional needs as well as being very affordable, and so, after a short period of due diligence, we embarked on an implementation of the Enterprise Edition.

Little did I know then, that it would take over a year to launch the site. But that's what happens when you combine a very small team, with a lot of operational responsibilities, with the requirement to integrate with an internal order management system that's about 10 years old.

The new Supercircuits website

Lesson learned #1: If you are about to embark on a major Magento implementation, I highly recommend making use of their consulting services at the outset. An architectural advisory will set you back a few thousand dollars but will make sure you pick the right architecture plan so that your implementation goes more smoothly. We did a lot of learning as we went, which slowed progress as you might expect.

Another challenging area was the migration of product data from the old site. Although we have a little under 1,000 SKUs, because they represent video surveillance equipment, they each have a lot technical specs along with various other complexities.

We had originally intended to manage product data programmatically via a centralized master data management system, but in the end, this proved too much to try and implement along with everything simply developing and launching the site.

As a result, we did not make proper use of attribute sets for classifying different product types, the results of which we are living with today (one day we will have the product comparison tool set up correctly). On reflection, we would have been better off entering all the product data manually and using the extra time to clean up the organization of our technical specs.

One area where we did make the right decision was not to attempt a complete site redesign at the same time. The relaunch was intended to be a "copy exact" — use the base Magento Enterprise store template and overlay our design on top of it. This worked pretty well, as the base Magento template looked nicer than our old site anyway, and we were able to make some further visual improvements in addition to this.

The good news is that we are now in a place were we can start making some more aggressive site design enhancements, now that the back-end heavy lifting has been completed.

A significant reason to move to Magento is its extensibility and the wide range of extensions that have been developed for it. If you can think of a feature, chances are someone has developed an extension for it. The great thing about this is that it reduces implementation time and cost for new features dramatically. I'm like a kid in a candy store with all the additional ecommerce capabilities that are now available to me.

Lesson learned #2: Not all extensions are created equally. I recommend limiting the number of extension vendors you use so that you can be confident in their quality and reduce the potential for code conflicts. We have mostly used extensions from aheadWorks and Amasty. Not only do they create great products, but the support of both vendors so far has been excellent.

Another reason I like Magento is that, as with Google Analytics and Wordpress, because the basic edition is open source it has a huge install base with lots of people developing for it, figuring things out, writing blogs and tutorials, and answering questions.

Consequently, if you have a question about or an issue with Magento, it's likely that someone has run into it and someone else has come up with a solution. The value of this wealth of information cannot be overstated.

One final downside of the extended development time for this website launch is that Magento Enterprise has moved on to version 1.12 while we are still on version 1.10. I do not intend to underestimate the effort to upgrade to the latest version, but it is something that we will need to tackle in the near future. If you don't, as you move further away from the current version, the cost and effort to upgrade just gets larger and more daunting.

A feature that we intend to take full advantage of over the months ahead is Magento's multi-store capability. At some point in the future I intend to have all of our sites running on the Magento platform which will be a huge efficiency gain for my team in terms of managing multiple websites and stores with a common product set.

One area where we have learned a lot is in regards to SEO. While we did all that we could in terms of onsite SEO, we (by we, I mean I) only redirected about 1500 URLs in our htaccess file. However, we have thousands of old product documentation PDFs which I did not have the time or will to get to before the launch which were still receiving links and traffic.

As I started seeing 404 errors pop up in Google Analytics for those pages and files, I began a multi-week process of updating the htaccess file, so that we now have over 6000 redirected URLs.

I am now keeping our htaccess file updated on a monthly basis by running the URLs being redirected to through Xenu's Link Sleuth, which lets you check an imported list of links (very handy). As redirected URLs break (for example, when products are discontinued and are removed from the site) I'm updating the redirect to keep it working. It's very manual, but worth it in my opinion.

We're now on a two-week release schedule for new features, which is aggressive but achievable. One module that we are replacing as soon as possible is our site search. Magento's default search algorithm is garbage. Incredibly, instead of using AND for an operator it uses OR, which means that the more terms you use to refine your search, the more results you get. It's completely backwards!

There is a truism when it comes to learning Drupal — once you've built your first site, throw it away and use what you've learned to build it again correctly. There were a few times along the way that I thought this about our Magento development process as there is certainly a learning curve and a 'right way' to architect it.

Now that we've launched, I've certainly got no regrets about choosing Magento as an ecommerce platform, and I'm looking forward to everything we can do to expand and enhance it.

Pagination Design Showcase

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 17:14:32 -0600

I'm always fascinated by the creative approaches web designers take to seemingly straightforward UI elements such as breadcrumbs and search boxes. Recently I needed to provide some feedback for a page design that involved pagination, and so I set out across the web in search of examples.

As a result, I came up with my own pagination design showcase. Looking through the different designs, a pretty strong design convention is quickly evident. Here's a typical example:

However, the examples also show that there are still plenty of ways for designers to add their own creative touch to this UI component, without violating pagination usability best practices.

View my pagination design examples »

Smiley Cat: Christian Watson's Web Design Blog

5 Research-based Techniques that Will Improve Your Copywriting Skills

1. Use the 'But You are Free to' Technique

2. Copywriting for the Three Types of Customer

3. Making Use of Mirror Neurons

4. Use the Power of Verbs

5. Write Your Stories Like a Lawyer

30 Creative Uses of Animated GIFs in Emails

Anthropologie

Art.com

Boden

Ralph Lauren

Cusp

Banana Republic

Free People

Horchow

Jack Spade

Kate Spade

Home Depot

Cusp

Last Call by Neiman Marcus

Tory Burch

Boden

Cusp

Further Reading

Improving Ecommerce Site Search with Redirects

Optimization Tips for Thank You Pages

37 Examples of Abandoned Shopping Cart Emails

The Container Store

Pottery Barn

Cooking.com

ProFlowers

CafePress

Neiman Marcus

Dell

Zappos

Sam's Club

OpenSky

Piperlime

L.L.Bean

Williams-Sonoma

S&S Worldwide

Drugstore.com

Crocs

Kate Spade

Crutchfield

Eastwood

Havaianas

Victoria's Secret

Movies Unlimited

Omaha Steaks

Pear Tree Greetings

LOFT

Zappos (again)

Vistaprint

From You Flowers

Urban Outfitters

Costco

HSN

SmartPak

Best Buy

christopher & banks

Sears

Net-A-Porter

Prezzybox

Shar Music

Building Your Online Reputation

Forbes Doesn't Care About the User Experience

Easily Create iOS and Android App Store Badges

iTunes Link Maker

Google Play Badges

Device Art Generator

15 Online Tools for Creating Great Content Ideas

Web Design Trends to Help You Spring Clean Your Resumé

SEO vs. PPC

HTML5 and CSS3

Android vs. iOS

Content Marketing vs. Link Directory

Looking to Hire an Email Marketing Manager

Create Awesome Article Headlines in Seconds with the Content Idea Generator