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Web Makeover Author Reveals
the Five Most Commonly Encountered, Off-putting E-commerce Errors
Boston,
USA - 27 March, 2002 - While getting less public handwringing than during
holiday season, the "abandoned shopping cart problem" continues to
wreak havoc on online sales. Having recently judged a raftload of sites for
the Webby Awards and the Inc. Web Awards, Internet marketing expert Marcia
Yudkin compiled a list of the five irritants and obstacles most commonly
encountered at e-commerce sites.
- Lack of quick orientation for first-time visitors. What does the site
sell? "I've had to poke around for several minutes sometimes to understand
the focus of a site," Yudkin says. "Jargon is one culprit. Another
is lack of context, like an airline site that sells tickets not giving a single
clue on the home page in what countries or even what continent it flies."
.
- Explanations that don't explain. What does the product do and not do? "Another
basic, but it happens often that a site doesn't explain whether their "Turbocharge
VT27-Plus" is a one-time download, a subscription, a Web-based service or
something else," notes Yudkin. "An alternative payment system's site
failed to offer a clear, systematic description of how it works."
.
- Missing prices and shipping charges. How much? "You shouldn't have
to put something into a shopping cart or enter your credit card information to
learn how much an item costs, including shipping," says Yudkin. "Unfortunately,
you still find this mistake at sites that have had plenty of time to get their
act together."
.
- Unreadable text. Say what? "Creativity gone haywire seems to be the
hallmark of some Web designers," Yudkin charges. "Orange letters on a
blue background, olive green on black, light gray on white and blue on blue
were combinations that sent me packing, as did lettering too small for over-40
eyes." - (Editor's note:- one of my contributors this week showed me a good
example of this on CRM vendor Siebel's web
site. Some search results produced white text on a white background!)
.
- Inconsistencies. Huh? One site says, "To sign up, click on the Sign
Up link at the top of every page." But the site does not have any "Sign
Up" link, only "Sign In." "Such carelessness wastes the
time of earnest shoppers and gets them frustrated and fed up, never to return,"
Yudkin comments.
Yudkin is the author of Poor Richard's Web Site Marketing Makeover:
Improve Your Message and Turn
Visitors into Buyers (ISBN 1-930082-16-9) and numerous other books on
marketing. ...Marcia Yudkin
Editor's
comments:- While we're on the subject, here's another tip I learned from running
our high volume computer portals. Segment your home page not only into
first time visitors, but also for power users who visit the site every day.
Power users get shortcuts at the top of our
SPARC and
storage home pages, so that they
can go to the most frequently accessed pages even before the home page has fully
downloaded. You have to know a little bit about html,but you do have
some control about which parts of a web page will be seen first. |
|
New company shows
technology suppliers how to grow international sales
Gaithersburg, Maryland - March 22, 2002 -
Stephen DeCelle and Becky Bouwman recently left Chevin, a network management
manufacturer, to form their new company, 3dB Global Inc. 3dB Global
specializes in assisting companies with International Channel Sales. DeCelle,
who has been in international sales for 15 years has launched 3dB Global to help
growing technology companies succeed in international markets.
According to DeCelle, "70% of the market for technology products
is outside of the U.S., however, the vast majority of small to medium size
technology companies fail to get their share of this market." He adds, "
The measure of a healthy sales program is one that generates 50% of a company's
revenue from outside of the USA. Just as it is wise to 'balance' a retirement
portfolio to protect your family from risk, so should you balance your company's
sources of revenue to protect it from risk. For example, when the U.S. economy
slowed down in 2001, the demand for technology products stayed strong in most
international markets."
3dB Global specializes in international sales and marketing of
technology products through distributors, value added resellers, and
representative agents. Incorporated 24 January 2002, DeCelle, as President, and
3dB Global Vice President, Becky Bouwman, are offering a 3 step FasTrack™
program that guides clients in building effective international sales channels.
"Finding international resellers is a much different process than
finding domestic resellers. 3dB Global knows how to find international resellers
who really perform," according to Chris Murfin, President of CA Technology
Alliance Inc. of Ottawa Canada.
To learn more about 3dB Global Inc, phone the company at 240.632.1188
or visit its web site:- ...3dB Global
See
also:- Channel
Strategies for IT OEMs: Recruiting VARs in Europe |
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When Companies Cut Back On
Advertising, How Can They Determine Which Media To Cut First?
BURLINGAME, CA - March 21, 2002 -
Almost every journalist (or advertiser) who reads this press release has a stake
in the revenues from advertising. Your livelihood depends on it. Companies
are cutting back advertising budgets. Publications are folding. Other
publications are trimming back page size, color, staff, story length, ink and
information. Broadcast media are developing program content that combines
advertising with story lines. The advertising industry is in a big recession,
yet some media are still loaded with ads while others are not.
What makes some media more effective for their clients than others?
What is the relationship between the medium and the message? How can a company
make better advertising decisions on which media to cut back and which media to
increase, and by how much? Can you actually measure the effectiveness of
advertising, and what is the best way to do it?
One of the answers to all of these questions is a very simple equation
called "The Barrows Popularity Factor" according to Robert Barrows,
President of R.M. Barrows, Inc. Advertising and Public Relations of Burlingame,
California. Barrows has developed an easy-to-use mathematical formula that
actually lets you quantify the relationship between advertising and sales. The
formula is called "The Barrows Popularity Factor" because it allows
you to quantify the popularity of a product and its promotion.
The
math and how to use it are detailed in a booklet Barrows wrote called "The
Barrows Popularity Factor". Additional information about the benefits and
advantages of using "The Barrows Popularity Factor" is available at
the company's website. The booklet is available in both a hard copy version and
as an ebook. ...R.M. Barrows |
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GartnerG2 Says E-Mail
Marketing Campaigns Threaten Traditional Direct Mail Promotions
STAMFORD,
Conn. - March 19, 2002 - In an effort to manage advertising dollars, many
businesses are using e-mail marketing campaigns instead of traditional direct
mailings, according to GartnerG2, a research service from Gartner, Inc.
GartnerG2 analysts said e-mail marketing has become a more cost-effective way to
acquire and retain customers. GartnerG2 research shows e-mail advertising
revenue is projected to reach $1.26 billion in 2002, up from $948 million in
2001. By 2005, e-mail advertising revenue is forecast to total $1.5 billion.
"Direct mail has reached its peak and will account for less than
50 percent of mail received by U.S. households by 2005, down from 65 percent in
2001," said Denise Garcia, research director for GartnerG2 covering the
media industry. "As e-mail use, familiarity and trust increases, consumers
will become more comfortable with accepting advertisements through their
computer."
E-mail marketing campaigns have proven to be more efficient, and their
success can be measured more easily. On average, it takes four to six weeks to
complete a direct mail campaign vs. just seven to ten business days for an
e-mail campaign. Responses to direct mail take an average of three to six weeks,
while responses to e-mail take an average of three days.
In addition, e-mail campaigns are significantly less expensive to
execute than the traditional direct mail campaigns. Currently, e-mail costs
range from $5 to $7 per thousand while direct mail costs range from $500 to $700
per thousand. GartnerG2 analysts said that permission-based and opt-in
marketing strategies are critical to higher e-mail response rates. In general,
response rates measured by action taken from direct mail are the same as e-mail,
hovering at 1 percent. On permission-based e-mails, the average clickthrough
rate is between 6 percent and 8 percent. ...Gartner profile
Editor's
comments:- I checked the date on this press release. It was 2002 and not 1996.
Amazing it takes some markets so long to go digital. The Sun market was the
first. Other segments of the computer market lagged by upto 5 or 6 years. The
way it goes is: email first, then everything becomes web based when the email
promotion stops working, which happens when too much "opt-in" email
becomes regarded as SPAM. While we're on the subjects of response rates, the
average click rate for all run-of-site banner ads now running on our
Sun publication is 1.8%.
Targeted banner ads, on our storage
site typically do even better. We've got several ads getting over 4%. |
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The 10 biggest storage
companies in 2004
March 18, 2002 - The most popular aticle ever
published on STORAGEsearch, has
been updated 14 months after it was originally published. The long range
forecast for the
top 10 biggest storage
companies at the end of 2004 has been updated and published today.
Although most of the companies are the same as in last year's version of this
article, the fortunes and prospects of many have changed significantly as a
result of market conditions, and the article includes analysis of which
companies did well and which fared badly during the last year. Some companies
have dropped out of last year's top 10 list, others are in danger of dropping
out of next year's list, and the article discusses who is most likely to replace
them.
See also:-
storage articles |
|
| today's news etc from
MarketingViews | |
|
Other news on this page
Web
Makeover Author Reveals the Five Most Commonly Encountered, Off-putting
E-commerce Errors
New company shows technology suppliers how to grow
international sales
When Companies Cut Back On Advertising, How Can
They Determine Which Media To Cut First?
GartnerG2 Says E-Mail
Marketing Campaigns Threaten Traditional Direct Mail Promotions
The 10
biggest storage companies in 2004
earlier news (archive) |
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Special report from Hanover, Germany
by Jean-Jacques Maleval, Editor of
StorageNewsletter
CeBIT 2002 SHOW SAGS, TECHNOLOGY DOES TOO
Less major technological innovation, fewer booths and a lot
fewer people. For the first time since 1975, the number of exhibitors shrank at
CeBIT.
Why? No need for panic among the owners of this major event.
CeBIT, extended from 7 to 8 days, is still far and away the largest computer
show in the world. Nevertheless, overall participation shrank, notwithstanding
organizers' projections of a record 8316 booths and 810,000 visitors. This year,
in fact, there were 131 or 2% fewer booths compared to the previous year. From
2001 to 2002, attendance figures fell significantly, by 18% to roughly 700,000.
The trams, the restaurants, the city streets, parking lots, press room and expo
floor were decidedly less crowded than last year (much to the relief of those
wondering how CeBIT could possibly handle more people).
|
| CeBIT's
growth from 1993 to 2002
|
|
Storage
booths (1) |
Total
booths (2) |
Visitors
thousands (2)
|
| 1993
|
190 |
5,752 |
661 |
| 1994
|
171 |
5,845 |
682 |
| 1995
|
175 |
6,111 |
755 |
| 1996
|
131 |
6,549 |
607 |
| 1997
|
172 |
6,909 |
606 |
| 1998
|
149 |
7,239 |
679 |
| 1999
|
237 |
7,412 |
698 |
| 2000
|
178 |
7,892 |
782 |
| 2001
|
161 |
8,093 |
849 |
| 2002
|
187 |
7,962 |
700* |
| (1) Source: StorageNewsletter, (2) Source:
CeBIT, * estimated
| |
Several
possible reasons
All major general computer expos have been hurt this year, and
CeBIT was perhaps the least hit. Many are beginning to ask themselves why bother
to travel when all the information is a click away on the Internet. It doesn't
help, furthermore, that the worldwide IT economy is shrinking. Nor is the city
of Hanover the best-suited to welcome such an event (and no doubt past visitors
have vivid and unpleasant memories of the crowds and the inconvenience).
One
journalist we know was staying at a hotel 150km from the event, obliged to
commute one and a half hours each way daily. For those who choose to board with
a local, there's no telling what they'll end up with, and prices have risen
sharply. What's more, it costs 34 Euros per day just to enter the expo hall, not
to mention 25 Euros for a catalog, which at a weight of 3kg, is no longer really
portable (CeBIT's one area of positive growth). With the addition of another
expo hall, the event has become, in recent years, almost impossible to see in
its entirety. There's also evidence of less promotion and publicity of the show
this year.
Almost all major storage players present
We counted 16% growth in the number of storage booths compared to
last year. Notable among the companies that did not host booths, or at least set
up on a distribution partner's display: American Megatrends, Atempo, Auspex,
Benchmark, DataCore, Dot Hill, Ecrix/Exabyte, FalconStor, Iomega, Maxoptix,
Procom, Qualstar, Quantum, StorageNetworks and Verbatim.
Featured stars: Quantum with the SDLT 320 (160/12) ...
We've chosen to showcase two remarkable products announced for the
first time in Hanover: Quantum's SDLT 320 and a 60GB-per-platter hard disk drive
from Samsung.
Even if Quantum
didn't have its own booth, it rented space on the roof of Hall 1 to premiere
its SDLT 320 (native 160/12). This is the first mid-range tape drive that
doesn't lag behind HDDs in terms of capacity. With its native 160GB, it has
reached the level of the best that HDDs currently have to offer, 180GB. Quantum,
which boasts of "tens of thousands of Super DLT drives shipped to date,"
without giving any further details, clearly had trouble mounting a challenge to
LTO, but its new drive may be just the weapon it needs to stage a comeback,
particularly since, according to Brad Renfree, Seagate's director of LTO product
line management, we shouldn't expect the jump from LTO-1 (100GB) to LTO- 2
(200GB) before 4Q02.
Quantum, meanwhile, has been faithful to its
roadmap, rare among tape makers, with this new model expected to increase
capacity and transfer rates on the SDLT 220 (110/11) by 45%, while maintaining
the same number of tracks on the tape, although linear density is also
increased. The tape speed has also risen. The new unit uses the same SDLT
cartridges and the drive is read/write compatible with cartridges taken from the
SDLT 220, although only read-compatible with DLT4000/7000/8000/DLT1 (DLT2000
fall by the wayside). In theory, the arrival of the SDLT 640 (320/32) is
expected for the end of next year.
Quantum reports that the new 320 has already been delivered for
qualification with a general availability slated for 2Q02. A specific price has
yet to be cited, but it should be "slightly" higher than its
predecessor, which will be reduced. Quantum's manufacturing partner for Europe,
Tandberg Data, has
announced the same unit, as well as the same autoloader for the unit, the
8-cartridge SDLT3520, manufactured by Quantum and available mid-2Q02.
... and Samsung with the first 60GB-per-platter disk drive
One of the smallest HDD makers is now the first to jump ahead of the
pack with the announcement of 60GB-per-platter drives, while all competitors lag
behind at 40GB per disk. The V60 series (see graph) contains only one or two
platters rotating at 5,400rpm, with one to four heads. Officially, they should
be available beginning next May.
Samsung already offered
40GB-per-disk units at 5,400rpm (SN 9/01). It has also just launched a 7,200rpm
line, the P40, supposedly already available.
With these units, the
company has implemented dual DSP technology to perform parallel and distributed
operation control of critical tasks. Non-operating shock is 350G and acoustic
noise 3.3bel in read/write mode. The two new lines, now available in AT/100
interface, should subsequently integrate serial ATA interface.
...Jean-Jacques Maleval is the Editor of
StorageNewsletter
See
also:- Events,
Storage Portals | | |
