Last year, I purchased a flat-panel, high-definition television and I must admit, my TV time has definitely increased. The TV has a computer monitor port in the back, so while surfing Joost and looking at some older NBA playoff games, I decided to substitute the computer monitor for the TV. After a few clicks on the remote, I was watching Joost in 48 inches of hi-def, commercial free. Naturally, I viewed my favorite YouTube videos. Eventually the game came on and that was it, until I figured it was a great time to learn how to work the picture in picture. This was great, pointing and clicking while watching the game on the same screen, all in hi-def.

Being in the online marketing field, I obviously began thinking of ways to increase exposure for our clients on this internet TV that is soon to take over. Online marketing is normally in the form of text and graphical ads while commercials are normally run on TV. Maybe we should create a flash video commercial with clickable links (CTA’s) that go to various landing pages. If these internet television commercials were given titles and could be tagged, they could possibly be optimized. We could even launch Google Adwords and Yahoo Search Marketing campaigns for it. Joost currently doesn’t feature any advertisements but network stations like ABC, CBS and NBC are featuring streaming episodes of popular shows which do have advertisements on their sites. These advertisements would most likely be in the form of banners. The ability to tag them with TV show names would awesome. For example, if you were a home builder, you may want to tag your ad with “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” or if you were doing forensics you would probably tag “CSI: Miami.” It would take more research in regards to your target audience demographic, like the shows they may watch, the time of day they watch TV, average age in the household, etc… but hey, it could and is bound to happen.

So I was driving to work this morning and this is what I see. Yellow page road kill in the middle of the road.Now some people have talked about the fact that yellow page advertising is not as effective as it use to be. And with more and more people moving their advertising dollars online, the people still advertising in the yellow pages are paying higher and higher prices.

But today I literally saw yellow page advertising dead in the streets.

It is sad and graphic, and to get these pictures I was almost late to work.

Now, I could talk about the statistics of yellow page advertising, or about how I myself have not used a yellow page in over 2 years, but instead I think I will share the other possible headlines I came up with for this blog post.

The runners up:

1. Where the Yellow Pages are now.

2. Your Yellow Page ad hard at work

3. What people do with the Yellow Pages

4. It is 9 o’clock, do you know where your Yellow Page add is?

5. Will anyone save the Yellow Page

6. Does it pay to advertise on Road kill?

7. Where oh where is my yellow page ad?

8. The day the yellow page book never came home

And just so you know, this is not the only occurrence of yellow page road kill I have seen. This is not a one off case. I do not have any statistics about how many domestic yellow page wonder out into the wild and become road kill but I am sure it is more than you every considered.

So , if you see some yellow page road kill, feel free to post it and share your comments with the rest of us.

Until next time, Marie

Entrepreneurs are, by heart, do-it yourselfers. After all, starting your own business isn’t something you can do without rolling up your selves. Unfortunately, this leads many to try and do everything, including their online marketing. While this might make seem like an easy task, it’s probably not the best use of a business owner’s time or energy. Most entrepreneurs do an extraordinary job at what they specialize in, but can’t possibly be experts in all of the aspects of running a business. They may be lacking the skills in accounting, marketing, or operations and focusing too heavily on these areas personally or even attempting to bring something in-house that should be outsourced could ultimately lead to the demise of their business.

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Wikipedia defines web usability “as the application of usability those domains where web browsing can be considered as a general paradigm (or “metaphor”) for constructing a graphical user interface.”

Wow. What a mouthful.

Personally, I find this definition very ironic. Although this might “technically” define web usability, it’s going against the basic code of what web usability should be. In the very wise words of Steve Krug, “Don’t Make Me Think“!

We as web professionals tend to be so knee deep in the projects that we are creating for our clients, that we overlook some “things”. We might not place as much value upon them as the super cool video implementation or the new advanced search bar that we are inserting onto the home page, but their value is… well… invaluable.

View these “things” as the steering wheel of your awesome site (yes, we know you think it’s awesome). And view your site as the road. And your conversion, whether it is a purchase, a lead, a download, etc., as your store. Your goal is to get them inside your store. But be aware that there are many other stores on either side of the road that they could turn into at any moment if they lose their way.

As a user is navigating your site, they are basically steering their way around through its many different elements, whether it is navigation, links, images, search bars or any other aspect, hoping to find what they are looking for. And if these aspects are thrown together, in no particular order or flow, guess what happens?

Ding. Ding. Ding. They lose their way. And what happens to your potential conversion?

It stays as that. Potential. No conversion attached to it. It is now one of your competitor’s potential conversions. Because the user that you spent so much time and energy attracting through search marketing and search optimization has since turned off the road into someone else’s store. All because you didn’t have the user in mind when you were designing your site.

Make it easy for them. Don’t Make Them Think! Make your site appealing. Make it intuitive. Make it navigable. Make it easy to read. Make it accessible. This stuff is not rocket science. It is actually common sense. But you and I see dozens of sites every day that violate this important rule. Because they are so involved in how “cool” it looks, they forget about this oh-so-important stuff.

So give us all a break. And design your site with the USER in mind. This is done from the ground up. From the coding up. Don’t decide how it is laid out after in is launched. And after it is optimized. Decide your user-friendly layout from inception. And watch your conversions do this weird thing.

Convert.

“You’d better keep your mouth closed, a smile on your face, and give `em what they want!”

No, this isn’t a stick up. It’s a day in the life of an account manager for an online search marketing agency. The underlying pressure of servicing several small business accounts is great, so how does one make it through a day in a world where budgets are low and demands are high? Answer: I give my clients what they want.

On a daily basis, the question is: What do they want? My clients’ wants range from money, more business, exposure, branding—really everything the power of advertising on Google has the potential to get you… and then some. I’ve even had a client tell me that “in marketing, you spend 1 percent of your gross sales as your advertising budget. I’m paying you paying you hundreds of dollars per month—I should have a million dollars by now!” Well if I could somehow take a few hundred bucks and turn it into millions with my Midas touch (without the lotto, since only old people win that) I’d stop typing this blog right now and get to spending.

But in all truth, how do you rationalize with a client who isn’t exactly a math wiz yet expects you to magically accomplish the most unreasonable requests? How do you find sanity in the outlandish and discover what your client really wants? Dun, dun, da, da…You ask! If you build it, they will come… if you ask them, they will tell! Once they tell you, you show them how you serve as their solution!

The golden rule helps me turn the negative into an auspicious situation. Regardless of my fear of athlete’s foot, putting myself in my client’s shoes is the only way through! The realization is that the only thing that can ever be on their minds all of the time is, themselves! This is the first step to turning a frown upside down in the client services world.

Once you’ve accomplished this first step, one of two things can happen. You can show your client from their perspective how the situation will help them, or you can show them from your perspective how this situation will help you. Again, the end action will result from you showing your client one of two things: will you help them or hurt them? It all stems back to self preservation. Figure out how someone is trying to benefit themselves and show them how you can contribute to their mission.

So when you’re on the phone with a client who doesn’t want to listen and demands answers now, the not-so-appropriate reply is, “That’s not my job,” “We can’t do that,” “Our policy…,” etc. Keep in mind that the real root of their problem stems from whatever outside variable came in to make them feel like they have endangered their self preservation. So put yourself in their shoes. Always consider yourself a solution to their problem, which is why they’re talking to you in the first place. Last but not least, ALWAYS show them how they will benefit from the end result. That’s all they care about in the first place right? WIIFM (“What’s In It For Me”) `em!

Why not give it a try and put yourself in someone’s shoes? Take that as your lesson of the day. Don’t forget to keep your eyes out for Part Two: How To Love Your Clients Without Getting Arrested!