Have you ever been curious what percentage of visitors from a region, say California, have actually made a purchase on your site?  Wouldn't it be great to understand your visitors well enough to focus ad spend on regions, or keywords that actually generate the most revenue per dollar?  This video on advanced visitor segmentation will show you specifically step-by-step methods to begin this process on your own.

Lead Management is about knowing how to use your ad spend wisely. Determining the keywords you should be focusing on is the key. As Google personalization has dramatically changed the 'rankings' landscape (there is no such thing as a single google page rank now, each computer ranks uniquely to the personality of the computer), new methods for measuring success must be found. One direction that people are looking at is Keyword Visualizations. This video is a brief demonstration of what Motion Charting is, with a specific focus on Keyword Visualization.

A case study on Desert Garden Montessori. Showing actual deliverables of a custom web solution for the private school in the Phoenix Metro Area. The solution was built by The Schafer Group, using DotNetNuke, Dojo and Open Web Studio.

As custom software integrators we work on a lot of projects. Sometimes projects come from referals by way of 'stakeholder desperation'. These are projects on the verge of failure because someone 'burned' someone else. More often than not both parties walked down the same road together. The primary issue is that although the project seemed to be defined appropriately it is usually far, far from adequately scoped for success.

Take this image for example:

 

This is a 'mockup' or screenshot typically used to communicate the needs of the project from one party to another.

Everything is neatly arranged, notes are given and the UI looks pretty self explanatory.

This should serve as a clear blueprint to what the cost of project should be right?

Sometimes there are perhaps two or three more supporting mockups to show inner-page or sub-page or whatever term the project owner uses. Those two extra pages should  (in the clients' mind) eliminate any questions on how the website will respond to user interaction.

• Issue #1: The client is 'expecting' Microsoft Outlook.. all of it.. I mean there is clearly a link to calendar, and tasks and contacts.

There is also likely the casual mention of a 'calendering engine' and a 'contact system' and some other vague notions of why specific buttons are placed on the screen. All of the 'vision' of the final product both verbally communicated and mentally pictured are secretly contained in the expectations of those 'links' represented on the screenshot.

There is no reason so assume otherwise: obviously the project owner needs something of real lasting value to make this project a success. Some degree of novelty is required to differentiate this project from all the other web based initiaves or installed software programs that would potentially compete with this groundbreaking new concept.

•  Issue #2: The client had mentally budgeted what he felt it would take to pull off their vision based on the amount of budget that was readily available. Let's say the mental model was somewhere less than $50k. (The entire combined life savings of the two partners that have gone into this project venture).
• Issue #3: The 'original' developer (typically working on a fixed bid model) had to not scare the prospect off with an initial bid. So the mental model of what will be developed was the minumum work possibly represented in the screenshots.

The 'original' developer sees this delivery gap as 'fair' since nothing had really been 'designed' or 'discussed' on how those portions of the application would actually work yet.

• Issue #4: The reality is; Project success in the current marketplace actually does require a large percentage of the feature set of what is present in MS Outlook.

If you have used Outlook then you might have already determined that this a multi-million lines of code project, with lots of quality assurance, testing. I personally have no idea what the total cost to produce Outlook (say 2007) is, but I am guessing at least $5-30 million.

 

Where does that leave the likelyhood of success for a product that is 99.99% underfunded, underscoped and underbid?

 

Ok this case scenario is a bit exagerated and perhaps a little harsh.

The reality though is that perhaps the largest driver for success is to invest heavily upfront in 'Discovery'.

Until  "every results screen, of every affectable thing" is layed out on screen there is a 'haze' over the true cost of development.

There's a great qoute from a little known movie called "The Emporer's Club", in it the slogan of the school is : "The end depends upon the begining".

That statement rings loud and clear in the software development arena.

As the re-posting of 'tweets' (micro blog posts to Twitter) using identifiers like RT (re-tweet) or # (referred to as a hash tag but more simply meaning related to this topic) get pushed out to more sites, more often; these short URL's act like blog postings or other inbound links. Inbound links is a key factor in generating higher ranking pages.

A Google Engineer in Quality Assurance has posted a great video on YouTube (show below) that explains how Google treats short URL's (with 301 redirects) like any other link directly to your site.

So use it wisely as another tool in your arsenal to assist your pages to rank higher. Although having good relevent content on the page to begin with to is certainly required prior to using these techniques.

There's alot of hype about the social media flying around the internet. However, other practical  technologies coming out might just steal some of the 'social media' thunder.

What are these new tech beasts? They are called Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and will be similar to programs we have been installing and using for years, except these are hosted, online, multi-user, web-browser accessible anywhere type of systems.

Below is the launch of a new RIA called Myna. It's a web based audio editing tool. No it's not ours, however, it is cool enough to write about.

But these have been around for years; same old tech, new look ... there's nothing new here, right?

Wrong, due to the nature of it being a hosted application, it means that new features just 'come online' (instant upgrades).

Your library of accessible 'sample tunes' it limited only by your budget, their business models for sharing content and the creativity of the human being.

Sounds are no longer limited to what can fit on your hard drive, or the 10 year old library of overused samples in the production department.

It's applications like these that show the power of the RIA.

Watch this video, send a link to it to your marketing team and tell them "We need more professsional audio tracks in our streaming marketing message!". I know I am headed down the hall to say the same thing to our team.

Still not convinced?

Here's some Myna creations :

[Oh Yeah!] - (ok so it's a bit techno.. but you get the idea)

[GuitarSolo] - (simple clean inspiration from a teacher to students)

[Riding Rough] - (need a harder edge to a rough and ready campaign?)

Enjoy.

 

Who better to define how Google treats duplicate content than an Engineer for Quality Assurance at Google, Inc?

 A quick video showing the power of people to create an experience, and then share that experience to reinforce a brand message. Inspired by Bill Wasik, and his book "And then there's this" (the guy that invented 'flash mobs'). See where flash mobs are now in this stunning 13,500 person impromptu Karaoke.

Transmedia Media Marketing, Social Media Mindshare, Post Consumer - People Marketing... Learn some of the top trends from this recap of last years MIXX.

The RFP process is interesting enough to begin with, however, the current ettiquite of the RFP process is working towards the detriment of it's beneficiaries.

The email notifications from many companies, weeks after the deadline of requesting a proposal, is usually something to the effect :  "Sorry for taking so long to get back to you, we were overwhelmed with responses, and it took us this long to get to the point where we... limited the field to you... , or,  made a decision otherwise..."

For example; we often ask very simple questions following the submission of our proposals.

These questions are typically :
Where are you with your decision making process? (30 days after a decision was supposed to have occurred)
Who won, and why? (on notification someone else was chosen).

When we enquire as to the company chosen, we normally get an awkward silence.

In effect these individuals are saying, 'we understand it might have taken alot of time for you to prepare a specific bid for a solution to a problem that we requested. However, you aint it and we won't tell you why."

How does this ettiquite assist the marketplace?

If vendors are aware of who's winning the bids, then they can intellgently look at the winner and decide to develop a solution to match/beat the offering (not a bad second alternative for the requestor). Or the vendor might choose to specialize in another direction (helping to minimize non-targetted proposals) after a few repeat decisions in a specific venue, channel, marketplace or industry.

Enter hyperempowerment.

You can change that.

'We' can tweet, or blog or SMS or whatever we do, and let RFP proposal writers know that this ettiquite can change (starting with themselves) thereby assisting the proposal writers with enough information to intelligently adjust to their own environment.

This saves time, energy, duplication of efforts, and provides valuable information to everyone involved how to make better decisions for themselves and the clients they are trying to serve.

If you agree we need to change this ettiquite, you can simply re-tweet, reblog or distribute this idea into your network, and perhaps the whole future of proposal writers will have already seen the great support for this change in ettiquite and assist us all in their personal response processes.

I believe if people see the support, they can self-adjust or at least begin to support a process towards change in their organizations. This can be achieved by pointing to the various sources of external support of the idea.

For more information on hyper-empowerment, hyper-intelligence and other social engagement trends I highly recommend watching this video by Mark Pesce  : Video (Sharing Power)

 I encourage your thoughts.

 

 

So you've all heard about Twitter. Is anyone using Twitter in new and interesting ways? Read how Dr. Rankin at the University of Texas is reaching new levels of classroom involvement using Twitter actually in the classroom. (video)

We're often subject to endless articles pressing us on to innovate. However, innovation for the sake of innovation doesn't always translate to beneficial products. This video a prime example : Apple's incredible new laptop

Sometimes simple technology used in an innovative way can change an industry. Take the case of CryroResponse with recently accepted patent(s) on it's fire freezing technology and delivery system .

Imagine instead of seeing firefighters shooting gallons of water (or chemicals) onto a fire , they will be shooting frozen pellets that literally freeze the fire, and 'smother' the ability for oxygen to reach the fuel. Effectively this cuts off the fuel supply for the fire, and it puts itself out.

Injecting these frozen pellets into a oil tanker fire / spill  stops the fire, and freezes the oil. This makes cleaning up what used to be a very difficult problem much easier, and can even temporarily 'seal' the leak with oil frozen in the hull of the ship.

No longer will fires 're-start' themselves or need toxic chemicals being left behind (First Video |  Second Video )

Check out their video of the technology. It's amazing stuff... click on the link above.

The company that redefined how we 'find' things on the web from directory lookups to search words is redefining social collaboration. Collaboration is a term that has been used in the corporate world for some time to define the process of teams working to produce an artifact. Google, looking at the success of email, but realizing it was developed from 30 year old technology asked the question: What would email look like if it were invented today. Their answer is delivered in their nearly one and a half hour keynote address. If you want to see how 'social communication' is changing from ping-pong messaging to something akin to a symphony all playing together to make music, watch this video.

Ever wanted to add more content to your site, revelent content, that is specifically tailored to your industry or specialty? Now you can with Pipes.. Custom ways to pipe information into your website. Here's a video showing you a real example of how you can keep up with Tennis and Footbal News customized to your specific needs.

So you have a hot lead in a real-time chat, that is responding to an email campaign that you just sent out, looking to purchase an upgrade to your product...

Sounds like an ideal situation, right? I agree.

So what can we learn from a large successful software company like Adobe?  The following article is a chat transcript of exactly how to shut down a potential sale.

Sales Strategies Used:

• Don't expect to have a prior purchase count towards an upgrade.
• Don't offer any discount to a customer trying to purchase in response to a marketing campaingn, while the lead is hot.

Lesson Learned:

• Keep an eye on your chat support, they may be losing you more than just the sale.
• When a company feels nobody can compete we should expect this type of service.

With large portions of the internet audience using social media sites like Facebook, and LinkedIN why not use them to assist your small business and Google rankings at the same time?

Our page on Facebook is designed to do just that.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sacramento-CA/The-Schafer-Group/10814367774

I am often asked what User or System Tokens exist in the CMS Newsletter Module. Tokens are used to personalize emails. For instance Welcome [User:FirstName], will become Welcome John, Here's a list of most of them:

Ok, here's a video from my marketing hero.

This video case study on the Mobile Operator Partner Portals project for Nokia, Inc. shows a custom secure extranet, email constrained domain registration, and autonomous authentication system all integrated into a single content management solution offered as Software as a Service (SaaS). 

This custom web solution case study approaches the project from a few perspectives to show how the technology implementation needed to meet both the audience and stakeholders needs at the same time.

The project content was produced, and expertly managed to implementation by the prefered Nokia, Inc vendor BomaCorp. Ted Fong, CEO of BomaCorp Inc., showed his keen eye to spot Dotnetnuke early on as an excellent CMS fit for this important clients needs.

This video goes over actual deliverables of the project to a high-profile, enterprise class client. The solution was built by The Schafer Group, using DotNetNuke,  and Open Web Studio.