Your website isn’t Times Square: How to guide your visitors gently.

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Your website isn’t Times Square: How to guide your visitors gently.

By Rick Stender on March 13^th, 2013

I’ve been using iAWriter lately and loving it. It’s a delightful, distraction-free writing tool by Information Architects (iA), a design consultancy based in Tokyo, Zurich and Berlin.

iA brings some very thoughtful elements into their own website design that are worth considering.

In this screenshot of their blog, you’ll see a black tab on the right with an estimate of how long it should take to finish reading the post. We don’t all read at the same pace, of course, but they’re leaving it to me to decide whether this is worth my time.

Screenshot from informationarchitects.net

Thoughtful advice about user-centred design from iA

Very considerate.

iA are an opinionated bunch, and it’s worth noting some of the opinions expressed on this post on web typography:

Don’t tell us to adjust the font size

Don’t tell us busy pages look better

Don’t tell us scrolling is bad

They’re fighting for user experience and they’re taking no prisoners.

If you work in a large organization, you may have stakeholders clamouring for their share of the home page. Everyone wants a billboard on Times Square.

But consider…

If everything stands out, nothing stands out.

If everything’s important, nothing’s important.

If everything’s urgent, you risk losing your visitors to overwhelm.

Creating useful design is as much about figuring out what to take away as knowing what to include.

Rather than foisting organizational priorities on visitors, consider what they might be hoping to accomplish. And then help them do it.

This shift in perspective could change everything.

Here are three things you can do next:

Get fierce about setting priorities for your site. Instead of bludgeoning your visitors, guide them gently. Many will follow.
Get iA Writer for your Mac, iPad and iPhone for simple, uncluttered, distraction-free writing (you can thank me later).
Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Why are You Afraid to Talk to Your List?

By Rick Stender on February 18^th, 2013

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Email sign up from DIY Themes

I was recently helping a client set up the email newsletter capture form for their website.

The client has a hyper-networked role, often attending conferences, presenting workshops and travelling to make connections and extend the reach and relevance of their organization.

The list of things they hoped to learn about their subscribers was considerable.

Name,
Email address,
City,
Organizational affiliation,
Professional affiliation,
And much more.

We agreed this was putting up a barrier to participation. That the more fields we put in the form, the less likely people will be to sign up.

Given the nature of the client’s organization this information would be extremely valuable. And they hoped many would be happy to share it.

I think this presents a valuable opportunity for a marketer, as I’ll explain in a minute.

But first, realize that people don’t care about your newsletter. They don’t want to be on your list.

What they want is to get to know you better; to be part of your community; to gain insight and knowledge; to get the inside scoop.

They’re looking for value and connection.

Derek Halpern of Social Triggers shares how he gauges what his customers want to buy. He replies to every email subscription with the question…

“What are you struggling with?”

The question goes out by autoresponder, of course. He doesn’t write each of these emails individually. But he genuinely wants to know, and he responds to every reply he gets.

The point is, he’s engaging his followers in dialogue. He’s demonstrating interest in their needs and showing his commitment to create real value.

Value and connection. That’s why people are on your list.

With the help of the autoresponder built right into MailChimp (or whatever email provider you use) you can start a dialogue right now that invites connection.

Whether you’re selling, or growing a community of like-minded activists.

Instead of making people jump through hoops to get a dry impersonal email, your newsletter could be the beginning of a long and mutually fruitful relationship.

I’d love to hear whether you’ve tried anything like this. And where it’s taken you. Please share below.

Mailchimp dares you to unsubscribe

By Rick Stender on February 2^nd, 2013

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MailChimp winks at you

The most recent email I received from MailChimp sported a feature I hadn’t noticed before. Perhaps it was new. It was definitely bold.

What was it?

Only the biggest freakin’ unsubscribe link I’ve ever seen.

Check it out:

MailChimp dares you to unsubscribe

That’s BIG.

Most newsletters bury their unsubscribe links among administrivia like your mailing address or how you got on your list (I realize these are required by law in some jurisdictions).

The reason is obvious: Most senders of newsletters don’t want you to unsubscribe.

So, why would MailChimp do this? Could it be because they don’t care if you unsubscribe?

That could actually be quite liberating.

If you didn’t care whether people unsubscribed from your list you could….

Break free of your impersonal marketing-speak rut and write content that aims to really connect with people
Use your newsletter to experiment with new content ideas and learn from the feedback
Spam your list to death and engender a lot of bad will

Okay, that last one is not something to strive for.

Given their clever use of the first two, I’m convinced MailChimps DOES care about their faithful following.

But here’s a thought…

Perhaps MailChimp’s years of email experimentation have taught them there’s a lot to be gained by eliminating the friction unsubscribing. Beyond compliance issues, consider that…

Good will is engendered when your readers feel you respect them enough to leave on their terms
Unsubscribes are a form of feedback; You can learn from them what resonates with your community (and what doesn’t)
Your emails should draw prospects closer to doing business with you; If they’re not interested in hearing from you, maybe they’re not a good fit

Marketing is not for the timid. It takes courage to step out boldly and develop your own voice. You won’t please everybody; nor should you try. Unsubscribes are one valuable source of feedback.

Hey Obama: I will be outspent

By Rick Stender on December 7^th, 2012

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Barack Obama winking I just read an interesting article on how the Obama campaign raised funds in the last election.

According to the article, most came as the result of fund-raising emails.

They rigorously tested the subject lines. The best were informal, conversational, almost personal.

Examples:

Hey (the most effective)
I will be outspent
Would love to meet you
Change
The one thing the polls got right…

The emails were extensively A-B split tested.

“We were so bad at predicting what would win that it only reinforced the need to constantly keep testing,” Amelia Showalter, director of digital analytics, is quoted as saying.

Headlines, copy, the amount asked for, all were rigorously written and re-written by a team of 20 writers. Then tested on small segments of the campaign’s email list. The most successful would be sent to out to the whole list.

You may not have 20 writers.

But, the technology to measure and test whether what you write resonates with your community, educates and inspires and effectively moves you closer toward your organizational goals is available to you.

This article illustrates the notion that your work is never ‘done’.

Your website launch, your email blast, these are not events, but steps along a path. From which you’ll learn, adapt, adjust.

Have you been surprised by the response to your emails or your website? What lessons have you learned in the process? Please share below.

How to make 36% of your readers love your newsletter even more

By Rick Stender on October 26^th, 2012

1 Comment »

Reading email on the iPhone. Photo from MailChimp’s blog.

Want people to read your emails? You should consider where they’re reading it.

No, I don’t mean the washroom, the dinner table, or the boardroom when no one is looking.

Rather the mobile device that enables reading in these venues.

Responsive web design has become an important part of our toolkit at Hypenotic, because we want our clients to reach as wide an audience as possilbe.

A responsively designed website adapts to fit the device you’re using to view it. The layout and even the content are tweaked depending on whether you’re viewing a site on a desktop, a laptop, a tablet or mobile phone.

Responsive Design principals are now being applied to email to make them more readable on mobile devices.

According to this infographic by Litmus more of your audience is using their iPhone to read your newsletter than Outlook. And by a thin, but growing, margin more are using mobile devices than either their desktop or webmail.

If you want them to read it — heck love it — then you better think about how to make it a satisfying experience. That means thinking about how to provide interesting, relevant and useful content — that’s easy to consume.

If you’re reading this on your phone, you’ll notice this email isn’t exactly responsive. Call it the cobbler’s shoes. We’re working on it.

What do you think? How long will it be before you begin optimizing your outbound communications for mobile readers?

Damn Good Advice: Taking a nap can improve your sex life

By Rick Stender on July 30^th, 2012

3 Comments »

Rick sleeping on our old sofa. Come by the studio to see the new one!

We recently got a new sofa at Hypenotic.

This is great for two reasons:

We’re hoping our clients will feel more comfortable and welcome when they visit
It is guaranteed to vastly improve my daily nap

Yes. I have a ritual siesta almost daily in the afternoon.

It usually kicks in around 1or 2pm. I feel sluggish, my screen starts to appear blurry and I lose all focus.

That’s when I know it’s time to give in to the sofa’s siren call.

My nap isn’t long. Only 12 minutes, generally.

And when I wake up, I feel refreshed, clear headed and I have a burst of energy to get me through the rest of the day.

Here’s three steps I take to ensure a successful nap…

1. Set my timer

I use the clock app that comes with the iPhone to set a count-down timer I also sometimes use the Minimalist Timer app. Its simple design can be operated easily with one finger and has 3 pre-sets.

2. Choose a good alarm

They key thing is to make sure the alarm is something jarring, something that will pull me out of my deep slumber.

I’ve found the crickets chirping works well because it’s completely out of context for an afternoon in the office.

3. Keep it short

I’ve found 12 minutes is usually just the right amount of time to make me feel alert and focussed afterward. It’s long enough to enable my brain to have a little shut-off time, and short enough that I don’t get sucked into wanting to sleep the day away.

According to this blog post, the benefits of napping are many. Napping can even increase your sex drive (though I suggest you wait till after work to test that one).

If you aren’t napping in the afternoon, perhaps its time to start.

And if you’re not napping because your’e afraid of what your boss will say, show them that blog post.

What boss wouldn’t want their employees to “increase your on-the-job alertness by 100 percent?“

Damn Good Advice

Why your newsletter sucks: Two

By Rick Stender on March 10^th, 2012

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In my recent post about fixing your email headline to get me to actually read it, I promised to show you how to test your headlines against your current ones that may be getting stale. And I’ll do that shortly.
But first, that post garnered some interesting responses.

Two people thought the example headline I gave sounded spammy and they’d unsubscribe if they got an email with that headline.

At least one commenter actually DID unsubscribe.

Is the notion of personalizing your headlines ill considered?

Curious to know, I did some cursory research to see whether anyone had stats on this. Results were quite divergent.

One provider said that personalization improved open rates on a sample of 202 million emails. Another said both open and click rates suffered.

Seems the practice is hotly contested.

Coming from some marketers (especially, um, spammers) personalizing a headline likely would seem spammy.

But I suspect that whether or not it does hinges on the relationship you have with your list.

For the record, I wasn’t suggesting that every email you send out should be personalized. But rather that if you don’t want your email to blend into the background noise in my inbox, for heaven’s sake grab me with your headlines.

One MailChimp post suggests that the best subject line is one that mirrors your audience’s expectations. That different subject lines apply to newsletters than special offers.

So how do you know what kinds of headlines will resonate with your list? Start split testing.

If you’re not familiar with the term, split- or A/B- testing refers to sending different versions of your email to different segments of your list and measuring the results.

Generally to start you’ll want to keep the variables to a minimum. For example, send the same email to two segments each with a different headline and see which one gets the best response.

Since many of our clients use MailChimp (as we do), here’s a link to an overview of the split testing features on Mailchimp . Be sure to watch the video as well.

After you’ve checked it out, come back here and let us know what you intend to test.

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