Tags: The Big Ask Again, Climate, Change, Environment
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Road Trains
You've probably seen a road train before. A couple of tankers are often hitched to a single truck cab, and even several cabs can be stacked up for transport. Now, the European Union is looking into the viability of doing that with cars — with drivers still behind their wheels — by taking advantage of wireless technology.
The public road train would involve a professional driver, which would control all of the vehicles in its train. "Each of the vehicles will have their own control and software monitoring system," Tom Robinson an engineer from Ricardo working on the project, told the BBC. "We're looking at what it would take to get platooning on public highways without making big changes to the public highways themselves."
To join the train and leave it, a driver would signal the lead car and everything would be automated — including the driving. Tests will be carried out at the end of the year on test tacks in the UK, Spain and Sweden. In Spain, however, additional tests will also happen on public roads. If this is a bad idea, we'll probably hear about it pretty soon.
Source: Dvice.
Tags: Road Train, Wireless Technology, Professional Driver, Own Control, Join, Leave, Dvice
Friday, November 6, 2009
5 Tips for Effective Email Copywriting
1. Focus on the subject line.
The subject line may be the shortest piece of content to write, but it’s one your campaign’s most critical elements. The challenge is to create excitement for a special offer, provide enough information to be clear about purpose and convey a brand’s essence – all in 50 characters or less.
When writing your subject lines:
- Create a sense of urgency. Include timely information to encourage subscribers to open the email.
- Include the most important information first. It’s essential that subject lines don’t exceed the character limits of email servers. But prioritizing the vital information first will ensure that, in case the subject line does run over, the primary message will be conveyed.
- Look to others for inspiration. Read newspaper and magazine headlines for ideas. Consider the email campaigns that you receive. Which ones were you intrigued enough to open and what can you deduce from those subject lines?
- Go with what works. Look to your own past successful email campaigns and replicate the subject lines that produced the highest open rates. Also, test out different subject lines within the same campaign to discover what generates the best response.
Even if the goal of a campaign is to promote a new product, announce company news or introduce a special offer, complement that information with non-corporate information. For example:
- Supplement a new product announcement with a thought leader interview from a supporting industry.
- If a seasonal offer is being promoted, include tips or a checklist pertaining to that particular season.
- Reader polls
- Reader case studies
- Q&As with customers
- User-generated content
With too many calls to action, email marketers run the risk of confusing or overwhelming subscribers. When customers are presented too many options, they may be less likely to purchase. Instead, focus your calls to action and limit the effort it takes to act. Consider these quick tips:
- Rely on size and placement position to emphasize the call to action.
- Write call to action copy that tells subscribers exactly what they can expect.
- Use copy that reinforces to subscribers that taking action will be quick and easy.
When it all boils down, an email campaign will only be successful if it addresses subscribers’ needs. Email marketers should look at their campaigns from subscribers’ perspectives. What’s important to them? In a ClickZ blog post on email copywriting, Pat Friesen talks about the importance of understanding an audience:
- Visualize subscribers, whether they are mothers of young children or a corporate executive.
- Picture where subscribers are reading the email copy, whether it’s on a computer at work, on a laptop at home or on-the-go from a mobile device.
- Imagine the distractions subscribers face when reading email copy.
Source: Online Marketing Blog.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
CEO Of The Decade: Steve Jobs
Congratulations Steve!
Tags: Steve Jobs, Apple, Disney, CEO, CEO Of The Decade, Fortune, Fortune Magazine
Google Maps Navigation (Beta)
Most important features:
1. Search in plain English
2. Search by voice
3. Live traffic view
4. Search along route
5. Satellite view (high fidelity)
6. Street view (my favorite)
7. Car dock mode
According to YouTube, this video is “a demonstration of Google Maps Navigation (Beta), an internet-connected GPS navigation system that provides turn-by-turn voice guidance as a free feature of Google Maps on Android 2.0 phones.”
Learn more at http://www.google.com/navigation.
Source: Bit Rebels.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Do You Have Digital Natives at Your Organization?
"Digital Natives" are a cultural subset of teens and young professionals that have grown up immersed in the digital world where the Internet, personal computers, and modern technology are a commonplace convenience.
In Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah's recent book, Inbound Marketing, they recommend hiring more Digital Natives, not Digital Immigrants ("speaks web with an accent"). Natives bring a modern perspective and prowess into their workplaces and it's important that employers looking to assure inbound marketing success hire these individuals to their organization.
However, identifying a digital native versus a digital immigrant can be tricky. So, here's a four-point guide that may help you make the distinction:
1. Natives are More Interested in the Information than the Machine
Digital natives grew up with computers around their house and friend's houses. They might have a preference for a specific operating system, but in general they can navigate any kind of computer you put in front of them. They are far more interested in what information they can get out of the machine than the tools at hand. If there’s something that they need to do but they don’t already know how, they’ll work to figure it out on their own.
What to look for:
Give them a task on an unfamiliar computer. If they sit down and say, "I don't know how to use Macs (or Windows)," they probably aren't a digital native. (-1 point)
However, if you give your subject a task and they are able to navigate a computer easily to accomplish the goal, give them a point. (+1 point)
2. Puzzles, Problems and Games
Digital natives hate asking for help. After all, you're talking to the video game generation: questions and unknown problems are puzzles and games waiting to be solved. In a video game, there is no "Help" system or "I give up" button. Puzzles are there to be beaten, and they learn from them. You may find that the digital natives never ask for help with anything. Be okay with that. Part of how they learn is through self-discovery, exploration, and by making mistakes.
If you turn their job into a series of puzzles that offer small knowledge rewards at the end of each section, which builds into a complete project, you'll find them burning night and weekend hours just to complete their goals.
What to look for:
You'll find that a Digital Native will usually steer themselves if presented with a puzzle. Give your potential native a complicated puzzle or task. Halfway through, offer your assistance. If they seem to be particularly focused on completing the task without your help give them (+1 point). If they seem relieved and relinquish the task to you, (-1 point).
3. Digital Natives Love Constant Communication, But Hate Phones
Digital natives are relentless multi-taskers. One thing that most regularly startles digital immigrants is how a native can listen to music, talk on instant messenger, watch TV and work on a project all at the same time. To a native, this is just part of their nature.
What to look for...
Most digital natives aren't big phone users; being multi-taskers means that they avoid activities that might prevent them from becoming single-threaded, like talking on the phone. They'd rather talk via email, instant messenger, or through other methods of communication where they can continue to work on other things while talking with you.
Ask your subject, "What is your preferred means of communication?" If you're talking to a Digital Native, they probably primarily use a cell phone for text messaging and accessing the Internet, and only use the phone function to call their mother (+1 point). If you're still not sure if they're a digital tourist or a digital native, ask them if they regularly use or have a landline (-1 point).
4. Digital Natives Tell It Like It Is
Another common trait across Digital Natives is that they are never afraid to speak their minds. They tend to want to logically break down arguments and strategies. This can lead to confrontations when their manager or other staff member wants something done. However, there are benefits to this personality trait. Natives are almost always analyzing problems and trying to find ways to improve their work. Companies can leverage this “always-on” mentality to refine their products, find faults in their internal processes, or discuss how to incorporate new trends into their business.
What to look for...
Ask them what they would change about their daily work flow, or your business processes if given the chance. A Native has already been thinking about this question and has an answer. (+1 point) Immigrants tend to punt or suggest trivial changes rather than speaking to real issues. (-1 point)
Do you have Digital Natives in your organization? How do you recognize them and incorporate them into your structure? Let us know in the comments.
Source: HubSpot.
Tags: Digital Natives, Information, Machine, Puzzles, Problems, Games, Constant Communication, Telephone, Hate Telephone, Like It Is, HubSpot
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Digital Marketing And ROI
I read quiet a lot of blog posts every day (read evenings), and a lot of them are writing about digital marketing and ROI. Too many people are forgetting ROI is all about "paying bills", and that happens in Euros or Dollars or whatever your currency may be. ROI has nothing to do with clicks, links, visits, unique visitors or anything else that doesn't pay the bills...
Tags: Digital Marketing, ROI, Euro, Dollar, Clicks
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