The AWS Blog

AWS provides business web strategies to companies in all sectors, so news articles surrounding web marketing are typically what I gravitate towards. I was intreagued this weekend, however, by a frontpage article in the Wall Street Journal about bloggers that were using the technology to spur conversations between people on both sides of the Israel/Lebanon conflict.

Since WSJ isn’t publically available unless you have an online account, I started searching this morning for the article, and found many that were similar. If you’re looking for an interesting read this morning, visit Mana’s blog, read the first post, and then the comments for a first-hand account of what is happening in Beirut. Even if you haven’t been keeping on top of what’s going on in the region, reading the posts of a girl in her mid 2os from her apartment in the middle of Beirut will give you a very real-life account of what is happening there.

Although we focus on the business and web marketing applications of blogging at AWS, I’m constantly reminded of the everyday practicality of them. If you’d like another moving example, read back through this blog which gave an up-to-the-minute, first hand account of a small group of individuals that struggled to keep a web hosting data center up and running in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina (AWS also owns and operates a data center, so needless to say, the staff here was hanging on every post as they were published).

While the rest of the world tuned into television news for updates on the hurricane, I’m confident that those of us at Awecomm who were watching the small group’s live webcam were much more properly informed!

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I was in a ponderous mood, driving into the office this morning. “What’s it like being a marketer in today’s age?” I wondered. I recalled the old stereotypes of marketing and advertising guys. Smoking pipes. Sipping scotch all day long. Three-martini lunches. But wait, I don’t have a secretary and I’m definitely not spending the days cruising around in my convertible BMW in between the golf course and tennis courts. Nope. I stride into the office, and everyone’s plugged in. Face in front of the computer. Sometimes on the phone. Cell phone/PDA always within reach. This is our interface.

We have cell phones, PDA’s and tireless wireless connections. There’s satellite radio, television on-demand and more specialized-content websites than there are colors in twenty big Crayola boxes (incidentally, the biggest Crayola box holds 120 crayons and blue – in its various forms – is the most popular color). There’s search, email, banner, skyscraper and big-box. There are things called blogs. We think interactive, interstitial and automated response. If you want to be a VIP, you’ll need to consider CPM and lower your CPC to get the lowest COA and the highest ROI. This is the jargon of today’s marketing and advertising pursuits.

Why? Because along with those billboards, TV spots, radio and newspaper ads, there’s a whole other frontier swallowing it all up. Internet. Al Gore has made it possible for marketers and advertisers to expand their universe. This is a revolution. The Internet Superhighway (when was the last time you heard that analogy?) makes everything faster. Information is nearly immediate. So, when your client asks, “How many people saw our ad?” We can actually answer them with a real number.

Today is the internet age. The past 10 – 15 years have been all about it, and it’s not going anywhere, anytime soon. I know very few people who are not computer literate. Speaking of literacy, I’d like to know what kind of effect the internet is having on our literacy rates in this country. It seems they advertised for literacy on every channel when I was in grade school – ABC, CBS and even NBC. Do you remember the last advertisement you saw for literacy?

My five-part discussion will continue to explore the audience, extensive cost benefits, flexibility and other positives of internet-based advertising and marketing.

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How much information should your web visitors have to enter into a form to download a product information pdf?

I’m willing to bet that in most organizations this desicion is made by someone in the sales department, rather then someone with web usability experience. In many instances, too much information is demanded from the user before they’ve even been qualified as a decent customer.

After reading an article in a web industry publication last night, I went online to research a piece of software that was mentioned. With very little information available about the product on the company’s website, I was forced to “Download a PDF.” Unfortunately, the form that stood between me and some high-level information about the product, was demanding a relatively large amount of personal information from me.

The Solution

Compare two possible forms for this request. The first requires Name, Company, and Email Address; the second requires Name, Company, Title, Email Address, Mailing Address, City, State, Zip, Phone, Fax. These forms need to be viewed as a risk versus reward scenario from the user’s perspective, with the highest risk being time invested (second highest would be privacy, in my opinion).

The first form would provide for a far higher conversion rate (the number of people who filled out the form, divided by the total number of people who saw the form), and would still allow the company to continue to market to the potential customer via email.

The second form will most likely turn many visitors away (who may or may not be high quality customers) because of the time commitment required and possible privacy implications.
I ended up poking around the web for a while, then returning to the company’s site to fill out the form. How many other visitors to this company’s website didn’t return?
The bottom line: I’ve only expressed slight interest in the product, why not give me more information if I want it?

For an example of a good form, check out the AWS site; I think we do a decent job.

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