BrandToBeDetermined

Prediction: Ad Agencies will be Purchased by Web Marketing Firms

Ad agencies will be purchased by web marketing companies in the future.

Starting now. Position yourself for this.

Why? Well we know in a recession that advertising budgets and public relations budgets get slashed. Drastically reduced. From big ad budgets to nada asap.  Staples is one obvious example of cuts:

From the looks of things at Staples, the recession is upon us.

and

So, the Framingham retailer is trimming costs everywhere it can, reducing advertising, delaying new hires and renovations, curtailing employee travel, and saving gas with devices that limit the maximum speed of its delivery trucks.

See that first item on the list? Ya, that one? It is *advertising*.

Advertising is almost always the first thing to get slashed in a recession. You CAN live without advertising in hibernation mode. Should you cut your advertising budgets? Well, let's ask those in the business of advertising. The magic-eight-ball says about cutting advertising budgets in a recession.

Schipul Class of '07

  Class of '07 
  Originally uploaded by schipulites

The journey continues. What a week. Tomorrow is our first "Tendenci Bootcamp" and Friday is the first Tendenci User Conference.

More importantly Friday night is the 10 year anniversary party for the team.

Two eventful days coming up for this crew. Good luck people!

Houston Zoo New Site Launch!

Congratulations to the Houston Zoo and to the entire project team on the launch of the new site today. Y'all are rockin'!

Dave Beck Article in MySanAntonio.com

Self promotion alert: Dave Beck used an interview with me in his article in today's MySanAntonio.com article. From the article on web marketing:

Dave Beck: Web sites: Keep users in mind

...The Web site wasn't the most pleasing to the eye, nor was it the most sophisticated. But it worked. They got my business.

According to Web marketing expert Ed Schipul, owner of Houston-based Schipul — The Web Marketing Co., there's an important lesson to be learned here. Web searchers and users functionally respond like introverts, concentrating on themselves and what they need to buy.

"It's not that information seekers are self-focused all the time, but rather that while on the Web, users are on a mission," said Schipul, whose company has designed sites for hundreds of businesses in energy, medical, industrial, arts and entertainment, and education fields.

Emphasis added. Now, I don't recall saying exactly that good web marketing could not be aesthetically pleasing, it is just that the aesthetics need to be secondary to functional results. Results are good.

Thanks Dave for the emails and phone calls regarding the article!

What's Best for Web Analytics? - Article in CIO

Blatant self promotion warning. CIO today web ran an article with a few quotes from me in it. I think the author, Jennifer LeClaire did a good job of being balanced in her approach on a fairly technical subject.

What's Best for Web Analytics: Client, Server or Hosted?
By Jennifer LeClaire, March 20, 2007 11:59AM

... The Web analytics industry is moving from visits and pageviews to analytics that reflect more about what people are paying attention to, according to Ed Schipul, CEO of the Houston-based Schipul Web marketing company that created Tendenci -- a hosted application designed for management associations.

Schipul says companies need to record "events" that reflect actions. It may be, for example, that a visitor to your site first clicks to watch a video, then reads more about the product, and then finally makes contact. All of those activities may occur on the same page. Enterprise-grade server-side solutions can offer critical insights. (continued...)

I definitely recommend the full article if you are interested in web analytics options.

New Hire Training - Read These First

I get to run a small company. Really we have some brilliant people so I am coach and cheerleader but they really run the show. While definitely not as cool as Google, we have a really good thing going. And I get asked a lot how we hire. So I wanted to take a moment to comment on that. Our philosophy is

“Set a clear vision. Hire good people based on integrity, attitude and intelligence. Train the heck out of them. Let them run.”

Lots of things trip folks up in the interview process. No conspiracy. Just, to be blunt, laziness at times. Examples?

Moleskin - build accessibility into your personas

Kelsey at Moleskin:

Building accessibility into your personas

(snip) Creating personas that incorporate disabilities is a lot like creating personas for a small business customer. People with disabilities aren’t unlike any other person you might want to target. They have likes, dislikes, things that make them happy and patterns of behavior and really shouldn’t be treated differently than any other potential customer.

List Apart on Your Web Site's About Page

A great post on A List Apart today on "about pages." Don't be like data.

Best Article on Personas I have been able to find

Continued reading on conversion design, persuasion, psychology and user interface design. Usability for everyone is another way to say it. It must work for the visitor as well as for the site community itself. Either everyone wins or nobody does - cliche or not.

To that end in the software world a common theme is the use of personas. The article below is the best article I have been able to find on the use of personas available on the web anyway.

Personas: Setting the Stage for Building Usable Information Sites by Alison J. Head

Personas are hypothetical archetypes, or "stand-ins" for actual users that drive the decision making for interface design projects. ...

Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? - A BestSeller

Congratulations to Bryan and Jeff Eisenberg and the whole team at Future Now Inc. Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? is on the best seller list. WHOOOOOOOP! 

And the blatant promotion continues  ...given they are a client. And IABC is a client. So I must point out that the Eisenberg barking cat road show hits Houston in July. If you talk to them, be sure not to mention that it is HOT in Houston in Jully. We want it to be a surprise.

Here is the information on the upcoming presentation:

Waiting for Your Cat to Bark? Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing
Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg Co-founders
Future Now, Inc.
Thu 27-Jul-06 11:15 AM to Thu 27-Jul-06 1:00 PM