Some of Alan's views on this digital marketing malarkey ... there's more on: AlanCharlesworth.com

Monday, November 26, 2007

I said 'no' twice - take the hint

Close to home again with this one - Palgrave publish one of my books. As is common practice in HE, I had been sent a copy of a new text so that I might adopt it for one of my modules. A few weeks later I received an email asking me for my thoughts - no problems there, good practice. However, for reasons I won't make public here, I decided against using the book - and left some [what I hope were] constructive comments on the web page. Sadly, when I clicked on 'send' I got the following 'error' message. Apparently, I should have entered the date of the module I was not adopting the book for. Check your form fields folks - the first two answers on the form were negative - making this question [and answer] irrelevant.

Monday, November 12, 2007

bad search result - or selling out?

In many instances I promote Amazon as the flag-carrier for online retail. However, while on their site today I came across a worrying search result. I was thinking of buying a Sam Cooke CD, and so put in the name of the song I particularly wanted to be included - 'a change is gonna come'. And look what came out on the top:I had a look at the the 'Casket Letters' Amazon page and guess what - no mention of the term 'a change is gonna come' [except at the bottom of the page where it informed me of my latest search details].

So ... was this a hiccup in Amazon's search algorithm or are they accepting payments to 'feature' certain artists? I hope it was the former - if it was the latter they are gambling with their brand name.

there is communication and there is gibberish

I was searching for something on the Times Online site. After clicking on 'search', this is what I got:Nice one, the Times - would you let that go out in your 'printed' version? No? Then why do you not apply the same vigorous editorial standards to your online publication? Oh and by the way, I was accessing this from home - I have no 'network support team' - and if I did, I doubt they could do anything, the problem is with the Times' server.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

pop ups aren't all bad

They are much maligned, but used properly they really can work - this is an excellent example. I was looking at a model of car on the Daihatsu web site. The car details were covered on four pages (overview, features, technical & accessories), and when I opened the the fourth, the following pop up appeared.
It might just be the nudge - call to action - that someone needs to take the next step in their purchase path.