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

Saturday, March 26, 2011

a not-so-clear call to action

This example has a double whammy  - a direct-marketing email without a call to action, and some invisible text. In chapter three of my book I raise what I think is the basic issue of putting dark text on a light background [as I do on all my sites] to make it easy to read. Indeed, I give my students a 'bad web page' exercise with an example of light text on a light background and they usually scoff at the idea of a commercial web developer making such an error - well, take a look at this:

Furthermore, the 'hidden' text is the call to action - arguably the most important words on the email. Ho hum. 

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

landing page[s] that land you on a different continent

Ironically, I came across this at the end of a week when I was delivering sessions on online advertising - which, of course, includes landing pages. I was looking for a small netbook, and came across this ad - note that I was searching on Google.co.uk:
Rather bizarrely, clicking on that ad took me to an American web page. I suspect it was a glitch somewhere along the line, but still one that shouldn't happen.
 
And then only a couple of days later I received an email from Amazon, promoting their new Kindle book reader
 ...and when I opened the email I got this - note the price
... and when I clicked on the link in the email I got this page

Ho hum. It seem that even one of the best in the business get it wrong sometimes.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

football registration again grrrrrrr

Unlike a previous entry on this subject [see Register - just to check availability?] this time I was off to see my team, on this occasion playing at Middlesbrough. When I've been there before I just got there a bit early and stood in the queue at the ticket office before the match - but this time I was going straight from work, so thought pre-ordering the ticket would save time. Sadly, however, although I might never [ever, ever, ever] buy another ticket from them, Middlesborough Football Club decided that my credit card details were not enough and insisted I register to create an account.
In the event, just set off a bit earlier and stood in the line to buy a ticket. And guess what, they didn't insist that I create an account. 

Footnote, my team grabbed an undeserved equaliser in the 93rd minute to draw the match 1-1.