When you look at your data, you might just find that CRT is far from dead and 800×600 still defines a majority of your audience.

Designers: Time to Go Back to School

In the US, CRTs still rule the schools. There are several solid reasons why this might remain the case for some time to come:

• Durability – It’s pretty hard to scratch the glass on CRT.
• Security – after all who steals a CRT?
• Financial – While LCD prices have come down, many older computers need video card upgrades to tap into them. In addition, there’s another good argument: “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?”

On the educational sites I’ve worked with, it is not uncommon to see 80% of the visitors coming in at 800×600. This might bum out the designers, but they have to be sensitive to that data. If the visitors are captive to the lower resolution, they’re not going to take kindly to a fancy design that causes endless scrolling.

Marketers: This is Your Father’s Internet

Going back to my last article, I mentioned early adopters and how they are likely to upgrade to the latest and greatest. Looking at demographic studies, the top end of that group generally falls into the under-50 crowd with some reports inching up toward age 55.

Even though marketers have good reason to salivate over the potential of the most well-off group of retirees in the history of the country, the fact of the matter is that new computers are pretty far down the list for the majority of that group. They might have a 50″ television set in the living room, but there’s a dusty old CRT in the den.

And it’s probably going to stay that way for quite awhile.

So what do you do with this data?

You dig deeper and you test.

Based on my experience, I’d focus on developing a design that places less emphasis on fast scanning and links between areas of the site. You are likely to find that this segment will spend more time reading your copy and less time looking for the “scent of information”. This means they’ll also get quite frustrated when you make then dig to get what they want.

Of course, I might be completely wrong about your audience. That’s why I recommend you dig into the data and test.

I realize it’s hard not to go glassy-eyed when designers and web developers start spouting phrases like “aspect ratio” and “backwards compatibility,” but listen up, marketing folks! Browser and screen resolutions matter because there’s money to be made.

“What’s that Browser Capabilities menu?”

Every web analytics package has that seldom viewed report called “browser capabilities” (or something similar). In that section, you will find such thrilling choices as:

• Browsers
• Operating Systems
• Screen Resolutions
• … More things you don’t want to know.

But drop on in there and ask yourself these questions:

1. Who converts better? Mac or PC users? Vista, XP, or OSX?
2. What is the average order size of visitors who use 800×600 vs. 1280×1024?
3. Do Firefox users buy more than IE6 users? What about IE7?

That’s Nice. Why Do I Care?

When I looked at recent stats for one site, I was surprised to find out that Mac users were the most valuable customers. In fact, the lift on PC users was over 80%. When I dug a little deeper, I found that XP users, while a very large percentage of the visitor pool, lagged well behind Vista.

What kind of conclusions might we draw from this information?

Affluence is one obvious answer. Vista might mean the visitor has a new computer. It may also mean they’re just early adopters, which again may signal affluence. Apple users tend to have higher incomes as well (at least according to some surveys).

As you may expect, I also found that the higher the screen resolution, the better the buyer. Even more interesting was the insight that widescreen aspect ratios (16:9) had the best rates of all. At the moment, most widescreen monitors are attached to shiny new laptops as opposed to desktops (though this is changing).

Can we infer that laptop users buy more? And if so, why?

The browser question drove similar results… IE7 beat out IE6 by a wide margin (even though visitors were even). Firefox beat them both.

So what do you do with this data?

You dig deeper and you test. These aren’t small scale tests either.

In the case of Vista vs. XP, we’re talking about more than 60% of all visitors to the site. You may find that IE6 has a lower conversion because something is actually broken on the site. If you try out different resolutions, you might find that your site is easier to navigate at higher resolutions.

Geek out aside, I’m talking about large audiences with a clear differences in response. These are segments worth investigating. You may be leaving enormous amounts of money on the table, or perhaps it is just walking out the door.

Rally with your designers and developers, test and QA. Champion their ideas, and you just might find that next campaign hidden amid the most boring data in your analytics package.

Oh, and lest you think I’m biased on the side of big, shiny Macs, stayed turned for the next installment on browsers and screen resolutions – Why Bigger Isn’t Always Better, Long Live the CRT.

Turing’d:

We have this long list of tasks and occupations that we humans believe only humans can do. Used to be things like using tools, language, painting, playing chess. Now, one by one they get Turing’d. A computer beats them. Does it better.

So far we’ve can check off arithmetic, spelling, flying planes, playing chess, wiring chips, scheduling  tasks, welding, etc. All have been Turing’d.

[Via: The Technium]

At the end, Kevin wonders to the audience what else has been Turing’d (i.e. given over to computers because they are better than we are). I’d like to add Marketing to the list of fields and disciplines that have been Turing’d.

Most of us in the online marketing sphere are well past the idea of marketing on instinct. The medium lends itself quite handily to automation and marketing to algorithms.

The direct marketing world is slowly giving itself over to the same idea. Not that they haven’t been using computers and models for years. In fact, direct marketers are some of the most disciplined adherents to deep testing methods that tweak and adjust the smallest minutiae.

Still, this isn’t quite the same thing as giving it over to the computer entirely. To build models that run without human intervention and sort the massive data sets into personalized (and quantified) offers that are proven to be more effective.

It’s coming, folks. Actually, the best companies are already doing it.

While I haven’t worked for a startup tech company, I’ve been a customer of quite a few. From that angle, I can tell you that Tatum’s book is perfect for every growing tech company. No, really. If you are running a tech company, buy this book now and read it before you reach your plateau. See what lies ahead of you and stop it before you have a real mess on your hands.

But like I said above, Tatum’s advice is not just good for companies, it’s good for fast growing departments within larger organizations too. If you run a high growth area, there’s no doubt that you will recognize the signs that Tatum talks about in his book. His practical advice can really help drag you out of the doom and gloom scenarios that inevitably come to fast growing departments when they reach maximum capacity and need to change.

[Oh, and in case you'd like to stay small, Tatum will point you to Bo Burlingham's Small Giants. I read Burlingham's book too and I think it is spot on advice for those companies who have pegged themselves to be a certain size. If you run a smallish company and want to keep it that way, buy copies of Small Giants and give them to your executives. This will ease a lot of frustration. You might lose some growth-oriented folks, but in exchange you'll have focused leadership that understands the long term vision.]

You pay for the brain. Vanity costs extra.

As defined by the OED, vanity is that which is vain, futile, or worthless; that which is of no value or profit; self-conceit and the desire for admiration.

In the world of E-Commerce, there is really precious little time for vanity. Things move at a whiplash pace and the margin for error is small. To be successful, you need people who are focused on the goals of the business and not whether they chose the right tie. E-Commerce is 24-7 (an overused phrase, but apt for this context) and working 9-5 just doesn’t cut it. There are some people I’d rather see stroll in at 11AM, knowing that they were up working at 10PM or midnight the day before. To me, it means they’re engaged with the real-time business.

Some people get caught up in the sales growth. They like to strut. Hey, I like big numbers too, who doesn’t? Yet, while E-Commerce may grow at a double-digit rate for some time to come, there are so many exogenous factors impacting growth that are difficult to measure, like channel shift.

Being vain about growth like this is bound to make you look a little silly in the long run.

I do think it’s important to know when you need to be professional, but you can’t exchange looking good for performance. It eventually shows up on the bottom line, which is how we should all measure ourselves (and why I charge extra for vanity).

Mac Daily News served the dish at 9:33AM…

Platforms, Applications and the Future of Digital Marketing:

There is one important last piece that can’t be overlooked to ensure success. Marketers and creative folks must begin to understand technology and learn how to use it creatively. This will be the biggest hurdle to success. The days of siloed IT and Marketing, of Creative Directors that don’t know their clients Content Management Systems will end in a fiery furnace filled with ashen businesses and agencies.

In the first decade of the commercial net access to data smote a number of verticals like travel and music. In the next decade far greater access to data will continue to destroy a number of now successful businesses and advertising models. It will also create many revolutionary opportunities and digital success stories. Which will you be? The answer probably rests in if you have or will create a plan in the next 6-12 months for creating the platform, rules and delivery of your marketing content.

[Via: Optimize & Prophesize]

Robbin Steif has a brief (and real-world) example of why E-Commerce folks should go the extra mile to take advantage of the biggest asset of their website – real estate!

Selling with more than features and benefits:

This is the same issue I saw last week in user testing. We had a site with product after product, and they were so similar. The owner certainly understood how and when to make a selection, because he knows the product selection intimately. Some of the users, however, were overwhelmed. He needed to tell them when to choose each one — just like Melitta needed to tell me how to choose a flavor of coffee.

[via: LunaMetrics]

Tell a story. Romance your products. Explain, in-detail, why someone would want to buy your product and how they might use it. Or even better, make it possible for customers to tell their story too.