ReachCustomersOnline.com

“How do you find a new search engine if all you know is Google? Typing “search engine” into the usual box might lead you to Microsoft’s newly launched Bing, the combined search at Dogpile, or the former king of search, Altavista. But for those willing to dig around, searching for search engines can reveal a treasure trove: The net is rich with specialized search services, all trying to... 
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“If you’re a B2B marketer and you’re not using social technologies in your marketing, it means you’re late. We’ve seen a lot of excellent activity here from the likes of Dell and National Instruments (both won Forrester Groundswell awards) but a lot of the blogs, communities, and other social outreach from business to business companies is less than mature, to say the... 
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“To its true believers at small businesses, it is a low-cost, high-return tool that can handle marketing and public relations, raise the company profile and build the brand. That tool is blogging, though small businesses with blogs are still a distinct minority. A recent American Express survey found that only 5 percent of businesses with fewer than 100 employees have blogs. Other experts... 
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“At first blush, one could conclude that site owners suffer from either arrogance or ignorance. Marketers either believe they don’t need analytics because they are smart enough to trust their gut (arrogance), or they don’t know what to do with them (ignorance). The Web analytics community has been split on this issue. Eric T. Peterson, Web analytics consultant, argues Web analytics is hard,... 
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“One major trend relates to the migration of marketing spend from high-cost channels like TV and print to low-cost channels like email that tend to be more cost effective in yielding the desired results and can also be more closely tracked and measured, which is imperative from a performance management perspective. In fact, Aberdeen research reveals that 60% of Best-in-Class companies have cut... 
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“Facebook has just updated their statistics page which now reports they have 175 million users. This means Facebook has increased its new user acquisition rate from 450,000 users a day to over 480,000 users a day. As Facebook expands, it continues to increase its growth rate suggesting that the company will easily surpass 300 million by the end of the year if everything goes well.” From... 
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“I read a lot of blog posts and articles about “how” to use Twitter to productively market, promote, converse, or network. I read a lot about Twitter etiquette and about how to get followers, or provide value to followers, or be interesting there. But I hear less about the “why”: Why use Twitter at all, when there are already so many other distractions to your workday,... 
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“Australian scientists have reviewed a global pool of research into the effect of modern office design, concluding the switch to open-plan has led to lower productivity and higher worker stress. “The evidence we found was absolutely shocking,” researcher Dr Vinesh Oommen from the Queensland University of Technology’s Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, said. “In... 
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“Here’s an interesting video showing how a paper prototype usability test helped the usability team at Corel find flaws in a preliminary design of a website creation product.” From GUUUI. While I’m a sucker for live and video tape of usability testing, this one may be self-indulgent given my work creating Red Wrangler. Corel seems locked in the classic paradigms of client side... 
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“Whether you are a Mac person or a PC person, even the briefest exposure to the Apple logo may make you behave more creatively, according to recent research from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and the University of Waterloo, Canada.” As if Mac owners need more proof of their creative superiority, this report describes a test where people exposed to the Apple logo found... 
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“The Apple iPhone is easily the most publicized new mobile device in recent memory. But despite all the discussion about the product, there’s relatively little hard information available to the public on its impact. How is it being used? What effect is it having on customers and on the technology industry?” From Rubicon Consulting. Their research shows the iPhone is the first real... 
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“Over the past five years Dr Karl Blanks and Ben Jesson have generated tens of millions of dollars from web marketing, mostly for a small number of physical products businesses. Since getting far too obsessed with SEO and Pay-Per-Click over the last few years they agreed that their next ‘big project’ would be to increase the number of visitors that actually buy from their websites… …and... 
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“Between the ages of 25 and 60, the time users need to complete website tasks increases by 0.8% per year. In other words, a 40-year-old user will take 8% longer than a 30-year-old user to accomplish the same task. And a 50-year-old user will require an additional 8% more time. (Mathematically inclined readers will note that this increase is linear, not exponential.)” From UseIt.com, Jakob... 
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“Fully 85% of American adults use the internet or cell phones — and most use both. Many also have broadband connections, digital cameras and video game systems. Yet the proportion of adults who exploit the connectivity, the capacity for self expression, and the interactivity of modern information technology is a modest 8%. Fully half of adults have a more distant or non-existent relationship... 
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“Around here, we rarely worry about whether a client’s business is B2B or B2C or any flavor in between. Because any “sale” takes place largely within the context of a customer’s buying decision process, we look instead at how customers view the complexity of the sale. This customer-centric perspective allows us to fine-tune the personas and scenarios that make up your... 
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“According to iProspect’s “Search Engine User Behavior Study,” search marketers should strive to get their natural results as high as possible on search return pages; 62% of search engine users click on links returned within the first page of search hits. A full 90% of users click on hits within the first three pages of search results.” From eMarketer. Note that eMarketer... 
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“You may have never heard of Rolf Molich. Yet, if you’ve done any usability testing, design evaluations, or heuristic inspections, then you’ve been affected by his pioneering work. Since entering the field in 1983, Rolf has produced some of the most impressive and forward-thinking research on effective discount usability techniques. Two of Rolf’s more renowned contributions include the... 
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“After three years of non-stop “search marketing rocks” focus, seems like the marketing world is taking a second look at its old pal email. And in 2006 email response rates are looking darned good. It’s not the tired email-is-dead 2003 world anymore. Junk mail didn’t kill email the way most “experts” expected. Instead, the struggle to stay afloat in an ocean... 
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“As more companies, organizations, and individuals find reasons to upgrade their computers, the problem of how to safely discard used equipment continues to amplify. CompuMentor, a provider of technology assistance to other nonprofits and the home of TechSoup, is working with Microsoft Corporation and other organizations to improve the environment and bridge the digital divide by helping consumers... 
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“Women’s choices in buying and planning for the family, as well as pursuing their own interests, have a major impact online. According to some researchers women have been the majority among US Internet users for a number of years. They now make up 51.6% of the US online population and nearly 100 million American women will be online by 2008. The data show that more women are going online... 
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