4 Pillars of Lean Web Design + MORE

A handful of feature changes have been added to the official Android and iOS apps today to help users view local trends, switch accounts and fully integrate with the iOS only Vine product. A global change for both apps included support for the new 160 markets that Twitter Trends announced last…

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The average consumer goes through more than five touch points with an ecommerce business before they convert. This number is trending upward, as companies and customers continue to interact across a greater number of platforms. B2B companies, with often greater price points and a longer buying cycle, may find the number of interactions with prospects prior to conversion even higher…

Question: Do any of the following keep you up at night?

I have no idea what to test, so now I don’t bother
Our visitors are leaving our website without doing anything
We blew through our AdWords budget in a day!
Our market has dried up…

I’ll pause there before early onset MFD (Marketing Fail Disorder) sets in…

Nothing comes from a poorly matched client-agency relationship except a whole lot of wasted time, pent up frustration, and a laundry list of lessons learned.
Most agencies get fired because they shouldn’t have paired up with a client in the first place. The relationship went sour because expectations weren’t properly set during the sales and onboarding process…

I want to share something with you, which is responsible for the demise of so many small businesses. I’m also going to show you how to avoid it happening to you.

I witnessed an independent coffee shop self-destruct recently, just as the owner planned it to. Yes, although the owner said he wanted his coffee shop to succeed, his planning was all about failing…

 
photo credit: guilhembertholet via photopin cc
Lots of people talk about business models these days, but what does it really mean? When it comes to starting or planning for business success your model is essentially your decision about how you intend to add value – which is another way of saying – how you intend to make money…

The incredible team at Postano has done it again, surpassing all of my expectations of a great mobile application with Version 3 of the Marketing Technology blog. I believe it’s the best Marketing iPhone App out there (Android coming)!
First up is the very slick redesign that incorporates a Facebook-like left navigation…

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The lean movement. We’ve all heard of it. And considering its recent popularity, it’s probably a good thing. But what exactly does ‘lean’ mean?
Here is my definition: Lean describes a way of doing something with a verified goal in mind and with a very clear focus. For lean web design, this means a constant focus on the actual user…

How did people ever get anything done before smart phones? From note-taking to file storage, there are innumerable applications dedicated to making your life easy and productive, especially if you’re constantly floating from city-to-city, job-to-job. If you’re constantly on the go, I’d consider checking out some of these awesome apps to stay afloat in today’s ultra-busy world…

As a professional social media scientist and part time unicorn hunter, I spend a lot of time chasing down and busting social media unicorns-and-rainbows myths and superstitions — advice that has no basis in facts — with real data and science. I’ve conducted quite a bit of research about social media marketing, and as a result, I’ve gotten quite a lot of insight into the tactics that do and don’t work…

How do you tap into the subconscious mind of your site visitors and make them click that call-to-action button? The moment you get a little salesy, you know they’ll run away before you even realize what happened.With customers getting smarter by the day, subtlety is the key to success. In simple words, you have to persuade them to complete your conversion goal by making them think that they want to do it, and not because you want them to…

  

A lightbox is one of those tools that work great on the desktop but often fail on small mobile devices. These days, finding a plugin that is responsive and that displays content right away is hard. For this reason, I created Magnific Popup, an open-source lightbox plugin focused on performance…

There is nothing more powerful than a genuine heartfelt apology. At least, that’s what JCPenney is hoping based on a new ad the brand just released today featuring an apology to customers for recent changes and a promise to start listening more:

The ad is a marked departure from the Apple-style “we’ll tell you what you really want” strategy employed by former CEO (and longtime Apple exec) Ron Johnson (here’s my take on why that didn’t work)…