Best Checkout Buttons (Reprint From Viralogy.com)
What follow is the complete article from Viralogy.com. If you would like to read the article on their site visit this link: http://viralogy.com/blog/ecommerce/examples-and-analysis-of-the-top-ten-best-checkout-buttons-in-the-world/
The Checkout button must be clearly visible, large, trust-worthy, and attractive to encourage the shopper to take the final step toward making a purchase. Below you will find the top ten best Checkout buttons along with an in-depth analysis of what makes them excellent.
At the end of the page, we have included the .PSD to an optimized Checkout button that you can utilize for you eCommerce store.
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80 Percent of Students Can’t Scan QR Codes
Quick Response (QR) codes have become very popular in the past couple of years. Marketing firms love them and they can be seen pretty much everywhere, including on my current cup of coffee. Surely QR codes must be going gangbusters given all this saturation. One study set out to find out just how many people understood these QR codes.
The study consisted of over 500 college students and the results were quite interesting. About 80% of the studens could identify a QR code but only about 21% were actually able to scan one. It should be noted that about 80% of the students had smart phones and thus had the ability to actually scan the codes.
When asked what do with the code some people had no clue while others deduced that they should be able to get the job done with their cameras. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be since the scanning of QR codes actually involves downloading software to ones phone. When told this, many of the students simply said no thanks to downloading the required program.
How does this information affect us as marketers? For starters, it is important to note that this particular group study is one that is extremely technologically advanced. If they can’t figure these things out, how in the world do we expect the older generations to make use of these codes? The first step in gaining QR code acceptance will come when smart phone makers provide the required software directly on the phone.
The second part which we have more control over, is content related. If people are going to take the time to scan a QR code then the end result better be worth it. Simply connecting the user to your homepage is not enough. It would be best to connect the code to specific parts of your website such as a sweepstakes or contest of some kind thus providing an incentive to actually use the code.
There are many very good uses for QR codes at the moment. Some examples include animal and luggage tracking. However, it will be a while before they become a true part of the everyday advertising world. Until then all we can do is work hard to deliver a solid message that makes the QR codes worthwhile.
The right and wrong way to us social media
It should come as no surprise to anyone reading this that social media has become a very large part of a companies marketing strategy. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter provide companies with an unprecedented opportunity to stay in contact with their customer base. However, while social media does in fact provide a great chance to make things right with customers, it can also cause problems when not used correctly. Below are two examples of using social media, one for the better and the other for the worse.
Right
On August 17th Peter Shankman was flying to Newark. Like most airline passengers today he wasn’t exactly fond of the food on offer. So he did what many people do when they are bored waiting to take off. He sent the following tweet “Hey @Morton’s – can you meet me at newark airport with a porterhouse when I land in two hours? K, thanks. 
”.
Lo and behold, upon arriving at Newark airport a gentleman in a tuxedo stood waiting for him. That man of course, was a representative of Morton’s Steakhouse and he had in fact brought Peter a porterhouse steak as per his Twitter request. It definitely didn’t hurt that Peter has over 100,000 followers on Twitter but it makes for a very good customer service story none the less.
Wrong
Not every tweet is handled with the care and outright awesomeness as Peter’s though. On October 10th Allison Hiromi was dining at the Downhouse Restaurant in the Heights. For whatever reason she decided to send out a tweet that called the bartender a “twerp”. Ordinarily tweets such as this go unnoticed by most people. That wasn’t the case here though as a hawk eyed manger of the restaurant was sitting at home with apparently nothing better to do than monitor Twitter for references to his restaurant.
Upon reading the tweet the manager called the restaurant and requested to speak to Allison the phone. Over the phone he told her she needed to leave the establishment immediately. Now to be fair, the manager is well within his rights to refuse service to anyone for any reason, other than protected ones of course. However, being this sensitive over a tweet is just plain silly. Allison’s comments didn’t contain any real malice towards anyone and much like most tweets probably didn’t have a long thought process behind it.
So what are we to take away from these two examples mentioned here? For starters, we need to always be aware that everything we do as a company is monitored by the outside world. Places such as Twitter and Facebook have brought about the age of instant notifications. This can either be used to our advantage or disadvantage. And ultimately, every company that utilizes social media should have some sort of guidelines set forth for their employees when handling situations such as this.
http://shankman.com/the-best-customer-service-story-ever-told-starring-mortons-steakhouse/
Caribou Coffee Re-Design
This is one slick package re-design. I’m personally quite the fan of Caribou and this new packaging brings a certain level of simplicity. Courtesy of the fine folks over at the Die Line.
Is Groupon Worth $25 Billion?
Late last year Google offered $6 billion to purchase the daily deal site Groupon. Amazingly the folks at Groupon turned down the offer. Last month Groupon filed paperwork for an initial public offering, or IPO. Some early evaluations of the company value it at over $20 billion dollars. Is this number feasible?
There are plenty of compelling reasons to say no. Looking at some of the facts make it seem as though even Google’s offer may have been overvalued. With the IPO filing Groupon filed their S-1 with the SEC. These filings provide a great insight into the company’s financials.
Over at the Yipit blog they do a great job of breaking these numbers down. Some telling numbers include their rising acquisition cost which stands a whopping 485% higher for year over year Q1. Along with this, they are seeing declines in quarterly revenue per subscriber.
The Wall Street Journal had a quick interpretation of a letter from the Groupon CEO in regards to the IPO.
“In an unusual letter from CEO Andrew Mason that kicks off the IPO filing, he says Groupon is focused on growth, and measures its success by metrics such as free cash flow, gross profit (Groupon’s actual take from its customer transactions, which was $280 million in 2010) and a third yardstick that is quite a mouthful: Adjusted Consolidated Segment Operating Income. Those kinds of non-standard financial metrics were all the rage in the late 1990s tech bubble.”
Of course all of these numbers don’t even touch on the most basic facts in regards to Groupon. For starters, the daily deal market has an extremely low barrier to entry. There are literally hundreds of daily deal sites that have popped up on the internet over the last couple of years. And now, Groupon’s once perspective buyer, Google, has arrived on the scene with Google Offers.
Of course, only time will tell what Groupon is worth to investors. Smart investors will probably jump on the IPO and sell their shares by the end of the day to make some quick profit. Groupon is simply too risky as a long term investment. All in all, it would be a huge surprise to myself if Groupon is ever worth anywhere near the $6 billion that Google offered.