Re: Rip it to shreds please

From: Cliff Kurtzman <moderator_at_o-a.com>
Date: Tue 24 Aug 2004 22:01:06 -0500

So here is our response...

Dovid Moon made a number of specific suggestions:

1. Move the newsletter signup to the top of the page instead of
placing it at the bottom. In my experience, putting it "above the
fold" will indeed increase response rate as David suggested. The
negatives are that it tends to clutter the look of the page and it
can move the primary page content further down. In the end, we
decided to give this suggestion a try, while also reducing the height
of the main graphic banner and the menus to compensate, both of which
turned out to be improvements regardless of any other changes.

2. David suggested rewriting the copy associated with the newsletter
signup. We did some minor rewriting, but on the whole felt that the
hype level associated with David's rewrite would turn off our
intended audience. We have done a lot of testing in the past with
regard to how the use of wording and presentation affects newsletter
signup rates. Some changes which increase overall signup rate seem to
decrease signup rates for our target audience while increasing signup
rates for those that are outside of our target audience. In the end,
we are willing to trade some reduction in overall signups in return
for increasing the likelihood that those whom we really want to sign
up will do so.

3. David and others noted that the "Welcome to ADASTRO" message on
the main page is dull, and they are absolutely right. This has been
changed in the current version. David also made some suggestions with
regard to the menu names, and we liked them and have incorporated
them into the site.

4. David and others felt that the layout could be more polished and
professional, and we took a number of steps to do exactly that... in
addition of a variety of graphic changes, we darkened the text color,
reduced its size slightly, justified the text, and made a number of
other tweaks.

5. David also suggested that the possible ambiguity people may
experience in knowing how to pronounce ADASTRO could be clarified by
changing the color of the first two letters in the logo... we gave
this a try and liked the result!

Mauricio Macedo and Nancy Beckman indicated that it was not clear how
the main page content supported the tagline/motto "Business IS Rocket
Science." Mauricio suggested moving the content from the Business IS
Rocket Science page onto the front page. We don't entirely agree with
this. In our opinion, the main page should quickly and briefly
explain what the business does, and provide clear links so that the
reader can learn more if they wish to do so... in ADASTRO's case, the
company is about undertaking corporate transformation projects that
will add significant value--and that is what needs to be stated on
the home page. There is an entire section of the site devoted to
explaining the tag line, and this seems largely sufficient. Yet in
the end, the number of comments regarding strengthening the home page
copy were persuasive, and we decided to go with Nancy Beckman's
suggestion that we move the copy that explains that ADASTRO means
"rising to the stars" to the home page, along with a few other tweaks.

Mauricio and others also noted some confusion regarding the messages
conveyed by some of the randomly presented motivational graphics. We
continue to like the rotation of the graphics giving the page a new
look each time someone visits, but we agree that some of these
graphics and associated messages are pretty weak. For the time being,
we've removed from the rotation the two graphics that seemed to cause
the most confusion, and will look to improve the banners further in
the future.

Mauricio suggested that my personal accomplishments should be listed
on the home page, and he referenced http://www.andybirol.com/ as an
example to follow. We STRONGLY disagree with this suggestion... it
would significantly reduce the value and perception of our business!
There is a delicate balance to be played in leveraging on my personal
background and accomplishments and how it relates to the identity of
the company. Looking at Andy Birol's site, I see a business entirely
dependant on one person. Who would ever want to acquire a business
like that?... its entire brand it tied to its founder, and if the
founder goes away, so does the business in all likelihood. Anyone
wanting to do business with that company would likely insist on doing
business with Andy directly, which is also not a desirable
characteristic for a growth oriented organization. And one doesn't
need to look any further than Martha Stewart Omnimedia to realize the
potential negatives of associating your corporate brand with a
specific individual. If anything, our sense is that there is
currently too much "Cliff Kurtzman" on the site, and over time we
will replace that focus with an increased emphasis on corporate
accomplishments. ADASTRO is only a year and a half old at present,
and most of the projects we have undertaken to date have been under
strict confidentiality agreements, but over time we will likely have
more case studies that we can use on the site, even if it requires
masking the name of the client and the specific details of the
projects.

David Yancey mentioned he liked the blue and gold colors... David,
are you a UCLA Alum as well?

David suggested putting a button for the newsletter into the Menu bar
and then having the signup on a separate page with more info about
the newsletter. It is our definite experience that moving the signup
a level deeper into the site significantly decreases signup rates...
best results are achieved by including the signup form on each page
on the site. We did, however, take David's suggestion to place a link
next to the signup text offering an opportunity to learn more (it
links to the archived newsletter articles in what is now the "Rocket
Fuel" section of the site, per David Moon's suggestion).

David also suggested removing the newsletter signup form from the
template on the page that results after someone subscribes, and we
agreed that this was a good idea and removed it.

Chris Lynn seemed to want the full business model of the company
explained on the home page. We don't believe this is either necessary
or prudent. Chris disagreed with our tagline. He went on to say that
intelligence is neither necessary or sufficient for business success.
While this is surely true, it is also true that acting with planning,
intelligence, and appropriate strategy vastly improves the odds of
business success... and our business niche is aimed at helping
clients that agree with that assessment, and who believe that they
can really benefit from the expertise and experience that ADASTRO can
economically bring to the table to assist them. We really are not
focused on helping businesses which are intent on being dumb and
lucky.

Chris also questioned the perceived value proposition of going to
someone with experience as a "rocket scientist" for help in business
consulting... We know that it is without question a strong perceived
value in the eyes of many in our target audience. When I hire
employees or consultants, I want them to be people that are really
smart... smarter than I am in their specific areas of expertise.
Others usually act in a similar manner. Our ability to bring to the
table a combination of skills and aptitudes in technology, marketing
and entrepreneurship is a very strong buying proposition for our
clients, and we expect to keep emphasizing it in the future.

Curmudgeonly Chris noted that Ad Astro is ungrammatical Latin, but he
failed to note that it is in fact grammatical Italian. The name Ad
Astra is in use by many other organizations, but with ADASTRO we are
able build a brand using a name that is distinctive. We intentionally
chose a single word brand name intended to reflect certain meanings
rather than use exact words, and we think it accomplishes our
objectives.

William Stratas focused on the HTML of the site. His exposition made
me concerned of all the carnage that the web site might cause on
unsuspecting visitors, but on inspection I found little here of
serious worry. The HTML of all the pages on the site had in fact been
run through and passed two HTML validation tools without error. While
the site did lack an explicit DOCTYPE declaration (thereby failing
the W3C standard), there was nothing in the coding that would have
caused this omission to prevent the site from displaying properly in
any browser that I am experienced with. We did some tweaking of the
code in any event along the lines that William suggested, but
probably not enough to make him happy. The indexing of some of the
newly created subdirectories had not yet been turned off, as William
noted... while it was not really a problem from our perspective
(there was no content in those directories that we needed to keep
private), we appreciated the pointer and turned the indexing off in
those directories.

Thanks again to everyone that contributed!

--Cliff

Clifford R. Kurtzman
CEO | Moderator
ADASTRO Incorporated | The Online Advertising Discussion List
http://www.adastro.com | http://www.o-a.com






Received on Tue Aug 24 2004 - 22:01:06 CDT