MonjesMedia

web design for ROI

As we all know, the Web serves many purposes to millions of users all around the world on a daily basis. From school children doing research in Senegal, to the youth chatting away in cybercafés in countries throughout Asia, each user has a specific goal he or she wishes to accomplish online.

Among the most popular uses of the Internet, lies one which many can not ignore – eCommerce. According for Forrester Research, “US online retail reached $175 billion in 2007 and is projected to grow to $335 billion by 2012.” It goes without saying that with such a steep growth curve, it is within an organization’s best interest to invest in online commerce in an effort to create the best user experience possible.

My latest read, Web Design for ROI, addresses design issues unique to eCommerce sites. Authors, Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus have divided the material into 10 easily digestible chapters which provide specific design guidelines for landing pages, home pages, category pages, detail pages, forms and the checkout process. Along with UI design issues, the authors include key metrics to look out for and provide resources for further reading.

Although I am only seven chapters into the book, I already feel like I’ve gotten my money’s worth from the purchase. It’s reference material like this that keeps designers at the top of their game and users whipping out their credit cards (even during a recession).

Two great reads on Email and Social Media Marketing

In today’s media saturated market, connecting with your audience has become more challenging than ever before. It is estimated that we are exposed to as many as 3000 marketing messages per day. I don’t know about you, but I can’t possibly wrap my head around that much information in a week, let alone one single day. My latest reads, “Email Marketing – An Hour a Day” and “Social Media Marketing – An Hour a Day” offer outstanding overviews of email and social media marketing, how they can proliferate your message and how they can be implemented within any organization.

Written by, Jeanniey Mullen and David Daniels, “Email Marketing – An Hour a Day” has proven to be a fantastic introduction to the principles of email marketing.  Covering such concepts as email design, landing page design, segmentation, and trigger emails, Mullen and Daniels provide the reader with a solid roadmap to email marketing.  From compiling your email list to statistical tracking once your email has been sent, Mullen and Daniels cover all of the elements critical to developing  a top notch email campaign by anyone’s standards.

While email marketing may significantly increase revenues, the power and utility in social media marketing is not to be overlooked. Just three chapters into the book, I am now looking at Twitter, Facebook,  and YouTube from an entirely different perspective. “Social Media Marketing – An Hour a Day” begins with explaining the foundation of social media marketing, then goes into preparing for and executing your campaign across a variety of media channels. From defining the construct of social marketing to explaining the metrics and defining ROI, author, Dave Evans provides a comprehensive resource for launching your own successful social media marketing campaign.

Both books can be purchased on Amazon via the links below. Enjoy!

EMAIL MARKETING – AN HOUR A DAY
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING – AN HOUR A DAY