Reflexity

Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

If you seek ways to improve your online marketing campaigns but have run out of ideas, look towards behavioral science for inspiration. Behavioral science is a discipline that collects and studies data on how people react when faced with a decision and how decisions, such as those made by peers and governments, influence individuals. Freakonomics and Predictably Irrational are two books on this subject which present interesting and easy-to-read examples of societal reactions to various circumstances, with outcomes that will surprise you.

One interesting example from Predictably Irrational is an experiment based on the price of drugs and people’s perceived effectiveness of the drug. The author and his fellow scientists found that when people were given a ‘new’ pain-killer, which they were told was very cheap, their perception of the pain-relief it provided was less than when they were given a drug (the exact same drug) which they were led to believe was very expensive. The test subjects responded that they experienced greater pain-relief when given a drug that was perceived to be more expensive.

If people find they obtain better pain-relief results from a pricier drug, should we therefore aim to keep the health care system as expensive as possible, thus providing society a perception, and indeed a very real feeling of ‘better’ health care?

These are interesting thoughts for the Obama Administration to ponder while formulating social security and health care programs. That being said, France and other European nations’ health care systems are cheaper and more effective than that of the United States.

So what will analytics be able to tell you if you change your price, incentives, imagery and viewer access to reviews? Let behavioral experts shed light on your site’s visitor behaviour and be inspired to test your site according to the interesting insights provided on the human decision processes.

We thought we would share with you our top 5 6 favourite online marketing and optimization blogs of 2007. They will surely remain in our top for 2008 but if you have your own favourite feel free to share them with us. These are, in our humble opinion, the best of the best, the kind of posts and articles making you go hmmm.

• Web analytics: Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik needs to be read if you’re interested in website analytics. Avinash is also the author of Web Analytics and Hour a Day and he’s actually a consultant and Analytics Evangelist at Google. There are goldmines of useful information in your web analytics (you have one installed don’t you?) and Avinash shows you the ins and outs.
• Site Optimization: Jonathan Mendez’ blog and OTTO Digital’s blogs talk about landing page optimization, site optimization, in other words everything you can dream about online optimization. As Reflexity is heavily involved in that space it’s always interesting to read their findings and learn from their experiences. More than a must.
• Online media and marketing insights: Charlene Li’s blog talks about her experiences and findings about how social media, social marketing & networking are influencing the way business use these technologies online. Charlene is VP and principal analyst at Forrester Research and covers their social computing and web 2.0 research. Insightful.
• Viral Marketing, user experience and online advertising: Andrew Chen’s Futuristic Play will provide you with comments, tips, and ideas about users/customers acquisition and how to keep them. His blog is much more than that but these subjects alone will really be worth your time. We can’t wait to see what will be his next business!
• Persuasion, conversions & marketing: GrokDotCom’s blog posts are about online persuasion; from persuasive architecture to content persuasion/copywriting and everything in between. The goal is to make easier for people to convert into a sale, a registration or a lead. Tons of very valuable information.
• Online banking: Colin Henderson’s The Bank Watch brings a bowl of fresh air with the latest trends, news and experiences with online banking. Colin is a firm believer in embracing new technologies and ideas to reach consumers and enhance their experience. So are we. Kudos Colin!

Ok, so we had more a top 6 instead of a top 5. We couldn’t leave one out. Lets be original and call it our top 6.

What are your best blogs? We’re curious to know…