The Stairwell

This week I visited barackobama.com and was struck immediately by its patriotic, but very contemporary look and feel. It contains the usual colors (red, white and blue), but a different delivery that emphasizes simplicity and fit. It's airy and is clearly of the genus, web 2.0, with its user-driven / social networking content and features.

His positions are not organized alphabetically or by order of 'importance'. They are parsed into categories like: People, States, Action and Issues. This is in stark contrast to Hillary Clinton's site, which in many cases lists her speeches by date or her positions numerically. Last week, she changed that on her site and now organizes by voter group. Way to learn from your opponent, old girl.

Upon signing up to his site, I was requested to make a small donation or a matching donation just once. Up front. Simple. So I did. This should underscore to anyone soliciting sales online that simple pitches early in the transaction or the shopping phase are more effective than late-arriving pitches or ceaseless ones that appear on every page.

After I left the site about a half hour later, I found that already I had a letter from Barack (we're friends now and that's how it looks on my iPhone when he mails) asking me if I would like to have my voice heard. Literally. I opened my friend's email and was given a simple set of instructions that would enable me to call good folks in Texas and Ohio and tell them what I thought of my friend. Wow. From my home, simply by going online, I can avail of a pre-approved list of home phones and call them from my home - all in the name of mass mobilization. This is viral email marketing at its best because it was sent to me even before I left the site, asking me to expand my own self-expectations and get involved. Did I make the calls? I came close, but I'm just too shy. Plus I don't like people calling ME at home - especially campaigns. Nevertheless, I was impressed by their site-to-mailbox-to-phone-to-site funneling and the grand scale upon which they are mobilizing their supporters and winning new converts around the country.

Finally, we looked under the hood. Some of the technologies he's using to make the site effective and simple to use are appropriate to the task and well executed. Overall straw poles in our office give it a thumbs up which is rare indeed for campaign sites in our experience.

We hope everyone visits all the candidate sites this year and examines their positions and experience closely. Then, go out and vote.

http://www.barackobama.com

http://www.hillaryclinton.com

http://www.mikehuckabee.com

http://www.johnmccain.com

Over the past few decades, as Billups Design's lead copywriter, I have experienced many forms of copy strategy for web sites on the part of our clients. Some include too much copy for their audience which ultimately leads to reduced prospects. Others emphasize promotional over informational copy and fail to generate the trust necessary with their online customers to close a sale.

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ReBrand is a relatively new web site with a great mission that revolves around 'starting over'. Starting over with your corporate culture, your point of sales contacts and your brand. They're worth a visit for any one in the branding game, and below is a brief abstract of some of their best 'how to' for 2006.

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The Stairwell is proud to introduce our guest columnist for the month of November:

Lawrence Stopa, President, E-Power Marketing

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For several years now, leading web designers and software interface designers have been following the 80% rule. Now, their clients are understanding why and demanding it be incorporated across all their online (and internal) application interfaces.

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Now that companies are finally getting the idea that blogs are a good way to attract visitors online, the next question is: what's going to go into it?

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Just read a great article in “Internet Retailer Magazine”, January 2005 by Mary Wagner. Here are some of what I think are the most interesting facts from the article.

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This may of importance to marketing folks tracking the best ways to spend their key word money in 2005.

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