Lately, I have spent a bit of time pondering how color and “what color” can impact conversion in terms of landing page testing. As a marketer myself, (as I’m sure many of you are), landing page testing is a great way to optimize the conversion funnel especially when budgets are tight. In theory a simple change of color of the background or call to action button for instance, can make a big impact when it comes down to landing page efficiency. Choosing the best color for your landing page becomes tricky because the web designers color wheel or the colors found in your company’s style book may not translate to marketing success.

So how much really can color change the results of our landing pages? Honestly, I am not entirely sure myself. It has been my experience so far, that the ‘right color’ can vary depending on your brand, but also depending on the action you want your web visitor to take. Here are a couple bites of heresay for the sake of discussion that I have heard through the grapevine …

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My personal email account has 197 unread messages in the inbox. Some are political in nature, not surprising during an election year and considering that political messages are exempt from CAN-SPAM. But the real problem? Email messaging campaigns gone amuck.

It started out when I’d signed up for a few email lists from just a couple of businesses I tended to frequent regularly, to get information about the latest product or sales promotion. Next, I agreed to receive messages from Web site communities on which I participated. Then over the last year, I’ve subscribed to email campaigns from almost every retailer who offered me the chance during check-out at their bricks-and-mortar locations. Now, I almost regret it.

It’s not that I no longer believe in the value of email campaigns but rather that some of these marketers haven’t gotten a handle on email best practices. I’m still interested in all these brands for which I’d signed up to receive more information. I’m just not as interested in getting all of that information.

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You might have heard that mobileStorm recently launched RSS messaging. That makes us the only company globally that provides 6 ways to communicate with prospects and customers from the same web-based control panel.

RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is a relatively new web technology that is used to publish frequently updated content such as blogs and news. The first version of RSS was created in March of 1999 for use on the my.netscape.com portal. A 2004 Pew study found that 1 out of 20 people online said they used an RSS aggregator to read content online. So, I can only image how big that number is today. RSS was also the 3rd most searched for “what is” term on Google last year.

All major online portals use RSS to push content to their sites. MyYahoo, for example, is basically just a bunch of RSS feeds. Yahoo lets you customize which news you do and do not want to see. Additionally, Firefox and even Outlook 2007 now have RSS readers built into their applications. This allows you to subscribe to a feed by simply clicking an icon, and the feed is added to your RSS reader.

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From the moment you click on a link, you are privy to the variety of online entertainment turning your computer monitor into a visual media carnival. From Youtube to Vator.tv, there are numerous video sites reeling people in to watch their content. People can watch anything from a documentary on sea monkeys to people pitching their next big idea to potential investors. Videos are being uploaded at an overwhelming rate and there is no doubt in my mind this will not settle down anytime soon. In fact, it is pretty much been set in stone as the future of how we will view entertainment. So I guess the question is how do you want to make your mark on this video blank canvas, as paint by numbers or Picasso?

In the online video world, both paint by numbers and Picasso have their place. The web is large enough to mix commercial, narrative and artistic video simultaneously and harmoniously; that is what makes it so great. In this and the following posts to come, I will discuss everything from purchasing the right equipment to finding the right talent and even which video codecs and players work best. This information will help you on the path to the style of video you want to produce and put your name or company behind.

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