You’ve probably heard of the Poynter Institute’s now infamous Eyetrack studies that reveal how visitors to your website scan pages, what they focus on and what they miss. These are the studies that first revealed the issue of banner blindness in 1999. The last Eyetrack Study (Eyetrack III) was released last year and contained over 300 pages of in depth information of value to Internet marketers. Every time I revisit it, I glean some new tidbit of very useful information.

This week’s revelation comes courtesy of SiteProNews – smaller font sizes encourage visitors to read more and scan less. Yup – reducing the font size on your website might get your readers to focus on the content of your page rather than scanning the headlines. And, on the topic of headlines – underlined headings can discourage visitors from (gulp!) reading the paragraphs that follow.

I’m looking forward to the next update – Eyetrack 2007 due out early next year.

Related Links:
1. Poynter Article: EyeTrack ‘07: New Study Probes Online and Print
2. SiteProNews Article: See Your Website Through Your Visitors Eyes

Ok, so you’ve installed a web analytics program and you’re looking at your first report. How do you make sense of all that data? The first step is understanding the jargon. Browse the list below for key web analytics terms and a plain language explanation of what they mean.

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I am listed. Now what do I do?
If your email server is listed on an RBL, chances are that your carefully crafted messages aren’t actually getting through to some of your subscribers. RBL stands for Realtime Blackhole List, a list of IP addresses known to have distributed spam emails. Companies can subscribe to an RBL, then set their mail servers to check all incoming traffic against the IP’s listed and block mail from any of the offenders. Some ISP’s also use the RBL’s as a way of limiting the volume of spam delivered to their customers.

As a digital direct marketer, it’s important to understand the workings the RBL’s, how they affect your business and what do when you’re listed.

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No email message is successful unless it gets read. Your subject line plays a big role in enticing your readers to open your emails. Here are the top ten tips for writing an effective subject line:

1. Keep it short Ideally, your subject line will contain no more than 50 characters including spaces and puntuation.
2. Leave out the obvious marketing copy Words like FREE, DISCOUNT, or WIN can make your email look like spam. They can cause your messages to be caught in spam filters and discourage your readers from opening your messages.

Skip Personalization In your subject line at least. This is a favourite technique of spammers and can cause your email to be caught in spam filters.

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So, the copy is written. The email has been coded and uploaded into your email management system. You’re ready to go. Or are you?

Pre-flight testing is the critical last step in just about every possible advertising and marketing activity. It’s the final stop before the point of no return. The same is true for your email campaigns. Fortunately, it isn’t a difficult step but it does require discipline. Follow these 10 steps to ensure your email campaigns drop error free.

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