Minor Technical Difficulties

While these thoughts are based on making a compelling display-based advertising campaign, the same principles apply to making a compelling product (along with my thoughts):

1. Research, research, research.: You have to know where to sell your ad.
   My Take: In just the same way, you have to know a lot of things about a work product:
   • The usual reporting type questions: Who’s going to use the product; Where/When/Why are they going to use it/How are they going to use it
   • What are some similar products already out there (AKA Who’s the competition?)
   • What tools are available to do the work in question
2. Create site tailored designs.: It is important to get noticed but we’ve found that it is just as effective to blend in. Create ads that fit into web pages.
   My Take: In general, good product design fits intuitively into a user’s world. An exception here is for safety-related systems, where you want things to be obtrusive so as to draw attention to things (bright yellow stripes for danger zones in factories, the beep-beep noise when a big truck backs up)
3. Write short, to the point copy.
   My Take: A person’s time is the most valuable thing they have (you can always make more money eventually). Don’t waste it.
4. Have a strong call-to-action.: When someone sees your ad they need to know what to do. So say: click, buy, download, request, and sign up.
   My Take: Don’t treat users like idiots, but don’t assume they know everything either.
5. Be able to let an ad die.: I know that every word of copy I submit to clients is priceless. Sure a lot of copy dies a brutal and painful death on my computer but the things I ultimately decide to pass along are like the Dead Sea Scrolls but sometimes the clients don’t like them.
   My Take: Something I learned from the days when I was a DJ: No one cares what you like (you being the DJ). If you play music that people don’t like, they will stop coming to the club and you’ll be out of a job. Same for engineering; no matter how much you might like your product, if the users don’t, the product will die. Unless, of course, your user community is yourself.
6. Be open to client feedback.: It is important again to recognize that your client knows his product better than you do and they can give you great insight.
   My Take:More of the same from above. Your users know how they want to use your product and it may not agree with the way you intended it to be. That’s not a bad thing; listen to the market and adjust accordingly.
7. Lastly, and most importantly, you have to have a solid site and product to back up effective ads.
   My Take: If the product doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, nothing else is really going to matter.

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