Slideshow presentations have become landing page mainstays — done well, they’re an eye-catching and effective way to convey a lot of info and imagery. And they serve up plenty of that “wow, the Web sure is cool” factor. Who doesn’t dig a little animation, so to speak?
After reading an article this morning citing 30 standout slideshow examples, and having a quick Twitter tete-a-tete (incongruity noted) with one of our designers revealed genuine concerns about slideshows.
We’re seeing the same syndrome that, just a couple years ago, was generally confined to PowerPoint. People want slides so packed with information that they become unappealing and unreadable. We all know the dangers of PowerPoint abuse. We’ve all fallen asleep to the droning presenter who does little more than read every word on his or her slides. We’ve all grappled with clients who insist every iota of information has to be in the presentation and then wonders why feedback was in the cellar.
Think of slides as flashcards — the old-school animals-and-alphabet ones your nursery school teacher would chant with you morning after morning. One message, one image, now move on. The information sticks because it is the right dose for a typical attention span — and today’s hyper-media audience has an attention span that makes a nursery school student look like a Buddhist monk.
Like the idea of slides for y0ur site build or redesign? Great. Keep content under control. Keep design clean. They’ll get the job done. Load them up like a jitney bus bound for Cartagena and your slides wont be worth . . . well, enough about that.
Get your taxes in? It was a sprint to the mailbox for many of us, but the sense of relief (or resignation) gave way to genuine interest yesterday afternoon at Three Pillar’s first Global Product Mindset series forum — Leveraging Cloud Concepts for Product Development.
Featured speakers where a trio of execs and experts from Eloqua, a company that has created a very successful marketing automation platform. PeakTwo founders Mike and Jay cut their online teeth managing targeted online marketing campaigns during the dotcom boom (RIP LifeMinders). It was a meticulous and labor intensive. The intellects at Eloqua have found a way to automate, manage, and refine that process with a level of speed and precision that, frankly, blew our minds a bit. It was like explaining supersonic flight to a couple guys who used to be motorcycle mechanics. Very cool.
What’s the impending impact on today’s marketing efforts? We’re sussing that out for ourselves, but the potential seems massive. Eloqua’s clients can already attest to that. After the presentation, we knocked a couple back with Senior VP Andre Yee, who elaborated on a couple of compelling presentation points. Overall, however, he was emphatic about the mission of marketing:
It’s about revenue, and that there is a direct correlation between effective marketing automation and good ol’ profit. In so many words, he explained the critical importance of understanding customers. The right targeting coupled with informed follow up relevant to their initial interactions is almost a lock to generate revenue. It’s not intuition; it’s science, and Eloqua is committed to perfecting the formula. With more than 250 customers having already logged two billion interactions with the software, Eloqua is generating a pretty accurate process for generating revenue within specific industries. Now, it’s poised to really turn it up.
A quick note of congrats to our longtime client Three Pillar Software — make that Three Pillar Global. What’s with the name change? After a recent merger with LeverPoint, Three Pillar has set itself up as a peerless purveyor of ‘shore-agnostic’ software product outsourcing. It means they know how to balance the advantages of international resources with the control and quality expected of domestic operations when it comes to exceptional software product engineering.
Read more about it here.
Remember the scene in Pulp Fiction where Jules and Vincent are putting the hurt on Brett and his buddies? Of course you do. A particular moment of tension came when Jules was hammering him with questions regarding his familiarity with Marcellus Wallace. The only reply Brett could manage was sputtering, panicked repetition of the word “What?” Fed up, Jules pulls his pistol, points it at Brad’s face and commands him to “Say ‘What?’ again!” The implication being that if Brett did, he would be on the receiving end of Mr. 9 Millimeter (his ultimate fate anyway).
I cite this exchange because I understand how Jules feels upon hearing an especially annoying term again and again. In my case, it’s the use of meaningless market-speak. Brainstorms are rotten with expressions that sound significant, but upon further review mean absolutely nothing. My current favorite is “Best of Breed”, which seemed to be on the outs pre-recession. For some reason, it’s enjoying a comeback and I’m fighting it with every ounce of strength I can muster. What is this, the Westminster Kennel Club? You can’t tell me you’re the best at something and then use some nondescript term with the hope that I don’t scrutinize your assertion. What breed are you talking about? The product itself? Your company’s industry? The micro-niche you’re hoping to fill? Chesapeake Bay Retriever? Meaningless, over-wrought drivel.
We all appreciate the value of concision. We all strive for clarity. But good communication also requires some heavy lifting. Take some bandwidth to explain what it is you mean in plain English. You can’t throw up a smokescreen of corporate-bingo bs and hope we don’t press you for the details.
If your medium doesn’t allow for too much detail, then a key part of your message has to be inviting your audience to follow up for more info. That means prioritizing messaging for your websites, print ads, and collateral — which have a relatively small amount of space. That doesn’t mean devoting that precious real estate to terms so vacuous and vague that they fall apart under just a bit of scrutiny. Give us an essential point. Encourage us to contact or click deeper for more info. It’s okay to ask audiences to work a bit, especially if there’s an informational reward.
Apologies for the rant. I’m in a transitional period and I want to help you.
