Take Business Email Seriously

Email has been in the news recently for more than just SPAM.

The biggest news item was VP candidate Sarah Palin's use of Yahoo Mail for government business. Apparently, the email account was not breached by any high level hacker attack, but by a weakness in the Yahoo Password Reset.

The other, not a well know, was at the media agency Carat. In that case a private email intended for senior managers was sent to all employees. The email detailed layoffs and 'talking points' of how to deal with clients.

Both these cases high light problems with human side of email. In the first case, Palin either chose to ignore, or wasn't aware of, rules for use of email for government business. And, like most people, wasn't fully aware of how insecure email is.

In the second case, it appears structures were not in place to prevent this type of error. While the HR VP is taking the heat for the error, clearly the IT department deserves some of the blame for not disabling the "Reply All" option.

Email is, in many respects like sending a digital postcard. Any server handling the email can read, copy or scan (thats the NSA for you conspiracy buffs) your email. Your server mailbox is like your post office mailbox, anyone with the key can access it. Except, online, they can keep trying keys until the find one that fits. Or, as is suspected in Sarah Palin's case, have a new key sent to them.

We all use email every day in our business. And, in most cases we don't understand the technology behind it. It is up to each company to develop their rules for the use of email. They must also clearly explain the reason for these rules if they expect people to follow them.

They Are Not Looking

Launching a new website is always an exciting event. Finally, all the effort any planning of the last few months is going to start paying off.

Launching a site for our first major client was even more exciting. Our budding reputation was riding on this site. We wanted everything to be perfect. And, we thought it was. The client, a local resort, was happy, the site looked great, even the transfer to the new site went smooth.

The client had spread the word about th new site to her friends and suppliers and we were anxiously waiting for feedback. To our surprise the first comment we got back was "How do I book a room?".

We checked the site - there was "BOOK NOW" graphic in the top left corner. We checked the link and it was working. What was wrong.

We now know, thanks to studies by Enquiro that some graphics can act as a barrier. "Blending your conversion trigger into that graphic makes it invisible." In our case, the "BOOK NOW" graphic was overlaid on the main header graphic.

The solution was quick and simple. We added a "BOOK NOW" link into the menu. Later we did our own study we confirmed - no one was clicking on the graphic.

Fortunately, the client is still ith us -- only the graphic is gone.