Much of our eye tracking research has been carried out on websites, emails and other forms of digital media. But, when it comes to testing print media we have had to adapt our approach to suit. The Tobii T60 XL features a 24-inch screen which allows us to digitally replicate larger stimuli such as brochures, catalogues and other double paged communications. This means our test subjects can read a brochure on the screen at full size (or as close as possible to it), keeping the eye tracking process on print materials a more natural experience.

Of course, modifications still have to be made when adopting our eye tracking process for such media. The key difference being that brochures have multiple pages across two-page spreads, doubling the amount of content seen at any one time. Due to this level of content, people generally adopt the scanning approach when viewing each page, flicking through until something catches their eye.

When we scan-read a spread, most of the information is overlooked which can affect its effectiveness as a marketing tool. So it was our intention to take a look closer at how people view brochures and discover ways to enhance an optimised performance on double page spreads.

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Making a good first impression

We all know how important first impressions are when meeting people for the first time. We make our minds up very quickly about them based on various different factors such as the way they dress, their mannerisms, or even a simple handshake. Each of us has an internal database of information about people based on our past experiences with other similar folk. We unconsciously access this information to make snap judgements and assess what a person is like within mere seconds of meeting them. Okay, so what does this have to do with marketing communications you ask? Read more…

Peripheral vision is not something we normally think about when designing marketing media, but eye tracking has demonstrated how crucial it really is to their performance. The peripheral field of vision has a significant influence on eye movement and direction, and can be a decisive factor in encouraging readers to maintain engagement in marketing material. So now let’s take a closer look at how it all works and how we can capitalise on it to create more effective communications.

Our visual span broadly consists of three distinctive levels of perception. When you focus on an object you see it in every detail that your eye can distinguish (the fovea), but you will also notice everything in the background, only in gradually decreasing levels of detail towards the edges of your visual span (the parafovea and periphery).

The fovea is the smallest region and is typically used for activities that require high focus, such as reading. But this task would take forever if it weren’t for the parafovea (the area directly surrounding the fovea), which helps us to see the things in close proximity to what we’re already focusing on. It is this mechanism that allows us to read several words on a page rather than one at a time, drastically increasing our reading speed. It also helps us to identify objects in our environment to enhance our awareness, allowing us to focus on anything that catches our eye from the periphery. Read more…

Since social media reared its head over 10 years ago, it has rapidly integrated itself into almost every aspect of our everyday personal and professional lives.

In 2012 there were approximately 200 million Twitter users, 900 million Facebook users and 4 billions views on YouTube a day. But where did email stand amongst these younger digital media platforms? Is the granddaddy of digital communication still as relevant today as it was 10 years ago?

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Eye tracking research has allowed us to discover what types of design elements are the most effective in attracting attention on a page. Whether it’s an email, web page, or magazine ad, the same eye tracking principles apply in generating high levels of sustained attention that could lead to a sale. Following our numerous studies and years of eye tracking experience, we believe there are two golden rules for creating elements that are magnets for visual attention.

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When I first started at Red C it was almost like I had a second language to learn with Email Marketing.  I am in one of the email specialist teams at the agency; our team members have loads of email experience variety of different sectors. I had to learn pretty fast to be able to follow what they were talking about; it felt sometimes like they were talking in code. After a few months of sitting in client meetings and being involved in the email process from concept to build, I feel like I’ve finally got my head around email marketing jargon.

However, gaining this understanding was no easy feat. I had to spend a lot of time trawling through the web for guides that defined some of the technical jargon that was often flung around. Unfortunately, none of the explanations I found were friendly or digestible – they were just too technical and all I wanted was a simple explanation perhaps with an example. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?

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I clearly remember the first day I ever saw an iPad ‘in the wild’. It’s not hard really, it was only in 2010. One of the techie guys brought his brand new, 1^st generation iPad into an email marketing results meeting on the first week they were commercially available and we all took a moment to sit and admire it. After a few ooooh’s and aaaah’s, someone asked “what are you going to use it for” to which the techie replied “I’m not really sure” and we all laughed and joked that he had just spent the best part of a grand on an incredibly technologically-advanced doorstop.

Just 2 ½ years on and the rise of the tablet has been meteoric. No-one dismisses them as a fad anymore. Apple have been joined by Google and Windows in a market that is now served with an almost bewildering choice of smaller, lighter, faster and cheaper options than the original Apple offering. In fact, tablets dominance has led many to suspect that we are witnessing the end of the laptop for home computing and that website visits on tablet devices will surpass those on smartphones (despite their 3 year head start) early this year.

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Creating an email for the first time can be a daunting task, as it’s difficult to know exactly where to start and what to include in the content. That’s why I’ve put together a list of top ten essential email marketing content ideas to get you started. The following suggestions should create a basis for your email marketing campaign, help you build a relationship with your customers and deliver some impressive results.

1)  Pre-header- not everyone will open your email and read the entire contents, through heatmap analysis we have found that a fair few people open and click straight away. A pre-header is a summary of the reason you are sending the email. When viewed in an inbox it appears after the subject line, to give an indication of what the email is about before the reader opens it. It also acts as a click through straight to your website and adds to the recipient’s recognition of your brand. Adding in a pre-header can significantly improve open and click through rates.

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I like a flutter and can often be found on a Saturday morning trying to predict the outcome of the weekend’s football fixtures.  However, I thought my time during the week might be better served in trying to predict what will be the big things in email marketing in 2013.  Well it certainly won’t have such a negative impact on my bank balance!

Firstly, although 2013 will undoubtedly be challenging, as the inbox will become increasingly competitive, I do believe there is huge scope for success if you approach your emails with an enthusiasm and freshness that not only pushes the boundaries of email marketing but also challenges the norm.

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Running a successful, cost effective PPC advertising campaign takes a lot more than picking some relevant keywords, writing a bit of clever ad copy then sitting back and watching the results come in. If you want to pull together a successful, competitor-proof campaign, it requires a bit of sound strategic thinking…

The importance of measuring pay-per-click campaigns

Back in the summer of 2011, we created a series of Pay-Per-Click campaigns for a well-known Pub and Restaurant brand, with a chain of over 130+ pubs. The main objective of our ads was to drive as much web traffic as possible at the lowest Cost Per Click. So we set about researching the most relevant search terms and cost effective keywords and wrote persuasive ad copy with messages relating to the most popular pub deals of the week, e.g. Sunday Roasts, Lunch and Evening Meal Deals.

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