4 Optimization Insights from Donald, Bernie, & Hillary

Presidential Campaign Website Insights

Let’s get something straight; I’m not interested in discussing the views and stances of the three remaining presidential candidates. While I might insult them for wearing frumpy shoes, having a head shaped like a minecraft character, or revealing something pretty personal, this article focuses on the usability, design and functionality of the candidates’ official campaign websites.

I’m always looking for new strategies and techniques to increase on-page conversions, and one of the best places to find them is on high performing websites. The digital campaign hubs for Trump, Sanders, and Clinton have been some of the most visited on the web, and all that traffic data allows for insane levels of testing and optimization. Though the public doesn’t have access to any of the hard data (unless Hillary’s site is hosted on her email server), there are some insights to be gleaned from looking at the front end.

Below are four things I found on these websites that are probably worth testing on your own web projects.

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New AdWords Feature: Create Custom Formulas in Columns

Create Custom Formulas in AdWords Columns

A couple months ago Google launched a new AdWords feature that I think many marketers will find useful. I put together a quick post on the blog at Breakaway.com outlining the benefits and an example use case that I implemented for one of our clients. Click below to check it out.

Read it @ Breakaway

Vertical Video Is Here To Stay

vertical video is here to stay

Two years ago I was passionate in my hatred for vertical video. The wasted screen real estate on desktop and other wide-format displays was annoying and uncomfortable. But after experiencing the consistent growth of mobile content consumption with platforms like Snapchat over the past two years my tune has changed. I am now confident when I say that vertical video here to stay and it’s going to be a major part of digital content moving forward.

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MealPass Review: A One Week Trial in Boston

MealPass Review - A One Week Trial

If you haven’t heard about MealPass yet, check this out. From the founders of the popular ClassPass fitness network, MealPass is a subscription meal service designed for people who work and eat lunch in Boston. For $99 a month MealPass offers lunch every weekday from a choice of over 50 restaurants in the Financial District, Downtown and as of March 14th, in Back Bay.

With the new options in Back Bay, where Breakaway is located, I began to seriously consider signing up. Still, I had a few reservations. Would there be enough variety with each restaurant only offering a single choice each day? Would I have the ability to customize the meals at all? The MealPass website doesn’t offer up any of this information without creating (and paying for) an account, which initially gave me pause.

Then last month my colleague Diana, a MealPass subscriber and extremely vocal advocate, hooked me up with a free week trial and I jumped at the chance to try it risk-free. Here’s how it went.

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“Industry Standard” Is A Dirty Word

industry-standard-dangerous-comparison-concept

There is more than one type of dirty industry standard.

Yeah, I know industry standard is two words, but the title is much catchier this way.

On their own those two words are great for describing major economic segments and mediocrity. When combined they form one of the most dangerous and misleading phrases in business and marketing.

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Designed and authored by Mathew Bernstein.
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