Sue Aldrich's Research

End-to-End Search Marketing and Customer Experience

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

There is no question that search drives revenue: it brings customers to your site, it connects customers to products, and it can be used to trigger relevant offers on your site. Making the most of your search opportunity isn’t simple: you have SEO, paid search, paid inclusion, advertising, site search, and site merchandising. All seem to have different paradigms, tools, reporting, and lingo, and making trade-offs can be a challenge that few people we surveyed were able to successfully surmount. But there are steps you can take to optimize your customers’ search experience and reap increased and more profitable revenue as a result.
Read a sample of this report.

Search Product and Company Update - Part 2, 2007

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Our annual recap of search company activity concludes that 2007 was a pretty good year for the seven publicly-traded technology companies on our watch list. The six gained more than 8,000 customers; there were very significant acquisitions that strengthened product portfolios and market positions, and all but one had significant product announcements.

Airbus’s Super Jumbo Content Challenge

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

When Airbus began work on the A380 Superjumbo aircraft, it also began work on building a new documentation system, one that could support a million pages of custom documentation for each aircraft and a thousand people developing the content. Axel Sellmer, Manager IS for Repair and Customer Services Germany, and his team developed the software and systems for technical documentation. This report describes the exacting requirements of the A380 documentation projects, and the systems Axel’s team developed to satisfy those requirements, which includes a layered technology architecture and an atomic information architecture.

Search Product and Company Update - Part 1, 2H 2007

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Our review of 17 privately-held vendors on our search technology watch list shows that customers’ appetite for search technology continues to be strong, roughly equal to the very hot first half. All but one of these vendors acquired more customers this year as compared to last year, and revenue growth is enviable. Hiring has moderated after a crazy first half, but 10 of the companies have changes to the management team. The delivery of new technology was also impressive. We’ve added five European companies to our list, all of whom are establishing offices in the U.S. and multiple European countries.

Five Principles of Customer Engagement

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Some two-thirds of consumers who said they visited an online store intending to make a purchase left the site because the retailer did not provide enough information upon which to make a decision. Engagement is everything a merchant does to get and keep customer attention. In the uncertain economy of 2008, customer engagement may prove to be the key to retail success. Our five principles are tried and true approaches that can help you produce a fresh, engaging experience.

SLI Systems Learning Search Ecommerce January 2008

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT

SLI Systems Learning Search Ecommerce is a strong solution, with unmatched automation and integration, optimization and automation of search engine marketing; automated management of site search experience; and strong scalability. This solution should be on the short list for retailers, including those selling content.

Enterprise Search Planning and Evaluation Matrix, Version 3

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

In our enterprise search planning and evaluation framework, we present the criteria that we believe are important when evaluating how well any given offering will support an organization’s needs. To assist you in your evaluation efforts, we are presenting the criteria in matrix form with blank columns. You can use this matrix to notate the capabilities of the short list of products you are currently investigating.

Enterprise Search Planning and Evaluation Framework, Version 3

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Successful delivery of the right seeker experience--for customers, partners, investors, employees, and other stakeholders--requires the right balance of technology, management, and skills. Our updated enterprise search framework provides technology criteria as well as our recommendations for responsibilities and metrics for findability and quality of seeker experience. This framework replaces the enterprise search framework of 2006, and also encompasses our frameworks for product search and customer service search.

Avoiding Search Pitfalls

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Search projects fail for all the reasons any project fails, but there are a few obstacles that loom especially large for search. Understanding the worst pitfalls of search can help you avoid them—or at least put a name to your current misery. We’ll go further than naming what ails you, and outline a path to sidestep the big mistakes and offer advice on how to escape the holes you’re already in. Our advice is primarily for search project and program leaders. The big problems all belong to you.

Search Product and Company Update - Part 1, 1H 2007

Susan Aldrich — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Our review of the 15 privately-held vendors on our search technology watch list shows that customers’ appetite for search technology is growing. All but two of these vendors acquired more customers this half as compared to last half, and revenue growth is enviable. The delivery of new technology was also impressive. And a new trend that will prove interesting for our next review is accelerated hiring: there are 228 open positions currently posted on these vendors Web sites.