Author Archive

Mobile Insurance Lead Gen

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Many leading auto insurance companies like Allstate, State Farm, Geico and Travellers are buying pay per click ads through google, which are being displayed on mobile devices like the iPhone.

All of the ads that we saw drove users to standard web landing pages like the one above from State Farm. We believe that this is a poor user experience for the potential customer and probably a waste of money for the advertiser.

We recommend instead that the advertiser uses a mobile optimized landing page and mobile analytics so that they have the best chance of converting the visitor into a great lead.

Mobile Device Convergence

Saturday, February 6th, 2010

Personally, I think that device convergence is crap. If devices converge why don’t toasters make coffee? Over time devices take on more specialized roles just like people do in our evolving economy. I charted my own device consumption during the past 16 years and I noticed that (except for device upgrades) in most cases new devices took an incremental role in my life instead of replacing previous devices.

My Personal Electronic Devices

Many mobile devices (Treo, BlackBerry, iPhone) have attempted to converge previous devices like phones, organizers, video game systems, and cameras. Typically these devices fall short on many fronts. I like my iPhone, but I still use our digital camera for photos and I am tempted to get a Blackberry for email. My favorite device right now is my mini digital camcorder. It performs one function and it does that very well.

The iPad looks like a great device, however, I don’t think that it will replace anything that I own. Instead it will become my new browsing-while-sitting-on-the-couch device.

Mobile Lead Generation

Friday, March 6th, 2009

I just got back from LeadsCon and even after multiple nights of little sleep and a red-eye flight back to Boston, I am psyched about the opportunities in the mobile lead generation space.  I met with a number of lead buyers who are excited about trying their offers out in mobile and I hope that we can launch many of these soon.

As an industry Lead Generation seems to be performing incredibly well despite all of the economic issues.  Not surprisingly many of the best performing offers are around either debt or education.  These offers allow people to fix their debt problems and pursue a degree that can make them more employable in the future.

Please contact us if you are a lead buyer who is interested in extending your offer to the 55 million american who now use the mobile web.

Mobile Web Usability

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Jakob Nielsen has a great post about Mobile Usability.  I completely agree that companies need a dedicated mobile site.  The performance characteristics of the mobile device are so different from a PC that you really need to create a distinct site.  Our mobile site platform follows all of the best practices that he describes including: fast download times, low page weight and distinct versions for feature phones, smartphones and iphones.

Boston the Mobile Mecca

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

Silicon Valley has pulled far ahead of Boston in terms of PC based consumer internet companies. Except for TripAdvisor and Lycos Boston has almost no major consumer sites.

In mobile, however, I think that you could argue that Boston is considerably ahead of Silicon Valley. The mobile monday event last night made this poin clear. Four prominent entrepreneurs were featured:

  • Shikhar Ghosh, Skyhook Wireless
  • Jeremy Wright, Enpocket
  • Dan Roth, VoiceSignal
  • Stephen Randall, LocaModa

In addition boston is home to the following Mobile heavyweights:

  • Quattro Wireless
  • Jumptap
  • Third Screen
  • MocoSpace
  • m-Qube

I’m happy to found my company in Boston’s great mobile ecosystem.