AskMD Is a Health Dashboard For Your iPhone

The concept of a symptom checker is familiar — we've been self-diagnosing on WebMD for more than a decade, and the plethora of Q&A sites and blogs puts more health information at our fingertips than we could ever need. Meanwhile, the medical industry is characterized as being slow to innovate.
That's changing with startup accelerators focused on health that include Rock Health, Healthbox and Blueprint Health.

This Crazy Cat Litter Ad Is Just Meow-tlandish

The Dutch ad company that came up with this video might not be on-point when it comes to pop culture timelines, but they do get points for committing to absurdity.
And let's be fair, promoting a disposable litter box is no easy task — but the 'Poopy Cat Dolls' do it with style.
Parodying the now-defunct pop group The Pussycat Dolls, this musical ad shows the sassy side of five cats begging for a better litter option. The ad doesn't go into the benefits of disposable vs. stationary litter boxes, but we don't care.
We'll take six for our cats at home, please.

'Red Lightning' Is a Ball Boy With His Own Highlight Reel

Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston burst onto the national scene this year in scintillating fashion. He'll probably win the Heisman Trophy, and the Seminoles may well win the national title.
But maybe — just maybe — he's not Florida State's MVP. No, Florida State's MVP might not even be a player all. Let us consider instead, for a moment, the young man known simply as "Red Lightning," a ball boy so proficient and charismatic that he was recently honored with his very own YouTube highlight reel.

 Auburn Football Hero Returns to Standing Ovation From Geology Class
The video above has been watched more than 600,000 times since hitting the web on Wednesday — and for good reason. At the 0:15 mark we get a look at Red Lightning's hustle and speed. At the 0:35 mark, we see his toughness and dedication. And for the entire video, we get to luxuriate in Red Lightning's luscious ginger locks and marvel over his oh-so-manly facial scruff.
But that's not all — Red Lighting is also on Twitter! There he identifies himself as Frankie Grizzle, which may be an even better moniker than the illustrious Red Lightning.
Here he is ready to take care of business before a September road game:

The World's Largest Vessel Is Bigger Than the Empire State Building

The world's largest vessel just set sail off the coast of South Korea.
The Prelude is 1,601 feet long — that's 150 feet longer than the Empire State Building is tall. Owned by Shell, the vessel's massive size has earned it the title of largest object currently afloat.
The bright red vessel weighs 600,000 tons and is 243 feet wide, according to Wired.
Construction of the Prelude, which has three engines that pack 20,100 horsepower, took a full year to complete.

So how does Shell plan to use the mammoth vessel? It will be a floating liquefied natural gas facility, where natural gas will be harvested from the depths of the ocean, processed on board and transferred to transport ships waiting in the sea. Wired reported that the Prelude will produce 3.9 million tons each year.
The floating facility will take some of the strain of gas production off the environment, Shell said in a release. "It also avoids the potential environmental impact of constructing and operating a plant on land, including laying pipelines to shore and building other infrastructure."
Since the Prelude is so large, it will require a system of pulleys and levers to haul it across the sea. So while it is entirely mobile, the vessel will remain stationary for large blocks of time. Its first destination, for example, is off the coast of Western Australia, where it will anchor for 25 years.
Responsible for 175 Olympic-sized swimming pools' worth of natural gas at any time, it isn't hard to understand why the vessel has put safety systems in place to combat weather troubles. A turret the height of the Statue of Liberty has been constructed to run through the Prelude, ensuring stability even during a Category 5 hurricane, as the mooring system gently absorbs the force of winds.
While the Prelude will begin its trek to Australia in 2017, Shell is already working on the designs of an even bigger vessel, according to Reuters.

 

Is Your Website a One-Hit Wonder?

Few businesses strive for a website that's the equivalent of a one-hit wonder.
If visitors are coming to your site and engaging — possibly even converting — and then leaving, never to return again, you're probably wondering why this happens (and if it matters, particularly if overall pageviews or conversion numbers are solid).
We're talking to marketers as a part of our Metrics That Matter series, and asking them about the importance of visitor retention as well as the extent they pay attention to recency and frequency of visits. Below are a few suggestions for analyzing this particular metric, as well as insight into why it's worth taking a look at these traffic trends.

Not All Visitors Are Created Equal

As we've touched on in earlier articles in this series, not all visitors who come to your site hold the same value for your business or your bottom line. Perhaps a one-time visitor heard about an article on your site from a friend, and wants to casually peruse (but with no intention of purchasing your product or signing up for your newsletter). On the other hand, perhaps an ad campaign is resonating particularly well with targeted Facebook users — and it's resulting in more high-value traffic and return visitors for your blog.
Jon Gibs, vice president of analytics at Huge, points out that, for some businesses, levels of return visitation may actually be more important than the number of raw visitors.

"If you assume there is a cost to acquire any given customer, having a high level of return visitation allows you to amortize your acquisition cost across multiple visits,

"If you assume there is a cost to acquire any given customer, having a high level of return visitation allows you to amortize your acquisition cost across multiple visits, or more specifically, the revenue that any given user drives," says Gibs. The amount of emphasis to place on this metric (as well as how you'll interpret it) varies from business to business. For a mobile app, for example, frequency of use is hugely important, and a good indicator of the app's overall success. As Cezary Pietrzak, former head of marketing at Appboy says: "In mobile, the equivalent [to visitor frequency and recency] is number of sessions and sessions in last X days. These are good benchmarks for engagement and retention, or the lifeblood of the app. Installs these days mean nothing. Building a successful business means you have a steady flow of users who engage with your app on a regular basis."
But a low rate of visit per visitor isn't necessarily devastating news for certain types of businesses — the metric is relative. A quarterly publication may see a spike in web traffic after publishing its latest issue; meanwhile, a daily deals site may wince at traffic that recurs only four times a year. Discounting one-time visitors isn't black and white, either; perhaps the visitor who just wanted to check out your site's content once might pass the word along to friends who actually will purchase or convert.
Navneet Virk, vice president of optimization at Roundarch Isobar, points out the differences between a banking site, which may have significantly high numbers of visits per visitor (since users are continuously checking their balances), and a retail site, where purchase may be a one-time occurrence. For a luxury retail brand, a high rate of conversion may be more indicative of effective marketing than the percentage of repeat visitors (who may simply be deciding whether or not to buy — or showing all their friends the $1,200 jacket they wish they could afford).
The trick is to tailor your metrics analysis efforts to your specific business, needs and objectives. Serena Satyasai, global marketing lead at CloudFlare, Inc. suggests that the definition of "active users" should be applied to an individual company's goals.

Frequency and Recency Help Establish Trends

Keeping track of your return visitors and noting their behavior — if and when they convert or purchase, for example — can be a helpful indicator that something you're doing on the marketing front is working (or not).
One of the initial steps in the analytical process should be breaking your website traffic into different groups or cohorts, based upon their behavior on your site.

"First time visitor, second time visitor, loyal visitor — each visitor is not the same, and determining their frequency of visits/purchases is the simplest way of segmenting your audience,"

"First time visitor, second time visitor, loyal visitor — each visitor is not the same, and determining their frequency of visits/purchases is the simplest way of segmenting your audience," says Hugo Smoter, director of marketing for Spreadshirt. Once you've completed this grouping process, you can experiment with different tactics (email marketing, mobile ads, etc.) to appeal to each segment on an individual basis. "If you’ve found that people only buy from you after two or five or 10 visits, you need to be paying attention to how you’re attracting people back," says Tyler Young, principal consultant for Conversion Insights. He adds, however, that — once again — this analysis depends upon the company and its goals. "I've worked with companies in which 90% of sales happen the first day a person visits," he says.
Blogs, online dating sites, news sites and service-based platforms may want to pay closer attention to the metric. If users are signing up and then jumping ship shortly thereafter, it may be time to address the efficacy of your site, content or marketing campaigns.
Kellee Khalil, founder and CEO of wedding-planning website Loverly, says that the company monitors visitor retention closely. "We know that once a user creates a free account and bundles images (i.e. creates and saves a digital folder like gowns or shoes), upon her second bundle, she is hooked and becomes a 'power user.' She visits many more times a day and really engages with our content to actively plan her wedding," says Khalil.

Page Views Don't Necessarily Equate Sales

While visitor traffic is important information from a marketing, targeting and messaging perspective, it's important to note that this data may not automatically correlate with increased leads or sales, says Jason Squardo, executive vice president of optimization at ZOG Digital. He suggests that attribution modeling and tools such as tagged advertisements or unique landing pages may help identify visitors who are not only engaged, but also more likely to buy.
Christopher Penn, vice president of marketing technology at SHIFT Communications, suggests that companies focus on the big picture. "As a marketer, you don't really care what the proportion of new to returning visitors is. You care that both audiences are growing. You want more new visitors, and you want more returning visitors. It's much better to measure each separately rather than the blend or mix of both," says Penn.

Content Is Key

There's a reason that content marketing — both as a buzzword and in practice — is on the rise. If your visitors are confused, unimpressed or bored, it's unlikely that you'll remain on their radar.
To encourage visitor retention — as well as entice new visitors — a solid content strategy is a must.

"Getting people to an online destination is hard enough, and getting them to return is even harder. That's where the content comes in,"

"Getting people to an online destination is hard enough, and getting them to return is even harder. That's where the content comes in," says Rob Longert, co-founder at an independent PR and strategy firm. "To get people to come back, the content has to be engaging, fresh and compelling on a regular basis." Longert says that leveraging fans and followers on social channels is another way to engage with your brand or product's pre-existing audience, as well as encourage visitor retention. In addition, a successful content strategy can build strong brand affinity and loyalty, says Stephanie Fried, VPof digital insights and marketing for Discovery Communications. "Ideally, we want to create a habit of visitation among our users so that visiting our sites is part of their regular routine," she says.
Thoughtful, high-quality content is one way to reign in visitors and keep them coming back. Alexis Anderson, director of marketing and partnerships for PureWow, stresses the importance of quality edit: "You can't fake good content. No marketing trick in the world can make up for subpar content, especially in front of a very discerning reader."
How does your business measure visitor retention? Is it an important metric for your site? Tell us in the comments.