Today’s web apps commonly overlook if a customer knows what’s going to happen when they start the service. They tell the customer why to use the service, but not what will happen once they start. And face it, even if you have the perfect product, it won’t matter if the customer can’t start somewhere.

We’ve been thinking a lot about this challenge at Printfection. And, as of a few weeks ago, we launched a new Campaign Wizard to help our customers.

First, a quick overview of the issues we wanted to address. We find that customers know what they want to do by the time they sign into our service (i.e. I need to get some T-Shirts for an event, or, I need to reward my best customers after Q1 ends). However, what’s challenging is putting their exact goal into terms that align with our campaign types. Even though we work hard to name our campaigns aptly, no one name can address a user’s true intent. What we’ve learned is that we need to solidify our campaigns around the customer’s intended action.

How do we do this? First, become action based instead of name based. Instead of telling a customer to create a Giveaway, we need to give them an action they’re thinking of. In the case of a Giveaway campaign we can say “Send swag to important customers”. Now the user knows roughly what a Giveaway helps them do.

However, we’re not finished yet. We want to be really explicit, what exactly is going to happen from a customer perspective when they create this campaign? Here we take a usability technique from our friends at SuperDuper! (an awesome little OS X backup app). We tell the customer exactly what’s going to happen:

We collect size, style, and shipping info for each recipient via your custom branded landing page. Then, we pack and drop-ship to each recipient.

Boom! Now the customer knows exactly what we’re going to help them do. From here they can either start with confidence, or choose another action from our Wizard. In one swoop we’ve taken potential confusion and given them a clear path.

These hurdles customer’s face when starting to use our product are very important to us. We couldn’t be more excited to keep solving these problems.

The Company

Skyscope Creative is a startup video marketing agency based in the Greater Boston area, founded by Sam Shepler, Gabe Gerzon, and Alex Dunn in 2012.  Their mission is to provide creative marketing video for innovation companies, from growing startups to large technology firms.  With backgrounds in filmmaking and business strategy, they are devoted to producing cinematic video that delivers business results.

The Philosophy

Skyscope believe the best marketing videos communicate with a unique balance of style, story and strategy.  They find their work style of individual “sprints”  bracketed by team collaboration and dialogue is ideal for creative productivity.  Rather than rely on discipline, they believe in creating an optimal productivity environment… so they literally took things into their own hands and built their desks from scratch.  This allowed them to get an ideal set up in a small space on their bootstrapped budget.

The Space

The Features

• Independent personal workspaces
• A shared space to meet as a team and collaborate with a whiteboard
• A comfortable, casual space for meeting with clients and visitors
• A clean, modern style with a consistent aesthetic
• Built-in “overflow” space with future employees in mind

What We Love

• Total DYI workspace on a budget
• The collaboration area just a quick scoot away
• Built in “overflow” space – a great feature since they just hired 3 additional team members.

What part of their office do you like the best?

(Interested in having your company featured? Drop us a line at realperson@printfection.com.)

The Company

Weather Underground (wunderground.com) is committed to delivering the most reliable, accurate weather information possible. Their state-of-the-art technology monitors conditions and forecasts for locations around the world, so you’ll always find the weather information you need. In addition to providing free, real-time online weather information to millions of Web users around the world, wunderground.com also offers newspaper weather services and custom site weather packages.

The Philosophy

At wunderground, ideas are inspired through an open forum for creativity, constant collaboration, and even a groundhog. With Alan the Groundhog as the company’s mascot, wunderground adds a fun and engaging element to the science behind the weather. At their office, you’ll find laid-back workspaces with everyone sharing an element of their personalities through the décor- providing an excellent conversation started for any visitor. When the team isn’t inside reporting on the weather, they can be found enjoying it outside with a game of sand volleyball or lunch along the wharf.

The Space

The Features

• Located in China Basin across the street from AT&T Park
• Waterfront location
• Total of 9,000 sq. ft.
• Home to some very unique workspaces and Geek Desks
• Access to sand volleyball and basketball courts
• Company bicycles
• Tetris machine
• Office photos provided by their WunderPhoto Community

What We Love

• The views from the amazing waterfront location
• We love rockin’ it old school, awesome Tetris machine!
• The custom workspaces with Geek Desks

Thanks to Weather Underground for the sneak peak behind the weather! What part of their office do you like the best?

(Interested in having your company featured? Drop us a line at realperson@printfection.com.)

The web is maturing, SaaS business models aren’t new anymore. As a marketer, it’s harder to create differentiation than it was 5 years ago. So how do you create differentiation in a maturing industry?

Why not look to an industry that’s extremely mature – airlines. Not just any airline, Kulula Airlines, a quirky upstart from South Africa.

Compare Kulula’s “flight attendant speak” to that of a legacy carrier like United, American, or Delta. Which airline would you rather fly?

“To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don’t know how to operate one, you probably shouldn’t be out in public unsupervised.”

“There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing.. If you can light ‘em, you can smoke ‘em.”

“In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child travelling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are travelling with more than one small child, pick your favorite.”

“Your seat cushion can be used for flotation; and in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments.”

“Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted.”

So next time you’re struggling to create differentiation, try a little humor. Most webapps and SaaS companies still have boring auto-reply emails, dry website copy, and stale marketing videos.

If the airline industry – which relies on safety and security to the Nth degree – can inject humor into their daily operations with success, it’s a no-brainer for the more relaxed web industry.

The real question is why so few internet companies embrace humor’s marketing power? Any great examples we can learn from?

The Company

Founded in 2009, after graduating from the TechStars program, SendGrid has developed a cloud based service that solves the challenge of email delivery by delivering emails on behalf of companies. They currently have 5 offices and were kind enough to let us check out their latest here in Denver.

The Philosophy

SendGrid’s Denver office is comprised of a healthy mix of extroverted geeks, beer enthusiasts, and exercise fanatics from the support, sales, HR, compliance, marketing, executive, and developer relations teams. The two-story space’s six conference rooms are named after the Front Range 14ers. To prep for their weekend hikes, the Denver ‘Gridders get their P90x and CrossFit workouts on in the studio on the second floor.

When not working out, hacking, or troubleshooting, you’ll find the Denver crew downing smoothies mixed in the kitchen or sipping on some craft beers from the kegerator. Cookies are served on Tuesdays, and catered lunches are hosted every Friday. Food is most definitely fuel for SendGrid!

The new addition of a 5-panel Nana door brings lots of natural light into the space and on warmer days, you can catch the ‘Gridders working and eating out on the back patio. At SendGrid, happy employees are innovative employees—and happiness begins in the office!

The Space

The Features

• The studio: cross-functional work out room
• A patio: outside work and lunching space
• The kitchen: includes a fully stocked fridge and serves as the meeting area for weekly “all hands” meetings via a floor length drop-down screen
• Torreys: 12 person boardroom
• Electric adjustable height desks for sitting or standing while you work

What We Love

• The wonderful views from the patio and the new Nana doors!
• Cookies on Tuesdays
• Work out room (might need to work off some of those cookies)

Always fun to feature someone local! What part of their office do you like the best?

(Interested in having your company featured? Reach us at realperson@printfection.com.)

VaultPress did a great job with their contact-us process. After submitting the form, there’s big huge text letting you know your message went through. Along with photos of their “safekeeping team” reassuring the visitor real humans exist behind the screen.

The next time you redesign your contact us page, consider making it a bit more personal. It’s an important, often overlooked part of the customer experience.

The Company

Founded by Will Critchlow and Duncan Morris in 2005, Distilled helps companies grow their businesses online through search marketing. They’re a team of enthusiastic internet marketers based in London, UK with offices in Seattle and New York. They believe in sharing knowledge through their blog, conferences, and interactive training. And they were kind enough to share a peek behind the scenes of their London office with us!

The Philosophy

Distilled is a (personable) geek at heart and has set itself the goal of being the best place for the best people to work. With that mind, when they’re not busy marketing their clients, you’ll find Team Creative and the SEOs enjoying a spot of lunchtime kick-about at the top of the office or competing fiercely in a customary Mario Kart session in the bean bag room. But it’s not all gaiety and mirth over at Distilled, they also have a keen grasp of the important when it comes to budget and company spends. Sure, Will and Duncan’s meeting room doesn’t yet contain a phone or table but there is a fully stocked “drinks” cabinet in charming globe form. Where else would they keep the whisky?

The Space

The Features

• The red room- the boardroom
• The green room- the A/V suite
• The blue room- the beanbag/Mario Kart room
• The orange room- Will and Duncan’s meeting room
• Communal music system- no Justin Bieber though please, although the 90s playlist is a favorite with the Events girls on a Friday
• Group dining area/Beer o’clock platform

What We Love

• Inspiring typography decking the walls
• Awesome view
• We call Luigi in the next round of Mario Kart!
• Large open space for collaboration

Always interesting to check out an office abroad! What part of their office do you like the best?

(Interested in having your company featured? Reach us at realperson@printfection.com.)

The Company

Founded in 2010 by Rajat Bhargava, Matthew Bellows, and Cashman Andrus, Yesware is an email tool for salespeople. With the tool you can easily track emails, create templates, CRM sync, and more. Yesware’s reports and analytics give salespeople unprecedented feedback about how their messages are being received. And as a result it helps sellers close more deals faster. They’re currently based out of south Boston with 13 full-time employees and are growing every month.

The Philosophy

Because Yesware puts a priority on productivity, their office is unique in that their environment is probably best described as being like a reading room at a University around exam time. The majority of the space is a huge open room, where a bunch of people are in close contact with desks next to one-another, but very focused on their work. In general they try hard to minimize interruptions and distractions. Meetings are kept to a bare minimum and usually only consist of two or three people interested in coordinating efforts and synchronizing development projects. Yesware is also working on the idea of improving the “modern work space.” Regardless of how nice an office space is, if employees are busy staring at computer monitors and using 20th century applications while actually doing work, most end up not appreciating the physical environment that much. So one of Yesware’s goals is to improve the experience employees are having on their computers by taking into consideration where their awareness is while they’re working, providing flexibility to the users’ activities. For example one way they’ve contributed to making said environment better is that their Yesware product is contextual- it has everything to do with what the user is doing, not with where the application is installed.

The Space

The Features

• In its previous lives their office was a sweat shop and an ad agency
• Located in a large peninsula-like building that sticks out into the street
• Gigantic windows on 3 sides of the building allowing for a lot of light
• Entrance hallway separated from the main open area by plywood permeable screen
• Large open space with desks
• Meeting rooms along one side of the building

What We Love

• Beautiful Yesware logo carved into the clever plywood wall
• A strong focus on productivity
• Their push for improving the modern work space

What a unique space based in a startup-strong city! What part of their office do you like the best?

(Interested in having your company featured? Drop us a line at realperson@printfection.com.)

The Company

Marketo uniquely provides easy-to-use, powerful and complete marketing software that propels fast-growing small companies and global enterprises alike.  Our vision is rooted in the idea that both the day-to-day jobs and the strategic role of marketing and sales professionals have been disrupted by repeated waves of change over the last decade or so: the Internet and World Wide Web; Google and search marketing; e-commerce; and more recently by social media and ubiquitous mobile computing. As a result, our mission is to build a great company – one that aids, but also changes the market with our technology innovation and thought leadership; one that delivers real value to our customers; one that delights our users on a daily basis with the experience of working with our software; one that creates substantial returns for our investors and employees; and one that is a special place to work.

The Philosophy

Marketo believes in an open office environment because it encourages employee collaboration and communication across teams and departments. Additionally, because there are no barriers, Marketo’s work space inspires relationship building and great team dynamics. The team is able to collaborate naturally and on a regular basis, and is also more likely to be creative and innovate freely.

The Space

The Features

• 4 separate floors totaling 50,000+ square feet
• High energy office with an open floor plan with lots of writable wall space and 35+ conference and sales demo rooms
• Large community kitchen stocked with beverages and an espresso machine, an adjacent lounge area for relaxation, game room with ping pong and foosball tournaments, fresh fruits and cereals delivered weekly
• End of month theme days showcasing employees’ creativity
• No shortage of food
• Employee shuttle service
• Centrally located with several amenities nearby, easy freeway access and access to public transportation
• Large monitors throughout all the floors in the office that rotate between sales standings and corporate announcements and news

 What We Love

• Staying true to their colors they have purple and orange throughout
• Ping pong sounds like a great way to unwind
• Writing on the walls- super handy and fun
• Based out of beautiful sunny San Mateo, California

We enjoyed taking a peek at this awesome and gigantic office! Do you have a favorite part of their space?

(Would you like your company to be featured? Drop us a line at realperson@printfection.com.)

The Company

FullContact is solving the world’s contact information problem. Their cloud-based contact management system helps individuals and businesses manage their contacts without the hassle of duplicate contacts, partial records, and incomplete records. They also provide contact management APIs, which are used by thousands of developers around the world to enrich contact data in CRM, marketing automation, and other apps.

The Philosophy

FullContact is passionate about building the startup community in downtown Denver - so naturally, they opted to place their office in the heart of Denver’s LoDo district. The 4100sf office is walking distance from Coors Field, hundreds of restaurants, and an always busy downtown. They’re also in close proximity to several other local startups – which made it convenient to host several events in their offices as part of the recent Denver Startup Week.

FullContact’s office is on the “Garden Level” – which is commercial real estate code for “basement.” They find the location fitting, since prior to this office they worked out of the founders’ basement and the TechStars bunker (conveniently located in the basement of a building in downtown Boulder). The office features an open floor plan that improves communication and encourages collaboration, two smaller conference rooms, and a giant meeting room called the Danger Zone.

Most importantly, they’re a startup – so the office is cheap (who needs a high-rise penthouse with air hockey tables and catered lunch? They’d rather spend their resources on hiring an amazing team and shipping world-changing products).

The Space

The Features

• Open floor plan (collaboration is key)
• Completely cube-less seating (no prairie-dogging necessary)
• Fully-stocked kitchen (coding is hungry work)
• One small conference room, one lounge room (they opted against a nap room, but maybe in the future)
• The Danger Zone – A massive meeting room big enough to play football (but usually just used for meetings and events).
• A framed picture of their CEO checking his iPhone next to the pyramids in Egypt (a reminder of the importance of getting off the grid)
• An abundance of FullContact t-shirts
• The Wynkoop Brewery a stone’s throw away (right across the street)
• Smack in the middle of downtown Denver (close to public transportation)

What We Love

• The open office space has an awesome flow
• Their emphasis on what matters most- great products and people
• Heck yeah Denver!
• The bike parking station for healthy commuters
• Seriously sweet t-shirts (but we might be a little biased)

What a lovely work space! Do you have a favorite part of their office?

(Would you like your company to be featured? Drop us a line at realperson@printfection.com.)