Marketing Analytics

How to Use Social Media to Boost SEO: 5 Strategies

2008-12-23T19:51:00.001-05:00

SUMMARY: You’ve adopted SEO best practices for website architecture, content and inbound links. Where do you turn next?
Social media channels can create keyword-rich content and links that boost your search rankings. Here are 5 strategies for generating conversations and links in the Web 2.0 world from a company that has achieved the top organic placement for several industry terms.

Marketers looking for new SEO tactics often focus on the mechanics of search engines. Instead, marketers should examine the kind of sites that increasingly show up in search results, says John Fischer, Owner, Sticker Giant, a site that has achieved the top organic placement for terms like “Stickers” and “Custom Stickers.”
“If you scan the first page of results, more and more sites come up that are social networking sites,” he says. “You find Twitter, Facebook, blogs, videos -- these are not static websites. These are things that have a human being front and center.”
The rise of these social media sites offers marketers a new channel for communicating with customers to create enormous SEO benefits. By reaching out to the members of those communities and encouraging customers to talk about your company and products, you can create keyword-rich content and inbound links that raise your profile with the search-engine spiders.
Fischer and his team use a wide-ranging approach to social media that’s helped their website, Stickergiant.com, dominate their industry’s organic rankings. The site is the number-one result on Google for such broad terms as:
o Stickers
o Custom stickers
o Sticker printing
o Political stickers
o Funny stickers
Top five strategies for using social media channels in SEO efforts:
Strategy #1. Be everywhere your customers are
Fischer’s social media efforts encourage conversations about Sticker Giant all over the Web. For that reason, his team participates in seven major social media channels:
o Blip.tv
o Facebook
o Flickr
o LinkedIn
o MySpace
o Twitter
o YouTube
“When I was in college, I tried to go to all the parties,” says Fischer. “Now you can be at all the parties at the same time.”
The team includes links to each of those accounts on the company’s blog page.
Strategy #2. Choose a real person to interact with social communities
Fischer manages and maintains the accounts personally – although his team uses Sticker Giant for the account name in each of those online communities.
“It’s all me in these communities -- John Fischer, not Sticker Giant,” he says. “It shows customers that I’m a real person who is here to help you. I’m not going to rip you off.”
In each account, Fischer provides his own email address and phone number to encourage interaction with customers.
Strategy #3. Blog about your customers and their passions
Like many marketers, Fischer uses his blog as a cornerstone of his SEO efforts. Blogs create lots of new content and generate links back to your site that help with search engine coverage.
Rather than focus on the company itself, Fischer uses his blog to highlight interesting customers and the stickers they’ve created.
“People are excited about their business, their club, their band -- whatever it is they’re promoting,” says Fischer. “That’s what the sticker is about and that’s what I want to talk about.”
- Fischer’s blog posts feature images of new customers’ stickers, along with:
o Brief stories about the customer
o Description of their business, band, blog, etc.
o Details about the sticker design or printing process.
- He posts a new customer story at least once a day, and often creates several new entries a day.
- By posting about a customer’s sticker project, he increases the chances of that customer linking back to the Sticker Giant blog post, and sharing the link with friends – something he sees often.
- At the bottom of each blog post, Fischer features icons that let readers share the article on community and social bookmarking sites, such as:
o Slashdot
o Reddit
o Digg
o StumbleUpon
The team also allows visitors to bookmark or add images to their social networking profiles of all the stickers sold in the Sticker Giant online store. “That generates links and sales,” he says.
Strategy #4. Create and promote videos
Search engines increasingly incorporate videos onto search results pages. Marketers need to incorporate videos into their outreach strategies.
Fischer’s team uses several approaches for creating videos:
Weekly features on new custom sticker projects
Like Fischer’s blog posts, Sticker Giant’s videos highlight interesting stories about printing projects and the customers who requested them. A Sticker Giant employee hosts these weekly features.
Short promotional videos for new stickers in the retail store
Fischer has a video camera in his office to record short promotional videos for new products. For example, the day after the presidential election, he created a 42-second video describing a line of new Obama victory stickers.
Instructional videos about Sticker Giant
Fischer also creates videos that describe Sticker Giant’s services and product offerings. For example, one video explains the company’s sticker product line for rapid turnaround projects. Another introduces customers to the company’s client services team.
“Thank You” videos for custom orders
Fischer also has recorded three short videos of himself thanking customers for interacting with the company:
o Thank you for requesting information about custom printing
o Thank you for submitting material for a custom printing project
o Thank you for ordering a sticker from a retail store
The team emails the appropriate video to customers. The goal is to get them to tell their friends about the video or post it to their blog or social networking page.
Strategy #5. Talk on Twitter, but listen too
Fischer is a big Twitter fan. It gives him the ability to stay in frequent communication with customers and friends. Sticker Giant’s Twitter account has 484 followers and, as with all the company’s other social media accounts, Fischer handles most of the communication in the channel.
Besides personal conversations with friends, Fischer’s typical posts include:
- Notifications of new blog posts, with a link to the page.
- Random samplings of recent purchases from Sticker Giant’s retail store.
Several times a day, Fischer will tweet the first name and location of a new customer, along with a link to the sticker they bought, such as, “Anna from PA just bought one of these”.
“Most people on Twitter know Sticker Giant as a printing company, so those Tweets are out there to say we have all this other cool stuff, too.”
Fischer also monitors Twitter posts to keep track of discussions related to stickers.
- The team uses RSS feeds from Twitter monitoring services, such as Tweetscan, to update them on any tweets related to stickers.
- An employee monitors those feeds and looks for opportunities to join the conversation with relevant information. For example, if a Twitter user asks the community for advice about a sticker printing project, the team member can offer technical advice to begin a conversation.
All of Sticker Giant’s social media efforts focus on creating links and conversations that help the team maintain their relevance and high organic rankings.
“Our increase in search rankings is because we are interacting with people more,” says Fischer. “When you do that, they’re going to blog about you, Tweet about you, talk about you in their Facebook profiles. However they exchange information with their peers and friends on social networks, they’re going to talk about you.”

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30968&pop=no#

Video’s Role in Your Marketing: 6 Proven Tactics to Support Lead Gen and Search

2008-12-15T21:09:00.001-05:00

SUMMARY: The release of our first Video Marketing Benchmark Guide got us thinking about the role marketers see video playing down the road. So, we turned to the past to find tactics with proven results.
TV and online channels are common tactics, but there are other options for incorporating video into your marketing mix. Here are six video tactics that can complement lead generation, email campaigns, and product launches.

When B2B marketers consider using video for a campaign, they tend to think first of TV spots or viral videos. But there is a much broader role for video in marketing strategies.
With careful planning, you can use video to:
o Generate leads
o Support product launches
o Recruit employees
o Raise product and brand awareness
Want to find a new role for video in your marketing campaigns? Here are six ideas from MarketingSherpa Case Studies with proven results.
Six tactics for your video marketing strategy:

Tactic #1. Create “edutainment” videos for lead generation
White papers, webinars and other educational content are key elements of a lead generation campaign. But your prospects may be so overwhelmed with white paper or webinar offers that your content gets lost in the mix.
Grab prospects’ attention with a video that places valuable educational content in an entertaining context. Kristi Kennelly, Director Marketing, Interthinx, created fraud-detection training videos for the mortgage industry that parodied the film “Charlie’s Angels” and the TV franchise “CSI.”
The lighthearted films turned highly technical information into a must-see program for the team’s key prospects in the mortgage industry. A premiere at a trade show generated so much buzz that they received 700 orders even before the DVD set was released, ultimately creating 1,200 qualified leads.
Click here for that Case Study:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30810

Tactic #2. Use streaming video to complement live events
Conferences, seminars or other events don’t have to be done only in person or only online. You can combine a real-world event with a streaming video component to reach a broader audience, generate leads, or support a product launch.
Dan Caron, Product Launch Manager, Strategic Profits, an online training company, did all three with a streaming video campaign. His team invited prospects to watch a webcast of the keynote presentation from a sold-out customer conference. Then, at the end of the presentation, the team made a special offer on a new training program to webcast attendees.
Results:
- Special offer sold out in 6 minutes.
- Product launch generated $2.8 million in sales on the first day.
- 40,000 new names were added to their marketing database through the live-stream event and the archived video on the website.
Click here for their Case Study:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29940

Tactic #3. Test embedded video in email campaigns
Delivering emails with embedded multimedia files can be a challenge. But marketers who’ve overcome the technical hurdles report strong results.
Barbara Shimaitis, Sr. VP, Ad Council, wanted to use email to reach TV station managers with a request to run the council’s public service announcements. They combined a direct-mail campaign, which sent DVDs of the spots, with a follow-up email that reminded managers of the request to run the PSA. The email contained embedded videos of the PSA, which began playing automatically in the email message, or in a new browser window.
The video-emails achieved:
o 47% higher open rate than that of average ones
o 69% higher clickthrough rate
o $1.9 billion worth of air time for their PSAs
Click here for the Case Study:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29985

Tactic #4. Create recruiting videos to attract top job candidates
Kendall Harrell, Manager, Organizational Development, Life Time Fitness, turned to online video to achieve two important goals in his recruiting efforts:
- Giving job candidates a clear, compelling representation of the company’s work environment.
- Giving details on the ideal candidate for a position, to improve the quality of job applications.
Harrell and his team created recruiting videos using real employees describing their jobs and the working environment at the fitness chain. The 2.5 minute videos were unscripted, but edited to convey important messages about the opportunities at the company. Messages stated that trainers were full-time employees, not independent contractors, for instance, and that managers were able to participate in a high-growth organization.
After placing the videos on their website, the team achieved:
o 7%-30% increase in applications for key positions
o 26%-111% increase in the number of applications passing pre-screening qualification
Click here for the Case Study:http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30106

Tactic #5. Provide video tours of product/services
A short online video often can give prospects a faster understanding of your product or service than written content, such as data sheets, promotional copy, or FAQs.
Steve Johnson, Director Online Media, Total Training, used video product guides to promote the technical training firm’s new series of online programs. He and his team created:
o General introduction to the service, which provided an overview of the features and functionality of the online training program
o Video summary guides for the scope of the training sessions available in each program.
The introductory overview became one of the most viewed links on the company’s site, and helped boost subscriptions 40%.
Click here for the Case Study:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29842

Tactic #6. Assemble video library on content-sharing sites
You create a piece of video for a specific marketing campaign. Then consider adding that content to a branded channel on a video-sharing site, such as YouTube or Blip.tv.
Third-party sites can act as your video archive, and provide you with a valuable lead generation, brand marketing or search-engine optimization channel. For example Gary Drenik, President & CEO, BIGResearch, offers video newsletters to highlight his team’s research on the retail industry. But they also post that content to video-sharing sites, alongside clips of television appearances by researchers and other video content.
The technique allows them to make the most of their investment in video resources by promoting them on multiple channels.

Click here for the Case Study:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30150

Paid Search Tops List of Marketing Tactics for Viral Success

2008-12-15T21:02:00.001-05:00

SUMMARY: Take a sneak peek at some data from our first Video Marketing Benchmark Guide. You’ll get an idea of the promotion tactics’ effect on viral success. All tactics get "mixed results" but paid search definitely tops the field.

Effect of Promotion Tactics on Viral Success Rate

Click here to see larger, printable version of this chart
Here’s a sneak peek at information from MarketingSherpa’s first Video Marketing Benchmark Guide – the most recent addition to the series.
Viral marketers need to remember that the point of viral marketing is not the fact that it’s free – it’s its ability to spread buzz inexpensively. While it may seem counterintuitive, the best way to promote free video is to pay for it.
For example, most marketers rated paid-search links “great” as a promotional tactic for spreading buzz. This makes sense; after all, viral advertisers tend to be niche marketers who have trouble reaching their audience with mass media. And, paid search is a proven method for reaching hyper-specific audiences.
Search marketers may cringe at the idea that search is becoming the next big branding medium. But that fact can no longer be denied – it is.
Paid media promotion in ads and blogs, along with traditional PR, are also effective ways of promoting viral media and, if done right, can be inexpensive. The free methods are the most likely ones to be tried, but the least likely ones to succeed.
That’s OK. Failure is an option when the cost is low, and the potential for reward is high. Another takeaway: Don’t bank on one option to spread videos virally. Given the success rate of promotion tactics, we’d recommend making modest investments in all of them.

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30953&pop=no

Advertisers Face Hurdles on Social Networking Sites

2008-12-15T05:37:00.001-05:00

By RANDALL STROSS

Published: December 13, 2008

FOR some time, Procter & Gamble, the world’s largest advertiser, has been dipping its big toes into the vast pool of Facebook, now the world’s largest social network. I recently knocked on the doors of both companies to hear how the experiment was going. Neither was inclined to say much.

Enlarge This Image

The “America’s Favorite Stains” campaign, offered on Facebook by Procter & Gamble, asks for members’ ideas. It recently displayed 18 submissions.

Independent experts on Web advertising have been watching, however, and what they see is a myriad of difficulties in making brand advertising work on social networking sites. Members of social networks want to spend time with friends, not brands.

When major brands place banner advertisements on the side of a member’s home page, they pay inexpensive prices, but the ads receive little attention. Seth Goldstein, co-founder of SocialMedia Networks, an online advertising company, wrote on his Facebook blog that a banner ad “is universally disregarded as irrelevant if it’s not ignored entirely.”

When advertisers invite members to come to pages dedicated to their products, they can attract visitors only by investing in expensive creative material or old-fashioned promotions like prize contests.

And when they try to take advantage of new “social advertising,” extending their commercial message to a member’s friends, their ads will be noticed, all right, but not necessarily favorably. Members are understandably reluctant to become shills. IDC, the technology research firm, published a study last month that reported that just 3 percent of Internet users in the United States would willingly let publishers use their friends for advertising. The report described social advertising as “stillborn.”

All Web sites that rely on ads struggle to a greater or lesser extent to convert traffic, even high traffic, into meaningful revenue. Ads that run on Google and other search engines are a profitable exception because their visitors are often in a buying mood. Other kinds of sites, however, can’t deliver similar visitors to advertisers. Google’s own YouTube, which relies heavily, like Facebook, on user-generated content, remains a costly experiment in the high-traffic, low-revenue ad business.

Financial data would show the current state of Facebook’s advertising, but none are available. Facebook is privately held and a spokesman told me that it does not disclose revenue or any information about its ad sales.

As for P.& G, the company permits Facebook to talk about the results of only a single P.& G. promotion, presumably its most successful to date: for Crest Whitestrips. The promotion began in fall 2006, when P.& G. invited Facebook members in 20 college campus networks to become Crest Whitestrips “fans” on the product’s Facebook Page. Facebook said it was a great success, attracting 14,000 fans.

One could argue, however, that with the additional enticements that Crest provided — thousands of free movie screenings, as well as sponsored Def Jam concerts — a brand of hemorrhoid cream could have attracted a similar number of nominal “fans.”

Becoming a “fan” required nothing more than a single click. When Facebook talks about its 130 million members worldwide, it’s careful to include only active members, defined as those who have logged on within the past 30 days. But when it shows the total number of “fans” on a sponsor’s page, it treats all fans as active.

Without endless investment, these sorts of promotions sputter out. More than 4,000 of the onetime 14,000 Facebook fans of Crest Whitestrips have left the fan club.

Outside of official brand pages, Facebook offers space on members’ personal pages that are viewed many billions of times monthly. I ran a small-scale test ad myself over two weeks and paid a varying rate that dropped and dropped, and on the last day would have permitted me to place the add on one million pages for only $80. But companies generally do not like the idea of their brand sharing space with unvetted material supplied by users. The IDC report said, “Brand advertisers largely consider user-generated content as low-quality, brand-unsafe inventory.”

At a conference last month sponsored by the Advertising Club of Cincinnati, Ted McConnell, manager of interactive marketing and innovation at P.& G., said, “I really don’t want to buy any more banner ads in Facebook.” His remarks were offered as his personal reflections, not the official position of his employer, and were available on the Web in a podcast of the talk. A spokeswoman for P.& G. later told me that the company “is committed to our strong relationship with Facebook” and had used the site for “roughly a dozen P.& G. brands,” either previously or currently.

Facebook’s ability to aim at particular demographic groups is impressive, Mr. McConnell told the club. As an experiment, he and a colleague set up an ad that would target all Facebook members who were 22- to 27-year old women, who worked for P.& G., were left-leaning and living in Cincinnati, and who liked sex and Cocoa Puffs. Facebook provided one person who perfectly fit the profile. Speaking not as an advertiser but as a prospective recipient of such highly personalized messaging, Mr. McConnell said, “I’m not so sure I want to be targeted like that.”

Brand pages won’t make anyone uncomfortable about privacy issues. But one has to have a compelling reason to seek out these pages. The P.& G. spokeswoman pointed me to its “2X Ultra Tide” page. Here one finds an 11-month-old campaign, “American’s Favorite Stains,” where members can post their “favorite places to enjoy stain-making moments!” When I checked last week, it displayed a grand total of just 18 submissions, including two from P.& G., two from someone at The Onion and one-word posts like “Tidealicious!”

In his remarks to the club, Mr. McConnell said, “All brands want consumers to be their ‘friends.’ Oh, boy, do they!” But speaking for himself, he said he had reservations about the very premise. “I don’t want to be best friends with a brand,” he said. “It’s just stuff.”

TOM ARRIX, a regional vice president for sales at Facebook, said that as a new option, the company began offering “engagement ads” this fall. These ads are accompanied by an invitation for a member to take some action besides just looking at the ad or viewing an embedded video, but without leaving the page. A “Become a Fan” button could be offered, for example. Herbal Essence shampoo, a P.& G. product, has run such ads since September, but neither P.& G. nor Facebook would comment on the results so far.

Mr. Goldstein of SocialMedia Networks describes a self-perpetuating cycle in social networks: “Advertisers distract users; users ignore advertisers; advertisers distract better; users ignore better.”

Brand advertisers on Facebook can try one of two new approaches. They can be more intrusive, but the outcome will not be positive. Or they can create genuinely entertaining commercials, but spend ungodly sums to do so.

When Facebook convinces advertisers to stage Super Bowl-sized entertainment every day, its future will be assured.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/business/media/14digi.html

Snapshot of Media Plans & Budgets For 2009

2008-12-11T22:37:00.001-05:00

At the "Masters of Marketing" Conference held recently by the Association of National Advertisers, 1,200 client-side marketers, media and creative agencies and others, were polled via handheld devices about their marketing mix, budgets, plans, and tactics throughout the event. The results are shown here:

Adjustment to current marketing and media plans to account for the recent downturn in the financial markets:

33% say spending will be reduced
33% say spending will be constant / marketing mix will be reallocated
27% expect to spend more
8% will keep everything status quo

CEO view of marketing efforts with respect to growth:

56% think of brand-building as an investment
21% think it's an unaccountable but necessary expense
15% are not sure
8% consider it an unnecessary expense

Preferred social media site for driving brand growth:

32% say none
20% say YouTube
18% Facebook
12% like them all
10% say LinkedIn
6% MySpace
3% Twitter

Plans for Marketing expense in 2009 vs. 2008:

26% plan to increase spending more than 10%
13% plan to increase spending less than 10%
28% will hold stable
14% will decrease spending less than 10%
19% will decrease spending more than 10%

The largest branding discipline offering opportunity for growth:

17% choose traditional 30-second spots
7% like one page advertisements in a newspaper/magazine
16% pick web advertising
28% choose social media integration
7% feel direct Marketing
19% think grassroots, viral public relations
5% like radio

Company's current measurement method of brand growth:

70% say sales and net income
15% use third party brand equity valuations
9% think shareholder value
4% measure by household penetration
3% say company culture

Source: Association of National Advertisers, October 2008

TV Viewing and Internet Use Converge

2008-12-04T09:58:00.001-05:00

According to the The Nielsen TV/Internet Convergence Panel, the heaviest users of the Internet are also among the heaviest viewers of television: the top fifth of Internet users spend more than 250 minutes per day watching television, compared to 220 minutes of television viewing by people who do not use the Internet at all. Nielsen found that the reverse is true as well - the lowest consumers of television have the lowest usage levels for the Internet.

The study shows that nearly 31% of in-home Internet activity takes place while the user is watching television, demonstrating that there is a significant amount of simultaneous Internet and television usage. Conversely, about 4% of television viewing occurs when the consumer is also using the Internet.

Other findings from Nielsen's TV/Internet Convergence Panel include:

50% of the Convergence Panel panelists had viewed some streaming content online. The demographics of those streaming the most were:

82% of female teen panelists viewed streaming content
64% of male teens
57% or men 18-34
55% of men 35-54

Nearly 60% of panelists and more than 80% of people who watched TV and used the Internet that month had simultaneous sessions - watching TV and being online at the same minute. This group tends to be very heavy users of both TV and Internet.

Teens are the most likely demographic to have simultaneous TV/Internet usage, but Adults 35-54 have the most simultaneous usage minutes.

Howard Shimmel, Senior Vice President Client Insights, The Nielsen Company, says "It is too early to draw... firm conclusions about behavior... but... early trends... indicate that online usage is complementing, not substituting for, traditional television viewing... "

For additional information, please visit here.

Click-Through Plus View-Through Completes ROI Measurement

2008-11-25T12:11:00.001-05:00

A new comScore Brand Metrix norms database, compiled from nearly 200 brand impact studies conducted across a range of industries and online ad campaigns, finds that the effectiveness of online advertising campaigns in meeting branding objectives such as heightened brand awareness, improved attitudes toward the brand, and increased purchase intent, results ultimately in incremental purchasing.

Evan Neufeld, comScore vice president of advertising solutions, says though "With online display ads yielding click-thru rates of less than 0.1 percent, advertisers can no longer rely on click-throughs to gauge online ad performance. Doing so fails to capture the impact of... view-throughs... on attitude and future behavior... essential metrics in assessing the complete (ROI) in online advertising."

comScore Brand Metrix relies on their panel to parse differences in behavior and attitudes among those consumers exposed to an online ad campaign compared to those who are not exposed, concluding that "... the deleterious impact of cookie deletion... can lead to an understatement of the actual view-thru impact of online ads by a factor of 20 percent or more... "

The report says the data provides compelling empirical support for the belief that there is a quantifiable view-thru impact of online ad exposures on brand value and sales. For the studies in which both retailers' online and offline sales were analyzed, for periods ranging from two weeks to three months after the initial exposure to an online display ad, the incremental online sales lift was 27 percent and offline sales lift was 17 percent

Lift in Retailers' Online and Offline Sales among Internet Users Exposed to Display Ads Total U.S., Home/Work/University Locations

Monthly Sales ($) per Thousand Exposed Consumers

Control

Test

Lift

Online Sales

$994

$1,263

27%

Offline Sales

$9,905

$11,550

17%

Source: comScore Brand Metrix, Norms Database, November 2008

The report also says that online ad exposures also yield a lift in various important online behaviors, such as brand site visitation and trademark searches. For example, a substantial lift in visitation to the advertiser's Web sites can be observed in the weeks following an exposure to a display ad, even though click rates are less than 0.1 percent. Specifically, there was a 65 percent increase in lift in the week following the first ad exposure and a 46-percent increase over the four weeks following the first exposure, underscoring the latent branding effect.

Lift in Advertiser Site Visitation Among Internet Users Exposed to Display Ads Total U.S., Home/Work/University Locations

Advertiser Site Reach

Control

Test

Lift

Week Following First Ad Exposure

2.1%

3.5%

65%

Weeks 1-2 After First Exposure

3.1%

4.8%

54%

Weeks 1-3 After First Exposure

3.9%

5.8%

49%

Weeks 1-4 After First Exposure

4.5%

6.6%

46%

Source: comScore Brand Metrix, Norms Database, November 2008

And, the comScore norms data show that online display ads can cause an increase in search queries that involve the advertiser's trademark brand name. Specifically, the average lift in branded trademark searches for the online advertisers studied was 52 percent in the week following the first ad exposure. The norms data also show a substantial continued impact, with a 38-percent lift in trademark searches in the four weeks following the first ad exposure.

Lift in Branded Trademark Search Among Internet Users Exposed to Display Ads Total U.S. - Home/Work/University Locations

Making a Trademark Search

Control

Test

Lift

Week Following First Ad Exposure

0.2%

0.3%

52%

Weeks 1-2 After First Exposure

0.4%

0.5%

46%

Weeks 1-3 After First Exposure

0.5%

0.7%

40%

Weeks 1-4 After First Exposure

0.6%

0.9%

38%

Source: comScore Brand Metrix, Norms Database, November 2008

Neufeld concluded that "Not only does online marketing have the benefits of more attractive advertising rates and a faster growing retail channel, but it's clear from the results of our studies that Internet marketing also generates incremental sales in retail stores."

The Brand Metrix norms database contains the results across ten vertical industries including top-of mind unaided awareness, total unaided awareness, aided awareness, total advertising awareness, online ad recall, favorability, likelihood to recommend, and likelihood to purchase. And, a subset including behavioral metrics, online and at retail stores, of advertiser trademark searches, site visitation and purchasing.

For more information on comScore Brand Metrix, please visit here

Extinction Threatens Yellow-Pages Publishers

2008-11-17T09:22:00.001-05:00

Industry's Web Sites Have Small Audiences, and Economic Downturn Has Eroded Ad Dollars; Hearst Unit Throws In With Google

The yellow-pages industry is running out of lifelines.

In recent years, as its customers migrated to the Web -- flocking to sites like Google -- the telephone-directory business followed, hoping the Internet would be its salvation.

But that strategy hasn't panned out. Now, the economic downturn is sending the already ailing business into a tailspin.

The audience for online yellow pages remains relatively small, and traffic growth is slowing. So many directory services are vying for the ad dollars of local businesses that no single site has an authoritative roster.

Meanwhile, ad dollars are drying up as small businesses -- the industry's bread and butter -- find it harder to pay bills or have cut their spending sharply.

Print and online ad spending on yellow pages will plummet 6.3% next year, more than double the rate of decline expected for broadcast TV, according to forecasts by Wachovia analyst John Janedis. Within the next four years, ad spending will fall 39% in print directories alone -- the steepest projected decline across all local-media categories, according to media-research firm Borrell Associates.

"It's pretty darn hard out there for everybody, and those that have less staying power, it just looks like it's going to be a difficult environment to be able to hang on in the long term," said Dave Swanson, chief executive of R.H. Donnelley, a Cary, N.C., yellow-pages publisher, during a conference call on the company's third-quarter earnings.

Facing the real prospect of extinction, the publishers, many of which have considerable debt, have been slashing jobs, scrapping dividends and exiting unprofitable markets. Shares of two of the biggest publishers, R.H. Donnelley andIdearc, have plummeted 99% in the past year.

"The main pure-play companies do not have capital structures that would enable them to endure perpetual high-single-digit or double-digit declines in cash flow and remain viable entities or solvent entities over time," says Mike Simonton, an analyst with Fitch Ratings.

Yellow-pages publishers have spent the past several years attempting to reinvent themselves, launching a slew of digital offerings for advertisers, and retraining their sales forces to sell digital ads alongside print ads.

But Internet revenues remain anemic. At less than 10%, online-ad dollars make up only a modest portion of total revenues and aren't growing fast enough to offset steep declines on the print side, says Mr. Simonton.

Analysts say yellow-pages sales teams face an inherent conflict. While they are pressured to sell both print and online ads, Internet ads are often a third of the price of the print product. The top priority for the sales teams often is to sell the print book first, then sell the digital products.

Even if online revenues were growing at a faster clip, analysts are cautious about the prospects of online-only directories. Yellow-pages ads are the only form of advertising many small businesses buy, and the online ads are typically sold in conjunction with print listings, Mr. Simonton says. That means that if businesses aren't buying the print ad, then the online ad disappears too.

In a last-ditch attempt to succeed online, some publishers have struck ad-sale partnerships with Internet companies like Google. White Directory Publishers, which publishes directories in 90 small to medium-size markets, says it is often more effective for small businesses to have a presence on Google than on a directory Web site. But many small- to medium-size businesses don't have the expertise or time to create effective Web sites or buy and track search ads, so White Directory is offering to do it for them.

"They all believe they have the URL and the Web site that's going to win," Jeff Folckemer, chief operating officer and chief executive-designate of White Directory, part of Hearst Corp., says of the directory companies. "Our philosophy immediately was to go right to the big guys."

Mr. Simonton cautions, however, that even if publishers survive, any growth they achieved since the last downtown, in 2001, will be short-lived. "That extra growth coming from new businesses are the first to fold in a downturn. You basically give back in one downturn what took seven years to grow."

—Shira Ovide contributed to this article.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122688313315132107.html

Search marketing remains strong

2008-11-17T09:20:00.001-05:00

By Christopher Hosford

Story posted: November 10, 2008 - 9:30 am EDT

Despite the faltering economy, search marketing is holding up well, as marketers focus on tools that promise the strongest return on investment. How long that will last is uncertain, but for now search ad budgets seem relatively sheltered from the global economic woes.
“We believe that search is not immune to macroeconomic forces, but we also believe it will have the least relative decline of the various marketing tools,” said Craig Macdonald, VP-marketing and product management with interactive marketing analytics company Covario Inc.
Why?
“I can tell you precisely the answer to that,” Macdonald said. “There's less risk in spending money on search. It's very measurable and the cheapest form of lead acquisition out there.”
According to a new Covario study, year-over-year growth in paid search in North America stood at 32% in the third quarter, in line with several other analyses and relatively unchanged from earlier in the year.
“Because you can measure pre- cisely your return on different Web marketing activities, you know what you'll get in return and can dial it up or down,” said Dave Alampi, VP-global marketing strategy and services at enterprise software company Infor.
“Because our strongest area of concentration is the small-to-midsize business market, with smaller deal sizes, we feel it's relatively recession-proof,” he said. “We have no intent to reduce our paid-search dollars at all.”
Forrester Research projects that paid search marketing will grow 26% this year, reaching $11.4 billion in the U.S. In addition, the company's “U.S. Search Engine Marketing Executive Survey” (conducted by Jupiter Research prior to its July acquisition by Forrester) forecasts that search budgets will remain stable through much of 2009.
“Because of its inherent accountability, search offers a safe haven for marketers and advertisers who are pushed by the recession to meet some pretty aggressive goals,” said Evan Andrews, interactive marketing analyst with Forrester. “You can track every cent and every click. Search is comfort food for marketers.”
Still, a possible impact looms as fearful customers rein in their purchasing of consumer goods, depressing b-to-b sales of product components and marketers' budgets.
“The economy is ultimately going to have an effect on search,” Andrews said. “There is no way that a once-in-a-century financial meltdown won't spill over. With search, it's just going to be delayed.”
If search budgets remain relatively healthy, it will likely be at the expense of other forms of marketing outreach.
The Direct Marketing Association projected in October that Internet marketing (including search but excluding e-mail) would grow 19.7% this year but also that direct response newspaper advertising spending would fall 7.6%; telephone marketing would decline 1.5%; and radio ad budgets would drop 2.7%. The DMA projected modest growth in direct-response TV spots (4.5%) and direct mail catalog spending (up 3.1%).
“We're seeing that traditional agencies are getting hit before digital agencies,” said Jeffrey Pruitt, president of the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO). “Some advertisers are increasing spend because search is working.”
Industry watchers say the rapid growth of search marketing is bound to slow as it matures. Covario compared search's current growth rate of 32% with early 2007, when paid search spending was growing by 83% year-over-year.
Macdonald warned that short-term projections may be misleading, because fourth-quarter budgets are already set. When the economy's impact on business becomes more apparent by early 2009, “budgets will roll down based on that,” he said.
While search is inexpensive and highly measurable, there is evidence it's becoming more efficient as well, reinforcing marketers' opinion of the medium. Covario reports reductions in the average cost-per-click being paid to search engines, largely as a result of improved optimization by large advertisers.
In the third quarter, for example, the average cost-per-click was $1.09, down from an average of $1.19 in the year-earlier period. “But I think cost-per-click will actually start to go up, as marketers loosen up the ROI hurdles they set for their search programs based on what they will or will not pay for keywords,” Macdonald said. “Advertisers will begin to tolerate a 5% to 10% inflation rate over the next several months.”
But will users click through on sponsored links? The Covario study indicates the economy may have an impact here as well.
In the third quarter, click-through rates for Google fell to 1.9%, down from 2.4% in the year-earlier period. MSN's rate fell to 2.2% from 3.0%, while Yahoo was relatively unchanged.

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008311109953

Ad Firm Tracks Consumers Across Media

2008-10-14T21:57:00.001-04:00

For years, marketers measured the reach of their ads one medium at a time. For TV, it generally was Nielsen; for radio, Arbitron; newspapers and magazines report circulation figures; while the Internet shows hits and page views and other traffic data.

But there haven't been many ways to measure an ad campaign across all of these media at once.

A small media research company called Integrated Media Measurement is trying to bridge that research gap with a new technology that measures consumers' exposure to the audio in ads on television, radio, computers, mobile phones, DVDs and inside a movie theatre -- using a consumer's cellphone.

NBC Universal

NBC is among the networks using the cellphone-based data to track how people watch shows like 'Saturday Night Live.'

The Internet's ability to produce evidence on the effectiveness of ads -- such as how many people viewed an ad and whether or not they clicked on it -- has led to something of an industry obsession with new forms of measurement. The financial crisis promises to make marketers even more reluctant to risk money on ads, especially if they can't keep score on how effective the spots are. Meanwhile, media fragmentation continues, as big-tent events like the Olympic Games and the Super Bowl are consumed in more and different ways.

"People don't know how to measure the multimedia world we live in, so any piece of the puzzle is helpful," says Brad Bortner, principal analyst at Forrester Research.

IMMI embeds its software into the cellphones of the company's 4,900 panelists. The software picks up audio from an ad or a TV show and converts it into its own digital code that is then uploaded into an IMMI database, which includes codes for media content such as TV shows, commercials, movies and songs.

IMMI's database then figures out what the cellphone was exposed to by matching the code. Cellphone conversations and background noise are filtered out by the software, IMMI says, since there is no "match" in the IMMI database.

To get a handle on the effectiveness of a given ad, IMMI's data can show, for example, when a panel member is exposed to a movie trailer on TV and whether that same consumer later goes to see the movie. Similarly, IMMI data can show if a panelist watching a promo for a TV program will later watch the show, either on TV or online. IMMI thinks it can expand that idea from films and TV shows to consumer products like shampoo or toothpaste. It is testing its technology with a national grocery store chain.

NBC Universal

"We follow the same person from end to end," says Tom Zito, IMMI's chief executive.

IMMI isn't the first company to attempt this kind of measurement, but past efforts were stymied by the costs of creating a large-scale panel. IMMI's use of cellphones means that consumers don't have to labor over diaries or push buttons, says Mr. Zito, who worked for years as a journalist and rock critic before launching a number of Silicon Valley start-ups since the mid-1980s.

IMMI is still a tiny company, especially compared with competitors like Nielsen Media Research. The company's 4,900-person panel has teenagers and adults in just six major markets -- New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Houston and Denver. IMMI panelists are paid $50 a month or receive free phone and data service in exchange for making the cellphone their primary phone, and carrying it with them at all times.

But the San Mateo, Calif.-company has managed to attract the attention of movie studios and broadcast networks like General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal and Walt Disney Co.'s ABC. NBC has used IMMI data to track how people watch shows like "Heroes" or big sporting events like the Beijing Olympic Games.

While the technology isn't perfect, IMMI is helping NBC answer questions about how viewers watch its programming, says Alan Wurtzel, president of research at NBC. "I'm convinced the handset will be the way we will measure media going forward," he says.

Still, IMMI is unlikely to change the way marketers develop ad campaigns. Mark Loughney, vice president of sales and strategy research at ABC, says that IMMI's panel is still too small to make long term decisions. "For now, it's a supplement, not a replacement to what we use," he says.

IMMI also doesn't measure outdoor or print ads, or Internet ads that don't use audio.

Find television listings at LocateTV.

But the company is already getting the attention of big competitors like Nielsen, which teamed up with IMMI to sell a service that tracks ad exposure in places like bars, health clubs, hotels and the office. Walt Disney's ESPN and Zenith Media have already signed up for the service.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122394454320231201.html?mod=rss_media_and_marketing

Newspapers’ Web Revenue Is Stalling

2008-10-13T11:10:00.001-04:00

Newspapers, already facing a grim economic forecast, are digesting another piece of bad news: the growth in online advertising they saw as their salvation has slowed to a crawl.

USAToday.com uses ad networks to fill unsold spots for ads.

In the last few years, newspaper companies have been rapidly expanding their Web presence — adding blogs, photo slide shows and podcasts — in the belief that more features would bring more advertisers. But now, after 17 quarters of ballooning growth, online revenue at newspaper sites is falling. In the second quarter, it was down 2.4 percent compared with last year, to $777 million, according to the Newspaper Association of America. It was the only year-over-year drop since the group began measuring online revenue in 2003.

Overall online advertising, however, is strong. Display advertising, the graphics-rich ads that newspaper sites carry, grew 7.6 percent in the second quarter, TNS Media Intelligence reported.

Newspaper executives say the new features have drawn bigger, more engaged audiences, which they hope will translate to more advertisers. Unique readers in August were 17 percent higher than a year earlier, at 69.3 million, according to a Nielsen Online analysis of newspaper sites for the newspaper association. They also point to other factors for the decline, including the economic downturn and the continued flight of classified advertisers away from papers and their sites.

But the advertising glut, particularly in display advertising, on which companies had based their optimistic projections, has shrunk. As newspapers keep adding pages, they are forced to sell ads at cut-rate prices.

Large papers like The Washington Post or The New York Times can sell premium ad space on, for example, a newspaper’s home page, for $15 to $50 for every thousand impressions. But these and other papers of all sizes have increasingly relied on middlemen — known as ad networks — to sell less desirable space, typically for around $1 for every thousand impressions. The networks usually charge advertisers double that or higher, industry insiders said.

While some publishers rely on ad networks, others are devising strategies to avoid them. With networks, “unwittingly, I think, the publishers commoditize their own inventory,” said Paul Iaffaldano, the general manager of the TWC Media Solutions Group, which sells ads for the Weather Channel and Weather.com.

A recent study from Bain & Company and the Interactive Advertising Bureau examining seven high-end publishers (their names were not disclosed) found that about 53 percent of the ad space on newspaper sites went unsold without networks last year, up from 50 percent in 2006.

Given the choice of showing an ad-free page and making no money, or using an ad network and making a few cents, many publishers choose networks. In 2007, 30 percent of the ad spaces sold on their sites came from networks, up from 5 percent in 2006, according to the Bain study.

“If we sold every scrap of inventory, we wouldn’t use ad networks, but right now it makes some sense for us,” said Jeff Webber, the publisher of USAToday.com. At Gannett, which owns USAToday.com, online revenue in the United States rose a modest 3 percent in the second quarter. Results from other chains have been grimmer. In the second quarter, online revenue dropped about 12 percent at A. H. Belo, 8 percent at E. W. Scrippsnewspapers, 4 percent at the Tribune Company, and 9 percent at Lee Enterprises, all compared with the same period last year.

Denise Warren, the chief advertising officer of The New York Times Media Group, saidNYTimes.com used ad networks despite some concerns. She said they were useful when traffic spiked; this September, for example, the financial crisis spurred lots of page views.

“We couldn’t sell that inventory because we didn’t know it was going to exist, so if we have an ad network we’re able to have all those extra C.P.M.’s,” she said, using the industry term for cost per thousand impressions.

At The New York Times Company, online revenue grew a healthy 13 percent in the second quarter. More recent figures indicate sluggishness at the company’s newspaper sites, however. At The Times’s News Media Group, which includes newspaper sites like The Boston Globe, The New York Times and regional newspapers, online revenue grew only 0.9 percent in July and 7.9 percent in August, well below the usual double-digit growth.

Ms. Warren said that the two months were anomalies, adding that growth in display advertising at NYTimes.com alone had been much higher, though she declined to specify a figure.

As for the new blogs and video, “those investments will definitely add to advertising revenue,” she said, but “those things are just getting started right now.”

Steve Stup, the vice president for sales at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive, said he began using networks this year only because the site had unpredictable traffic because of the elections. He said some advertisers might start to see networks as an inexpensive substitute for dealing with papers directly.

“It’s still a situation where if advertisers even perceive they can reach your audience, they might be inclined to go with a network, and that’s a concern I have with networks,” he said.

This has meant a spurt in networks, which are popular with marketers looking for direct response, like eBay and E*Trade. There are now more than 300 networks, most offering custom ads, and they are popular venture-capital investments and acquisition targets. Last year, Microsoft bought the network DRIVEpm, Yahoo bought Blue Lithium, and AOLbought Tacoda.

“The ad networks have actually been using the presence of publisher inventories as part of their selling story to ad buyers,” said John Frelinghuysen, a partner in Bain’s media practice. Many publishers join only the networks that do not disclose what sites they include, but even so, savvy advertisers can guess.

In response to the downturn, some publishers are exploring a larger, counterintuitive strategy: instead of creating more ad space, they are limiting it.

“We’re going to reduce the number of ad sizes we use and the number of units,” said Christian Hendricks, the vice president for interactive media at McClatchy. “It is a case where yeah, you could probably sell another advertiser by creating another ad space,” but that could hurt the revenue over all, he said. Online revenue at McClatchy rose 12.5 percent in the second quarter; a year earlier, revenue dropped 2.2 percent.

McClatchy also tries to avoid ad networks. “We don’t want to get in the habit of filling every little space we have with remnant,” Mr. Hendricks said.

Mr. Frelinghuysen said limiting the ads on a page can be smart. “That high level of unsold inventory often creates a real challenge in terms of sustaining pricing or growing pricing,” he said. “In most media, especially in television, the traditional model has been that you drive sellout, and that gives you the ability to drive pricing over time.”

Some sites unaffiliated with newspapers have also limited inventory and banned ad networks, and many report good results.

Weather.com limits its ad spaces so it can sell out each day, and it does not use ad networks, Mr. Iaffaldano said. Prices there have increased 10 to 15 percent over last year, he said.

Forbes.com stopped using ad networks this year, as did ESPN.com and CNN and other Turner sites. (Turner and Forbes then created their own networks, which they say are different from the remnant networks because they focus on narrow subjects.)

“As more and more sites like ourselves forsake networks and are public about it, the ability for the agency to think for themselves, or even suggest to a client, that they’re going to get quality impressions, will get harder and harder,” said Jim Spanfeller, the chief executive of Forbes.com.

At CNN.com, where display advertising rose 17 percent in the second quarter, the site does not use networks and limits space.

“We want to get as much value for our product as possible, and that means not having an endless supply of inventory,” said Greg D’Alba, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of CNN Advertising Sales.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/business/media/13adco.html?ei=5070&emc=eta-1&pagewanted=all

New Chart: Top Tactics to Boost Online Ad Response Rates

2008-09-24T11:18:00.001-04:00

SUMMARY: Different design tactics can boost the response rates to your online advertising. Results for the third chart in this four-part series focus on seven top design tactics.
Click for Sherpa analysis

University of Phoenix Catches 4.7 Billion Web Looks in June

2008-09-09T20:47:00.001-04:00

According to the most recent comScore, Inc. ranking of the top online display ad publishers and advertisers, Fox Interactive Media, as the top display ad publisher got 15.9 percent of all display ads viewed, while Microsoft was the top display advertiser with 1.7 percent of total views. Experian gets the most unique visitors with 138 million.

And, Forrester projects that of the $8.2 billion, retailers will spend this year on online marketing, just over a third, $2.78 billion, will be spent on display advertising. Search engine marketing leads the way with $3.63 billion and e-mail marketing is third at $1.25 billion. Forrester projects retailer spending on online display ads will grow at an annual rate of 20% through 2012 when it will reach $4.99 billion.

Fox Interactive Media served 52.3 billion ad views, with MySpace.com accounting for 51 billion of these views. Yahoo! Sites reached 130 million unique individuals with its ads, reaching more people than any other publisher. AOL LLC ranked third, followed by Microsoft Sites, and Google.

Microsoft was the top display advertiser with 5.5 billion display ad views, due in large part to its promotional campaign for Windows Live Search, including ads for Windows Live Search Club games and the new Windows Live Search cashback program. The University of Phoenix, an online university, ranked second, followed by Experian which advertises for a variety of sites including LowerMyBills.com and FreeCreditReport.com.

For additional information, please visit comScore here

Top 5 Legitimate SEO Techniques That Will Help Your Business Get Found

2008-08-19T21:38:00.001-04:00

by Mike Volpe

Published on August 19, 2008

People have not stopped buying things, so how are they researching and purchasing products since they have made themselves immune to old marketing techniques like banner ads and direct mail?

The answer is with search engines and Google. According to comScore, Americans conducted 11.5 billion searches in June 2008, and Google was used for 61.5% of those searches.

This means it is essential that you make it easy for customers to find you, and one of the most effective ways to do so is search engine optimization (SEO), which focuses on getting your Web site listed in the unpaid, organic search engine results.

Organic listings generate visitors to your site. Moreover, with SEO, you don't pay a per-click "tax" to the search engines, so it usually has a higher ROI than paid-search listings. Finally, if you do SEO right, it can be a competitive advantage, unlike paid search, because anyone can increase their keyword bid to beat you out.

How do you actually get your Web site ranked high in search engines? The answer is quite simple, but getting there can be a bit more difficult.

Search engines use two broad categories of factors to decide which site shows up first in search results:

On-page SEO factors are all the things that happen on your Web page. The good part is that you have complete control over these things. The bad part is they are only about 25% of the reason you will rank for a search term.
Off-page SEO factors are things that happen outside your direct control but are roughly 75% of the reason you rank for a given search. The most important off-Page SEO factor is the number and quality of links into your Web site. Search engines use links as a measure of how interesting your content is, since more interesting content tends to get more links. Search engines also regard links from more-established Web sites as more important than links from less-trustworthy Web sites.

With those basics in mind, here are five useful tips to help guide you through your SEO strategy.

1. Pick good page titles

The page title of each Web page is the most important on-page SEO factor. The page title is the text that appears in the top bar of your browser window and is the first thing a search engine looks at to determine what the page is about.

For instance, the page title of the MarketingProfs home page is "MarketingProfs - Marketing Resources for Marketing Professionals." It does a good job telling search engines about that page, using keywords relevant to the target audience.

The other smart thing Marketing Profs does is that the page title is different on each page of the Web site. Just as in the case of a lottery, you don't bet the same number over and over for the same drawing; you want to use each page of your Web site as a different entry into the SEO lottery, and a unique page title is how to do that.

2. Be smart about URLs

Your URL is how search engines track and manage your company's reputation online. Using a free URL that actually belongs to another company is a bad idea in the world of SEO because you can never change or forward that URL. Using URLs like yourcompany.blogspot.com make it possible for you to build SEO power for blogspot.com, but if you ever want to move or rename your Web site, you have to leave all that power back at the old Web site.

If you have your own domain, like yourcompany.com, then you can always move to a new address and forward all the SEO power you have built up.

3. Start a blog

Blogging does two great things that are a huge help with SEO.

First, if you run a blog correctly, you are updating content on a frequent basis. Search engines love fresh content on Web sites. Web pages or articles that have been published recently on an established Web site get an extra boost in the rankings. The second benefit of blogging is that blogs are a magnet for links. The people who do the most linking online are bloggers and writers. They are much more likely to link to an interesting blog article with a unique perspective on an issue than a typical corporate Web site.

If you start a blog and regularly post content that is appealing to your market, you will help your SEO efforts a lot.

4. Leverage your PR program

If you have a public relations program at your company, there are two things you need to do for SEO. First, you should optimize all of your press releases. This basically means adding links into your press releases that lead back to your Web site. Second, as you get coverage of your company in online publications, make sure that there is link within the article back to your company. You would be surprised how many journalists do not automatically link to companies they write about.

For bonus points, for your links in press releases and media coverage, use hyperlinked text with keywords relevant to your business as the link, not just the URL. The search engines key off of these keywords for added clues about the topic of your Web site. For example: you want a link like marketing resources, not http://www.marketingprofs.com.

5. Use social media to build links

Many marketers are scared of social media. The trick is to think of it just as an online version of all the business cocktail parties you have attended over the years. And just like at a cocktail party, with social media you should never enter the conversation with a sales pitch. But social media is an excellent way to promote your interesting blog articles or other content, because other bloggers and writers might write about your company and link back to your content. Find online communities, groups, blogs, and networks where your audience hangs out, and start listening and asking questions.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/five-legitimate-seo-tactics-that-help-businesses-get-found-volpe.asp?sp=1

The Latest SEO Trends and Metrics: What's Hot, What's Not

2008-08-19T21:36:00.001-04:00

by Stephan Spencer

Published on August 19, 2008

If you're not "living and breathing" search engine optimization, it can be easy to latch onto old SEO trends and metrics and focus obsessively on them, especially those few hot-button issues that get the most attention from the press or from your CEO.

It takes time and experience to stay on the cutting edge of SEO, and more than likely you don't have that kind of time, considering your other marketing efforts. So here's a quick update on what's hot and what's not in the world of search engine optimization.

What's hot:

Becoming a trusted contributor on social news/content sites like Digg, Propeller, Reddit, Mixx, StumbleUpon, Wikipedia, and Knol
Building your personal and professional network in online communities like Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Bebo, MyBlogRoll, and the blogosphere in general, and then taking advantage of the residual network effect
Link baiting—posting humorous/fascinating/contentious/controversial content that is a magnet for links
Truly understanding and leveraging the power of "Long Tail" dynamics

What's not:

Obsessively watching search engine indexation numbers and rankings on trophy keywords (like the one you know the CEO always checks first thing in the morning)
Worrying yourself sick over duplicate-content penalties
Relying on XML sitemaps to fix your indexation problems
The old-fashioned link exchange

Speaking of what's hot, a new generation of SEO metrics exists so you can keep track of your progress once you've abandoned the old thinking and adopted more modern strategies. Gauging your success solely on your positions in the search engine results is old hat.

New SEO paradigms, such as the "Long Tail," universal search, and personalized search, call for new key performance indicators (KPIs).

In addressing "Long Tail SEO," consider the following KPIs:

Brand-to-Nonbrand Ratio

This is the percentage of your natural search traffic that comes from brand keywords versus nonbrand keywords. If the ratio is high and most of your traffic is coming from searches for your brand name, this means that your SEO efforts are fundamentally broken. The lower the ratio, the more of the long tail of natural search you are likely capturing. This metric is an excellent gauge of the success of your optimization initiatives.

Unique Pages

This is the number of unique (non-duplicate) Web pages crawled by search engine spiders such as Googlebot. Your Web site is your virtual sales force, bringing in prospects from search engines, and each unique page is one of your virtual salespeople. The more unique pages you have, the more virtual salespeople you have out there in the engines selling on your behalf.

Page Yield

This is the percentage of unique pages that yield search-delivered traffic in a given month. This ratio essentially is a key driver of the length of your Long Tail of natural search. The more pages that yield traffic from search engines, the healthier your SEO program. If you have only a small portion of your Web site delivering searchers to your door, then most of your pages—your virtual salespeople—are standing around the water cooler instead of working hard for you.

Keyword Yield

This is the average number of keywords each page (minus the ones that don't get you any traffic) yields in a given month. Put another way, it's the ratio of keywords to pages yielding search traffic. The higher your keyword yield, the greater the part of the Long Tail of natural search your site will capture.

In other words, the more keywords each yielding page attracts or targets, the longer your tail. So an average of eight search terms per page indicates pages with much broader appeal to the engines than, say, three search terms per page.

In a research study done by my company (Netconcepts) called Chasing the Long Tail of Natural Search, the average merchant had a keyword yield of 2.4 keywords per page.

Visitors per Keyword

This is the ratio of search engine-delivered visitors to search terms. This metric indicates how much traffic each keyword drives and is a function of your rankings in the search engine result pages. Put another way, this metric determines the height or thickness of your Long Tail. The average merchant in the aforementioned study obtained 1.9 visitors per keyword.

Index-to-Crawl Ratio

This is the ratio of pages indexed to unique crawled pages. If a page gets crawled by Googlebot, that doesn't guarantee it will show up in Google's index. A low ratio can mean your site doesn't carry much weight in Google's eyes.

Engine Yield

Calculated for each search engine separately, this is how much traffic the engine delivers for every page it crawls. Each search engine has a different audience size. This metric helps you fairly compare the referral traffic you get from each engine. The Netconcepts study found that Live Search and Yahoo tended to crawl significantly more pages, but the yield per crawled page from Google was typically higher by a significant margin.

Summary

Hopefully you're now more up-to-date on your SEO tactics, but keep in mind that any of these trends can change at the drop of a hat. Search engine optimization is a process, not a project, so as you optimize your site through multiple iterations, watch the above-mentioned KPIs to ensure you're heading in the right direction. Marketers who are not privy to these metrics will have a much harder time reaching qualified prospects.

If you'd like to hear more about these search trends and metrics, attend the Marketing Profs Digital Mixer, a multi-channel online marketing conference coming up in October. Stephan is program chair for the search marketing track. Check out the full program.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/latest-seo-trends-tactics-spencer.asp?sp=1

Online Behavior of Older Americans Mirroring Younger Users’, Even Teens’

2008-07-07T14:13:00.001-04:00

Some 76% of Americans over age 50 say the internet is an important source of information for them - up from just 51% five years earlier - according to findings from AARP and the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.

The research, which is part of the larger Digital Future Project, also finds that Older Americans have embraced Web 2.0 and often use the web and several forms of social media as much or more than their younger, more tech-savvy counterparts.

Though instant messaging and video downloading still remain more popular with a younger crowd, older Americans check the internet for news more frequently than younger users and are logging onto online communities, researching purchases becoming socially active and playing games in increasing numbers.

Key findings:

Users 50+ go online more frequently to check for news than those under 20. Some 42% of consumers over 50 check the web for news daily or several times a day, compared with just 18% of users under 20:

Among internet users 50+ who are members of online communities, 58% log in to their online community daily or several times a day, compared with 47% of members under 20:

36% of members 50 and older say their social activism has increased since they began participating in online communities for social causes, compared with 29% of members under 20.
18% of users 50+ say they go online daily or several times a day to play games, compared with 22 % of users under 50:

68% of users 50+ say they sometimes or often browse in retail stores and then buy online, compared with 72% of users under 50. Users in both the 50+ and the under-50 groups have similar online shopping habits:

46% of users under 50 say the internet is important or very important in maintaining their social relationships - identical to the percentage for those over 70 (though that’s not the case for cell phones):

More users under 20 than those over 50 (85% vs. 76%) say the internet is an important or very important source of information. However, the percentage of those over 50 who say so has grown substantially from 2002 to 2007 - up from slightly more than half (51%).
Only 9% of users 50+ said instant messaging was important or very important, compared with 48% of users under 20.

“The perception is that Americans over 50 only dabble on the internet, but we are finding that they are increasingly spending time online becoming involved in robust internet activities, such as online communities,” said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. “In specific areas, there is often little difference in use of online technology between older users and some of the youngest users.”

About the research: The Center for the Digital Future at the USC Annenberg School for Communication created and manages the World Internet Project, including the Digital Future Project, which produces a broad year-to-year exploration of the influence of the internet and online technology on Americans. Since 2000, the project has examined and compared the behavior and views of internet users and non-users.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/online-behavior-of-older-americans-mirroring-younger-users-even-teens-5175/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Lazy Eyes - How we read online.

2008-06-26T07:06:00.001-04:00

By Michael Agger
Posted Friday, June 13, 2008, at 1:00 PM ET

You're probably going to read this.

It's a short paragraph at the top of the page. It's surrounded by white space. It's in small type.

To really get your attention, I should write like this:

Bulleted list
Occasional use of bold to prevent skimming
Short sentence fragments
Explanatory subheads
No puns
Did I mention lists?

What Is This Article About?
For the past month, I've been away from the computer screen. Now I'm back reading on it many hours a day. Which got me thinking: How do we read online?

It's a Jungle Out There
That's Jakob Nielsen's theory. He's a usability expert who writes an influential biweekly column on such topics as eye-tracking research, Web design errors, and banner blindness. (Links, btw, give a text more authority, making you more likely to stick around.)

Nielsen champions the idea of information foraging. Humans are informavores. On the Internet, we hunt for facts. In earlier days, when switching between sites was time-consuming, we tended to stay in one place and dig. Now we assess a site quickly, looking for an "information scent." We move on if there doesn't seem to be any food around.

Sorry about the long paragraph. (Eye-tracking studies show that online readers tend to skip large blocks of text.)

Also, I'm probably forcing you to scroll at this point. Losing some incredible percentage of readers. Bye. Have fun on Facebook.

Screens vs. Paper
What about the physical process of reading on a screen? How does that compare to paper?

When you look at early research, it's fascinating to see that even in the days of green phosphorus monitors, studies found that there wasn't a huge difference in speed and comprehension between reading on-screen and reading on paper. Paper was the clear winner only when test subjects were asked to skim the text.

The studies are not definitive, however, given all the factors that can affect online reading, such as scrolling, font size, user expertise, etc. Nielsen holds that on-screen reading is 25 percent slower than reading on paper. Even so, experts agree on what you can do to make screen reading more comfortable:

Choose a default font designed for screen reading; e.g., Verdana, Trebuchet, Georgia.
Rest your eyes for 10 minutes every 30 minutes.
Get a good monitor. Don't make it too bright or have it too close to your eyes.
Minimize reflections.
Skip long lines of text, which promote fatigue.
Avoid MySpace.

Back to the Jungle
Nielsen's apt description of the online reader: "[U]sers are selfish, lazy, and ruthless." You, my dear user, pluck the low-hanging fruit. When you arrive on a page, you don't actually deign to read it. You scan. If you don't see what you need, you're gone.

And it's not you who has to change. It's me, the writer:

One idea per paragraph
Half the word count of "conventional writing"! (Ouch!)
Other stuff along these lines

Nielsen often sounds like a cross between E.B. White and the Terminator. Here's his advice in a column titled "Long vs. Short Articles as Content Strategy": "A good editor should be able to cut 40 percent of the word count while removing only 30 percent of an article's value. After all, the cuts should target the least valuable information."

[Ed. Note: Fascinating asides about the writer's voice, idiosyncrasies, and fragile ego were cut here.]

He's Right
I kid about Nielsen, but he's very sensible. We're active participants on the Web, looking for information and diversion. It's natural that people prefer short articles. As Nielsen states, motivated readers who want to know everything about a subject (i.e., parents trying to get their kid into a New York preschool) will read long treatises with semicolons, but the rest of us are snacking. His advice: Embrace hypertext. Keep things short for the masses, but offer links for the Type A's.

No Blogs, Though
Nielsen may be ruthless about brevity, but he doesn't advocate blogging. Here's his logic: "Such postings are good for generating controversy and short-term traffic, and they're definitely easier to write. But they don't build sustainable value."

That's a debatable point. My experience has been that a thoughtful blogger who tags his posts can cover a subject well. But Nielsen's idea is that people will read (and maybe even pay) for expertise that they can't find anywhere else. If you want to beat the Internet, you're not going to do it by blogging (since even OK thinkers occasionally write a great blog post) but by offering a comprehensive take on a subject (thus saving the reader time from searching many sites) and supplying original thinking (offering trusted insight that cannot be easily duplicated by the nonexpert).

Like a lot of what Nielsen says, this is both obvious and thoughtful.

Ludic Reading
Nielsen focuses on how to hold people's attention to convey information. He's not overly concerned with pleasure reading.

Pleasure reading is also known as "ludic reading." Victor Nell has studied pleasure reading (PDF). Two fascinating notions:

When we like a text, we read more slowly.
When we're really engaged in a text, it's like being in an effortless trance.

Ludic reading can be achieved on the Web, but the environment works against you. Read a nice sentence, get dinged by IM, never return to the story again.

I suppose ludic readers would be the little sloths hiding in the jungle while everyone else is out rampaging around for fresh meat.

Final Unnecessary Thought
We'll do more and more reading on screens, but they won't replace paper—never mind what your friend with a Kindle tells you. Rather, paper seems to be the new Prozac. A balm for the distracted mind. It's contained, offline, tactile. William Powers writes about this elegantly in his essay "Hamlet's BlackBerry: Why Paper Is Eternal." He describes the white stuff as "a still point, an anchor for the consciousness."

Source: Slate.com

Embedded Video Lifts Conversion Rate 50%: 5 Steps to Test Deliverability & Subject Line

2008-06-19T20:55:00.001-04:00

SUMMARY: Videos embedded in email can grab attention or cause deliverability problems and rendering nightmares. Most marketers believe the latter, but a few say their data speak otherwise.
See how a marketer increased conversions more than 50% by embedding video in emails. Includes deliverability and subject line test data. Plus, what’s the best video length to use.

CHALLENGE
Conversion rates on email campaigns for a UK entertainment brand hit a plateau late last year. Carolyn Jacquest, Online Marketing Executive, Haven Holidays, and her team didn’t take the news lightly.
“We wanted something new and exciting that would bring the Haven experience to life,” Jacquest says of the amusement park and family resort. “We wanted to show what we had to offer visually.”
They particularly wanted to shake things up before the all-important summer season began. Enter the idea of stimulating conversion rates with videos embedded in the email message body – considered a no-no by some email experts.
CAMPAIGN
Jacquest and her team’s concept was emboldened by data found in MarketingSherpa’s Email Benchmark Guide 2008. It indicates that online consumers react positively to video, with in-stream video ads getting clickthrough rates nearly twice those of static images.
Haven’s email service provider also convinced Jacquest that, with the right preparation, an embedded video can be delivered successfully and catch people’s attention. Here are the five steps they took:
-> Step #1. Improve reputation
The first thing Jacquest and her team did was work to improve their sender reputation. Indeed, the idea of sending videos in emails almost begins and ends with deliverability concerns.
This boiled down to *regularly* observing one best practice – routinely scrubbing their list to get rid of addresses that were bouncing in the months leading up to the test.
-> Step #2. Produce video
The creative process began with Jacquest and her team deciding to produce a 5-minute video that could be edited down to the most appropriate size for an email. Then, they focused on the content, which revolved around the parks’ amenities.
“We focused on entertainment and the varied activities that can be experienced. Things like our indoor and outdoor pools, our live bands, pantomimes for the children, etc.”
-> Step #3. Test video clip size
Working with the promo video, Jacquest and her team tested the length to eliminate two problems:
o File size that email systems wouldn’t bounce
o Download that wouldn’t take forever for recipients to receive
To discover the optimal length, they sent clip sizes to the in-house accounts for their UK-based audience’s 10 most-popular Web mail providers or receivers. “We did weeks of testing before sending the campaign.”
The receivers they tested:
- Outlook 2003
- Outlook 2000
- Outlook Explorer
- Hotmail
- Yahoo!
- AOL Webmail
- Virgin
- NTL World
- Tiscali
- Gmail
From the test results, they learned that clips at 20 seconds were optimal for deliverability. That also gave their audience something to chew on. The 5-minute clip was edited to 20 seconds – or 1 megabyte in file size.
“The length had to do with how much the email could hold. A longer clip would have affected deliverability. Additionally, we wanted to be informative and snappy in the marketing message.”
-> Step #4. Create test design
They picked an Easter holiday email for the test. At the top of the HTML design appeared the copy in blue type: “Fun Filled Easter at Haven!” Just below this was a four-buttoned navigation bar. The copy, “Come and enjoy the Best Easter Holiday ever,” appeared in a white font.
A 320x180-pixel video box appeared when the video automatically started rolling inside the preview pane when the message was opened.
They knew that the video was going to go unseen for some users no matter what they did in testing. For instance, Gmail users who didn’t have HTML images turned on simply did not see the video automatically roll in the message.
Jacquest accounted for those types of situations by including a link to a microsite where a 60-second version of the clip could be seen. The email copy for the link read: “If you can’t see our video … Click here.”
-> Step #5. A/B test subject lines
Jacquest and her team also tested the word “video” in the subject line – even if the copy got a bit long. “I normally try to keep subject lines’ characters under 45,” she says.
Here are the two subject lines they tested:
#1. “Picture yourself at Haven this Easter, watch our video now” (58 characters with spaces)
#2. “Come and enjoy the Best Easter Holiday ever!” (45 characters with spaces)

RESULTS
Plain and simple – embedding a video in emails worked. The Easter campaign become a smash hit with a 3.38% conversion rate – 50.2% higher than previous non-video campaigns. “Our average conversion rates were ranging between 2% to 2.5%,” Jacquest says. “So, the 3.38% was great, exceeded our expectations and was an ROI winner.”
Although Jacquest and her team weren’t able to track how many of those ticket buyers viewed the email in the body vs. on the microsite, they were thrilled to see conversions rise significantly.
Another point of great importance was the fact that the 20-second clip got through to inboxes with a deliverability rate of 96%. It showed that, if done correctly with attention placed upon sender reputation and thorough testing, video can work in the body of the message. Clickthroughs also were a healthy 27%.
Jacquest’s hunch on subject lines was dead-on as well. Including the word “video” had a big impact – a 14.6% boost for opens. “I think people are interested in video, and it’s not something you see very often in an email. It’s become more common at websites, but to have it open within your email message can have a strong impact on the recipient.”
In the subject line test, the word video didn’t trip email filters. Both subject lines produced the same deliverability rate: 96%.
Another key lesson learned from their test: Even if the video doesn’t roll in the email body, it appears to create enough intrigue to induce clickthroughs to the clip.

Useful links related to this article
Creative samples from Haven Holiday’s email campaign:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/cs/havenholidays/study.h
ml
Red Eye International - Haven Holiday’s ESP and video technology provider:
http://redeye.com/
Haven Holidays:
http://www.havenholidays.com/

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30655&pop=no#

Five Ways to Make SEO Work for You

2008-06-17T22:27:00.001-04:00

How much attention do you pay to search engine optimization? Many marketers give it short shrift, not understanding that it can be the difference between success and failure.

Here are five tips that will help you put SEO to work for you.

1. Develop good, high-quality content. Before you pull visitors into your site through SEO, you should first have a foundation of first-rate content that has relevant benefit to your visitors. Implementing SEO practices before making your site a useful stop for consumers means they will likely leave just as quickly as they came.

2. Use searchable, rational keywords. Now that the foundation is laid, you need to have the right amount of keyword density. First of all, remember to not put too many keywords onto your Web pages, as some search engines will label your site as spam for having too many. Five% or less keyword density is a good amount.

To build up your keyword density, replace generic terms with keywords specific to your industry. For example, Avidian’s homepage contains the header “Compare CRM Software” rather than a more generic phrase such as “Compare Competitors.” This helps get the right message to customers and search engines alike.

3. Build relevant external links. Getting other influential Web sites to link back to you can equate to as much as 70% of your SEO efforts.

Here are a few current best practices when building external links:

· Relevant content: Develop articles and other content that others will want to display and link to on their sites.

· Pay for it: Serve as a sponsor on an applicable site.

· Say please: Ask nicely and hopefully they will link to your site because they want to support you.

4. Build relevant internal links. Building relevant internal links is a much easier process yet it is still important. Including numerous internal links on all of your Web pages to other places on your site is essentially giving search engines suggestions of the most important pages on your site.

When building internal links you should keep these tips in mind:

· Use HTML for inbound links: Search engines don’t like Flash and Java, stick with HTML links.

· Link from your most important pages: Search engines give more credence to links on home pages.

· Link to pages using relevant keywords: Consider what you are using for your anchor text. For example, rather than saying, “For more information, click here,” place the link within a sentence containing the name of the product.

5. Track and review your data to continuously improve. In order to continually improve your SEO processes, you need to understand the consumer behavior on your site. At Avidian, we’re constantly looking at what keywords are bringing people to us, where the traffic is coming from, what pages they are visiting and what actions they are taking. This helps us determine how we can further improve our SEO efforts.

http://chiefmarketer.com/online_marketing/search/seo_0617/

Search Engine Optimizing a crap-filled site just makes it a little less crappy

2008-06-16T22:33:00.001-04:00

People often ask me about search engine optimization. In particular, many ask what search engine marketing techniques they can use on their site to "get high rankings."

Inevitably with most of these requests, I find that the site that they want optimized sucks. It's poorly written. It goes on and on in an egotistical way about what the company's products do. It's filled with gobbledygook.

I tell these people that they need to understand buyers and create some great content that people want to consume. That way, they will get high rankings as the search engine algorithms reward the great content.

Usually I get pushback. People say they just want to an agency to "tweak our existing Web pages."

"Sorry," I say. "Search Engine Optimizing a crap-filled site just makes it less crappy." And I go on to give examples of how valuable Web content drives high rankings.

I’m amazed by how some interesting content (a blog post, an ebook, or a web page) can generate high rankings for a tiny company, way above the big famous organizations.

Consider these examples from my own efforts:

A few months ago, I did a blog post about my participation at the Milken institute global conference. This is a big event (over 3,000 people attend), it has been going on for more than a decade, is covered by the business TV networks like FOX Business and Bloomberg as well as dozens of magazines and newspapers, and speakers include Nobel prize winners. This year Arnold Schwarzenegger and Google CEO Eric Schmidt were some of the speakers. Yet my little blog post is on the top page of the search results for the phrase Milken institute global conference.

Early this year I published The New Rules of Viral Marketing ebook. Prior to putting out the ebook, my site and blog were ranked way down in the results for the phrase viral marketing. Now, because of an ebook that has been downloaded 150,000 times, my site and my blog are ranked numbers 11 & 13 out of 4.8 million hits.

http://www.webinknow.com/2008/06/search-engine-o.html

Newspaper Ads Help Drive Consumers to the Web

2008-06-13T14:24:00.001-04:00

Some 44% of people who saw a product or service advertised in a newspaper in the past month researched it - and two-thirds (67%) of that group went online to find more information, according to a Google-commissioned survey from Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo.

The survey of 1,003 search-engine-using adults who also read newspapers (an estimated 82 million people in the US) finds that among those who go online to research a product, nearly half (47%) go directly to a product URL, 31% go to a search engine, and 22% go to another site:

Some additional findings from the study, below.

Effect on Purchasing

Some 42% of respondents reported that in the last month they purchased at least one product they had seen in the newspaper.

Most of them (83%) purchased at least one thing from a store or dealer; the second most common purchase venue was online (38%):

Among those who go online after seeing ads in newspapers, nearly 70% make purchases following their additional research.

Multi-channel Ads Increase Trust/Likelihood to Buy

Seeing products and services advertised in multiple channels increased both consumer trust in them and likelihood to buy.

Nearly half of respondents (48%) said seeing a product in the newspaper after seeing it online would make them trust the product more. More than half that group (52%) said they would be more likely to purchase the product if they saw a newspaper ad for a product they already knew about from the internet.

When rating which media are better for different functions, respondents considered the newspaper more useful for learning about promotions (68% - vs. 42% for the internet) and deciding where (54% v. 45%) and when (43% v. 30%) to buy:

http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/newspaper-ads-help-drive-consumers-to-the-web-4931/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

How-To: 7 Tactics for Getting Online Readers to Stick

2008-06-12T12:33:00.001-04:00

This article was written by CEO Nate Whitehill of Unique Blog Designs. It works best for those seeking to build brands through blogging, but is also adaptable to companies wishing to maximize their online content development.

Here are seven tried and tested methods to get visitors to become regular readers, be it through RSS subscriptions or simply by reading a good amount of posts. All of these methods, used in conjunction, tripled my RSS subscriber count in April.

A note on traffic.

"Steroid traffic" is a term I coined to mean quick surges of traffic that don’t necessarily average more than 1.1 pageviews per visitor. It has short-term benefits and the visitors rarely stick around.

In contrast, natural traffic — traffic from search engines or referrals — averages well over 2.0 pageviews per visitor and generally become repeat visitors. This piece focuses on generating natural traffic.

1. Use a highly visible Feed Button. Make sure you have a BIG RSS button near the top of your site and also in your sidebar. If you need Feed Icons, check out FeedIcons.com, which has a downloadable package of customizable ones.

2. Include this magic sentence after each post. As soon as I modified my template to include the following sentence after each post, I saw RSS subscribers go up significantly. The magic line is, "If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to my RSS Feed." You can use a derivative of that, but anytime someone finishes reading a post you wrote, that option will be presented directly in front of them.

3. Install this plugin. Anytime someone finishes reading an article, what do they do? They either leave a comment, leave your site, or read another article. How do you get them to read another article? Install the Related Posts plugin. I have it set to display 7 other related posts readers might be interested in. As soon as I installed that plugin, I saw my P/V ratio (pageviews per visitor) go way up.

4. Ask questions.install a poll and ask a question which will benefit you, such as, “what do you want to see more of on this blog?” I used the answers to that question to help further define the focus of my blog.

5. Offer a full feed RSS. RSS, also known as Really Simple Syndication, is a popular way to read blogs and stay up to stay on multiple news sources. If you offer a full feed RSS and do not cut off your posts (in your RSS feeds), you will definitely see readership increase. You may have to sacrifice readers visiting your site to read an article, but the goal is to build readership for the long term. If they want to leave a comment, they will have to visit your blog anyway.

6. Be highly reachable. I use a plugin called Comment Relish to send an email to every new visitor who leaves a comment. In this email, I include all my instant messenger (skype, aim, msn gtalk) usernames and encourage them to contact me about anything.

7. Host a contest. Contests are a great way to give back to readers and encourage community participation. I just finished hosting my first contest and it was a great success. I saw a ton of new visitors and a met some new people. Try to make the contests somewhat interesting and encourage people to talk about it.

Those methods have helped my blog increase its traffic, RSS subscribers, and overall reader interaction significantly over the past few months. You can see the percentage of repeat visitors by monitoring the repeat visitor rate in your stats software. (Generally, anything over 50% of considered a good repeat visitor rate.)

What other methods have you used to get visitors to stick around on your blog?

If you're a personal blogger, it can be beneficial to have a home affiliate business; banner advertising on its own can generate money for the webmaster. But it is essential that one know how to operate this business. To do so there are training programs which can help you learn new skills, such as Microsoft training.

Besides that, SEO techniques should be implemented to increase site traffic. Constant changes need to be made to keep users up-to-date; use a broadband connection for fast updating. The domain name itself should specify what the site is about. Finally, it's smart to go for hosting services which provide free site hosting to save money.

http://www.marketingvox.com/how-to-7-tactics-for-getting-online-readers-to-stick-039155/?camp=newsletter&src=mv&type=textlink

How School Doubled Enrollment With Multichannel & Lead Nurturing Program

2008-06-05T22:11:00.001-04:00

SUMMARY: Prospects for your products and services can come from anywhere and show up at almost any time. But how do you get those leads in the first place and keep them “warm” once they’re in the pipeline?
See how a school’s marketing team doubled enrollment with a nurturing campaign that included targeted online advertising, search, telemarketing and email.

CHALLENGE
Adult distance learners are a difficult demographic for colleges to attract. It’s not like targeting high school students within a certain radius and knowing that many of them will be interested in you simply because of your location.
Ronald Kennedy faced this dilemma when he became Executive Director, Distance Learning and Graduate Studies, Liberty University, about 2 1/2 years ago. He was charged with increasing the college’s distance learner enrollment, which was about 12,000 students when he took over. At Liberty, adult and distance learners are almost one and the same -- 60% to 70% are 30 to 45 years old.
Adult distance learners also can enroll at almost any time, unlike traditional college students who typically start in the fall. And there’s plenty of competition from colleges like The University of Phoenix, which offers courses to working adults online and in local learning centers nationwide.
“It’s a very competitive field out there going after the adult learner,” says Kennedy.
CAMPAIGN
Kennedy and his team devised a strategy that focused heavily on online ads, interactive lead generation and Liberty’s brand identity to attract adult distance learners and keep them interested as prospects.
Here are the seven steps they followed:
-> Step #1. Analyze demographics of each degree program
Kennedy and his team first conducted a detailed demographic analysis of each of the college’s more than 35 distance learning degree programs.
They compiled this data by:
o Extracting the student profiles of each degree program
o Breaking down profiles by gender, age, household income, etc.
o Matching the demographics to websites for targeted advertising
“We get a lot of traffic that we can’t effectively source back to any particular channel,” Kennedy says. “That relates directly to our strong brand identity.”
-> Step #2. Leverage existing brand
Next, they took advantage of the school’s reputation for having one of the oldest distance learning programs. The team also leveraged the college’s conservative faith-based approach to education in their messages to stand out from secular schools offering online courses.
-> Step #3. Target online ads to matched websites
Kennedy and his team ran banner ads primarily on two types of sites:
o Ones that appealed to the demographics of Liberty’s online degree programs
o Ones that affiliated with education, specifically online education
“We’re targeting a student who is potentially going to take classes online, so there’s already an affinity that they live online.”
An example of matching demographics to degree: They advertised the school’s seminary degree program -- with a 95% male demographic -- on sites that appealed to Christian men.
-> Step #4. Qualify the leads
Prospects who clicked on the banner ads were directed to a landing page with a form containing qualifying questions to weed out those who weren’t a good fit. “On the back end, we do append some information to the lead to try to tell us internally who’s most likely to convert more than others, and we’ll gear our strategy in-house to that,” Kennedy says.
Qualifying these potential students was very important because adult learners are expensive leads to generate and nurture. Adult learners often won’t enroll in an online degree program for up to a year after giving their information to Liberty. This means the team has to spend more money to keep the brand name in front of the lead for extended periods of time and they didn’t want to waste money and internal resources on leads that weren’t going to convert.
-> Step #5. Invest in matching services
Kennedy and his team also spent some of their marketing budget on a service that matched programs with students to develop more qualified leads. Here’s how that worked:
- The service provider used search engine marketing and an extensive keyword campaign to drive traffic to Liberty’s website.
- Then, they collected the demographic and contact information from the leads and matched them with the most compatible degree program at the university.
“We liked the strategic analysis they were willing to provide on the leads we were getting to help optimize and bring in better quality, as well as analysis they did with SEO and purchasing,” Kennedy says.
-> Step #6. Create landing page
Higher quality leads were directed to the landing page, which included a description of the university and information about it being ranked No. 3 on the Online Education Database’s 2008 list of online universities in the United States.
The landing page asked visitors to enter:
o Name
o Address
o Email
o Phone number
o Good time to call
o Degree program of interest
“The easier you make that form, the more leads you’re going to get,” Kennedy says.
As soon as visitors submitted their information, they received an immediate reply email. They also received a telephone call within 15 minutes. This was an extremely important part of the nurturing strategy because “in this business speed wins,” Kennedy says.
That nurturing strategy consisted of three parts:
Part 1. Phone call
Telemarketing calls were the No. 1 method Kennedy and his team used to follow up with qualified leads.
Part 2. Email
Email was second -- and the longest lasting of the three strategies because it was the cheapest.
The emails contained:
o A link back to the school’s distance learning website
o “Real life” situations in the messaging
o Emphasis on the ultimate goal
o Call to action
Instead of just telling adult learners how convenient online classes were, the team described how inconvenient it was to find a baby sitter after work or to fight traffic to take classes on a campus. They juxtaposed that scenario with coming home, making dinner and then working on the computer for a couple of hours to take classes.
The team also invited leads to call or email the university for more information or to chat live with an admissions counselor or academic adviser online from the school’s distance learning site.
Part 3. Direct mail
Direct mail was No. 3. “We try to hit them with all the different communication styles that are available to keep our name and brand in front of them vs. our competitors,” says Kennedy.
-> Step #7. Test, test, test
The team analyzed traffic patterns and continually looked for more effective keywords. They also conducted split tests on creative, including the online ads and landing pages.
Testing was especially important when determining how many qualifying questions they should ask a lead, Kennedy says. The team did split tests between longer, more detailed forms vs. shorter forms.

RESULTS
Enrollment in Liberty’s distance learning program shows the campaign’s overall impact: in 2 1/2 years, Kennedy and his team have seen a 108% increase to more than 25,000 students.
Other results:
o 3% to 5% clickthrough rate on banner ads with targeted audiences
o 0.5% to 1% clickthrough rate on paid search ads
o 2% to 5% clickthrough rate on trade name search
o Higher clickthrough rates on Christian sites vs. secular sites
“I think through doing more target marketing, more demographic type research it’s really paid off in terms of what we’re seeing at the back end as far as enrollments,” Kennedy says.
As for how many questions they should ask a lead, the shorter forms proved to be more successful, Kennedy says. But it was a balancing act. “We’re constantly honing out how many questions we’re asking vs. how many we’re going to have to qualify.”

http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=30632

The long and short of e-mail subject lines

2008-05-28T18:54:00.001-04:00

Findings suggest that e-mail open rates rise with subject lines that are between 50 and 80 characters, according to Dela Quist, CEO of Alchemy Worx, London. However, open rates drop to mid-range when the length is 60 or 70 characters, suggesting the subject line either provides too much information or not enough, Quist said in a recent keynote address. MediaPost Communications (5/27) Article below:

Email Analytics Reveal Sweet Spots In Subject-Line Length

by David Goetzl, Tuesday, May 27, 2008 7:00 AM ET

CAPTIVA ISLAND, Fla. -- Email marketing analytics have led Dela Quist, CEO of London shop Alchemy Worx, to discover a sweet spot for how long subject lines should be.

He says open rates climb when the subject lines are in the 50-character range or 80-character range. But, perhaps counterintuitively, they fall in the middle when the length is 60 or 70.

The magnetic Quist gave the keynote address Saturday at MediaPost's Email Insiders Summit conference: "Emailing People Not Lists: Using Customer Based Metrics to Drive Performance Improvement."

Research culled from 250 million messages sent over the past two years, with 660 different subject lines, has led him to believe that a 50-character subject line touting a "powerful" offer is appealing (30% off Spring Getaway flights to Florida on Delta).

And a longer 80-character-plus line describing a newsletter in enticing fashion works (Find out Secrets to Spice up your Barbecue this weekend and all Summer Long and enter to win a New Weber Grill.)

Somehow, in the 60- to-70-character middle, he says, the subject line is either too long or not long enough.

Quist has various theories, but one is that the longer the subject line, the better chance a marketer has of presenting different concepts that may appeal to different consumers and boosting open rates. So in the above example, some may be interested in the ways to improve their grilling, while others would seek the new grill, leading to higher open rates.

Quist's research--his clients include PayPal and Intercontinental Hotels in the U.S.--showing that "long subject lines work better" goes against conventional wisdom, he said.

"Our experience tended towards the belief that long subject lines work better," he said. (The longer the better goes against conventional wisdom.) A more descriptive subject line can also build goodwill with consumers, since it can provide enough info to easily either turn them on or turn them off.

Behavioral Advertising Mostly OK

2008-04-11T17:25:00.001-04:00

Most US adults are uncomfortable that some websites use information about one’s online activity to customize website content or ads - but, if site privacy and security policies were improved, most would be comfortable with the practice, according to a new study.

Specifically, the Harris Interactive survey found as follows:

Six in ten (59%) are not comfortable when sites like Google, Yahoo and Microsoft (MSN) use information about a person’s online activity to tailor advertisements or content based on a person’s hobbies or interests: 25% are not at all comfortable, 34% are not very comfortable.

The remaining 41% who say they are comfortable with websites’ tailoring content is split between 7% who are very comfortable and 34% who are somewhat comfortable.

To study also sought to determine whether US adults would alter their views if various policy and security policies were adopted, based on possible self-regulatory principles for online behavioral advertising outlined (pdf) by the Federal Trade Commission.

Among the findings:

If four privacy/security policies were introduced, most US adults would become more amenable to being served content and ads based on their online behavior:

By a 55% to 45% majority, US adults indicate that they would be more comfortable with companies’ using information about a person’s online activities to provide customized advertising or content.
Interestingly, once the privacy/security policies were presented, the percentages of those who are very comfortable increases only slightly to 9%, from 7%. The percentage who are somewhat comfortable given the privacy/security policies increases more significantly, to 46% from 34%.
Similarly, the proportion of those who are not at all comfortable declines to 19% from 25%, and of those who are not very comfortable declines to 26% from 34%.

Analysis of the by age indicates a difference of views among generations. Those who are younger Echo Boomers (age 18-31) and Gen Xers (age 32-43) are initially more comfortable with the notion of websites’ customizing content than older Baby Boomers (age 44-62) and Matures (age 63 or older).

After being presented with the privacy/security policies, all generations’ level of comfort increases:

Echo Boomers’ increases to 62% from 49%. Gen Xers’ increases to 56% from 45%. Baby Boomers’ comfort increases to a majority (52%) from 34%.
Only Matures remain uncomfortable with the websites’ customizing advertising and content, though the level of support rises to 46% from 31%.

The nationwide survey was designed in collaboration with Dr. Alan F. Westin, Professor of Public Law and Government Emeritus at Columbia University.

Dr. Westin commented: “The failure of a larger percentage of respondents to express comfort after four privacy policies were specified may have two bases - concerns that web companies would actually follow voluntary guidelines, even if they espoused them, and the absence of any regulatory or enforcement mechanism in the privacy policy steps outlined in the question.”

About the study: The Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States March 11-18, 2008, among 2,513 adults (age 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the online population. Respondents were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/behavioral-advertising-mostly-ok-if-privacy-security-safeguards-instituted-4197/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Consumers Like Relevant Advertising, Dislike Data Mining

2008-03-31T15:23:00.001-04:00

A study from TNS Global finds most people aren't comfortable with having their online behavior tracked for ad delivery purposes, reports ClickZ.

The research reflected broad awareness among consumers that third parties collect information about their online activities: 71 percent said they knew they were being virtually watched, though only 40 percent were familiar with the term "behavioral targeting."

57 percent were uncomfortable with having their browser cookies analyzed for ad delivery. This held true even if respondents believed their personal information was protected from fraud or other forms of identity abuse.

(For more findings, including tables, from the study, see coverage by MarketingCharts.)

Proponents of behavioral advertising argue that data-mining practices help the consumer, which as a result sees less, and more relevant, advertising in exchange for free content.

Oddly, most consumers surveyed did express a desire for highly targeted, relevant ads; 55 percent said they would be willing to fill out an anonymous survey to get them.

TRUSTe's VP of communications Carolyn Hodge says education on behavioral targeting can help overcome the qualms people have about it. She cited Amazon, which gathers data to share relevant products with users, as one example where behavioral consumer profiles make everyone a winner.

A recent survey by MarketingSherpa found that among marketers, behavioral advertising was among the best ROI deliverers online. To balance practitioner enthusiasm, the FTC released some behavioral ad targeting guidelines late last year.

http://www.marketingvox.com/consumers-like-relevant-advertising-dislike-data-mining-037717/?camp=newsletter&src=mv&type=textlink

Newspaper Online Advertising Spending Jumps 19%, Print Ads Down 9%

2008-03-30T12:09:00.001-04:00

Advertising expenditures for newspaper websites in 2007 increased 18.8%, to $3.2 billion - accounting for 7.5% of all newspaper ad spending last year (up from 5.7% in 2006), according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America.

Print ad exenditures were down 9.4% in the same period, however, and total (combined print and online) newspaper ad expenditures were down 7.9% for the year.

The following table breaks down online and print newspaper ad expenditures, by quarter, for 2007 and 2006:

In the fourth quarter of 2007, advertising expenditures for newspaper websites increased to $847 million, up 13.6% compared with the same period a year earlier.

That was the thirteenth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth for online newspaper advertising since NAA started reporting online ad spending in 2004.

Advertising expenditures at newspapers and their websites, combined, totaled $12.6 billion for the fourth quarter; spending for print ads in newspapers totaled $11.7 billion.

Those figures are down from the fourth quarter of 2006, when total advertising expenditures were $14 billion, and print ad spend was $13.2 billion.

The following table breaks down newspaper print ad expenditures, by segment and quarter, for 2007 and 2006:

About the data: The NAA website has quarterly and annual ad spending numbers in their entirety.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/print/newspaper-online-advertising-spending-jumps-19-print-ads-down-9-4024/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

How-To: 9 Basic SEO Tips

2008-03-19T16:01:00.001-04:00

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), one component of search engine marketing (SEM), is the process of fortifying a website so it is more likely to appear in a high position when users conduct a search with keywords related to the website's offerings.

Here are a few basic SEO tricks:

1. Find out how well you rank online. You can do this at Alexa.com, which will tell you what position your website holds against all others. The goal will be to make that number lower.

It may be helpful to download the Google Toolbar, which gives you the "PageRank" score for websites. Pages are scored on a scale of 1 to 10. The goal will be to make this number higher on your website.

You can also check the Google PageRank Checker, which provides Google PR, visitor figures and numbers on related links.

2. Submit your site to search engines. Do it personally; avoid "submission services" or software. You only need to do it once. Here is Google's submission page.

3. Place relevant keywords in the title tag so search spiders will know what your page is about. The title tag is the text that appears at the top of the browser when a webpage loads. MarketingVOX's title tag is "MarketingVOX - The voice of online marketing."

Avoid stuffing the title tag with too many keywords, or making it too long. A good rule of thumb: ensure title tag text also appears in the body of the page.

4. Use your archives. When you update your site, link back to relevant stories from the past, using equally relevant anchor text. Don't go overboard; the trick is to give users more information, not overwhelm them with hyperlinks.

Anchor text — the hyperlinked words that point to another page — are a way of telling search engines that page is about those words. The more relevant words point to a page, the more likely that page is to appear in search results when users run a query with those terms.

5. Cultivate relationships with quality websites in your industry. When well-ranked websites link to you (with hopefully relevant anchor text!), this tells spiders your page is important to users seeking information about your area of expertise.

6. Avoid relationships with link farms, people who offer to pay for links to their websites, or other sites that you don't want associated with your own. Google conducts occasional sweeps and penalizes destinations of ill repute by tanking their ranking.

7. Use alt tags on images to "tell" search engine spiders what the images are. This will help them index your pictures and better serve readers with text-only web browsers.

8. Got a big site? Build a site map. A site map can help spiders crawl pages more quickly. The fewer clicks necessary to get to a page on your website, the better. Small site? Use a nav bar.

9. Occasionally embolden useful terms on a page. Once or twice is fine; too much bold can irritate readers. Worse still, it might look to Google like keyword abuse.

10. Focus on the customer. The best sites for users, and consequently for search engines, are full of oft-updated, useful information about a given service, product, topic or discipline. Avoid cutting corners or exploring "black-hat" SEO options, which could result in lower rankings over time or even a site ban from search engines.

Updating often, making content readable and easy to find, and developing productive online relationships are enough to improve destination relevance significantly over time.

http://www.marketingvox.com/how-to-9-basic-seo-tips-037438/?camp=newsletter&src=mv&type=textlink

The Six Cs of Permission Email Marketing

2008-02-19T21:32:00.001-05:00

by Karen Talavera

Published on February 19, 2008

Permission Marketing. Beyond buzz word, it's clearly the status quo for email and has long been debated as the future state of direct mail, too. Already legally mandated by data laws in other countries, opt-in marketing may evolve into the preferred model within the US as well.

With marketing channels of choice proliferating and messaging devices diversifying, it's not hard to imagine an opt-in vs. opt-out future where permissions are granted not only by marketing channel (email, postal mail, phone, RSS), but also by content, device, time, and place.

All the more reason to genuinely understand permission, which in the world of email marketing alone appears relegated to subjective definitions. We'll help set the record straight by exploring the first two of six dimensions of permission in this three-part series, "The Six Cs of Permission Email Marketing."

They may seem obvious, and they may sound simplistic, but you might be surprised how often the fundamentals are dismissed.

1. Conscious Consent

There are numerous ways individuals end up on email lists, and many of those ways are unknown even to them.

Terms like "affirmative consent," "passive consent," and "third-party consent" abound. But when it comes to genuine 100% permission marketing, the only consent that matters is conscious consent.

Are your join and subscribe invitations structured in such a way that list members must voluntarily take action to receive your messages, and do they realize the action they are taking will result in email from your company, partners, or affiliates? If you can't answer "yes" to these questions, your methods are not garnering conscious consent.

Sure, people are bombarded with messages and advertising impressions from a growing array of channels; and, yes, they forget what they've signed-up for. However, conscious consent ensures that an opt-in process is clear and non-deceitful.

Without a self-initiated action on the part of your list members, it is virtually impossible for them to join. Requiring such self-initiated, voluntary measures requires conscious action on the part of your recipients and increases the likelihood that they remember having taken such action.

On the other hand, unconscious or passive consent assumes rather than requests permission. It takes true voluntary choice out of the equation by pre-checking boxes, using data gathered from publicly available sources, or gathering information via some other opt-out collection model.

While those methods are certainly not illegal and are often justifiable, they don't constitute conscious consent. If 100% permission marketing is what you aim for, nothing less than voluntary consent will do.

2. Choice

Choice and conscious consent go hand in hand, since conscious consent assumes individual choice. Yet beyond the choice to join/subscribe in the first place, you should make available options that offer control (one of our upcoming C's).

Which options will you—can you—offer in a permission marketing environment? These are just a few:

Communication type (news, promotional, legal, transactional)
Content type (product information, reminders, sales offers)
Preferred communication channel (email, postal mail, phone, fax)
Frequency preferences
Device-specific message formatting (mobile vs. desktop)
Temporary suspension of messages
Unsubscribe

For an expert example of how it's done, see United Airlines customer preferences at www.united.com. If you're a United Mileage Plus program member, just log-in and select "My Profile." You'll be able to edit email preferences, flight notification preferences, and other options. Another excellent example can be found at Hallmark. Create an account there if you don't already have one to see what we mean.

When offering permission and communications choices, you offer preferences; so, present only the options that you can successfully fulfill. And don't forget to note when certain types of content or communication are available only through a particular channel and not others.

It's fine to restrict choices solely to what you can realistically manage; aim your sights on under-promising and over-delivering—and your customers will reward your efforts.

Next: The next two Cs of Permission Email: Clarity and Confidence.

http://www.marketingprofs.com/8/six-cs-permission-email-marketing-part-1-talavera.asp?sp=1

New Study Shows that Heavy Clickers Distort Reality of Display Advertising Click-Through Metrics

2008-02-12T20:04:00.001-05:00

New Study Shows that Heavy Clickers Distort Reality of Display Advertising Click-Through Metrics

CHICAGO – Media agency Starcom USA, behavioral targeting network Tacoda, and digital consumer insight company comScore collaborated on a research study whose results call into question click-through rates as a primary source of accountability for Internet display advertising aimed at brand-building. Called “Natural Born Clickers,” the study reveals that a very small group of consumers who are not representative of the total U.S. online population is accountable for the vast majority of display ad click-through behavior.
Full findings of the study, its methodology and results are being presented this afternoon at the iMedia Brand Summit in Coconut Point, Florida.
The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. While many online media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public. In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.
Further preliminary Starcom data suggests no correlation between display ad clicks and brand metrics, and show no connection between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked. The research presentation suggests that when digital campaigns have a branding objective, optimizing for high click rates does not necessarily improve campaign performance.
“There is more and more emphasis by advertisers for greater return-on-objectives in campaigns, particularly in the digital space where the accountability data is so readily available,“ says Starcom USA Director of Connections Research and Analytics Grant Prentice. “Natural Born Clickers shows us that we can’t count on click-through rate as our primary success metric for display ads; Starcom is more reliant on shifts in brand attitude metrics and analytics tying on-line exposure to sales as the true measures of online advertising efficacy.”
“While the click can continue to be a relevant metric for direct response advertising campaigns, this study demonstrates that click performance is the wrong measure for the effectiveness of brand-building campaigns,” said Erin Hunter, executive vice president at comScore. “For many campaigns, the branding effect of the ads is what’s really important and generating clicks is more of an ancillary benefit. Ultimately, judging a campaign’s effectiveness by clicks can be detrimental because it overlooks the importance of branding while simultaneously drawing conclusions from a sub-set of people who may not be representative of the target audience.”
“One of the underlying values of looking at people and not just pages in our business is that we are able to help uncover behavior that is counterintuitive to what much of the media world assumes about online audiences,” says Daniel Jaye, CEO of TACODA.

http://www.smvgroup.com/news_popup_flash.asp?pr=1643

Interactive Marketers Unsure of Tracking Capabilities

2008-02-01T09:29:00.001-05:00

According to the new Sapient annual Interactive Marketing Survey more than half the marketing senior level respondents felt only ‘somewhat confident' or ‘not confident at all' in their organization's abilities to track campaigns across multiple channels in real-time, with only 19 percent reporting the ability to make campaign changes in less than 24 hours.

Confidence Level To Track Campaigns Across Multiple Digital Channels in Real Tiime

Confidence Level

% of Respondents

Highly confident

16%

Confident

Somewhat confident

Not confident at all

Source: Sapient, January 2008

While social networking was cited the least "trackable" digital channel, according to the survey, it was the channel with the largest anticipated increase in marketing analytics spend for 2008. Only 12 percent of respondents tracked social networking campaign performance in 2007; in 2008, 42 percent anticipate using analytics to track this increasingly important channel.

Performance Least Confident in Tracking

Digital Channel Performance

% of Respondents

11%

Mobile

Digital advertising

Social networking

None

Don't know/na

Source: Sapient, January 2008

Nearly half the respondents said they do not believe campaign data provided to them evenly measures and compares performance across all digital channels, but ifficulty in comparing metrics across channels is the most common hurdle to accuracy in this area, cited by 28 percent of respondents

Biggest Hurdle for Organization to Measure and Compare

Hurdle

% of Respondents

Don't have capabilities to interpret

15%

Difficult to compare metrics

Difficult to work with IT to implement

No technology in place

Bias toward previously effective channels

Don't know/na

Source: Sapient, January 2008

Email and search were cited as the two channels that marketers were most confident in their ability to track, and 38% of marketers said search resulted in the highest ROI to their organizations. 28% of marketers plan to increase search spending in 2008.

Area of Digital Marketing Budget Expected to Increase Most in 6-12 Months

Digital Channel Performance

% of Respondents

28%

Mobile

Digital advertising

Social networking

None

Don't know/na

Source: Sapient, January 2008

Sapient Chief Creative Officer, Gaston Legorburu, concludes "In 2008, marketers will seek the ability to seamlessly incorporate social networking with their other channels, including search and email, and the capability to monitor and measure performance to ensure they are achieving optimum results."

For graphic charts and additional information, please visit Marketing Charts here.

More information on the report and Sapient may be found here.

Online Newspaper Viewership Reached Record High in ‘07

2008-01-25T15:52:00.001-05:00

Average monthly unique audience figures for newspaper websites grew by more than 3.6 million in 2007, a record year for the industry and an increase of more than 6% over 2006 numbers, according to the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).

Monthly unique visitors to newspaper websites averaged 62.8 million in last year’s fourth quarter, a record number in itself and the largest in any quarter since NAA began tracking online usage in January 2004.

According to the data, which is part of a new report by Nielsen Online for NAA that takes into account home and work internet usage, unique visitors in the fourth quarter represented a 9% increase over the same period a year ago (57.6 million).

Among the findings of the report:

Heading into the holiday season, newspaper websites experienced a record in October 2007. More than 63.2 million people visited newspaper websites that month, more than any month on record - and an 8% increase from the same period a year ago.
For the year’s fourth quarter, 39% of all active Web users visited newspaper websites, with visits averaging 44 minutes a month.
In the fourth quarter, users generated more than three billion page impressions on average, a 7.3% increase over the same period a year ago.

See below for chart of similar data, by month, for all of 2007; data for previous periods is available from NAA’s website.

“Newspapers continue to successfully transform themselves into multimedia companies, offering unparalleled content that reaches an audience growing in both size and sophistication,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm.

“Newspapers’ expanding print and digital portfolio offers value to advertisers by providing a targeted, comprehensive menu of choices for today’s discriminating consumer. As our industry’s transition accelerates, it is clear consumers recognize newspapers as their trusted source of information in an increasingly digital environment.”

About the data: The Nielsen Online newspaper total represents a de-duplicated visitor total taken from its combined home and work panel of internet users (e.g., an individual who might read a national newspaper plus a local newspaper online is counted only once). The target sample (2 years or older) has access from a non-shared PC at work and/or access from home. The Nielsen Online monthly newspaper total represents the de-duplicated reach of a custom list of hundreds of sites collectively.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/online-newspaper-viewership-reaches-record-high-in-07-3190/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Datran Survey Puts E-mail ROI in Question

2008-01-22T19:31:00.001-05:00

Conventional wisdom, not to mention common sense, has it that e-mail delivers an astronomically high return on investment compared to other channels.

However, this is apparently news to a significant percentage of marketers.

Just 55.3% of executives recently surveyed by pay-for-performance marketing firm Datran Media said e-mail’s ROI is higher than that of other channels.

Also, 25.9% said e-mail’s ROI is roughly equal to that of other channels. And a still significant 18.8% said e-mail’s ROI is <ital>lower<ital> than that of other channels.

These are fairly stunning numbers given e-mail’s low transmission costs. They also fly in the face of Direct Marketing Association calculations that e-mail delivered $48.56 in sales for every dollar spent in 2007, and would deliver $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008.

For comparison, the DMA said non-e-mail Internet marketing returned $20.67 in sales for every dollar spent in 2007. The trade group said catalogs delivered $7.22 in sales for every dollar spent in 2007.

Datran didn’t ask respondents to elaborate on the ROI question so it’s impossible to say definitively what the reasons for the findings are.

“I can only speculate here, but my guess is marketers might cite search as the strongest ROI channel since the measurement/metrics are so easy and familiar – even if this perception does not match results,” wrote Lana McGilvray, vice president of marketing for Datran, in an e-mail exchange with this newsletter.

“Also, based on direct feedback from our clients (not related to this survey), while e-mail is most often the top performer, we also hear great feedback of the results of direct TV, search and display. The strongest multi-channel mix for each company varies and it takes more than a single channel to realize maximum success,” she continued.

Meanwhile, in another eyebrow-raising statistic, just 36.5% of those surveyed by Datran said they test how their creative appears across various inbox types.

Internet service providers have been increasingly blocking graphics by default for quite some time now. Moreover, a message’s appearance can change fairly dramatically from inbox to inbox. So apparently, the vast majority of marketers are conducting e-mail campaigns with no idea how their messages look to most of their recipients.

Still, a respectable 74.1% of those surveyed said they conduct A/B/C content or creative testing.

Less surprising findings included that 82.4% of those surveyed said they would increase their use of e-mail marketing in 2008, while 15.3% said their use of the channel would stay the same and 2.4% said it would decrease.

Also, 71.8% of respondents said search compliments e-mail, compared to 51.8% who said display advertising compliments the channel, 24.7% said mobile compliments e-mail, 41.2% said direct marketing—presumably mail—compliments it.

Sending newsletters was the most popular use for e-mail among marketers by a slight margin, with 80% saying they planned the activity. However, selling was a close second with 78.8% choosing that option.

Interestingly, 64.7% said they plan to use e-mail to increase brand awareness.

Also, while much of the talk in the industry is about behaviorally targeted advertising, demographic and geographic targeting are still king. While 56.5% of respondents said they send e-mails targeted based on recipients behavior, 63.5% said they target based on demographics and geography. Meanwhile, a not insignificant 20% said they don’t send targeted campaigns.

A healthy 67.1% said they believe e-mail boosts sales in other channels.

Moreover, marketers’ interest in exploiting the opportunities in transactional e-mails remains high as 63.5% said they plan to advertise in their transactional messages.

Jan 22, 2008 1:34 PM , By Ken Magill

http://directmag.com/disciplines/email/datran_survey_email_question_0122/

Analysts Predict Recession, Gloomy Year for Media

2008-01-11T11:59:00.001-05:00

Wall Street is nervous about the media sector, with analysts at both Goldman Sachs and Sanford Bernstein issuing negative reports on the sector today.

Anthony Noto of Goldman Sachs reduced estimates across communications, media and entertainment sectors, saying they are all economically sensitive that will be dragged down by the recession that GS is predicting, writes CNBC.

Noto is particularly concerned about radio broadcasting and newspapers.

The recession will be a mild one by historical standards, lasting only two or three quarters this year and easing in 2009, Noto believes. He says the internet and video game businesses are among the few attractive areas of the industry, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Sanford Bernstein’s Michael Nathanson believes media stocks will take it on the chin, with CBS Corp. being hit the hardest. The worst case scenario could see the firm revising earnings estimates down by 20 percent for CBS, and down by 12 percent for Disney.

http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2008/01/10/analysts-predict-recession-gloomy-year-for-media/

2007 Holiday E-commerce Postmortem

2008-01-07T15:45:00.001-05:00

Some $29.2 billion was spent online during the 2007 holiday season, a 19% gain versus the same period last year, according to comScore’s final update of e-commerce spending during the holiday season (Nov. 1 - Dec. 31).

Monday, Dec. 10, was the heaviest online spending day of the season with $881 million spent, and the week ended Dec. 16 was heaviest spending week, with $4.7 billion, comScore said.

“This year’s online holiday shopping season has concluded with a record $29 billion in spending, a 19% gain versus year ago,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “Ultimately, the softness in the growth of online retail sales during the first 10 days of November proved difficult to overcome and prevented the season’s growth rate from reaching our forecast of 20%.”

However, a healthier 21% growth rate was recorded during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, he said. Below, the holiday-season spending info issued by comScore.
Top 10 Online Spending Days

“Green Monday” (Monday, Dec. 10) was the heaviest individual spending day of the season with $881 million in sales, followed by Tuesday, Dec. 11 ($819 million), and Thursday, Dec. 6 ($803 million).

“Cyber Monday” (Nov. 26), the first major spike in online spending activity during the season, ranked as the 9th-heaviest day with $733 million.
Fastest-Growing Product Categories

Videogames, consoles & accessories was the fastest-growing online retail category, jumping 129% versus the 2006 holiday season, with popular consoles like Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation and games like Halo 3 driving strong sales in the category.

Furniture, appliances & equipment (up 67%), event tickets (up 24%) and consumer electronics (up 23%) also experienced above-average growth.

After substantial softness early in the season, online apparel sales picked up considerably in the latter part of the season, finishing up 18%.

Meanwhile, sales of jewelry & watches declined marginally versus year ago; rising costs in precious metals like gold and platinum may have dampened consumer demand.
Weekly Online Holiday Retail Sales

The heaviest spending week during the 2007 holiday season was the week ended Dec. 16, with $4.7 billion in online sales, edging out the week ended Dec. 9’s $4.6 billion.

The week ended Nov. 18 showed the strongest growth rate (26%) versus the corresponding week in 2006, while the week ended Nov. 4 showed the softest growth (4%).

TV Watchers More Engaged If Viewing Online, Engagement = Ad Receptivity

2008-01-04T16:17:00.001-05:00

Consumers who watch TV online are more engaged than those who watch programs on TV sets, according to a cross-media study by Simmons, part of Experian Research Services, reports MediaPost. Moreover, there’s a high correlation between media engagement and ad receptivity.

Viewers are 47% more engaged in ads shown during TV programs shown online than those shown on programs watched on a TV set, the “Multi-Media Engagement” study found. They are also 25% more engaged in the content of shows watched online than on a set.

Simmons views “engagement” as having six “dimensions” that respondents identify with media they consume: “inspirational,” “trustworthy,” “life-enhancing,” “social interaction,” “personal time-out” and “ad attention/receptivity.”

Among other findings:

People are 18% more engaged with ads in online versions of magazines compared with print versions; they are also 15% more engaged in magazine articles online than in print magazines.
In general, however, print enjoys higher levels of engagement than TV or the internet (despite, or perhaps because of, its shrinking [therefore more hard-core] audience).

Women and younger consumers have slightly higher levels of engagement online than average.
Those age 35-54 rated the internet as almost as trustworthy an information source as did 18-34-year-olds.
Those who visit a site 2-6 times per week tend to be more responsive to ads than those who visit less frequently.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/tv-watchers-more-engaged-if-viewing-online-engagement-ad-receptivity-2931/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Ten Key Online Predictions for 2008

2008-01-04T16:16:00.001-05:00

eMarketer has issued predictions for 2008 in key online areas, including those related advertising, videos, social networks, e-commerce and entertainment, saying online advertising will ride out potential economic storms in the US - and YouTube will decide political elections.

The 10 predictions for 2008 according to eMarketer:

Online ads remain resilient.
Video surge slows.
Social-network advertising hits $1.6 billion.
Networking goes beyond MySpace and Facebook.
YouTube decides the election.
Beijing Olympics pumps up ad spending.
Buy online, pick up in-store becomes expected feature.
Movie downloading hits the mainstream.
Music marketers roll out new business models.
Dynamic ads heighten gaming revenue potential.

Online Ad Spending

Overall US online ad spending will be surprisingly resilient, even if the economy slides into a recession. With money tight, marketing executives will continue to gravitate toward the internet, looking for more measurable ad formats to buttress their positions.

Video Ad Spending

The surge in online video growth is expected to slow in 2008 with a 74% growth (down from 89% in 2007) and a spending increase of $1.35 billion.

In 2008, the array of video available online will jump dramatically, both from professional content producers - such as TV networks - and from of amateurs churning out user-generated content.

Online video players such as Google, Microsoft and the TV networks will fortify their video offerings by buying small, ad-related companies.

However, ad dollars on video will remain small relative to the total US online ad spending.

Social-Network Advertising

US ad spending on social networks will climb to $1.6 billion in 2008, from $920 million in 2007 - a 70% growth rate.

Although targeted advertising is getting the lion’s share of attention and will continue to be hot in 2008, other forms of social-network marketing, such as search advertising, widgets and e-commerce, will draw marketer interest.

In addition, self-serve advertising systems will create a new market for local and small businesses to promote themselves via social networks.

Social Network Usage

Social networking will remain a key online activity, with 44% of US consumers using social networking at least once a month in 2008. While MySpace and Facebook will continue to dominate the market, changes are taking place that will extend social networking activities beyond a single destination site.

Profiles will eventually become portable, meaning consumers need only create one and be able to use it in many places on the web. Widgets that today work with only one social-network site will be designed on an open platform, extending their reach.

Activities such as online shopping, searching and even sending email will be enhanced with social-networking features.

YouTube and Politics

YouTube attracts the most online traffic and is consistently rated the favorite social media site by US Internet users.

YouTube will play a decisive role in the 2008 US presidential election by either airing a user-submitted clip that embarrasses a leading candidate or setting the tone of the campaign through its series of sponsored debates.

Beijing Olympics

Events of 2008 - the Beijing Olympics, along with the US election - will spike advertising spending in all channels but will give a particular boost to the online sector.

As the internet market matures, the growth rate of online ad spending will taper off, dipping to under 30% in 2007 for the first time since 2004. But in 2008, growth will surge upwards to 29%, before declining to 18% the next year.

The Olympics will also mark the “coming out” party for China and become an important milestone for the country’s economic and political development.

The competition will be fierce on and off the sporting field as multinational organizations try to tap into China’s growing middle class.

E-Commerce

Multichannel retailers will begin rolling out more “buy online, pick up in-store” services, joining big-name retailers such as Circuit City, JC Penney and Sears. Consumers like the service because it allows them to avoid shipping fees.

A Forrester Research survey found that 79% of multichannel retailers ensure consistent pricing across their channels.

An Internet Retailer study found that three-quarters of retailers link their e-commerce systems to their fulfillment and order management system.

Movie Downloads

US consumer spending on movie downloads will more than double from 2007 to 2008, from $114 million to $245 million.

The result is that digital services, such as iTunes, Netflix, Amazon Unbox, Movielink/Blockbuster, Vongo and others will become more popular with the mainstream.

Music Marketing

Music labels and marketers will step up their experimentation with new and emerging business models as the CD continues to fade away. Worldwide recorded music spending has declined year after year - from $32 billion in 2006 to $28 billion in 2008, hitting a low of $26 billion in 2011.

Expect to see more ad-supported sites, monthly subscription services, full-track mobile download offerings and use of social networks as music discovery and sales tools.

Gaming

Old videogames will have new life breathed into them by companies such as Double Fusion, which serves ads in real time.

Advertisers will purchase advertising that is served on free casual games that consumers download.

The same concept will apply to console games distributed online for Xbox and Wii, with firms such as Microsoft’s Massive providing the technology.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/ten-key-online-predictions-for-2008-2924/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Impact of DVR on TV Commercials

2008-01-02T10:54:00.001-05:00

Despite the hubbub about DVR use, there’s hope for advertisers and time-sensitive ads, because viewers aren’t delaying the viewing of recorded programs, according to (pdf) a recent analysis of Nielsen data by Palisades MediaGroup.

On average, more than half of all DVR primetime program playback is done within the same day of recording - and by the end of the following day DVR owners complete approximately three-quarters of all program playback, Palisades said:

While DVR penetration appears to be growing at a rapid pace, its usage isn’t making a significant impact on ratings: “At least not yet,” said Susie Thomas, SVP, director of research and insights at Palisades MediaGroup. “Nielsen estimates DVR penetration to be at 20%, up from 12% in January of this year. While this is a good-sized increase, the impact on viewership remains minor.”

According to the study, ratings increase just over 15% due to DVR playback from live to live-plus-seven. The average rating against adults aged 18-49 was 2.5 for live viewing and 2.9 for live-plus-seven viewing; an increase of only 16.7%.

While fast-forwarding through the ads is still an issue, not all people who use a DVR fast-forward: The data show that less than half of people who watch a recorded program fast-forward through the ads during playback.

“Of course there are fluctuations when looking at the data program by program,” noted Thomas, “but overall DVR usage is not dramatically cutting into live viewing.”

Equally significant, the top 10 most-DVR’d primetime shows among adults 18-49 are played back as much as 58% on the same day (CBS’s Survivor: China) and as little as 27% (CW’s Reaper):

The bottom line, according to Palisades: Advertisers with time-sensitive messages such as opening-weekend movie releases or special holiday sales offers need not fret over the DVR movement just yet; viewers are watching recorded programs shortly after they’ve been recorded - thus maintaining the timeliness of the advertising message.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/dvr-use-not-having-huge-impact-on-ratings-2897/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Millennials Like Traditional - Not Just New - Media

2007-12-31T01:15:00.001-05:00

Millennials (those now age 18-24) have an affinity for traditional media, such as print publications and television - and almost 6 in 10 (58%) say they use magazines to find out about what’s cool and hip, such as clothes, cars and music, according to a study released earlier this year.

Moreover, almost three-quarters (71%) of Millennials say they enjoy reading print magazines even though they know they could find most of the same information online.

Deloitte’s “2007 State of the Media Democracy” survey, conducted by Harrison Group, also found that when Millennials find something they like, they broadcast it, and do so effectively:

The Millennials surveyed maintain large IM and texting lists that average 37 people, compared with the average of 17 for all those surveyed.
And when they find a particular television show or website that they enjoy, they tell an average of 18 people, compared with only 10 people for all age groups.

According to the survey, word of mouth is the most common reason for Millennials to visit a website, followed by an ad on TV; almost half (48%) visit TV websites in a typical week.

The survey confirmed the growing popularity of user-generated content; Millennials in the survey spend about equal amounts of time consuming user-generated content and commercially produced content online:

A large proportion of Millennials (58%) create personal content in a typical week, and an even greater proportion (71%) regularly consume it.
But user-generated content is not just for kids - there is a “trickle up” effect, and the older generations are creating and consuming personal content as well: over a third of Matures (current age 61-75) - 36% - report that they regularly consume user-generated content.

Among the highlights of the survey’s findings:

User-Generated Content

40% of all survey respondents are making their own entertainment (editing movies, music and photos):
- 25% of Matures
- 56% of all Millennials
More than one in 10 Millennials are actively uploading their own videos on the Internet.
51% of all survey respondents are watching/reading content created by others.
71% of Millennials, 56% of Xers; Boomers/Mature participation is less, but noteworthy.
53% of Millennials would download more videos if connection speeds were faster.
One-third of online content viewing is done on user-generated sites: Almost ¼ for Matures, ½ for Millennials.

Traditional Media

Favorite and promising new television shows beat the web as the most frequent media conversation topics for all generations: 52% of Xers are visiting television show Internet sites
Printed magazines are an integral part of every generation’s life:
- 72% enjoy reading magazines over finding the same information online
- 58% of Millennials agree magazines help them learn about what’s “in.”

Advertising Insights

64% tend to pay greater attention to print ads in magazines or newspapers than advertising on the Internet.
More than one-in-four would pay for online content vs. being exposed to ads.
Search engines and word of mouth are the most effective means for driving Web site traffic - 85% of Xers are influenced by someone’s recommendation.
87% of respondents continually visit the same websites.
Generation Xers are a little more responsive than others to advertising

Future Products

64% want to easily connect their television to the Internet for viewing videos and downloading content to their television.
60% want the ability to move their content to any device they own without any problems.
57% want an entertainment and communication device that lets them do everything.
49% want a computer or similar device that will be the center of their household media experience.

About the Survey: The online survey was commissioned by Deloitte & Touche USA LLP and conducted by Harrison Group, an independent research company, between February 23 and March 6, 2007. The survey polled 2,211 online consumers between the ages of 13 and 75.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/millennials-like-traditional-not-just-new-media-1117/

Americans More Connected and Quite Ad-Tolerant

2007-12-31T01:10:00.001-05:00

Within the span of eight months, the use of online and mobile devices for entertainment has rocketed among online US consumers, according to the second edition of the “State of Media Democracy” new-media survey from Deloitte & Touche, reports Reuters.

About 38% of consumers are now watching TV shows online, compared with 23% eight months ago, according to the study.

And some 54% said they use social-networking sites, chat rooms or message board; in addition, 45% said they have a profile on a social-networking site.

The report of the online survey of 2,081 US consumers, conducted Oct. 25-31, is slated for release in Jan. 2008. Deloitte apparently provided the findings early to The Hollywood Reporter, which reported some results today:

Among the study’s findings related to advertising…

85% cited TV advertising as among the types having the most impact on purchase behavior; 65% cited online ads; and 63% pointed to magazine ads.
However, 59% said they pay greater attention to magazine ads - and 55% cited newspaper ads - than any type of internet advertising.
Online, search ads were cited as the most effective (78%), followed by interactive ads (62%), banner ads (60%), pre-rolls (31%) and post-rolls (19%).
67% said they would be willing to be exposed to more online ads in return for free content that’s valuable.
However, 37% said they would rather pay for online content than be exposed to advertisements.
65% said they consider any type of internet ad more intrusive than newspaper and magazine ads.

Among the findings related to cell phones…

Some 36% now use their mobile phones as entertainment devices, compared with 24% eight months ago (study conducted Feb. 23 to March 6) - an increase of 50%.
Among millenials (consumers 13-24-years-old), the proportion is 62%, up from 46% in the previous study.
Among Gen Xers (25-41-year-olds), the proportion increased to 47% from 29%.
About 20% of US consumers said they view video content on cell phones daily or almost daily.

Among the findings related to user-generated content…

45% of US consumers said they are creating online content (websites, music, videos and blogs) for others.
Some 54% said they are making their own entertainment content through editing photos, videos or music.
69% said they are watching or listening to consumer-generated content.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/americans-more-connected-and-quite-ad-tolerant-2887/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

FTC to Behavioral Targeters: 'Police Yourselves (with Our Help)!'

2007-12-21T13:50:00.001-05:00

The FTC has issued "self-regulating" guidelines for use by practitioners of behavioral advertising.

As behavioral advertising becomes more common (and more of a concern), the loose guidelines are intended to encourage responsibility among marketers and to ward off federal regulation.

Major components of the proposal include:

Making visitors aware that their information is being collected
Assuring them their information will be kept safe, and defining the ways in which it will be used
Providing them with the ability to opt out

The terms of info-gleaning should be explained to visitors in clear, simple language.

These guidelines were designed to be broad enough to be adopted by a wide range of practitioners.

As is generally the case with young technology, marketers are admonished to tread carefully in the realm of behavioral targeting; abuse of these guidelines may yield tougher constraints from on high.

Six in Ten Broadband Users Watch Online Video Weekly, Up 36% YOY

2007-12-17T21:17:00.001-05:00

Online video consumption is growing rapidly among adult broadband internet users - most now watch video weekly - according to a recently released report, “Broadband Content and Services 2007,” from Horowitz Associates (via Micro Persuasion).

Six out of ten (61%) high-speed internet users watch or download online video content at least once a week, and 86% do so monthly, compared with the respectively 45% and 71% who reported doing so in 2006.

News and user-generated/non-professional content are the genres reported viewed most often, followed by movie previews/trailers, music videos, and previews/segments of TV shows:

Weekly viewing of full episodes of television shows doubled from last year, with 16% of high-speed internet users now watching TV online on a weekly basis.
Some 36% watch news video at least weekly, up from 22% in 2006.
Non-professional videos are watched by 30% in 2007 - double the 15% in 2006.

Television Online

NBC and ABC are the networks that internet users mention most frequently for watching online TV content, with Grey’s Anatomy the most-mentioned TV program viewed online.

While consumption of broadband video has grown, the study shows that television is still the preferred platform for traditional TV content:

Some 13% of internet users who watch TV shows online say they watch them directly online, and not on regular TV.
The vast majority (70%) of internet users who watch TV online say do so because they missed the episode on TV.
About two out of ten (18%) of these respondents say they watch TV shows online to watch them a second time (after having watched them on TV).
20% say they watch TV shows online just when they happen to find them or when someone else tells them about the shows.

Video on Portable Devices

Penetration of video-enabled handheld devices is also on the rise - and along with it the viewing of video content on those devices:

Over one quarter (27%) of internet users have a cell phone, iPod/MP3 player, or PDA with video capability, and an additional 23% do not have this capability but are interested in getting it.
Among those with video-enabled handheld devices, one-third (35%) watch video on their devices at least weekly and 62% do so at least monthly.
That translates to 18% of internet users overall who watch video content on a handheld device at least monthly - up from 8% just one year ago.

“More and better broadband content - particularly entertainment content in video form - is bringing more consumers to the platform, either on their computers or on their handheld devices,” said Howard Horowitz, president of Horowitz Associates, Inc. “This, in turn, creates an even greater demand for - and expectations regarding - broadband video.”

“Importantly, the data suggest that broadband video is not cannibalistic to linear video, but rather an enhancement to the consumers’ ‘traditional’ TV experience,” he added.

About the study: “Broadband Content and Services” (see prospectus [pdf]) examines current levels of subscription, attitudes toward, and satisfaction with dial-up and high speed internet services, including cable modem, DSL, Verizon FiOS Internet, and wireless unternet services, as well as internet usage for information, communications and entertainment. Also covered is penetration of video-capable and internet-capable handheld devices, and viewing of video content and internet usage on handheld devices.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/six-in-ten-broadband-users-watch-online-video-weekly-up-36-yoy-2760/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

‘Customer Affinity’ New Measure of B2B Marketing Effectiveness

2007-12-17T21:16:00.001-05:00

Despite an increased focus on customer engagement, most B2B technology companies continue to fall far short of meeting customer expectations and commitments, according to the results of a new research initiative by the Chief Marketing Officers Council.

Most technology vendors badly overestimate their effectiveness in addressing customer needs, while a majority of customers feel ignored and trapped in vendor relationships that are marred by broken promises, according to the research.

The “Profitability from Customer Affinity” study, which uncovers major disconnects between vendors and customers, argues for a new measure of marketing performance, called customer affinity, which incorporates critical elements of the customer lifecycle experience.

Some 99% of customers surveyed said they would either scale back or terminate relationships with vendors who fail to build customer trust. Moreover, less than 7% of customers said their vendors are extremely well-aligned with their needs.

Among key findings of the new study:

56% of vendors perceive themselves as being extremely customer-centric, but only 12% of customers agree.

An overwhelming majority of vendors - 85% - are convinced that they are getting better at responding to customer needs, but 45% of customers disagree.
More than half of customers surveyed described their relationships with vendors as “dependent and captive,” “struggling for common ground,” or “combative and adversarial.” When asked to describe their relationships with the channel, 45% of customers surveyed evaluated their channel relationships similarly.

More than 30% of customer respondents said they would terminate relationships with companies that fail to gain their trust; 62% would scale back existing engagements; and 7% would no longer consider the vendor for future business.
Co-innovation with customers is vital to building customer affinity: Nearly six out of 10 customers say co-innovation is extremely or very important, with another 30% agreeing that it is at least somewhat important. Customer responses indicated that collaborative, two-way conversations - followed by continuous improvement - build customer affinity.

Vendors seem to understand that channel partners truly are partners in their success, and that going to market effectively with the channel is critical to maximizing their value to customers. Yet, only 8% of vendor marketing respondents said they do an extremely good job of teaming with the channel to build stronger customer affinity.

The survey’s findings indicate that customer affinity - not brand awareness - is the most accurate predictor of customers’ purchasing intentions and decisions, the CMO Council found:

Customers say brand awareness and existing relationships - often thought to be leading factors in purchasing decisions - have little bearing on their decision to do business with a vendor or channel partner.

Instead, customer decisions are influenced by competence, quality service and support, and a sense of true commitment from vendors -yet vendors continue to direct budget toward initiatives that are ineffective at building customer affinity, the study argues.

“Marketing has a critical responsibility to define and build customer-centric businesses,” said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. “Based on the findings of this study, we have a long way to go. To be more successful, marketers should adopt new performance measurements, like Customer Affinity, that are actually tied to the customer experience. We believe traditional brand metrics, taken by themselves, may actually reinforce ineffective behavior and practices.”

The report coincides with the CMO Council’s release of the first annual Customer Affinity Index of IT brands, led this year by Network Appliance, followed by Juniper Networks, InterSystems and Polycom:

About the study: The study was conducted by the CMO Council and is based on surveys and interviews with more than 1,000 leading B2B technology buyers, IT marketing and customer relationship executives, and their channel partners. The Customer Affinity Index as developed in conjunction with Dr. V. Kumar, professor and executive director of the ING Center for Financial Services at the University of Connecticut, and Dr. Girish Ramani, assistant professor of Marketing at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/cmo-council-customer-affinity-new-measure-of-b2b-marketing-effectiveness-2765/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Top 10 US Social-Network and Blog Site Rankings Issued for Nov.

2007-12-17T21:13:00.001-05:00

MySpace.com yet again tops the rankings of top US social-networking sites, with nearly 57.4 million unique visitors in Nov., down from October’s 58.8 million, according to custom lists of top US social-networking sites and blogs compiled by Nielsen Online.

Google’s Blogger remains atop blog site rankings with 33.6 million visitors, down from October’s 34.1 million.

Ranked second among social-networking sites, Facebook increased the number of visitors to nearly 22.0 million, up from October’s 19.5 million - and up 89% vs. Nov. 2006, whereas MySpace visitors increased just 7% year over year.

(Compare with Oct. social-network data.)

Among blog sites, top-ranked Blogger increased its visitors a significant 49% from the year-earlier period, accounting for 33.6 million visitors in Nov., albeit that was down from this October’s 34.1 million.

More impressively, however, WordPress, which maintained the No. 2 rank it first achieved in Oct., grew 310% from the year-earlier period. In Nov. it accounted for 12.0 million visitors, up from 11.4 million in Oct. - and up from 2.9 million last year.

Six Apart Type Pad, now No. 3, also grew - 22% from last year - to more than 11.0 million in Nov., up from nearly 10.6 million visitors in Oct.

(See this table from Oct. to make month-to-month comparisons for blog sites.)

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/top-10-us-social-network-and-blog-site-rankings-issued-for-nov-2750/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Nielsen Issues US Top-10 Lists for 2007

2007-12-12T15:24:00.001-05:00

The Nielsen Company released a yearend look at US trends in 2007, issuing top 10 media and consumer spending lists, including the following topics: television, the internet, advertisers, mobile, consumer purchasing trends, videogames, movies, DVDs, music and books.

Among the top 10 lists issued:

Top 10 Advertisers - by US Spending on Traditional Media - 2007:

Top 10 TV Programs - Regularly Scheduled - 2007:

Top 10 “Timeshifted” Primetime TV Programs - 2007:

Top 10 Programs: Product Placement, Broadcast Network TV - 2007:

Top 10 Websites in the US:

Top 10 TV Programs “Buzzed” About Online:

Top 10 Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Purchased by US Homes:

Top 10 Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Categories Sold in US Retail Stores:

Top 10 Internet Brands Accessed via a Mobile Device:

Top 10 PC Game Titles in the US - April-Nov 2007:

Top 10 Box Office - All Theatrical - through Dec 9, 2007:

Top US Markets for Avid Moviegoers:

For other lists issued, see the Nielsen release.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/nielsen-issues-us-top-10-lists-for-2007-2700/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Nielsen: Young Viewers More Likely to Watch Shows Using Non-traditional Media

2007-12-05T13:45:00.001-05:00

John Consoli
DECEMBER 04, 2007 -

Younger viewers are two-and-a-half times more likely than older viewers to be use DVRs, the Internet, or MP3 players to watch missed espisodes of TV shows, according to a study by the Nielsen Company.
The study, conducted by Nielsen in October with more than 1,500 adults at the CBS Television City research facility in Las Vegas, found 56 percent of 18-34-year-olds use new non-traditional technologies to catch up on missed shows, compared to 21 percent of viewers over 55.
The study also found that 55 percent of viewers over 55 would either watch a rerun and wait for a rerun to air, compared to 24 percent of 18-34-year-olds.
Only 1 percent of both demos would watch a rerun via video-on-demand.
The study also showed that nearly 80 percent of DVR owners use it to stay current with the shows they watch. And among those who went to the Internet to watch streaming episodes,
most tended to watch them on the networks’ own Web sites.
The most popular network website among those polled was ABC.com, where 50 percent of all viewers said they watch episodes on, compared to 41 percent for NBC.com, 37 percent for CBS.com and 24 percent for Fox.com. Only 8 percent said they watch episodes on CWTV.com.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/recent_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003680941

TV Campaign Is Culture Shift For Starbucks

2007-11-19T06:59:00.001-05:00

By STEPHANIE KANG, JANET ADAMY and SUZANNE VRANICA
November 17, 2007; Page A1

With more than 10,000 U.S. stores, and products in shops around the globe, Starbucks Corp. has built one of the world's best-known brands. Now, for the first time, it's rolling that brand out on national TV. The decision is a cultural turnabout for the coffee giant, which built itself into a global chain by harnessing word-of-mouth buzz. Starbucks's chairman, Howard Schultz, wrote a decade ago: "[B]y its very nature, national advertising fuels fears about ubiquity."

Today, competitors McDonald's Corp. and Dunkin' Donuts, which never had any qualms about hawking their wares on the tube, are stepping up their coffee marketing. And Starbucks, after years of phenomenal success, is struggling to lure customers as the economy softens.

The first batch of ads, which aired last night, is timed for the holidays and uses "animatics," a crisper, less-cartoonish form of animation. In one TV spot, a bearded skier and reindeer are stuck on a ski lift, and the skier offers the reindeer a cup of coffee.

The holiday spots are just the beginning. The Portland headquarters of the advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy, which Starbucks has hired to oversee the ad efforts, is already at work on post-holiday ad campaigns for the company.

The move could backfire. Despite the ubiquity of its stores, Starbucks still likes to think of itself as a collection of thousands of corner cafes that sponsor the local zoo and have baristas who know their customers' favorite drinks. Executives at Starbucks often say they built the chain by word of mouth and are proud of the fact that they made limited use of traditional media, long before "stealth" and "viral" marketing became the rage.

Some other big brands continue to turn up their nose at national TV ad campaigns. Google Inc. uses under-the-radar marketing online rather than TV ads.

The anti-advertising mood at Starbucks began to shift over the past year. One major development was the recent departure of Anne Saunders, Starbucks's senior vice president for global brand strategy, who was a firm believer in the power of local marketing. Another factor is the relationship between Mr. Schultz, the Starbucks chairman, and Wieden + Kennedy co-founder Dan Wieden. Mr. Wieden visits Mr. Schultz several times a year, says a person familiar with the matter.

Starbucks has flirted with a national brand campaign before but pulled back, creating some tension between the chain and Wieden + Kennedy, say people familiar with the matter. The independent agency helped make Nike Inc.'s "Just Do It" ad slogan a cultural phenomenon and also created long-running campaigns for ESPN that featured humorous takes on the culture of the sports-TV network.

The Starbucks holiday spots lean toward the warm and fuzzy, but Wieden + Kennedy has also been developing an edgier idea for about six months. The proposed ads would show Americans discussing issues of importance to them and depict Starbucks coffee shops as the living room of the national conversation.

In a pitch meeting, the agency showed a short reel of consumers talking about the war in Iraq and health care, says one person familiar with the matter. The agency also showed images of what people were talking about, such as a picture of pop singer Britney Spears the day she shaved her head and a picture of a U.S. soldier.

The idea of the campaign was to create buzz without directly pushing Starbucks products, this person says. However, the company decided its first TV spot for its brand should be the less-controversial holiday commercials. It is unclear if the other campaign will air or if it will be replaced by a campaign that focuses on specific Starbucks products, says this person.

A Starbucks spokesman said that campaign is one of many ideas that they've looked at. He added that the decision to go with the feel-good holiday ads was part of an integrated marketing campaign taking place in stores and not an either-or between it and the more edgy campaign. He also said Starbucks remains committed to local sponsorships.

Starbucks has about 10,500 locations in the U.S., or about 3,000 more than it did two years ago, and has expanded into new cities and towns. In an interview Thursday, Chief Executive Jim Donald said Starbucks is getting into TV advertising because "as we grow our stores, we're trying to reach out to this broader audience that maybe [has] not had a chance to experience Starbucks."

Mr. Donald said the campaign is "very appropriate for the brand" and added that "it's done in a way that" is "very Starbucks."

The average number of transactions in Starbucks U.S. stores fell for the first time during the most recent quarter, and the company on Thursday cut its earnings and sales-growth projections for the coming year.

Executives blame the disappointing results on weak consumer spending, pointing to other retailers that have also struggled to grow sales and earnings. Mr. Donald said the slowdown in customer traffic isn't the reason Starbucks decided to start its television campaign.

Starbucks has placed ads in national print publications, used billboards and run radio spots. As far back as the mid-1990s, the company dabbled in television advertisements in some markets. More recently, it has run some TV ads for bottled beverages, but they weren't considered ads for the stores generally. Some Wall Street analysts have long believed that Starbucks should get into television in a bigger way.

McDonald's plans to introduce a line of espresso drinks in thousands of U.S. stores next year in what the company calls the biggest new menu initiative since it started selling breakfast in the 1970s. McDonald's spent roughly $60 million on ads for its coffee line last year, according to a person familiar with the fast-food chain.

Dunkin' Donuts, a unit of Dunkin' Brands Inc., spent $116.2 million on ads in the U.S. last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, a New York research firm that tracks ad spending. Starbucks's ad outlays last year were $37.9 million. The company spent nothing on network television and depended largely on magazine and newspaper ads, according to TNS.

"There is a huge battle of the coffee brands and everyone is encroaching on Starbucks's turf," says Dean Crutchfield of Wolff Olins, a branding firm owned by Omnicom Group. "The competitiveness is diluting and commoditizing the entire coffee category, so it's critical that Starbucks maintains its message in the marketplace."

Mr. Schultz conceded in a leaked internal memo earlier this year that Starbucks was in danger of losing customers to competitors. "We need to recognize that the category is evolving," Mr. Schultz told analysts on a conference call Thursday. "And as the leader, we have an opportunity to make sure that our voice is heard through the all-important medium of television."

When Mr. Schultz began expanding the company beyond its hometown of Seattle in the late 1980s, he would line up a team of what he called local ambassadors, including mail-order customers and friends of Starbucks employees. Starbucks would send them two free drink coupons and tell them to share one with a friend. The company held tastings with chefs of well-regarded restaurants and local food critics to introduce them to its coffee.

Even when Starbucks began expanding nationwide, it continued to rely heavily on local marketing by sponsoring events like a free day at the Phoenix Zoo. That helped counter any impressions that Starbucks was turning into a faceless giant.

"In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart," Mr. Schultz wrote in a 1997 book, "Pour Your Heart Into It," when the company was considerably smaller. "Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit, not an ad campaign."

Write to Stephanie Kang at stephanie.kang@wsj.com, Janet Adamy at janet.adamy@wsj.com and Suzanne Vranica at suzanne.vranica@wsj.com

Streaming Video Becoming a Habit At All Age Levels

2007-10-16T14:57:00.001-04:00

Advertising.com, Inc., in their Bi-Annual Online VideoStudy, comparing the first half of 2007 with the last half of 2006, reports that 62 percent of survey respondents are viewing video online and are comprised mostly of those ages 35 and older viewing news clips. Analyzed by age group, 31 percent of 18 to 34 year olds watch streaming video, while 69 percent of consumers ages 35 and older view streaming video online.

Approximately 83 percent of consumers surveyed indicated that their online video usage in 2007 has either stayed the same or increased since 2006. More specifically, 36 percent of consumers have increased their consumption of online video, with an even breakdown between men (36 percent) and women (37 percent).

The majority of consumers are streaming online video at home rather than work or school, with 45 percent of streaming activity taking place in the evening. 95% stream at home; 4% at work; 1% at school or university.

More than 62 percent of consumers said they are most likely to stream news clips, with movie trailers and music videos next in line. Compared to the second half of 2006, consumers are streaming fewer music videos and streaming more news clips, user-generated videos and sports clips. However, these consumption behaviors vary dramatically by age.

Streaming Selections (% of respondents)

All

18-34 year olds

1st Half '07

2nd Half '06

1st Half '07

2nd Half '06

News clips

62%

49%

44%

34%

Movie trailers

Music videos

TV shows

User generated videos

Movies

Sports clips

Other

Source: Advertising.com, September 2007

Overall, 42 percent of consumers have forwarded a video clip to a friend. Consumers who view content more than once a week also forward more clips, with 55 percent forwarding clips vs. 34 percent and 20 percent for those who view content once a week and once a month. Women (47 percent) forward more clips than men (36 percent).

Online Video Activity by Age Group (% of respondents)

18-34 Age Group

35 + Age Group

1st Half '07

2nd Half '06

1st Half '07

2nd Half '06

Forwarded video clip to friend

47%

49%

39%

31%

Created video content to post online

Missed a TV episode and watched online

Says Online video usage cuts into normal TV time

Source: Advertising.com, September 2007

Other highlights of the study include:

80% of consumers say that online video usage does not cut into their TV time.
29% of men say online video usage cuts into TV
16% of women say online video usage cuts into TV
12% of those who view content once a month claim that video usage cuts into their TV time
94% of consumers indicate that they would prefer to view ads than pay a fee to watch video content online.
63% of consumers would prefer online video ads that are shorter than TV ads
65% of consumers say they watch online video ads through to completion
72% of consumers who view streaming content more than once a week view video ads through to completion
Of those who view content only once a month, 49% view advertising through to completion.
Consumers are 8% more likely to view 15-second spots to completion than 30-second spots.
The 30-second pre-roll format slightly outperforms the 5- and 15-second ads when measured in terms of click-through rate.

In conclusion, the report summarizes by noting that consumers continue to incorporate streaming video into the online experience, but there remains a difference, however, among older and younger consumers.

Older consumers using streaming video in order to gain more information, which can be seen by their preference for online news clips, while younger consumers are streaming content for entertainment purposes, such as viewing movies, TV shows and user-generated videos online.

Consumers between the ages of 18 and 34, says the report, continue to assimilate streaming content more into their everyday media consumption habits. Sixty-nine percent of their online video streaming occurs more than once a week, while 47 percent of those ages 35 and older view streaming video multiple times a week

Please visit here to view the complete report and charts of the BiAnnual Video Study from Advertising.com

10 Curious Things about Baby Boomers

2007-10-16T14:37:00.001-04:00

Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are more likely than the general adult population to vote, play the lottery, remodel their home or live in a household that owns/leases at least three vehicles, according to Mediamark Research Inc.’s BoomerView.

Asked about particular behaviors in the last 12 months, more than one-half of Boomers (55%) report that they voted in a federal, state or local election; almost one-third (30.8%) undertook a home remodeling project; and 41% say they played the lottery - making them respectively 22%, 21% and 18% more likely than the general adult population to have engaged in these activities.

Moreover, perhaps driven in part by Boomers’ relatively high incomes and wealth, 35.6% report they live in a household that owns or leases 3+ vehicles.

BoomerView is a set of generational segments in the “Survey of the American Consumer” that provides a detailed view of the Boomer market as well as the generations that precede and follow it.

Boomers are an optimistic group, according to the study: Almost 4 in 10 Boomers (39.1%) say they believe that they and their household will be better off financially one year from now. Moreover, close to 90% say they believe that they themselves will be financially “better off” or “the same” one year from now.

However, according to BoomerView data, a fairly large portion of Boomers are potentially unprotected financially should they face serious medical issues: Almost one-quarter (23.3%) report that they have no personal medical, hospital or accident insurance.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/mediamark-10-curious-things-about-baby-boomers-1957/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Online TV Viewing Doubles, Replaces News as Top Web Content

2007-10-16T14:25:00.001-04:00

The number of Americans viewing entire television episodes/shows on the internet has doubled from a year ago, and now close to 16% of American households who use the internet watch television broadcasts online, according to the “Consumer Internet Barometer” report by The Conference Board and TNS.

Nearly 73% of online households use the internet for entertainment purposes on a daily basis and an additional 15% search for entertainment several times a week, according to the data.

“Although online television viewing is still not a widespread phenomenon, the proportion of users has increased since 2006 and is likely to increase over time, given consumers’ love for entertainment,” said Lynn Franco, Director of The Conference Board Consumer Research Center.

According to TNS and the Conference Board:

Approximately half of online consumers sometimes watch their favorite shows online.
Watching TV online has now replaced news as the most widely viewed content online.
The top two reasons for watching TV on internet:
- More than three out of five online TV viewers cite personal convenience as the major reason for watching TV broadcasts online.
- More than one-third cite a wish to avoid watching television commercials (other reasons cited include portability and a preference for computer viewing).
The proportion of internet users who catch up online on missed TV content has increased to 42% from 30% a year ago.
Four out of every five online viewers say that watching TV programs online has not changed their television viewing habits, but a small percentage claim that their traditional television viewing has decreased.
The top methods for viewing broadcasts online are streaming and free downloading: About two-thirds of viewers stream online content, more than 40% download content for free.

“Over the next few years, the growing popularity of viewing TV episodes/shows online is going to have a huge impact on the way brands and advertisers communicate with viewers,” said Shari Morwood, EVP of technology, telecommunications and media at TNS. “If advertisers can effectively leverage the online video platform, we should see much more interactivity and emotional connection between brands and the online TV viewing audience.”

“On a broader scale, we will also see changes in viewing preferences, including TV on mobile devices, as media, telecom, and technology increasingly converge,” she added.

About the data: The Consumer Internet Barometer is based on a quarterly survey of 10,000 households. A unique sample is surveyed each quarter. Return rates average 70%, ensuring representative data. Data is also weighted to reflect the latest US household demographic information. The latest survey was conducted during the third quarter of 2007.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/online-tv-viewing-doubles-replaces-news-as-top-web-content-2026/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Marketers Plan to Increase Social Media Spending, ROI Not Yet a Concern

2007-10-16T14:24:00.001-04:00

The vast majority of marketers who already use social media are bullish on social-media spending, with nearly 9 in 10 saying they plan to “increase” or “increase significantly” their spending, according to a recent survey by social-media application provider Prospero Technologies.

Prospero’s “2007 Social Media Survey” found that 30% of online marketers who use social media plan to spend significantly more on social-media applications in 2008, while an additional 58% also plan to increase spending, though not “significantly.”

Some 59% of respondents reported that social media performance in 2007 met or exceeded their marketing objectives.

Survey participants were from leading brand organizations from a variety of industries, including Media, Education, Financial Services, Health, and Sports and Gaming.

Asked about social media return on investment (ROI), 35% reported positive ROI and 41% said that ROI was “unknown.”

Responses to questions about how web marketers measure ROI reveal that direct sales revenue is not a top measure for determining social media success:

Respondents said that total number of site visitors (17%) was the most important criterion for assessing social media performance.
Total number of pageviews (15%) and number of subscribes/community members (15%) were next, followed closely by length of visit on the site (14%).
Some 12% cited ad revenue and 9% said sponsorships as important measures of success.

“The majority of respondents see engagement with their brand as the most important measure of social media success, while more concrete ROI measures such as sales and new business leads carry less weight,” said Rusty Williams, cofounder and vice-president of Prospero Technologies.

Regarding the types of social media applications in use:

- Blogs (13%) and discussion boards (12%) topped the list of those in use in 2007.
- Regarding 2008 plans, discussion boards and blogs again top the list (10% each), followed by ratings and reviews (8%) and profiles/social networking applications (8%)
Regarding objectives for using widgets, the top uses respondents cited:
- Helping audiences promote conversations/interest on social media sites such as MySpace and Facebook (32%)
- Improvingthe speed and efficiency for implementing technologies on their site (29%) as the top uses.
Regarding current social-media challenges:
- Integrating community-generated content with the rest of the website and understanding best practices for new/evolving technologies were rated the top challenges.
- Closely behind was keeping up with new social media technology advances.
Regarding OpenID and Microformat initiatives:
- 14% said they fully support open standards.
- 22% reported that they would support open standards provided there were no security issues.
- 43% said that they had not yet reviewed open standard initiatives.

About the study: Prospero’s 2007 Social Media survey was conducted online in September 2007, gathering responses from over 50 businesses currently using social media applications, including organizations from the following industries: Broadcast Media, eCommerce and eCRM, Education, Financial Services, Health, Manufacturing, Online Media, Print Media - Magazines and Books, Print Media - Newspapers, Professional Associations, Sports and Gaming.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/topics/signs-of-whats-to-come/marketers-plan-to-increase-social-media-spending-roi-not-yet-a-concern-2030/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

‘Search Engine Fatigue’ Drives Consumers to Distraction during Car Searches

2007-10-15T14:28:00.001-04:00

Some 72% of US online searchers have experienced “search engine fatigue” - that is, unable to find the information they need, they grow impatient or frustrated - and of those, three of four leave their computer without finding the info, according to a new Kelton Research survey commissioned by Autobytel Inc.

Nearly 40% of Americans describe finding the “right and relevant” car-related information on the big search engines - such as Google and Yahoo - as overwhelming and time-consuming, according to the survey:

Moreover, nearly a quarter of those surveyed said they have actually put off purchasing a car because they found the overall car-buying process too overwhelming or frustrating.

That’s a significant number, considering that 90% of all car buyers use the internet when shopping for a vehicle.

Among other findings of the survey:

65.4% of Americans say they’ve spent two or more hours in a single sitting searching for specific information on search engines.
75.4% have searched for automotive or car-related information online.
Consumers search for a wide variety of car-related information, not just new vehicles:

86% of those seeking specific car-related information agreed that big search engines have limitations or drawbacks.
Online automotive researchers are also frustrated with third-party sites, such as Autobytel.com, Edmunds.com and KBB.com:
- Two-thirds (67%) said these third-party sites are “mostly similar,” without offering “substantial differences.”
- 36% of consumers indicated they have to visit other websites to make sure they get the comparative information they need to make decisions.

Asked to choose from a “wish list” of what they would like from an automotive website, the largest block of consumers (37%) said they would like to have access to the internet’s full range of automotive information in order to receive the most relevant information they are seeking.
85% wish there were a one-stop shop for everything related to cars, including purchase, service and accessories.
75% of say they plan to consult numerous professional and consumer reviews in their next car purchase decision.

Autobytel released the study simultaneously with the official launch of MyRide.com, an automotive vertical search engine.

About the study: The “State of Search” study was conducted May 2007 and involved 1001 nationally representative Americans age 18 and older who have internet access. An Autobytel white paper, “The State of Search,” discusses the results of the survey in more detail.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/search-engine-fatigue-drives-consumers-to-distraction-during-car-searches-2009/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Top 50 Web Rankings for August

2007-09-20T10:36:00.001-04:00

The top 10 online properties, in terms of visitors, remained unchanged in August, albeit the back-to-school season gave a boost to education sites and retail sports/outdoor sites gained traffic in anticipation of fall sports, according to the comScore Media Metrix monthly analysis of activity at top US online properties.

Among other trends noted: August traffic increased to lotto/sweepstakes sites as lottery jackpots reached near record highs, and humor sites gained on the strength of Comedy Central’s spike in traffic.

The data released by comScore:

Top 50 Properties

Among the highlights:

Yahoo Sites topped the ranking with more than 135 million visitors.
CBS Corporation experienced a 16% gain, lifting it six spots to number 24.
Comcast Corporation also experienced a sizable jump, moving up seven positions to number 26 in the ranking with more than 25 million visitors.
United Online gained four position, drawing more than 26 million unique visitors in August.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking

Among the highlights:

Advertising.com remained atop the Ad Focus Ranking, reaching 89% of the more than 181 million Americans online.
Specific Media and Google both moved up within the top 10, to numbers six and seven, respectively.
Adconian media group jumped seven spots to number 21, reaching 43% of the US online population, a 7% increase from July.
Interclick also continued its climb in the rankings, gaining four spots to number 18.
Amazon.com and Walmart.com entered the ranking in August at positions 37 and 43, respectively.

High-Growth Sites/Categories

High-Growth Catagories:

The humor category grew 8% in August, reaching more than 30 million Americans. The increase was largely propelled by gains at Comedy Central from its “Indecision2008″ coverage.
National Lampoon Humor Network led the category with 5.6 million visitors.
Comedy Central followed with nearly 5 million visitors (up 105%) and Jokeroo Entertainment Inc. with nearly 3 million visitors (up 37%).

High-Growth Sites:

Education sites
- The training and education category grew 15% to more than 12 million visitors, making it the top-gaining category for the month.
- College resource site Fastweb led the category with 2.5 million visitors (up 13%), followed by The College Board with nearly 1.9 million visitors (up 12%) and Nellnet, Inc., an education planning and financing company, with 1.4 million visitors (up 11%).
- The education information category increased 8% to more than 63 million visitors, as Dictionary.com Sites led the category with 11.8 million visitors, followed by Answers.com (9.3 million visitors) and Pearson Education (8.6 million visitors).
Retail sports/outdoors sites
- With the beginning of fall sports and football season, traffic to retail sports/outdoors sites increased 7%, to more than 29 million visitors.
- Foot Locker Sites experienced a 15% gain to 4.6 million visitors to lead the category, followed by eBay Sports US with 4 million visitors and DicksSportingGoods.com with 2.6 million visitors.
- NFL Internet Group, which includes the official NFL team sites, surged 78% to more than 14 million visitors, making it one of top-gaining properties in August.
Lottery sites
- Multi-state lotteries Mega Millions and Powerball both reached massive jackpots in August causing lotto/sweepstakes sites to rise 8% to more than 31 million visitors for the month.
- Powerball.com surged to 2.3 million visitors (up 123%).
- Megamillions.com traffic swelled to 1.1 million (up 100%).

http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/top-50-web-rankings-for-august-issued-education-retail-sports-sites-gain-1681/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Network Radio Reaches 233 Million Listeners per Week

2007-09-20T10:30:00.001-04:00

Arbitron today released preliminary findings from RADAR 94, according to which 96% of adults age 18-49 with a college degree and an annual household income of $50,000 or above tune into radio over the course of a week.

RADAR Network affiliates (which account for over 50% of all radio stations) reach 85% of that coveted demo - as well as 85% of adults 25-54 in households with a college degree and an annual household income of $75,000 or above, Arbitron said.

While the trend in radio has fewer youth listening, network radio reaches the ad-elusive and media multitasker group of teens 12-17: Whereas overall RADAR networks reach 82% of all radio listeners, they reach 85% of listeners ages 12-17, according to Arbitron.

Among other preliminary findings released:

Radio Is Stable

Radio reaches 233 million listeners over the course of the week, according to the RADAR 94 September 2007 Radio Listening Estimates. That’s consistent from a year ago. The 7,200+ RADAR Network Affiliated stations reach 82% of all radio listeners.
RADAR Network affiliates have consistent delivery, reaching key young and adult demographics that advertisers target:
- They reach 84% of adults 18-34 and adults 25-54.
- They also reach 84% of Adults 18-49.

Radio is Appealing

The diversity of formats in radio attracts advertiser-coveted demographics such as Black Non-Hispanic as well as Hispanic persons:

94% of Black Non-Hispanic persons and 95% of Hispanic persons, age 12 and older, tune in to radio over the course of a week.
Radio reaches 96% of Black Non-Hispanics and Hispanics age 25-54 over the course of a week.

Radio Reaches Educated, Affluent

Radio reaches 94% of college grads age 18+, and 96% of adults 18-49 with a college degree and an annual income of $75,000 or more tune into radio over the course of a week.

'Old Media' Still Resonate

2007-09-03T20:51:00.001-04:00

How do different generations use media? That was the question of a study released last week by Deloitte & Touche's Technology, Media and Telecommunica-
tions practice.

Drawn from a Harrison Group survey of 2,200 consumers 13 to 75 years old, the topline findings of the "State of the Media Democracy" offered hope for traditional media and yielded some fresh insights into new-media trends, according to Ed Moran, director of product innovation in Deloitte's New York office.

For example, consistent across all generational segments—millennials (13-24), Gen Xers (25-41), boomers, (42-60) and matures (61-75)—nearly three-quarters of consumers said they enjoy magazines even though they acknowledge being able to read the same publications online.

Despite their widespread embrace of new media platforms and a "trickle up" effect on older consumers, that tendency was even prevalent (71 percent) among the millennials, Moran said.
Moran said he was also impressed with "the real popularity of user generated content," particularly in terms of its widespread demand. The survey shows that over half (51 percent) of all Internet users consume user generated content across generations.

Even so, what Moran called the "resilience of old media" remains a prominent feature of the landscape. "And one of the main activities online is going to a television Web site," he said. The survey found that 46 percent of consumers do that regularly, including over half (52 percent) of all Gen Xers.
"Television is still a core activity," Moran said. "Even though we see the expected amounts of online, text messaging, cellphone use [and] games—consumers are doing more things, but still watching television. It is always on."

For advertisers, this could be "both troubling and reassuring," he said, predicting that "participatory TV," with some level of interactivity, will become more prevalent, especially as the millennial generation grows up.

Moran said there was also an unexpected result regarding digital video recording devices such as TiVo. "It's the Xers and boomers that rely on DVRs for television use," he said. "But the number-one use for DVR is not commercial skipping."

In fact, the time shifting and the "season ticket" functions (the latter refers to being able to record an entire season of a show) rate highest, he said. The ability to fast-forward through commercials came in third. (The study showed that women like DVRs slightly more than men, and that men are more likely to watch commercials than women.)

Other findings:
--More than a quarter of consumers would pay for online content in exchange for not being exposed to advertising.
--Overall there was more receptivity to print ads than to Internet advertising.
--60 percent of consumers visit 10 or more Web sites a week.
--More than a quarter of leading edge millennials (26 percent) plan to shop online in the coming year.
--Search engines were rivaled by word-of-mouth in driving Internet traffic. Although search was No. 1 at 84 percent, 82 percent of respondents visited a Web site because of a personal recommendation. Ads on television (65 percent), Web site ads (55 percent) and e-mail campaigns (54 percent) followed in influence.

By Gregory Solman

http://www.adweek.com/aw/national/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003625365

Traps to Avoid When Joining a New Company

2007-09-03T19:17:00.001-04:00

The biggest mistakes I see executives make when hired in from the outside are (1) trying to recreate the organizations they left behind and (2) overestimating their change mandates. Both set up vicious cycles that can end in outright derailment for the new leader. And you can usually see these problems start during the recruiting process.

The temptation to try to clone a business model or system that you’ve had success with elsewhere is great. You understand it deeply, struggled hard to make it work, and achieved great things. In fact, your success in making something wonderful happen at your old company is likely a major factor in why your new company wanted to hire you. During the recruiting process you may have been explicitly encouraged to “bring the great ideas you have to us.” So it’s natural to want to try and replicate your previous success.

But efforts to do so all too often go astray. Sometimes it’s because the mode or system simply doesn’t translate well to the new organization. Sometimes it’s because the new organization has a powerful immune system that rejects outside ideas (and people) even though they would in fact contribute to improved performance. But regardless of whether the new leader fails to customize or socialize her ideas, the result is the same. The effort misfires and the new leader loses credibility.

Leaders who overestimate their change mandates during onboarding suffer similar fates, albeit for different reasons. During the recruiting process they are either led to believe, or fool themselves into believing, that they have more scope to make change happen than they do. They enter their new organizations thinking they have a mandate to do significant surgery, only to find out that the support is not there. They fail to check and recheck with key stakeholders, not realizing that understandings that are reached during the hiring process are unlikely to be the full story, and may in fact reflect some wishful thinking on both sides.

Here, too, the outcome is predictably bad. The new leader creates a lot of discomfort. Key stakeholders begin to complain about, organize in opposition to, and even actively plot the downfall of the interloper. If the onboarded executive is lucky enough to have a boss who is willing to run interference or to counsel on how better to move things forward, the outcome need not be dire. But absent that sort of support, the new leader becomes radioactive.

In both these cases of going overboard during onboarding, new leaders fail to recognize an eternal truth: recruiting is like romance and employment is like marriage. During the courtship rituals of recruiting, the hiring company is trying to secure great talent and so has incentives to cast the situation in the most attractive possible light. They need not, and usually do not, engage in outright misrepresentation. It’s more like the puffery and wishful thinking that happens during any mating dance. So it’s inevitable that some of the understanding reached during the courtship phase of joining a new company will not hold up in the cold hard light of cohabitation.

Have you seen leaders coming in from the outside get themselves into trouble in these or other ways? Please share your experiences with other readers.

By Michael Watkins on July 30, 2007 11:22 AM

Harvard Business Online

Search and Display Work Well Together?

2007-09-03T19:02:00.001-04:00

Using both sponsored search ads and display advertising produces a better conversion rate than using either channel by itself, according to a study from digital marketing firm Atlas, a subsidiary of aQuantive.

The report, issued last year, studied a month’s worth of online advertising by 11 marketers, analyzing more than 10.8 million impressions and 2.5 million paid clicks from 1.8 million users.

Atlas Institute analyst Esco Strong told an audience at ad;tech Chicago that the study grew out of a realization that search and display advertising are mostly treated separately by advertisers, with very little cross-platform measurement to see how they interact, Strong told the audience. “But the question of interaction of these two channels has recently become a hot topic among our clients, who want to know the right mix between the two media,” he said. “We wanted to find out if there really is the synergy that a lot of folks have assumed, and to find out if it’s quantifiable.”

The resulting report took a look at 11 Atlas clients who used both display online advertising and pay-per-click search ads during the month of April 2006. Those clients’ online conversions were calculated, and ad users/viewers were classified into three groups: those who clicked on display ads from an advertiser but not search ads; those who clicked on search ads but had no display views or clicks for the same advertiser; and those who clicked on sponsored search listings and also had one or more display impressions or clicks from the same advertiser. That last group was large enough to be statistically significant: 44% of users studied both clicked on a PPC ad and saw or clicked on a display ad from the same marketer.

Atlas found that on average, users who clicked on a search ad without seeing a display ad converted more than three times as often as those who saw a display ad but didn’t click on a PPC ad. But the group that was exposed to both display and search advertising converted at a rate four times higher than the display-only group and 22% higher than those who saw search ads alone.

He added that lift values differed greatly for the advertisers involved in the study, indicating that synergies for the search and display channels should be measured by each specific advertiser for each campaign. Of the 11 advertisers tracked in a range of unspecified industries, four saw a much greater conversion increase among two-channel users compared to search-only users than the 22% average. In fact, one saw conversions run more than 60% higher using both search and display ads, Strong said; another saw a lift of more than 40%.

“On the other hand, three advertisers saw essentially zero lift using both search and display ads,” he said. These flat results could be explained by ineffective buys in either the search or display channels; on the other hand, the advertisers could have been spending on offline marketing campaigns that raised conversion rates both for search-only and search-and-display users, cancelling out any lift effects.

“The synergistic effect has been theorized for a long time, but it’s never been quantified,” Strong said. “This research tells us that it definitely exists.”

Advertisers who carefully measure the effects of their own online cross-media ad efforts may gain a strategic advantage by optimizing that synergy, he said. By supplementing search marketing with well-chosen display ads on sites and against terms that are appropriate for their offerings, marketers may get a lift in conversions that enables them in turn to spend more on search marketing, bidding against more expensive keywords or bidding their search positions higher without trashing their return on investment.

The report also found a strong correlation between display ad frequency and higher conversions among advertisers who used both media. Users who saw three or more display impressions in conjunction with at least one search-ad click had better conversion rates and click-to-conversion rates than those who only saw one or two display ads.

But advertisers must watch for a point of diminishing returns at which increased display frequency leads to wasted ad spending, the report pointed out.

And the report’s conclusions about synergy underline the importance of tracking all media centrally Strong said, to be able to compare their effects on a level basis. “If you’re using different silos or different technologies to track search and display ads, this type of analysis is impossible,” he said. “Tracking all online media centrally is the starting point for opening up the strategic opportunities of both search and display.”

http://directmag.com/searchline/8-01-07-Display-SEM/

Communications Spend to Reach $1 Trillion in ‘08; Internet to Surpass All Ad Segments in 2011

2007-09-03T18:54:00.001-04:00

Total communications spending increased 6.8% to a record $885.2 billion in 2006, having expanded at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.9% from 2001 to 2006 (and exceeding GDP growth in both periods), according to exclusive data released today by Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS).

Communications spending growth accelerated in 2006, outpacing nominal GDP for the fourth time in five years, while consumer media usage declined following two consecutive years of decelerating growth, according to the VSS Communications Industry Forecast 2007-2011.

The VSS forecast tracks, analyzes and forecasts spending, usage and trends in all 19 segments and more than 100 sub-segments of the US media industry, including alternative advertising and marketing data licensed exclusively from PQ Media.

According to the VSS data and forecast:

The communications industry is on pace to grow 6.4% in 2007 and post a CAGR of 6.7% in the 2006-2011 period, making it the third-fastest-growing sector of the US economy.
Communications spending will top $1 trillion for the first time in 2008, with growth driven by strong gains in the alternative media and institutional end-user sectors.
Total communications spending is forecast reach $1.222 trillion in 2011.
In what would be a watershed moment in communications history, internet advertising - including pure-play websites and digital extensions of traditional media - will replace newspapers as the largest ad medium in 2011.
For the first time since 1997, consumers spent less time with media in 2006 than they did the previous year:
- Media usage per person declined 0.5% to 3,530 hours, due to changing consumer behaviors and digital media efficiencies.
- The drop in consumer media usage was driven by the continued migration of consumers to digital alternatives for news, information and entertainment, which require less time investment than their traditional media counterparts.
- Consumer media usage to stabilize in 2007 and increase at a CAGR of 0.5% from 2006 to 2011, compared with 0.8% in the previous five-year period.
Consumers are also migrating away from advertising-supported media, such as broadcast TV and newspapers, to consumer-supported platforms, such as cable TV and videogames:
- Time spent with consumer-supported media grew at a CAGR of 19.8% from 2001 to 2006
- Time spent with ad-supported media declined 6.3% in that period.
However, media usage by institutional end-users grew 3.2%, to 260 hours per employee, in 2006, according to the first-ever analysis of business and government media usage included in this year’s VSS Forecast:
- Institutional media usage climbed at a CAGR of 3.3% in the 2001-2006 period, driven by the continued integration and increased use of online and digital platforms to enhance business performance and workflow.
- Institutional media usage will continue to grow from 2007 to 2011, although growth will decelerate slightly as the forecast period progresses.
The fastest-growing media segments in the 2001-2006 period were outsourced custom publishing, branded entertainment; cable, satellite and RBOC TV services; and pure-play internet and mobile services, all of which posted double-digit growth.

“We are in the midst of a major shift in the media landscape that is being fueled by changes in technology, end-user behaviors and the response by brand marketers and communications companies,” said James Rutherfurd, EVP and managing director at VSS.

“We expect these shifts to continue over the next five years, as time and place shifting accelerate while consumers and businesses utilize more digital media alternatives, strengthening the new media pull model at the expense of the traditional media push model.”

More data from the VSS forecast (via MediaPost):

Internet ad spending will reach $61.98 billion in 2011, when it will surpass newspapers to become the largest ad medium.
Consumers spent, on average, 1,631 hours in 2006 with consumer-supported media (e.g., web, videogames), up 19.8% from 2001.
Time spent with ad-supported media (e.g., broadcast television, magazines) was down 6.3% from 2001, averaging 1,899 hours per person in 2006.
Ad spending on pure-play internet sites totaled $15.1 billion in 2006; spending is forecast to grow at a 2006-2011 CAGR of 18.2%, reaching $34.78 billion in 2011.
Ad spend on traditional-media internet sites will growth at a 25.79% CAGR, growing from $8.585 billion in 2006 to $27.2 billion in 2011.

National internet advertising - search, display, sponsorships, etc. - is projected to grow from $16.9 billion in 2006 to $38.9 billion in 2011, or a CAGR of 18.2%.

Blog, podcast and RSS ad spend is projected to reach $1.14 billion in 2011, from $0.78 billion in 2006 - accounting for the highest CAGR: 70.9%.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/communications-spend-to-reach-1-trillion-in-08-internet-to-surpass-all-ad-segments-in-2011-1206/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

The Power of Negative Keywords, eight (8) tips

2007-09-03T18:52:00.001-04:00

Many people wait too long before really delving into Negative Keyword research for their Google AdWords campaigns. This is a mistake!

Negative Keywords have more of an impact than most people realize.

Not only do Negative Keywords save you money by minimizing clicks from visitors who really are not interested in your product or service, but they increase your Clickthrough Rate (CTR) and Quality Score! This decrease in 'bad' impression will automatically give you higher quality clicks that can have a real impact on your conversion rate.

Negative Keywords can be hard to find, but the search is worth it.

Here are eight tips and tricks to getting the most out of your Negative Keyword research:

1. Run a keyword report for all keywords within your account. Sort the report by impressions and focus your research on the keywords receiving the highest impressions.

2. Use the Negative Keyword tab of the Google Keyword Tool

3. Use a keyword database tools such as Trellian or Wordtracker.

4. See what comes up organically for your high impression keywords. Maybe there is a restaurant or a famous book name with your keyword in it? Add it as a negative!

5. Use a thesaurus! Since Google's Broad Match can match you on "highly relevant keywords, including synonyms and related phrases" it's important to research these synonyms.

6. Do some industry research. You may find many people are looking for courses or books on your product and not your actual product.

7. If you have Google Analytics or any other Web Analytics reports study your organic keyword reports for new negatives.

8. Install the handy Keyword Tracking Script Michael Harrison (my coworker :-) ) created. It allows you to see exactly what people are typing in before they see your PPC ad within Google Analytics. He has installed this on many of my client accounts, and now I can't live without it!

So Negative Keyword research can be tedious and tiring. You may only find 5 new negatives and might think your hard labor wasn't worth it. Rest assured, your efforts will pay off!

I have seen impressions decrease by 30% within a client account and conversions conversely increase by 2% with just a handful of negatives.

By Page Christenbury, PPC Specialist

ROI Revolution

Newspaper Online Ad Expenditures Up 19%, Print Ads Down 10%

2007-09-03T18:49:00.001-04:00

Advertising expenditures for newspaper websites increased 19.3%, to $796 million, in the second quarter compared with the same period a year ago, according to preliminary estimates from the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).

The increase is the 13th consecutive quarter of double-digit growth for online newspaper advertising since NAA started reporting online ad spending in 2004.

Newspaper website advertising in 2Q07 accounted for 7% of total newspaper ad spending, compared with 5.4% in 2Q06, according to the NAA data.

“Newspaper websites continue to have a positive impact on the industry’s revenue stream during a time of transition,” said NAA President and CEO John F. Sturm. “As newspapers transform themselves into multimedia platforms offering a diverse portfolio of print and digital products, publishers continue to deliver…content that makes newspapers the most trusted source of news and information.”

“Advertisers know that newspaper websites are ideal for reaching online users with the most attractive demographics,” he added.

Total advertising expenditures at newspaper companies were $11.3 billion in the second quarter - an 8.6% decrease from 2Q06. Spending for print ads in newspapers totaled $10.5 billion, down 10.2% from the year-earlier period.

Sturm chalked up the print-ad revenue decreases to “cyclical swings in the US economy, as well as structural changes in the businesses of major advertisers.”

Among the major print components in the second quarter, classified advertising fell 16.4% to $3.4 billion. Retail declined 6.4% to $5.2 billion, and national was down 7.9%, coming in at $1.8 billion.

Within the classified print category in the second quarter, real estate advertising fell 20.7% to $966.8 million. Recruitment dropped 18.5% to $995.4 million. Automotive was down 19.3% to $756.3 million. All other classifieds were down 1.8% to $716.1 million.

Quarterly and annual ad spending numbers in their entirety are available at the NAA site.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/print/newspaper-online-ad-expenditures-up-19-print-ads-down-10-1471/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Online Video Viewers Prefer News Clips, Shorter Ads

2007-08-29T20:22:00.001-04:00

Most consumers - 62% - are viewing video online, and contrary to popular opinion those viewers are not just young adults viewing user-generated videos, according to a bi-annual video study from AOL’s Advertising.com, which sought to analyze online video viewing and response to video advertising.

Most (69%) of those viewing videos are age 35 or older, with a preference for viewing news clips online, the study found.

“The internet is still seen first and foremost as an information resource. With news clips remaining the most popular type of streamed content, video viewing habits reflect that status,” said Lynda Clarizio, president of Advertising.com.

“But it will be interesting to see how viewership evolves with the rise of social networks, more diverse video content, increased interactive gaming, and other such advances in online entertainment. I think we may see a shift in usage toward recreation; these latest figures certainly hint at that trend.”

As for video advertisements, consumers accept them as part of the video experience - 94% of respondents prefer ads to subscription fees. However, 63% of respondents say shorter ads would make the online video experience more pleasurable.

Shorter spots also deliver higher percent-viewed rates, according to data from the Advertising.com network.

Other key findings from the study:

More news, user-generated content:
- In the first half of 2007, 62% of consumers viewed news clips online, followed by movie trailers with 38%.
- Music videos came in third at 36%, decreasing from 47% in the second half of 2006.

Tastes differ by age:
- The 18-34-year-old audience prefers entertainment content such as music videos and TV shows. They also create more online video content than those ages 35 and older.
- In contrast, the 35 and older audience is more likely to view news.
- Compared with the previous study, 18-34-year-olds are streaming more movies, TV shows and user-generated videos.
- Those 35 and older are streaming more sports clips and user-generated videos than previously reported.
Complementing TV, not replacing it:

- 51% of survey respondents would watch a television episode online if they missed it on TV.
- However, 80% of consumers say that online video usage does not cut into their TV time.

About the study: Advertising.com’s research covered the first two quarters of 2007 and incorporated both consumer survey data and video advertising performance data from the Advertising.com video network. The survey was hosted by online market research company InsightExpress.

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/online-video-viewers-prefer-news-clips-shorter-ads-1423/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Teens Are Talking Talking Talking About Brands

2007-08-22T21:03:00.001-04:00

A new study says teens have about 145 conversations a week involving brand names, reports BrandWeek.

The study comes from The Keller Fay Group, who monitored the conversations of 2,046 13-17 year olds.

The firm found that teens in this group were more likely than adults to not only talk about brands but about advertising, 57 percent to 48 percent.

It's teens freedom to socialize versus that of adults that plays a large role in their discussions. Because they have more free time to consume media, they're exposed to more advertising and brands, and thus talk more about both of those than older groups.

The study also found teens mention brands more online via direct communication or on blogs, than adults. 19 percent of teens' word-of-mouth occurs online, as opposed to just seven percent of adults'.

Entertainment brands were discussed by 75 percent of teens. Sports and other hobbies made up 68 percent, technology 67 percent, telecom 65 percent and dining or food 62 percent.

More than half of brand mentions by teens are positive, which may be higher than expected, but still below the 64 percent of adult conversations.

http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2007/08/07/teens-talking-talking-talking-about-brands/?camp=newsletter&src=mv&type=textlink

Study: Branding Can Alter Kids' Perception of Taste

2007-08-22T21:02:00.001-04:00

Preschoolers' perception of what tastes better can be heavily influenced by the packaging, if it's branded by ubiquitous food brands - in this case, McDonalds - according to the findings of a study by a Stanford University researcher, writes MarketingCharts, citing the Associated Press.

The study had 3-5-year-olds from low-income families sample foods in taste tests of food wrapped in McDonalds and in unmarked wrappers.

Study author Dr. Tom Robinson is quoted as saying kids' perception of taste was "physically altered by the branding." Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids if they thought the food was from McDonlad's.

The study involved 63 low-income children from Head Start centers in San Mateo County, Calif. Only two of the 63 said they'd never eaten at McDonald's; about one-third ate there at least weekly.

The 63 children performed a total of 304 individual tasting comparisons. In general, McDonald's-labeled foods were the favorites.

The researchers found that children with more television sets in their homes and children who ate food from McDonald's more often were more likely to prefer the taste of foods/drinks if they thought they were from McDonald's (see figures in MarketingCharts, which also has more data from the study).

Reasons for choosing one agency over another...

2007-08-20T12:38:00.001-04:00

Examining the reasons for choosing one agency over another, the study (pdf) found that though “chemistry” and “strength of creative work” scored highly, as might be expected, so did “quality customer insights.” Respondents ranked the various factors as follows:

Quality customer insights
Chemistry
Creative work
Service level / response to needs ongoing
Cost control
Innovative / strategic thinking
Case for ROI
Client list
Strict adherence to brief
Seniority of account team
Location
Size

http://www.marketingcharts.com/direct/study-agencies-size-matters-little-to-marketers-1288/

Study: Agency Size Matters Little to Marketers

2007-08-20T12:36:00.001-04:00

There's a significant disconnect between marketing agencies and their clients' decision-makers, according to Rainmaker Consulting's "Intelligent New Business Survey," which examines how US marketing communications agencies best engage with prospective clients to win new business.

The poll sought to determine what prompts brand spenders to search for a new agency, the most effective ways for agencies to engage with clients, and the reasons they choose one agency over another, writes MarketingCharts.

Among the study's findings:

In general, clients don't feel that size matters, but agencies tend to believe it does.
The majority of clients (83 percent) don't feel geographical location is an issue, but many agencies think it is.
85 percent of clients say agencies don't prepare enough.
Most clients (75 percent) are seeking to buy actual solutions to business problems - whereas most agencies think the client is looking for advertising, PR, design or some other silo-fit.
Clients want agencies to be far more proactive, whereas most agencies like to sit in the bunker.

http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2007/08/20/study-agencies-size-matters-little-to-marketers/?camp=newsletter&src=mv&type=textlink

Navigation: Which kind is best?

2007-08-19T17:32:00.001-04:00

Certainly, you should have the navigation that works best for you. But testing navigation is not as easy as testing, say, the titles you should have on pages, or what prices you should offer your products at. Most companies want to decide on their navigation before they design their sites, and then they just live with their misery until the next redesign. (I learned that lesson the hard way.)
So let's just discuss the opportunities and downfalls.

Top horizontal vs. left vertical navigation vs. both.
Top horizontal navigation has the advantage of all being above the fold, and gets presented in a nice neat package up there with your logo. Furthermore, it doesn't hoard much of your precious real estate, the way that left navigation does. After all, even if your left navigation only has seven or eight options, your designer will probably keep you from wrapping text around it (and thereby prevent you from using the white space below it. Although, you could use the space for surveys or testimonials or news or snippets from your blog.) Top horizontal has another advantage -- you can add a wordpress blog much easier. Blogs tend to have a side horizontal nav bar already (although you could do them on opposite sides of the page, especially if you don't have to design for 800x600.)
On the other hand, it is much harder to extend horizontal navigation - it can only get as wide as your customers' browsers.
So I will make sweeping generalizations, if everyone who reads recognizes that the only "good" navigation is the one that is good for you. If you are a small lead generation website that wants to have Services, Products, Partners, About Us and Contact Us in your navigation (I really hate those, but more later), then go ahead and do the horizontal thing. If you are a large website, especially an e-commerce website with lots of products, you probably have to do the vertical navigation. If you are Amazon, you probably have so many products that you need to do both. And if you are a content site, like CNN, your whole site is really one big piece of navigation, because everywhere you turn, you are linking to another story.
Having said that, we are a small b-to-b website, and I just hate our horizontal navigation. There are so many things I would like to add and can't.

Text vs words in pictures.
Oh, this one is easy. If your navigation includes important keywords, then do your navigation in text. That way, you get some credit for those keywords in the search engines. On the other hand, if you have one of those Services - Products - Partners - About Us -Contact Us kinds of navigation, go ahead and write it any way you want.

Javascript pulldowns and flyouts.
The issue here, besides any search engine issues, is about usability - it's so hard to get your mouse to navigate to exactly the right place (and this gets worse when companies add another level of flyouts, Haven't you done that, you mouse over something, a menu comes up, you move your mouse over to where you want to be, and then you have a third set, and you can't get your mouse to hold on the right spot?) So keep this one simple. As part of that, make *sure* that the first level of navigation is mousable. For example, you hve a music website, and one category is jazz, and under that, you have all sorts of jazz bands -- you should still allow me to click on jazz, the highest level, so that I can see the category page.

What words should you use?
This is a great opportunity for some quick user testing. Write down the topics of your top hundred or two hundred pages, and ask users to sort them into piles that make sense. And then ask the people who are sorting to give each pile a descriptive name.
My favorite example of bad naming is from the old Carnegie Mellon website. I try to keep screenshots out of email, but if you looked at it, you would notice that one of the categories is Faculty Visitors. I can't tell you how many times I have been to that link. After all, when I go to the CMU website, I am usually pretending to be my spouse, dealing with benefits. Visiting their website. That made me a faculty visitor. Right? But always, I came away disappointed, because that's where visitors from other universities were supposed to go....
And of course, you can be completely non-descript and use Services - Products - Partners - About Us -Contact Us, thereby ensuring that no one can look at your navigation and know what you do without clicking.

Breadcrumbs, and where am I, anyway?
Not everything is on the navigation. After all, it just can't be when you have a million-page website. But you still need to get visitors to their information, so you'll have to rely on excellent on-site search, a great sitemap (but not everything will be there either, will it?), very strong scent, and linking from page to page.
Should you have breadcrumbs? You know, those little (sometimes clickable) links that showed you went from Outwear to Sweatshirts to Hoodies? I think that the jury is out on that one. Jared Spool claimed to me (this was in March '06 when I was at their road show) that his studies show, no one uses breadcrumbs. When I blogged about this, readers had strong opinions (both ways, including Spool, who commented too.) If you do use them, be careful not to create a real trail in text (lest you really mess yourself up in the search engines.) You can either create a relative trail (so, for example, even if I land directly on Hoodies from the search engines, my trail already says Outerwear > Sweatshirts > Hoodies.) Or, you can create a real trail, but wrap it in javascript so that the search engines can't read it.

Robbin Steif
LunaMetrics

Top 100 Global Brands Named

2007-08-01T23:00:00.001-04:00

More info:

http://www.marketingcharts.com/television/top-100-global-brands-named-1137/?camp=newsletter&src=mc&type=textlink

Nielsen, MRI: Magazine Website Visitors Mostly Incremental to Print Readers

2007-08-01T22:57:00.001-04:00

An average of 83% of visitors to the websites of 23 large-circulation monthly magazines access those magazines’ content solely online, according to a new, jointly launched single-source database from Nielsen/NetRatings and Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI).

The database, named Net/MRI will measure consumers’ offline and online media usage, providing a net audience estimate for print media that have complementary websites; it will provide demographic, psychographic and product usage information for users of both platforms, the companies said.

Also according to the newly released magazine website data:

Among individual magazine titles, the web-only percentages range from 65% to 96%.
Male visitors to online magazine sites were more likely than female visitors to read only the online version.
However, there was little difference between older and younger visitors to these sites in their propensity to read the printed magazines affiliated with those sites.

The companies plan to publish Net/MRI data monthly, shortly after the release of Nielsen/NetRatings’ monthly NetView data.

College Students Growing More Receptive to Mobile Ads

2007-08-01T22:56:00.001-04:00

College students are growing increasingly receptive to receiving advertising via text messages on their cell phones and other mobile devices - so much so that more than half would consider it - according to a new study from Ball State University (via TheStarPress).

Some 56.3% of survey respondents said they would accept ads if they were to get something free in return, said Michael Hanley, a Ball State advertising professor and mobile marketing researcher, who conducted an analysis of mobile communications by college students during 2005-07.

Among the survey findings:

37.4% of college students said it would only take the offer of a free ring tone for them to accept advertisements on their cell phones.
21.4% preferred a discount or coupon to a restaurant, movie or grocery store.
20% wanted free minutes, upgrades, access to the internet or music.

”Just a couple of years ago few college students accepted ads on their mobile devices because they felt it was an invasion of their privacy,” Hanley said. “Now all you have to do is offer free ring tones, cash or access to the Internet because this age group has grown up with cell phones and other mobile devices. It is the way they communicate with each other as well as with the outside world.”

Some other findings from the study:

36.7% of college students had received a text message advertisement in 2007, up 13% from 2005.
College students are less worried today about how a business obtains their cell phone or mobile device contact information:
- The percentage of those who said they were “very concerned” dropped 25%
- The percentage of those saying they were “concerned a little” fell 33%.
The study also found that cell phones are being used less today for talking and more for entertainment than in 2005:
- The number of college students with cell phones with video cameras increased 33%.
- 40% of respondents sent photos via cell phone or email in 2007, up 10%.
- 10% sent videos to another cell phone or email addresses in 2007, up 7%.
- 50% said they had downloaded a ring tone in 2007, up from 8.5%.
- 20% have downloaded wallpapers or screensavers, an increase of 18.1%.

“It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of the mobile industry because college students are early adapters,” Hanley said. “It is hard to find a college student without a cell phone or another mobile communications device.”

Why Do Some Leaders Have More Influence than Others?

2007-07-28T23:45:00.001-04:00

Some business leaders have a more widespread impact than others. What distinguishes those who have the greatest influence? Are they simply lucky -- the right people at the right time? Or do these leaders possess at their core a common set of characteristics that gives them the potential to be great? How much is the person and how much is the situation?

This is a false debate. Like many exercises in the study of great leadership, no one answer can stand on its own.

To help unravel this mystery, I have looked to the past to see what we can learn or unlearn from great business leaders, and I have studied present leaders in various arenas to better understand what has worked and what has not worked.

Clearly, context is important. Business leaders who have been sensitive to context possess what Nitin Nohria and I call contextual intelligence. Not only do these leaders understand the implications of the contextual forces that surround them, they also have the ability to adapt and change their leadership style and approach as environmental conditions evolve. Success in one realm does not always translate into success in another. Indeed, relying on past models of success without being sensitive to the context of the situation has often yielded major disappointments.

While there has been much research on personal characteristics of leaders, there is considerably less focus on macro-level environmental factors which can impede or accelerate success. In this space, I hope to build a discussion on what it will take to lead successfully in the 21st century -- specifically what it will take to be a great business leader. Is our definition of great business leaders the same as it was 100 years ago? What about just a decade ago? How will the evolving context shift our definition of great leadership? What will it take to lead in a more globally diverse world? I hope you will join me and share your insights and opinions on great business leadership.

Posted by Tony Mayo on July 3, 2007 2:14 PM

http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/mayo/2007/07/great_business_leadership_in_t.html?referral=2616&cm_mmc=npv-_-listserv-_-July_2007-_-leadership

Generation X Versus the Baby Boom

2007-07-28T23:43:00.001-04:00

Ouch! The Painful Divide Between Generation X and the Boomers

Posted by Tammy Erickson on June 26, 2007 4:44 PM

The Boomer Century, a recent PBS special (first aired March 28, 2007), set off a torrent of vitriolic commentary. Whether you agree with the critics or not -- or even care about a TV show -- the existence and tone of the ensuing debate is worth considering seriously.

First, here’s a Boomer perspective on the show: It was a fun romp through some of the most important and formative events of our Boomer lives, hosted by one of our generation’s frequent spokesmen (and a good friend of mine) Ken Dychtwald.

The Xers responded with scorn and furry. Virginia Heffernan, writing in the venerable New York Times, said the show “labors to con us into sharing its fierce assumption that the only way to see the last 60 years of civilization is through the collective ego of the American children born between 1946 and 1964.” In her view, the show did little but “relive Kennedy assassination clichés and revisit palaver about idealism, disillusionment and self-discovery.”

She only opened the floodgates. Martin Kuz’s article in the San Francisco Weekly was titled, “Boomtastrophe.” Among other points, he claims Baby Boomers are “dragging the whole country down.” Regarding the show itself, he says, “shunning veracity, PBS presented The Boomer Century: 1946—2046. Billed as a documentary, it wove a narrative that hewed closer to mythology, depicting the Me Generation as mankind's gift to its own.”

Ouch.

Rest assured that Boomers answered back, but furthering that particular debate is not my objective today. (Google “The Boomer Century” if you want to read more from either side.)

Rather, let’s take a deep breath and reflect on the raw nerve this TV show exposed. As hard as it is for Boomers to believe, most members of Generation X are not your biggest fans. To many Xers, Boomers have been a continual thorn, always holding the vast majority of the “good jobs” and seemingly diminishing their limited economic opportunities yet further. Boomers have taken up far too much physical space and mental mindshare, often with an air of decided superiority and self-pre-occupation, for far too long. But despite lofty teenage promises, they have done little to better either corporations or broader world. The workplace that Boomers have managed has not been overly receptive to many Xers’ values and preferences. And, as Xers move into positions of increased authority, resentments related to the results of Boomers’ custodial roles -- of the environment, international relationships, the national debt -- are already beginning to surface.

Tammy Kobliuk offered the following thoughtful response to one of my earlier posts: “In my last office I was one of the few Gen Xers working with a large number of Baby Boomers. There is a definite culture difference between the two groups despite an often small separation in age. Gen Xers are more concerned with finding the right job for them, regardless of which company, instead of sticking with a company and hoping to climb the ladder. I have found many Boomers to be very ambitious and concerned with climbing the ladder. Many are unhappy in their jobs yet don't consider leaving their organizations. Gen Xers, on the other hand, are often more concerned with a work-life balance where they work to live instead of live to work. Free time is highly valued, probably more so than money for many. We have seen Boomers fill and stay in management/ leadership positions thus resigning us to remain in the rank and file. We tend to job hop more than Boomers since company loyalty is not something we expect, having seen and been affected by the downsizing of the 80's and 90's. Boomers are seen by Gen Xers as a "me" generation. It's all about them. They got the jobs and the houses and we were left with the leftovers.”

Going forward, striking a respectful truce with Xers will need to become an important Boomer priority. Without it, there is the possibility of generational conflict and a paucity of talent to sustain the corporations Boomers have dedicated their lives to.

Repairing relations between these two generations may involve Boomers helping to make corporations more receptive to the needs of Generation X. It may involve getting out of their way gracefully, moving perhaps into individual contributor roles within corporations, and turning the reins of leadership over to them. Or, it may involve shifting Boomer priorities to demonstrate more of the generation’s good qualities: the passion and commitment to change that marked Boomer’s teen years. Boomers have the opportunity to use your large numbers in ways that will further agendas that X’ers would support, to be sensitive to their needs as a generation, as well as your own. Now’s the time.

http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/erickson/2007/06/ouch_the_painful_divide_betwee_1.html?referral=2616?cm_mmc=npv-_-listserv-_-July_2007-_-leadership

Source: Harvard Business Review

Mobile AdSense a Reality, Google Invites Testers

2007-07-28T23:42:00.001-04:00

Google has extended invitations to mobile website publishers to test the display of AdSense ads on those sites, reports PC World.

The search/advertising giant is conducting a limited test of the system as it gathers feedback for use in developing a final product. Getting AdSense into the mobile world would be a major coup for Google, as more and more users fire up their wireless devices for web surfing purposes.

In order to participate, sites must be written in one of three mobile-friendly markup languages. The restrictions are due to Google's crawlers needing to be able to read the page in order to place appropriate ads.

SEM Done Sideways

2007-07-28T23:41:00.001-04:00

What do you do if the product or service you’re trying to sell is so unique or unprecedented that people don’t know how to search for it?

Search marketing relies on figuring out what a user wants from the words he’s using to look for it, and then serving up ads that fit that want. But if that seeker doesn’t know something even exists out there in the market, he’s highly unlikely to type in a string of search terms that will let you target him effectively for an offer.

“If you can’t target people when they come in through the front door by requesting the information [in a search query], then you have to reach them through the side door,” says Danielle Leitch, executive vice president for client strategy with search marketing firm MoreVisibility. “You have to serve ads up alongside of content that’s contextually relevant to who you are and what you’re offering.”

As an illustration of the sideways approach, Leitch points to a service that gives golf lessons to female executives in the finance industry who want to further their careers and close deals on the links. It’s a great niche, of course—but not one that many people are going to think to look for in search terms of four words or less.

“How does a human resource director of a financial institution even find out that such a service exists, or that he or she should be looking at it to help the company’s women executives build networking and sales skills?” she says.

The advertiser could assemble a list of keywords that describe the golf teaching service and use those to market through pay-per-click ads. But anything less than a pretty full multi-word keyword is going to generate lots of unqualified clicks. On the other hand, fully describing the service might require more words than anyone has ever typed into a query box. The amount of traffic driven to your site through such a complex search term would be negligible.

“If you market to ‘golf lessons’, you’re going to get the guy on the corner who’s looking for a $50 one-hour lesson. But why would anyone be searching for ‘women’s golf lessons/ executive/ networking skills’?”

That’s the type of situation that calls for contextual or behavioral ad channels, Leitch says. Very often such innovative or niche products and services have a clear customer profile in mind—a basic requirement for effective marketing through these ancillary paths. For example, the golf entrepreneur might know enough to target either women finance managers or bank HR executives.

“So you take that a step further and ask, ‘Where are these people online and what are they doing? What sites do they go to regularly?’” she says. The most likely possibilities are human-resource sites and financial Web pages and publications.

With that aim, a marketer can go out and deliver pay-per-click ads alongside relevant content on Web sites that offer an audience with the appropriate demographic.

“In a sense, it’s taking marketing back to basics by trying to get across by association the look, feel, and touch of what you’re trying to sell,” Leitch says. “For a high-end, unique product with a limited client base, that can be tough to do with a keyword—even one comprised of three or four terms.” Better in those cases to serve up the offer alongside relevant content and play up the natural synergy between the Web site and your target prospect.

It’s recently become easier to do this within Google’s AdSense network of publisher sites. It used to be that Google wouldn’t let advertisers specify the sites their ads would appear on, and in fact refused to lift the veil on exactly which publishers belonged to their network.

“The only way you found out where your contextual ad was appearing on Google AdSense was if you went through your server logs after the fact and looked for referring traffic,” Leitch says. “Even then it was concealed if the traffic was being redirected through a Google link; it came though as just ‘Google syndication partner’.”

But Google has grown more forthcoming about its contextual network in recent weeks, and Leitch says marketers on the network now can choose between contextual ads based on their keywords or a site-targeted approach that restricts a campaign to selected Web sites.

Google’s not the only option for contextual advertising. Leitch says MoreVisibility has also had good results placing ads with Quigo, whose AdSonar network has always been transparent to marketers about member sites and demographics.

“Basically, you give them the categories that you fall into as an advertiser, and they provide you with a list of URLs within their network that they feel are a good match for your category,” she says. “Then you can refine that list further into those sites you want your ad to run on.”

After spending some time running ads on the AdSonar network, marketers can then take a look to see which specific sites converted well, optimize the messages for those sites, and restrict their campaigns to those contextual partners where they’re earning the best return on investment.

Advertising on behavioral networks such as Tacoda or AlmondNet can add another layer of targeting to contextual campaigns by serving the ads up based on what users do rather than what they happen to be reading at the moment.

To Leitch, the lessons learned from marketing products or services that can’t be efficiently advertising with a few terms simply underline the fact that search marketing is maturing into something less mechanical than it was in the early days.

“We’ve heard this from a lot of the search engines, and our company is now starting to preach it too: Search is not just keywords and costs per click anymore,” she says. “The industry has evolved into something more. Keywords are still a component of search, and cost-per-click is still a method of payment. But search has gone way beyond that now. Keywords are the foundation—but now you can build on top of that.”

http://directmag.com/searchline/7-11-07-Contextual-SEM/

Target Marketing Priorities Survey: Direct Marketing Generates Best ROI

2007-07-28T23:40:00.001-04:00

Direct mail and email generated the best return on investment among media channels in 2006, according to respondents - both B2B and consumer marketers - to a new Harte-Hanks survey administered by CSO Insights.

Among business-to-business marketers, digital marketing - email, websites and online registrations, and search - are seeing increased investments, but a “continuing struggle with data quality” is a “major roadblock to success,” the study found.

Meanwhile, consumer marketers point to a lack of data quality - currency and accuracy - as hurting marketing efforts, though marketers gave higher marks for data quality than they had in a previous survey two years ago, according to the findings of “Target Marketing Priorities Analysis: 2007 Key Trends.”

Among all media, digital media categories - with the exception of paid search - receive the highest priorities, with near-equal attention given to data analysis, among other data-related concerns.

In both B2B and consumer markets, prompt action based on data analysis is a top priority for business demand generation, the study reported.

Asked to cite the relative importance of web-based marketing programs to the overall success of target marketing, retailers selected the following, in order of importance (via InternetRetailer):

Web sites and micro-sites
Search optimization
Email marketing
Online advertising
E-publishing/e-newsletters
E-fulfillment
Paid search
Webinars
Blogs

Asked which strategies were increasing the most in importance, respondents cited the following:

Web-based marketing
Data analysis and insight
Email marketing
Data-based marketing
Online advertising
Search marketing
Data acquisition
Telemarketing
Direct mail
Paid search
Traditional media

“As companies invest more in multiple channels in a bid to acquire customers, and to retain their loyalty, it appears businesses continue to grapple with data management and data insight - and just what the metrics are saying,” said Bill Goldberg, corporate officer and senior vice-president, Harte-Hanks.

About the study: Among the respondents, 28% represented technology companies, 19% from the manufacturing sector (non-tech), 13% among services companies, 9% financial, 7% in healthcare and 5% retailers and consumer package goods companies - with a variety of other sectors (nonprofit, government, education, travel and transportation, among others) making up the other 24%. Approximately 60% of survey respondents represent B2B marketers.

Most Popular Retail Email Days of the Past Year

2007-07-28T23:39:00.001-04:00

Retailers sent the most emails in the weeks before Christmas - including on seven of the top eight email days in the previous 12 months - according to a study by the Email Experience Council’s RetailEmail blog, MediaPost writes.

Those most-popular email days included Cyber Monday (ostensibly the biggest online sales day of the year; it fell on Nov. 27 in 2006) and the subsequent three “Echo Mondays” (Dec. 4, 11 and 18) - two of which were actually bigger email days than Cyber Monday.

The biggest email day of the year was the day after Christmas 2006, with more than 53% of tracked retailers sending email on Dec. 26.

Other popular email days were related to the income tax deadline (this year, April 17), Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, President’s Day, Valentine’s Day and Easter.

More than half of the most popular days were in December. The rest were spread over January, February, March and April - and none were in July, August, September and October.

Tuesday was the popular day among the Top 20 retail email days, with Monday close behind. Wednesday made it on the list only once.

Study: Email Marketing Campaigns Need Better Landing Pages

2007-07-28T23:37:00.001-04:00

A review by Silverpop of 150 email marketing campaigns’ landing pages has found that many fail to grab attention quickly and some are confusing and cluttered, despite studies showing that up to 50% of visitors to landing pages will abandon the page after a mere 8-second glance.

Some landing pages quickly grabbed attention and kept readers interested, while others were easily dismissed and quickly discarded, according to “8 Seconds to Capture Attention: Silverpop’s Landing Page Report.”

Some key findings from the report:

The confusion of arriving at a web page that doesn’t match the look and tone of the email can lead visitors to abandon the site:
- Yet 35% of the landing pages reviewed by Silverpop didn’t have the same look or tone of the email that generated the click.
- 29% of B2C companies posted landing pages that didn’t match the email, compared with 41% of B2B companies.
To reinforce the call-to-action that generated the email recipient to click a link in the first place, best practice is to repeat the offer on the landing page:
- However, 55% of landing pages didn’t repeat the strong promotional copy found in the email.
- A full 63% of B2B landing pages failed to do so.
- 52% of B2C landing pages did not do so.

Taking a clicker to a website’s homepage generally fails to deliver on the promise inherent in the email’s call-to-action:
- Yet 17% of email marketing campaigns dumped recipients on the homepage.
- Just one-third of recipients were taken to a landing page especially created for the email
- Half were taken to a page within the website, albeit a relevant one.

Customers and prospects can end up at a landing page via various routes, so capturing email addresses of those who are not in the company’s database, but have arrived at the page, is essential:
- But 35% of the landing pages didn’t include an opt-in request.
- Half of B2B landing pages include opt-in requests.
- 30% of B2C landing pages did so.
Asking too many questions can lead prospective customers to become wary and frustrated enough that they abandon the process.
- Nevertheless, 45% of landing pages that included forms required more than 10 fields to be completed.
- 32% had between 6 and 10 fields.

About the study: Silverpop’s Strategic Research Team registered to receive emails from 150 top online marketing companies. Landing pages reached from clicking links in each email were evaluated for 14 elements, such as matching the email leading to the page and/or the company’s website, ease of navigation, amount of copy and design formats.

Conversion vs. Conversion Rate

2007-07-28T23:36:00.001-04:00

Why does rate of conversion matter?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's very reasonable to think that only absolute conversions matter: How many sales you made, how many leads you gathered. So why does anyone care about the *rate* of conversion? After all, if the New York Times linked to your site, you'd have a lot of extra traffic, but it might not be well-qualified. All those extra visitors would increase the denominator of the conversion ratio (which we like to measure as actions divided by visits), but there might only be a couple of extra sales. Your conversion rate would probably plummet during that time period -- but you made extra money. Are we upset that your rate is down and your revenue is up?

There are some specific (and very common) situations that cause website owners to care about the conversion rate:

1. When you are paying by the click (e.g. Google AdWords). If you pay a dollar per click, for example, and you get 5000 clicks, that's $5000. Let's say your average order size is $25. If your conversion rate is 2%, that translates into 100 orders, or $2500. So you lost money on the deal -- because your conversion rate is too low (and because you are paying too much for the click, when the average ticket is only twenty-five bucks.)

2. When you are working with affiliate marketing. There are probably affiliate marketers who charge by the click (see above.) But most of the affiliate deals we see are pay per action -- you pay Shopzilla or Pricegrabber or whomever for the conversion or for the lead. So why care about rate -- after all, you only pay when the customer converts! The problem arises when affiliates see lots of traffic going to your site, but not lots of money coming back to them. They aren't happy, they will want to cut better deals with your competitors. Likewise, if you have a great conversion rate, they'll want to do special favors for you.

3. When you are working with organic search. It's true that you don't have to pay per click. But whether you are paying an employee or a firm to do your Search Engine Optimization, you've made an investment. The higher your conversion rate, the higher your return on that investment.

4. When you are paying for online PR. It's true that you might get lucky and get a link from the NYTimes, or better yet, your story might get picked up by the blogosphere, then picked up by the mainstream media, and you'll be on CNN by nightfall. Those are the stories we hear about. Most of the time, creating your own buzz is a lot of hard work. Time equals money, so you can apply the same logic here as we did to the SEO employee: the higher the conversion *rate*, the higher the ROI.

In fact, you could argue that the only forms of traffic that are "free" are referring links - sites that link to yours because they like your site -- and bookmarked or typed in traffic. The latter group is often repeat users, and depending on your product, should have one of the highest conversion rates of all your Internet channels.

And that's why everyone cares about conversion rate.

Robbin Steif
http://www.lunametrics.com

Microsoft Search Share Surges, Ambushes Google with Live Search Club

2007-07-28T23:34:00.001-04:00

Microsoft has apparently made good on its threat to challenge Google for search market share, and has resorted to “paying” searchers to use its Live Search - a concept that Chairman Bill Gates had publicly mused about in Dec. 2005.

MSN/Live Search increased its search volume 67% from May to June - and a full 48% from a year earlier (June 2006), according to just released search marketer share figures from Compete.

As a result that extra-ordinary growth, MSN/Live gained market share from its competitors, with Google’s falling 4.3 percentage points in June - to 62.7%, from 67.0% in May, according to a blog post by Compete’s Steve Willis.

“A good portion of the additional Live searches are coming from the Live Search Club, where you can apparently play games for points which you can redeem for fine Microsoft products. All of the games involve using Live’s search engine - to get the points, you have to search with Live,” Willis explains.
The Live Search Club had negligible traffic in April, but in May traffic went up to 0.3 million or so unique visitors - then grew some tenfold in June, accounting for more than 3 million visitors, according to Compete.

“If Microsoft can actually leverage this traffic to club.live.com into actual search users and string together a few more months like this, they could really threaten Google’s top spot,” Willis concludes.

For an idea of how Live Search Club could generate such search traffic, consider a readers’ comment on the Compete blog:

As a club live player, and a participant in various message boards regarding these games, I can offer my opinion that this enormous increase in traffic makes perfect sense. Each time one plays one of these club live games, it racks up dozens of search engine hits, and a game might take 5 minutes. So hundreds of hits per hour. And some of the prizes are so lucrative (for example, a $400 retail version of Windows Vista in exchange for maybe 10 hours of playing games, now that the solutions to all the puzzles have been posted in various places), people play hour after hour after hour. I know of people who have already won 10 or 20 copies of Windows Vista.
In addition, there has been significant amounts of “botting” going on, people running bots which play the games for them. A single one of these people can be generating tens of thousands of search engine hits over time.

Four Out of Five Newspaper Website Readers Also Read the Printed Edition

2007-07-28T23:31:00.001-04:00

A new study recently released by the Newspaper National Network LP, conducted by Scarborough Research, found that 81% of newspaper website users also read the printed newspaper in the last 7 days. Crossover users (those who used both print and online newspapers in the past 7 days) have deep affinity with both their printed newspaper and their newspaper website, and 83% say "I love both my printed newspaper and visiting my newspapers website." Crossover users visit their newspaper website to:

Access breaking news (96%),
Find articles seen previously (85%)
Find things to do/places to go (72%)

Jason E. Klein, President and CEO of Newspaper National Network, said "The study shows that the core newspaper reader now accesses his or her local newspaper across multiple formats, print and web, and is deeply engaged with both... 83% of crossover users say their newspaper site will be among their primary destinations 5 years from now."

The study found that newspaper website-only users are 55% female, while crossover users are only 48% female. The main reasons newspaper website-only users cited for using newspaper websites include:

Accessing local news (84%)
Entertainment information (74%)
Food or restaurant information (58%)

Newspaper website-only users are web-savvy group as 52% write or read blogs and 46% have joined a web community.

The two segments differ in the time of day they are using newspapers:

Crossover users are more likely to read their printed newspaper in the morning (63% read the printed newspaper before 10am) and access their newspaper website in the afternoon or evening (46%).
Newspaper website only users are more likely to access the website in the morning (49% of website-only users access the website before 10am vs. 34% of crossover users).

Contrary to some perceptions, the web has not hurt overall newspaper consumption, as 87% of crossover users report that their time spent with newspaper media has increased or remained the same versus only 12% who say time spent has decreased.

Other key Study findings:

The last time you read or looked into any printed copy of the (Newspaper Name):

Read last 7 days: 81%
Read 8-30 days ago: 9%
Read longer than 30 days ago: 7%
Never Read: 3%

Combined Time Spent With Print And Web-Based Newspaper Media Since You Began Using A Newspaper Website

52% remained the same
35% increased
12% decreased
1% Don't Know

For more information, please visit here to find the NNN Newspaper Footprint Study.

comScore Confirms 36% Jump in Microsoft Search Volume

2007-07-28T23:30:00.001-04:00

Newly released online search figures from comScore’s qSearch analysis of activity across competitive search engines confirm a sharp increase in Microsoft’s share of search volume - up 36% from the previous month. Last week, Compete had released data showing a surge in search market share for Microsoft’s Live Search.

Compete pointed (as does comScore) to the Live Search Club, which Microsoft launched in late May to engage and reward users of Live Search.

As a result of that 36% increase in Microsoft search queries, which totaled 1.1 billion in June, search share for Microsoft sites increased 2.9 percentage points, accounting for 13.2% of all US search queries conducted in June, according to comScore data.

Nevertheless, Google sites maintained search dominance, claiming the top spot in the rankings with 49.5% of the US search market, comScore said.

Also according to comScore:

Yahoo sites captured second place with 25.1% of US searches, followed by Microsoft sites (13.2%), Ask Network (5.0%) and Time Warner Network (4.2%).
Google sites led the pack with 4.0 billion search queries performed, followed by Yahoo sites (2.0 billion), Microsoft sites (1.1 billion), Ask Network (403 million), and Time Warner Network (341 million).
Despite declining in search market share in June, both Google sites and Yahoo sites had increases in search query volume.
In all, Americans conducted 8.0 billion searches online in June, up 6% from May and up 26% from June 2006.

Glimpse of the Future, 1994

2007-07-28T23:29:00.001-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1l6aBgX5UY

Eye-Tracking Device Lets Billboards Know When You Look at Them

2007-07-28T23:28:00.001-04:00

Dan Skeen 06.12.07 | 2:00 AM

Billboards that know when you're looking at them will soon be a reality, if new eye-tracking gear from a Canadian startup makes good on its maker's claims.

The eyebox2 from xuuk is a palm-size video camera surrounded by infrared light-emitting diodes. It can record eye contact with 15-degree accuracy at a distance of up to 33 feet. A simple glance from a passerby scores an impression, providing a tally that enables new Google-like measurement metrics that real-world advertisers could only dream about until recently.

"It will revolutionize the digital-signage industry because it solves the half-missing part of the business model," explains xuuk CEO Roel Vertegaal, who spent several years developing the gear in the Human Media Lab of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. "Right now they're pushing ads to clients, and they don't even know if those clients are seeing those ads."

Vertegaal's team has overcome some traditional barriers to eye-tracking gear by leveraging the red-eye effect that frustrates many photographers, in which light is reflected back to the camera from the subject's retina. The eyebox2 registers a view by deliberately inducing an instance of infrared-eye. When your eyeballs are aimed in its direction, they reflect light back to the camera, which detects the reflection and registers the fact that someone is looking at it.

This removes several limitations imposed by common eye-tracking gear, which requires careful calibration for each viewer, is often limited to very short distances and typically costs about $25,000. The eyebox2 sells for $1,000.

The digital-signage industry is low-hanging fruit for a product that offers tangible viewer metrics. Until now, methods of measuring the traffic and reach of billboards and plasma displays have been limited to human-conducted site surveys using notepads and tally-counters.

Eye-tracking gear has been used in retail settings to learn more about shoppers' viewing habits, but those studies were limited to small sample groups of headgear-wearing volunteers in laboratories. The eyebox2 offers an automated method to find hot spots of eye activity in the real world, and also to assess the effectiveness of specific ads.

"This type of technology will have a big influence on how digital-signage media is bought and sold," says Mike Foster, vice president of marketing for MediaTile, a Scotts Valley, California-based provider of digital-signage networks. "It’s extremely important for the industry to know who's seeing the content."

But while Vertegaal suggests that the "first" use for xuuk's technology is ambient advertising, he has his sights set on other areas. His grand vision is to use eye activity to create "a mouse for the real world." One potential outcome is more polite devices: Cell phones that won't ring when you're in a conversation, hearing aids that amplify the person you are looking at and TV sets that turn off when you're not watching them.

Vertegaal compares it to the office colleague who might wait in your doorway to establish eye contact before interrupting. "Eye contact is used to negotiate attention, and it’s fascinating how it works in humans," Vertegaal says. "We can have technology do the same thing."

MBP Overview: The Scoop on Digital Billboards

2007-07-28T23:26:00.001-04:00

Out of home advertising is a growing $6.8 billion industry, and digital billboards are expected to be the fastest area of growth within the medium. Billboard companies such as Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS Outdoor are quickly launching digital networks or replacing old billboards with digital, but some controversy surrounds the new technology. While the Outdoor Advertising Association of America calls the display on a digital billboard "similar to static billboards," and mandates that an image not change more often than every six to eight seconds, some reports in the media describe the billboards as "plasma TVs" and wonder whether they pose safety hazards.

What Exactly Are They?

Digital billboards create displays that look much like static billboards, but they allow advertisers to remotely and instantaneously change messages as needed to suit the needs of their advertising campaigns. For example, a sign may display changing interest rates or mortgage rates, lottery jackpot updates or sales specials.

With some digital networks such as Clear Channel's, advertisers can purchase campaigns by day part, location, or specific demographics, allowing them to run more highly targeted campaigns. Billboard companies can sell more advertising for a single board because they create a continuous loop of ads, with each ad being displayed for between 6 to 8 seconds.

Digital billboards have also been used to display AMBER Alerts to help find missing children, and to display other law enforcement and emergency information.

Some companies have used digital billboards to interact with viewers and to personalize the messages that the billboards display. MINI USA, for example, launched a campaign in which digital billboards flashed personal messages to Mini drivers as drove by the signs. Calvin Klein invited passers-by to text message answers to questions posed by the billboard. The answers were then displayed on the sign.
The Outdoor Advertising Association of America's Code of Industry Practices dictates that digital billboards do not feature animation, flashing lights, scrolling, or full-motion video. The standards call for static messages.

The Size of the Market

Alternative out-of-home media spending surged 27.0 percent to $1.69 billion in 2006 and is projected to grow at an accelerated 27.7 percent rate in 2007, according to a study from PQ Media.

The study found that of the three sub-segments of alternative out-of-home media, digital billboards and displays is the fastest-growing, with spending soaring 55.4 percent in 2006 to $233.2 million.

Currently, only about 500-plus billboards out of an estimated 450,000 total billboards in the United States are digital, according to the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. But it is estimated that several hundred digital displays may be built each year and that there may be as many as 4,000 by 2017.

Concerns

The lead researcher on a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) study released in early 2004 said that neither visual behavior nor driving behavior changes measurably, even in the presence of the most visually attention-getting billboards. Another study, from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety based on crash data and prepared for the Foundation by researchers at the University of North Carolina, said items such as CB radios, billboards, and temperature controls are not significant distractions. And in 1996, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a memo that said changeable-message billboards are acceptable if allowed by state-federal agreements.

But other driving safety researchers say there isn't enough research to prove that they are safe, and that digital signs may tax a driver's awareness more than static signs.Deanna Singhal, research associate at the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, a driving safety group in Ottawa, believes that not only do digital billboards keep drivers' eyes away from the road more, but that they are also more "cognitively demanding."

A study commissioned by the Federal Highway Administration has recommended more research into whether the signs present risks to drivers, and the federal government has also allotted $150,000 for a study of digital signage. That study may not be completed until 2009.
While more than 40 states currently allow digital billboards, some cities have expressed concern over the technology, and others, such as St. Paul and Des Moines, have gone so far as to ban the technology until studies on when and where the signage should be allowed can be completed.

Report: Billboard Advertising to Grow by $2.85B by 2010

2007-07-28T23:24:00.001-04:00

Modern urban lifestyles exhibit a tendency towards greater indulgence in outdoor activities, and people are spending a greater portion of their time traveling. The rapidly growing popularity of digital billboards, and their ability to air attractive full motion video and visually informative graphic presentations, is helping speed the growth of outdoor advertising.

With such advancements, the world billboard advertising market, the largest mode of outdoor advertising, is expected to increase by $2.85 billion between 2007 and 2010, according to Global Industry Analysts, Inc.

Europe is said to dominate this market with a 31 percent share, while Asia-Pacific turbo charges global growth with a compound annual growth rate of 12.3 percent. The transit advertising market represents the fastest growing mode of outdoor advertising, with the potential to reach $7.14 billion by 2010. The street furniture advertising market in the Middle East and Africa is expected to reach $64.05 million by 2010.

By region, the world outdoor advertising market is dominated by Europe. Growth in Europe is fashioned by the highly lucrative Russian market, which is forecast to grow at a rate of 30.2 percent over the analysis period. Outdoor advertising expenditures in the two other fast growing European markets, Hungary and Norway, together are expected to rise by $119.9 million between 2007 and 2010.

In Asia-Pacific, unbridled growth is forecast to be witnessed in Indonesia, Thailand, and China. Together, these three regional markets are expected to corner close to 65 percent of the total expenditures on outdoor advertising in Asia, by 2010.

Leading global and regional players operating in the industry include Clear Channel Outdoor, JCDecaux, CBS Outdoor, Lamar Advertising Company, Titan Outdoor Limited, Van Wagner Communications, Planar Control Room and Digital Signage, EPAMEDIA, MarketForward, Omnivex Corporation, Primedia Outdoor Pty Ltd., and Clear Media Limited, among others.

Research Shows Digital Billboards Safe for Drivers

2007-07-28T23:23:00.001-04:00

New research from the Foundation for Outdoor Advertising Research and Education has indicated that digital billboards are no less safe than their traditional counterparts.
In order to help media companies make the case for digital billboards to local municipalities, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America unveiled the two studies - one that analyzed the correlation between digital boards and traffic accidents and another that examined driver behavior.

The studies come at a time when outdoor companies are building out digital billboards (boards that rotate static images displayed for 6 to 8 seconds). Costing more than $250,000 to erect, companies can sell the same space on digital billboards to multiple advertisers, increasing revenue by several multiples.

Over the last few years, 500 digital billboards have been erected. While that's still a small percentage (0.1 percent) of the 450,000 billboards in the U.S., the OAAA estimates that media companies will erect several hundred digital displays each year.

Tantala Associates, a consulting engineering firm, found no statistical relationship between digital boards and traffic accidents after examining traffic and accident data near all seven existing digital billboards in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, over a period of 18 months before and after the billboards were converted to digital.

A second study conducted by the Center for Automotive Safety Research at Virginia Tech's Transportation Institute concluded that digital boards were "safety neutral," based on a study of eye glance movements of 36 drivers in specially-equipped cars in Cleveland.

Results showed no differences in the overall glance patterns or frequency of glances between digital and traditional boards. Although drivers took longer glances in the direction of digital billboards, the mean glance length time was less than one second, generally considered to be an acceptable amount of time for a glance away from the forward roadway.

So far, 29 states have adopted laws or regulations on the books allowing digital billboards that display multiple static images for 6 to 8 seconds. (Only places such as New York City and Las Vegas have full motion video boards.) Arkansas, Indiana and Tennessee approved digital boards just this year. Only a small number of states don’t allow any changeable-message billboards, such as Delaware, whose legislature recently approved legislation to allow digital billboards, a measure now awaiting Governor approval. A few states allow tri-action billboards, but not digital billboards.

"It's appropriate for the industry to study their product and make sure it's safe," said Paul Cook, chairman of FOARE. "Regulations don't always keep up with technology, leaving the public with questions about driver safety. These studies break new ground about digital billboards and traffic safety," he added.

In addition to countering safety concerns, the OAAA emphasized the public safety advantage that digital billboards can provide to help find fugitives or lost children.