By Karen J. Bannan
A recent report out of eMarketer, a research firm based in New York, says that mobile marketing is profitable. Plus, since users actually like mobile marketing, it's something that you should be looking at, according to the report says users rank messaging as second or third in order of user desires, says John du Pre Gauntt, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report Mobile Message Marketing.
"After voice calls, messaging typically ranks second or third in the order of user desires," says Gauntt in an eMarketer press release. "Most important to marketers, messaging, especially short messaging services (SMS), is now part and parcel of youth culture everywhere."
Another take-away: the global market for ad-supported mobile messaging will spike from $1.5 billion last year to $12 billion by 2011. And who will pay for delivery of these ads? Customers? Advertisers? The jury is still out. but one thing is for sure, advertisers shouldn't feel badly if it ends up being them. IP Business News reports that according to a study earlier this year 41 percent of mobile video consumers have responded in some way to a mobile ad.
Are you interested in trying out mobile marketing for yourself? Digital marketing company MobileStorm in October blogged about the top ten tips for getting started. You can read it here.
Have you done any mobile marketing? If so, tell us about your experience in the Comments section.
By Karen J. Bannan
You keep hearing it: people touting YouTube as the go-to marketing tool for business owners. But not everyone thinks that YouTube is as great as sliced bread. I interviewed Scott Madlener, executive vice president of Interactive for Performance Communications Group. Here's what Madlener, who suggests
www.ISATVideo.com as an alternative to YouTube, had to say.
KB: How are marketers using YouTube?
SM: Marketers from large and small companies understand the benefits of using video online. People like video, it's that simple. So the first question they ask is, "How can I get video on my web site?" It's important to break this question into two parts, video production and video distributing. We'll only discuss the distribution aspect, which is what services like YouTube provide.
YouTube primarily provides a free service for people to upload and host their videos. There also is an opportunity for marketers to pay for distributing their videos via YouTube, but most companies elect to use the free service.
KB: Why do you think this is a problem?
SM: People get blinded by the 'free' aspect and fail to understand the associated soft costs, which can turn into real expenses. Most marketers do not understand the impact of the user agreement that they sign when distributing video through YouTube or similar services. Specifically, "By submitting User Submissions to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in connection with the YouTube Website and YouTube's (and its successors' and affiliates') business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the YouTube Website (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels." --Section 6C of the YouTube User Agreement.
This means you are giving YouTube the same ownership rights to your video that you have. That might not seem like a big deal, even if you have obtained releases or buy-out rights for your talent, music, and images. But, those rights typically don't allow for transferability to another company like YouTube. So, what happens when the employee featured in your video gets fired? What happens when you use an existing training video and don't know what rights you have? Many companies don't know the answers to questions like these and therefore leave themselves open to potential liabilities.
Additionally, there are branding, quality, size, duration and other usage limitations which, long term, can prove to be expensive as well. Free services like YouTube make their money through advertising, so their players contain programming that directly displays advertising and shows a selection of other videos of similar interest after the primary video is viewed.
Typically, once a company gets a visitor to their site, the last thing they want is for that visitor to leave due to their curiosity about other videos. The other videos are usually selected by YouTube based on keyword matches to the video title. I recently watched a commercial on a known sports site that promoted their sports merchandise. The commercial had "rabbit" in the title and the selection of videos, which YouTube presented at the end, included videos about bunny rabbits as well as some inappropriate videos. Not exactly the kind of content with which a company wants to be associated.
KB: How will this model evolve?
SM: The basic model is paid subscription versus advertising-based services. Commercial video adds a new dimension and raises legal issues that are not likely to go away given the current Hollywood writer's strike, which is focused primarily on Internet royalties.
As both the Internet and online video mature, marketers will begin to understand that video can be used in conjunction with secured direct response vehicles, such as data capture and ecommerce. Marketers are likely to demand the use of 'hot spotting' within a video to promote specific featured items and then will begin to use video for daily or near real-time communications. These are features that will only be found with paid services.
By Karen J. Bannan
Every year on Black Friday my friend Lori wakes up at 4 a.m. and hits the stores. I think she's nuts, but then I value sleep more than a 50 percent off promotion. On Sunday, Lori asked me if I would send her a link to some of the Black Friday preview sites--the sites like Black Friday Ads that scan advance copies of store circulars and post them in a searchable fashion. While the average store or business owner isn't going to get their ad posted to a site such as this, there's plenty you can learn from the big box and department stores. Here are a few tips you can--and should--steal.
Create Buzz: Are the sales on Black Friday really that great? Well, in some cases they are, but I noticed that I did just as well at Target's three-day pre-Thanksgiving sale and I didn't have to wake up at an ungodly hour. Target and its competitors play on the fact that Black Friday is billed as THE shopping day of the year. You can create your own must-shop day with a little footwork and promotion. For example, do like the big guys do and created limited sales windows. Get in at 9 a.m., your ad might say, or miss out on the best prices.
Use Your Site: Companies that do the best on Black Friday don't just limit themselves to in-store deals. They allow consumers to purchase their special prices online or--even better--create Internet-only deals, which get consumers to shop online as well as in stores. Online shoppers care about Black Friday, according to a recent report from Hitwise. "Black Friday ads" searches have spiked 143 percent and traffic is up 45 percent year-over-year. They are up 954 percent since 2005, according to the study.
Invest in Pay-Per-Click Advertising. Black Friday has spawned Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after Black Friday. Outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc. estimates that Americans could spend $700 million on that Monday alone. Sure, Cyber Monday is yet another made-up marketing ploy (last year Cyber Monday was only the 12th busiest online shopping day, according to comScore) but if consumers think there are great deals to be had, many more may flock online this year. Heck, online spending is already up 17 percent year-over-year for November.
Put Coupons Out There: Many stores such as Macy's get customers into the store on Black Friday, and give them a reason to come back by printing out coupons that can only be used on future shopping trips. Macy's is giving shoppers a $10 off $25 coupon, for example. One of my favorite local toy stores, Fun Stuff Toys, sent out catalogs with a $10 off of $75 coupon. Did I use it? Heck, yes. Would I have shopped there normally? Maybe, maybe not.
While these tips may seem basic, few local retailers take advantage of them, thinking that they can't compete with the big guys. This simply isn't true. Give a potential customer a reason to shop, and they are going to shop. Black Friday or not.
What's your Black Friday strategy? Tell us more in the Comments section.
By Karen J. Bannan
An interesting press release came in this week. It was from self-proclaimed entrepreneur and international speaker Evan Carmichael. It's subject line: Top 50 Marketing Blogs to Watch in 2008. I was, of course, instantly intrigued. While the blogging community is a friendly one, I couldn't wait to compare our little marketing and advertising blog with some of the others on his list, which can be found here.
Carmichael breaks the 50 top blogs down by subcategory: Search Marketing, Online Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Small Business Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Business-to-Business, Marketing and Technology, Guerrilla Marketing, Brand Marketing, and General Marketing. After a quick glance I realized that I already read many of the blogs on the list. Maybe not every day, but at least once a week.
For example, Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Land. How freakin' awesome is this blog? It's a must-read in my book for anyone who spends their days working on search campaigns. MarketingVOX is another of my favorites. Angela Natividad really takes marketing news to the next level, with plenty of analysis and a true overview of what's going on on a given day. Since I follow a small business beat I have read four of the five blogs under this heading. Heck, I've interviewed Seth Godin and John Jantsch for stories I've written in the past. (Note to self: check out Ypulse asap. Looks like an interesting read.) My new favorite: Advertising Lab, a blog written by MIT graduate Ilya Vedrashko. It's weird. It's got lots of advertising. You've got to scroll a bunch, but the content is really unique.
All in all, it was a very interesting press release. I'm glad it skirted past my spam folder. Now I've got plenty of reading material. Do you have a favorite marketing blog that's not on this list? Tell us about it in the Comments section.
By Karen J. Bannan
Today, if a salesperson works at a large company they can go online at any time to see how close they are to their sales target and how much the sales he or she has already made are worth via software that falls into the sales incentive compensation. This type of software is great for the employee and the business. Employees have instant motivation. They can see when they have to work harder, and they can see real dollars attached to their efforts. Companies love this software, too because it helps them with revenue and expense planning. It also helps them identify and compensate their best salespeople--and get rid of those who aren't pulling their weight.
Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, until recently this software was for larger enterprise. Mostly by default. And even they weren't using it as often as they should have. The market for such software was down. That's about to change, though, according to a new report from research firm IDC. The report, called Worldwide Sales Incentive Compensation Management Applications 2007, says the compensation management market is about to break open. "As organizations' enterprise applications environments evolve and become more sophisticated, automating specific processes, such as sales incentive compensation, creates the vital link between an organization's internal processes and those of its front-office employees. This links an organization's operations with its call to action," said Mary Wardley, research vice president of CRM Applications at IDC in a statement.
This is because of several factors. Most importantly: the rise of Software-as-a-Service options, such as Salesforce.com and Xactly Corp.'s Incent Benefits integration, makes it easy for any company to get their employees on board with little fuss. Compliance is also an issue. Companies need better and more record-keeping; Excel spreadsheets just don't cut it anymore.
How are you paying your salespeople? Do you feel like they are under- or over-compensated? Tell us more in the Comments section.
by Gwen Moran
One of the great perks about being a writer and blogger is that you get to check in with some thought leaders in the areas you cover. Steve Rubel is the author of the blog Micropersuasion and a vp at Edelman's me2revolution practice. Here, he indulges my nosy side:
GM: There are social networking sites for everything from stay-at-home moms to doctors to Martha Stewart fans. How does a small business decide where the best place to spend time and money on these sites?
SR: Social networking and community is going to become a river that runs through every site. Facebook and Google's OpenSocial initiative will likely pave the way for your profile to become portable. The best thing to do is to probably align with a site that supports one of these programs. Utilize the tools they offer. In terms of sizing up sites, right now the best thing to do is to talk to people/prospects to see which sites they are using regularly.
GM: When you look into the Micropersuasion crystal ball, what is the social media scene going to look like in five years? Will it operate the same way?
SR: Hmm, I can't say I know. However, I can directionally see where things are moving. The big thing to watch is the complete blurring of lines. We like to put things into finite categories, but that's impossible today. There is no line any more between social and mainstream media. It's just as the line is blurring between PR and marketing because of the changes in digital. Every media content site utilizes blogging and social networking. So, net, I believe that social will become a feature of the web, much as email, IM, search and other functions.
GM: Is the evolution of the devices we use going to impact social media?
SR: Absolutely. However, devices will impact how we engage with media overall. It will be a lot easier to upload content from a mobile device because they will all essentially be miniature PCs. If you want to shoot and upload video wireless from a cell phone that's very tough to do today - at least in the US. So, you can imagine how as Moore's Law continues and we get more sophisticated devices in our hands, we're going to see a lot more content get put up online.
Are social networks just an add-on to the marketing plan? Or is there a way to integrate them into more traditional activities in PR, direct marketing, etc.?
Right now social networks are being viewed as an add-on and I don't believe they are being used the right way. People are taking an old model and trying to shoehorn it into an entirely new paradigm. The best way to use these sites is as platforms for collaboration. This means front-loading social networking to solicit input up front as companies build products and marketing programs.
GM: You said, in a recent blog post, "I am using Gmail for a big research project and it worked quite nicely as a database. I think a lot of people are overlooking how useful and versatile web mail is." What do you mean?
SR: Gmail runs my life. I use it as a giant tickler - a record. I have increased the storage to really push it to the max. In Gmail I have a bunch of different labels for the projects I am working on and things I want to track. As I find things on the web or in files, I email them into Gmail to a special address formatted as steverubel+[secretword]@ gmail.com. From there I have filters set up to shuttle them out of the inbox and into my archive filed under a particular label.
So, let's say I am researching to buy a dog. I would email entire articles to steverubel+dog@gmail.com and have those messages filed away under "dog" label. Now, I can pull up the label and execute searches against it - e.g. "toys label:dog" or "bites -toys label:dog." That basically turns Gmail into a database for research. Plus with IMAP, you can start to add functions that Gmail does not include in the web platform.
Thanks to Steve Rubel for sharing his thoughts with us. What do you think of Steve's ideas? Discuss in the Comments section.
By Karen J. Bannan
I'm not a mind-reader. I tell my husband this all the time. (How am I supposed to know he wanted an egg sandwich from the deli???) You probably aren't either or you'd be appearing on the NBC show Phenomenon. But I'll bet you probably act like you are. When was the last time you asked your customers and prospects about what they wanted to receive from you or what they are most interested in? If you answered more than three to six months ago, you may have a problem.
It's never been easier to send surveys via email. Most major email service providers (ESPs) provide polling functionality. All you need to do is input your questions, decide how you'd like people to respond (multiple choice, prose, or a combination of the two), and you're done. The survey can be automatically sent out to portions of your list--or the entire list.
If you don't use an ESP, you're not on your own. There are many companies out there that exist solely to help you create online surveys. Companies like SurveyMethods.com, Checkbox.com, Zoomerang, and SurveyMonkey, to name a few.
And how do you get people to click through? You'll want to send out an email that explains exactly what you're doing, and what you'll use the survey answers for. People will be more likely to respond if you're asking for the greater good--not just being nosey. Another tip: keep questions to a minimum. Nothing is more off-putting than a list of 30 questions. A good rule of thumb: people probably won't spend more than three- to five-minutes filling out a survey. Finally, provide a tasty carrot; a reward that will act as a motivator. A discount or coupon is always good. It might seem like something like and iPod would be a better choice, but the folks who fill out surveys for free iPods may not be the same people you want as customers.
There are many other tips you can follow, but the folks at market research firm GMI have been nice enough to create a downloadable white paper, which can be found here.
Do you have a survey that's worked especially well? Tell us about it in the Comments section.
By Karen J. Bannan
I don't have a BlackBerry, iPhone, or a Treo. (I do, however, have BlackBerry-iPhone-Treo envy.) However, I recently wrote a story for an upscale lifestyle magazine that temporarily deposited a Fujitsu LifeBook U810 into my grubby little hands. The U810 falls into the Ultra Mobile PC category although Fujitsu calls the unit a Mini-Notebook. PC World's contributing editor James A. Martin does a nice job explaining what UMPCs are. While I don't have the room do write a full review here I will say one thing: if I were a marketer with a little money to burn I'd rather keep my same-old cell phone and cheapo cell phone coverage and buy one of these $1,000 UMPCs.
For one thing, BlackBerry and Treo devices don't really let you keep track of your marketing campaign wherever you go. You get--at best--a truncated, text-based version of email marketing. And forget viewing banner ads or using Web-based tracking services. The Fujitsu LifeBook, however, has the tiny form factor that a mobile professional needs (it literally fits in my purse), but all the features of a real notebook. The device runs Microsoft Windows Vista and has all the tools and software you use in your office. The best part: it connects to any wireless network. You don't have to pay a fortune for connectivity like you do with the BlackBerry service.
Are there drawbacks? Sure. The keyboard is tiny, but I really liked the touch screen--especially for browsing the Web. But being able to, for example, go out on a business meeting without lugging my laptop and yet still do everything I needed to do while I was gone. Well, that was pretty cool.
How do you stay connected to the office? Are you a CrackBerry addict? Have you tried an UMPC? Tell us more in the Comments section.
By Karen J. Bannan
Online intelligence and research firm Hitwise last week announced a new Clickstream report?New and Returning Visitors. The new report, says the company, will help site owners know how much of their site traffic is from repeat buyers. This is important because people who return to your site are more likely to become customers. It's also huge because you can then look back and see where those customers originally came from and spend more on getting your company name out there on that site or network.
The release included a quote from Gary Silverstein, the senior director of online marketing and advertising for Lending Tree, the online loan site.
"We use the New and Returning Visitor report to examine our large upstream sites and we adjust our marketing messages accordingly," said Silverstein. "We are a fast-paced, test-and-learn online direct marketing company and this new report is another Hitwise tool that provides us valuable data for optimizing our marketing strategy."
The new data source is updated daily, weekly, and monthly and is available for the top 10,000 Web sites visited by Americans.
If you're a large company, chances are you know about this service and may already be signed up to use it. And if you're not? What can you do? Three words: Web site analytics. There are a ton of great programs and sites out there that will help you track your site's visitors and--most importantly--see where they are coming from and if they have been there before. Google, not surprisingly, has a free Web analytics tool that anyone can get started with relatively quickly. (There is a five million page view limit per month for the free service. You'll pay for it once your traffic exceeds that limit.) The blog OnlineStartupSolutions gives a good overview of the Google analytics product.
Do you use Web analytics already? What is the technology most usedful for? Tell us all about it in the Comments section.
by Gwen Moran
Recently, I lauded trendwatching.com as a good place to get reliable trend data. But not yesterday. In celebration of their fifth anniversary, the we're-watching-you firm published a roster of outrageous trends. Funny -- but watch and see how many of them show up in news reports. After all, Lansing is prepared for a zombie attack -- and that got picked up by one of my local radio stations as a story.
In other non-zombie news, MarketingSherpa.com has a new report out on landing pages. The report will set you back nearly $500, but the summary is free and full of good info. It makes the case for landing pages, and points out some common pitfalls that sites face, including not making landing pages as easy to navigate as the rest of the site. Landing pages are important tools that too few marketers use. First, landing pages increase conversions. The report cites the fact that nearly 80 percent of search engine results direct users to interior pages, so creating landing pages for campaigns and programs can dramatically boost your effectiveness. And that's no joke.
