Marketing Momentum

List of Public Website Stats

2006-10-16T12:47:00.000-04:00

SEOmoz compiled a list of websites providing data for public access - very useful for the marketer. The list includes:

Technical Data
Ownership/Hosting Data
Statistics/Popularity Data
Search Engine Indexing Data
Link Data
Social Tagging Data
Third-Party Trust Metrics
Important Directory & Site Listings
Press & Media Mentions

Ten Tips for Monitoring Your Company Online

2006-10-08T11:02:00.000-04:00

If you're not monitoring your company online, you should. With the rise in usage of blogs, podcasts, and social networking sites like MySpace, monitoring your company online as well as off-line is becoming more crucial than ever.

With the web, it's easy for a disgruntled customer's negative comments or an employee's insight on confidential information to spread instantaneously reaching mass groups of people. By actively monitoring, you're able to defuse those situations, just as fast as they went up by setting the record straight - online. And, while you're doing so, you may likely find supporters speaking out for your company.

Some companies have actually implemented a policy outlining what can't be said about the company on an employees personal web site.

Monitoring these sites also provides an understanding on what your customers and potential customers like about your company, it's products, and the industry, and a better understanding on what to change, what not to change, and what to innovate.

Read Pronet Advertising's post on 10 things you should be monitoring.

Filed In: Company Monitoring Blog

Apple Seeks to Restrict Use of "Podcast"

2006-10-01T10:02:00.000-04:00

Are you confused when terms like "Podcast Ready" and "myPodder" aren't associated with Apple Computer? Well Apple Computer seems to feel so and as such they've slapped Podcast Ready with a "cease and desist" letter. Although it has a trademark on "iPod," Apple has been cracking down on use of "pod" by all sorts of parties.

Podcast Ready CEO Russel Holliman is willing to consider dropping the name myPodder, but seems skeptical about dropping "Podcast Ready." If "Podcast Ready" infringement, Apple is claiming that it owns the word "podcast," which is seen as a general term for downloadable audio shows that aren't affiliated with Apple.

Seems like an aggressive move on Apple's part. But I do find confusion among people who don't understand the technology - they don't realize that you don't need an iPod to download podcasts. I just wonder how many of these "cease and desist" letters Apple's got out there.

Filed In: Apple Podcast Trademark Podcast Ready

Free Coffee

2006-09-21T20:12:00.000-04:00

Hurry up and get your free coffee courtesy of Yahoo.

As a promotional gift to its TV, radio, and movie theater blitz, Yahoo will offer coupons for a free cup of coffee at Dunkin' Donuts to anyone who sets Yahoo.com as their home page by tomorrow.

The multimillion dollar campaign is to reinforce its strong cutting edge technology with improvements like its home page makeover, an e-mail upgrade and a service that enables users to tap into their collective knowledge to find answers to tough questions.

Yahoo has been struggling to catch up with Google in the online search market, and it's also battling perceptions that startups such as MySpace.com have become hipper places to hang out.
Meanwhile, Microsoft and Time Warner's AOL are spending heavily to lure traffic away from Yahoo.

I've seen the changes at Yahoo, and I'm seriously considering making my Yahoo my primary personal email service and homepage. Right now I have a hotmail account, that I've had for years, and a My MSN homepage. Both don't seem to offer near the services that Yahoo offers.

For now, I'll at least enjoy a free cup of coffee.

Photo by ttaulli.

Categories: Yahoo Homepage Media Blitz Free Dunkin' Donuts Coffee

Gamers: More Attentive to Ads

2006-09-20T06:53:00.000-04:00

Well it looks like playing video games can be a good thing after all - at least for marketers. According to MediaPostPublications, gamers, who account for approximately 17% of the adult population, consume an above-average amount of media and tend to be well-disposed toward product placement in movies and TV.

Characteristics of the adult gamer:

Spend an average of 2 hours a week online more than the average adult.
Spend an hour more than average watching DVDs each week - many of them probably subscribing to NetFlix.
More receptive to celebrity spokespeople and product placement.
More likely to think of themselves as trendsetters.
More likely to remember the name of the last brand.

Filed In: Gamer Marketing Advertising Brand Product Placement

What's Next...Reality Commercials

2006-09-15T21:06:00.000-04:00

Well it looks like we've moved into the next phase of "what's next." You've heard of reality TV, but have you heard of reality commercials?

I just saw an TV commercial for a reality commercial, the Brawny Academy, sponsored by Brawny paper towels.

The Brawny Academy features eight men that have been sent there, by their wives, for the host, Brawny, to make them more thoughtful, helpful and romantic. The men live together, compete against one another, and even share their bad habits with one another at a burning recliner ceremony all while wearing their Brawny t-shirts.

The TV commercial refers the public to its web site. In addition to watching the eight episodes, the site also offers "Woodsy Wisdom" on such subjects like:

Staying manly
Wife appreciation
Staying positive
Hygiene
Getting along
Respecting nature
Home protection
Mental strength
Just listening
Wooing

As eye rolling the concept maybe, at least the creators made it humorous. Seriously though, I'd be real interested in learning about the success of this new initiative.

Filed In: Reality TV Commercial Brawny Academy Advertising

View an Ad, Get Free Music

2006-08-30T19:09:00.000-04:00

SpiralFrog recently announced its plans to provide an online service that allows users free ad-supported downloads of music and videos from the catalog of Universal Music--which includes Sheryl Crow, Fall Out Boy, 50 Cent, U2 and Kanye West.

Before downloading from SpiralFrog's collection, users will need to spend approximately 90 seconds per track, or two minutes per video, navigating through pages that display ads next to content. The service provides more than just music with material including concert information, artist bios and more.

Lance Ford, the company's chief sales and marketing officer, anticipates the service will especially appeal to the teens and 20-somethings that grew up with the peer-to-peer services that enabled free music downloads. As such, SprialFrog intends to pursue ads targeted to that age group. Users will need to provide basic demographic information in addition to their email address.

Perry Ellis and Benetton are two companies that have already signed up for ad space.

It will be real interesting to see how successful they'll be with this plan. Personally, I wouldn't want to be bothered with having to maneuver my way through ads just to get a free music download, but I'm not part of their target market. However, I do remember what it was like being a poor high school and college student, and in that case, I might have very well been willing to use a service like SpiralFrog - that is if I could have afforded a computer.

On another note, I never thought of Perry Ellis as appealing to teens and 20 somethings.

Filed In: SpiralFrog Advertising Perry Ellis Benetton Music Downloads

Sports Illustrated Offers Desktop Application

2006-08-22T18:33:00.000-04:00

Next week, Sports Illustrated will launch mySI. The downloadable application includes a sports news ticker, stats, standings and other features that fans can use to track their favorite teams.
Although the introductory application will only focus on pro football news and information, SI plans to add other sports, including baseball, basketball and various other college sports, next year.

SI is kicking off the new service in conjunction with it's NFL preview issue, and has lined up Comcast, Miller Lite, Nissan, and Radio Shack as sponsors of the new mySI application. Different sponsors will be featured for baseball and other sports next year.

This is not SI's first attempt at utilizing new technology. Previously, it created a special Web site for its annual swimsuit issue and made videos featuring models available via iTunes and mobile phones.

I'm not much of a sports fan, but this sounds really cool. Read the full article at MediaPost Publications.

Filed In: Sports Illustrated mySI Technology NFL Online Marketing

Ford Makes Huge Ad Buy on Blogs

2006-08-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

Ford Motor Company recently purchased ad space on 400 blogs running BlogAds ad boxes. The ads are appearing on urban-hipster sites like Gothamist, as well as environmental-themed sites like Treehugger.

The ad copy reads:
The Future of Fuel, The Future of Ford

With one of the worst fuel efficiency records of any car company, Ford is trying to "go
green." As another oiled crisis looms on the horizon, can they turn talk into action?

The ad then provides a like to "Read More."

The owner of BlogAds was so excited over the deal that he sent an email to all 400 webmasters, receiving the ad, expressing his excitement. And, just as everything is reproducible in this information age, you can read the email on Jalopnik.

I think it's pretty cool that Ford, a major company, is looking at new advertising options. They're willingness to advertise on blogs is a step in recognizing the power potential of blogs and the target audiences that use them.

On another note, I was quite surprised by their ad copy. If I hadn't known it was from Ford, I would have never guessed it. The copy appears as though a third party wrote an article about Ford. Given the news and opinion nature of blogs, I guess ad copy had to appear more news and less fluff like. I also think it's pretty bold of Ford to acknowledge themselves as having "one of the worst fuel efficiency records of any car company."

Filed In: Ford Motor Company BlogAds Blog Advertising Media Buying

Perspective on Blogging & Search Engines

2006-08-14T20:36:00.000-04:00

Recognizing that bloggers within search engines are becoming an important human voice and point of contact for the public, competitors, and SEOs, what did top three executives have to say about themselves as search engine bloggers ?

Melanie Colburn shares that information from a recent Search Engine Strategies conference. The conference provided a discussion panel with Matt Cutts from Google, Jeremy Zawodny from Yahoo!, Niall Kennedy from MSN, and Gary Price from Ask.

Key Highlights:

Keeping perspective
Company bloggers in the news
Are they PR Guys?
Syndication
Vlog & Podcasts

Filed In: Corporate Blogging Search Engine

A Doh! Moment for AOL

2006-08-10T14:21:00.000-04:00

In posting its report of 20 million search queries, AOL neglected to remove sensitive information of the 650,000 subscribers performing those queries like users' real names, social security numbers and various other personal information.

And if that wasn't enough, the report also detailed searches for specific people, addresses, telephone numbers, illegal drugs and more - making it easy for law enforcement, employers or friends to identify these people.

AOL posted the 440-meg downloadable file called "500Kusers.tgz" on its research web site, research.aol.com. After several blogs started linking to it, the company took it down.

AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein told the Associated Press, "It was an innocent enough attempt to reach out to the academic community with new research tools, but it was obviously not appropriately vetted. If it had been, it would have been stopped in an instant."

Gosh, after learning this, I don't feel so bad about my goofs.

Read the full article at TechCrunch.

Filed In: AOL Search Report Subscribers Public Relations

Moneyless Monopoly

2006-08-06T10:06:00.000-04:00

I was just reading where Hasbro is coming out with a debit card version of its famous Monopoly game. Instead of playing with the fake paper money we all associate with the game, players use debit cards and an electronic debit card reader. The role of banker is pretty much eliminated as the reader keeps track of players' cash balance.

But for those who prefer the old fashion version, don't worry, it will still be available.

Are we going a little too far with using technology for fun? After all, it's a board game that's been popular for many years without such technological devices. I suppose if Grandma and Grandpa want to play a fun game of Monopoly with the grandkids, the kids will now have to teach Grandma & Grandpa how to play.

Filed In: Monopoly Hasbro Game Kids Technology Debit Card Product Development

Podcasting & Blogging: Two Top Marketing Tools

2006-07-31T20:04:00.000-04:00

Podcasting and blogging have been sited by technology marketing executives as being two of the most effective tools for generating sales leads in the technology industry.

Podcasting News reports the information from Marketing Sherpa's annual survey of business technology marketing executives, which consisted of approximately 1,900 respondents.

Top 5 Tools For Generating Sales Leads

Free Trials - 54% of software marketers ranked free trials very effective.
Webcast - At 41% webcasts were another favorite for software marketers, but technology services and related hardware firms also ranked webinars at 33% and 31% respectively.
White paper - All business technology marketers rated white papers fairly evenly at 31-36% 'very effective.'
Blog - 35% of software and ASP marketers rated their blog as very effective, as did 33% of technology services firms. Unfortunately only 19% of hardware companies felt that a corporate blog was effective. This may be a result of general business executives being more likely to read a blog, while IT staffers may not.
Podcast - Barely a new marketing concept last year, but by June 2006, 22% of software marketers who'd given a podcast called them 'very effective'. Seems IT professionals may be more likely to be in an early adopter community for this activity.

Filed In: Podcasting Blogging Sales Leads Technology Software Businesses Marketing

Webinar on Corporate Blogging

2006-07-26T19:01:00.000-04:00

I participated in Porter Novelli and Cymfony's webinar on Corporate Blog Learnings yesterday. The session focused on findings from a survey they conducted with their clients.

Key Highlights

Writing & Frequency of Posts

CEO's and Marketing tend to be the authors. There's little to no use of ghost writers.
Sixty-six percent stated they post once a day or several times a week.
Posts should focus more on the industry and issues and less on the company's products. A blog is not another place to post press releases.

Oversight

Fifty-seven percent reported they do not have blogging guidelines, but of those that do most were larger companies.
Ninety-six percent stated their posts do not go through legal review.
Over 70% indicated they have received an increase in media attention.

Monitoring

There are more companies (92%) monitoring blogs than have blogs.
Ninety-one percent monitor blogs once a day or several times a week.
Companies are monitoring blogs for developing trends, competitive insight, tracking posts on their company, and consumer understanding.
Monitoring tends to be a more manual process with using search engines.

Best Practices

Be professional.
Provide similar access to information as you would with other members of the media.

General Findings

Strong majority believe blogs will become more important in 2008.
Most companies created their blog to better communicate with customers.
Two major reasons for companies not blogging: resources and management buy-in. Creating a blog is not very costly in terms of infrastructure, but is very costly in terms of time because to have a successful blog, posting must be done frequently. Blogs may be thought of as breeding grounds for disgruntled customers, which may happen, but it's part of a conversation and not the focus of the blog. When/if that does occur, companies have an opportunity to address the issue, and it's likely that supports will participate in the conversation.

On a personal note, this was my first webinar and the experience was pretty cool. It provided good information, lasted for only an hour, conducted at an ideal time (during lunch), free, and involved two presenters making the presentation more conversational than dictating. Plus, it was a very creative tactic to promote both companies.

Filed In: Corporate Blog Posts Frequency Writers Authors Monitoring Legal Webinar

College Students Prefer iPod Over Beer?

2006-07-21T15:15:00.000-04:00

Who would have thought that the iPod would be more popular than beer among college students?

According to 360View's recent podcast interview with Rob Walch of Podcast411, Walch stated that a study was done among college students on their preferred activities and the iPod outranked beer.

The podcast provides a lot of other good pieces of information including:

What is a podcast vs. an audio file - it needs to have a RSS feed to be a podcast
Growth trends - approx. 5 million listeners
Uses of podcasting - self promotion
Dedication - time and money involved

Filed In: College Students Beer iPod Podcast

The Power of Business Blogging

2006-07-21T15:05:00.000-04:00

What do you do when your company's reputation is attacked by a major newspaper? You set the record straight through your blog. That's just what GM did when New York Times columnist, James Friedman, described the major automotive manufacturer as a "crack dealer" feeding Americans' addictions to SUVs and accused it of being "more dangerous to America's future" than any other company.

According to BtoB, GM's responses totaled more than 2,800 words - more than three times the length of the original Friedman column and 14 times the space GM says the Times offered for a rebuttal. By utilizing it's Fastlane blog, the company has generated more buzz and awareness for its fuel-economy efforts than it ever would have created in print, and has done so with reaching targeted audiences.

As a result, hundreds of people have posted comments on GM's corporate blog, and BlogPulse and Technorati count approximately 100 posts from bloggers on their own sites.

GM's case should be a wake-up call to businesses that are not taking advantage of the blogosphere. Blogging and social networking are experiencing tremendous growth and, as demonstrated in the case of GM, provide much word of mouth power.

Filed In: GM Blog New York Times PR Marketing Technorati BlogPulse

Wal-Mart Launches Social Networking

2006-07-18T20:52:00.000-04:00

In an attempt at winning over teens for the apparel dollars they spend at Target, Wal-Mart has created a social networking site for teens - The Hub. Over the last year, Wal-Mart has been receiving increasingly bad feedback from teen girls, in contrast to Target, on its lack of cleanliness, messy layout and lack of stylish attire.

Ad Age compares the quasi-social-networking site as Wal-Mart's MySpace for teens. It's a place where teens can "express their individuality" by creating their own page for all to see and a chance to win prizes including their video appearing in a Wal-Mart TV commercial.

However, the site tells parents their kids have joined, forbids users to e-mail one another, and screens all content. Wal-Mart's policy on eliminating any video with "materials that are profane, disruptive, unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially or ethnically-motivated, or otherwise objectionable" is why "pending approval" notes dominate pages already created and limits content to a headline, a fashion quiz and a favorite song.

Seems much more restraining than the MySpace dominator, but what do you expect from a retail company that's looking to avoid any possibility of a lawsuit or image tarnishing. I think Tim Stock's, a researcher with New York-based Scenario DNA, assessment is a valid one.

"The second you try to create boundaries and draw a line around content and put a box around content, it becomes something else. Teens aren't searching for what a company deems relevant, but what they deem relevant. You can't own it. When anyone tries to own it too much, then it becomes a problem. That's the impression I get on this site."

Filed In: Wal-Mart Social Networking MySpace Teens

Magazine Uses Mobile Marketing Toward College Women

2006-07-11T09:19:00.000-04:00

In a recent post, Media & The Millennials, I described Mediaweek's findings on the tremendous amount of electronic media time this generation uses. Well, it looks like magazines and their advertisers, targeting this segment, are realizing it as well.

According to GenDigital, Lucky Magazine, the 12th most read magazine by college women, will be integrating call-to-action mobile elements in its upcoming September issue. Maxim magazine, the #2 mag among college men, ran a similar program about a month a half ago.

Lucky's "Live Buy It, " uses PayPal's Mobile Text2Buy to offer readers products from 18 marketers and retailers. Readers text their specific purchases using their mobile phone.

Filed In: Lucky Magazine Millennials Pay Pal Mobile Media Text Messaging Advertising

Free Press Release Distribution

2006-07-06T22:04:00.000-04:00

If you're looking for additional exposure for your press releases for no additional cost, Public Relations India identifies 10 free press release distribution sites. These service providers distribute press releases to news search engines, journalists and other websites.

The blog does offer a note of caution. It recommends that you study the sites and checkout a couple press releases that they have distributed and discuss the services with colleagues and clients before using the services - good idea.

The 10 free press release distribution sites include:
PR Free
Press Zoom
Press Base
Express Press Release Distribution
Press World
Open PR
Free Press Release
Free News Release
I Newswire
Newswire Today

Filed In: Public Relations Press Release Media Free Distribution PR

Digg for Marketers: Marktd

2006-07-04T08:37:00.000-04:00

I stumbled on to this cool web site: marktd. It's similar to Digg, in that articles are submitted and voted on by the viewers/readers. With marktd, submitted articles focusing on marketing issues.

Filed In: marktd Digg Marketing

Corporate Blogging to Grow

2006-06-27T20:31:00.000-04:00

Looks like corporate blogging is expected to grow. Given the recent trends in blogging sites, I'm not surprised.

Jupiterresearch's "Corporate Weblogs: Deployment, Promotion, and Measurement" report finds that 35% of large companies plan to initiate corporate blogs this year. That will make for nearly 70% of large companies operating a corporate blog when combined with the existing 34% already maintaining a blog.

Jupiterresearch also reports that only 32% of marketing executives said they use corporate blogs to generate word-of-mouth around their company's products or services - an underutilized activity given the nature of the blogosphere.

For more details you can purchase the report and a 30 minute discussion with the analyst from Jupiterresearch, but thankfully MediaBuyerPlanner provides a free synopsis.

Filed In: Jupiterresearch MediaBuyPlanner Corporate Blog Word of Mouth

Media & The Millennials

2006-06-23T13:08:00.000-04:00

I first read brandUNITY's post, which then motivated me to read the actual article from Mediaweek regarding the Millennial Generation's (ages 9-28) impact on media businesses over the next 10 years.

At 79 million, one million larger than the Baby Boomer Generation, the Millennials have grown up using multiple media platforms at the same time consuming 20 hours of media a day all within 7 hours of clock time.

Much of this group gets its information from word-of-mouth especially as social networking sites become increasingly popular. According to Brent Magrid, president & CEO of Frank M. Magrid, 18 million 13-28 year-olds use social networking sites each day.

However, promotional messages from TV stations and networks still remain as important method, but crafting messages for this group need to be more cutting edge than traditional.

With their need to multi-task using multiple media platforms, marketing to Millennials further enforces the importance for integrated advertising campaigns.

On another note, with the Millennial Generation being larger than the Baby Boomer Generation I wonder what the state of certain government (i.e. Social security, Medicare, & Medicaid) and private health care services will be like as this group grows older? We're already seeing a growth in demand for health care services and retirement communities as Baby Boomers retire. Yet, those same services will likely suffer as the Baby Bust Generation retires and the Baby Boomers naturally move on only to have the need increase again with the Millennials. I suppose everything is cyclical.

Filed In: Millennial Baby Boomer Marketing Word of Mouth Advertising Campaign Messages Health Care Retire

More Tools for Search Advertisers

2006-06-22T13:27:00.000-04:00

According to MediaPost Publications, Microsoft is launching a Web site, Adlab.microsoft.com, that provides search advertisers with more services to manage their online campaigns. The site is a joint effort between MSN's adCenter and Microsoft's Research, which monitors all of MSN's properties with ad sales.

Specifically, Microsoft is offering:

A variety of analytics for strategizing keyword buys.
Keyword categorization engine
Data on 10,000 keywords with that number growing to 10 million in the next several months.

Just goes to show that as the demand for online advertising continues to grow, the process continues to become more refined.

Filed In: Microsoft MSN AdLab Keyword Search Advertising

Newspapers Competing with Blogs?

2006-06-04T09:42:00.000-04:00

Although newspapers have the largest overall audience, blogs are quickly making an impact. Forrester Research found that blogs and newspaper web sites have the same audience share, about 17 percent, among Internet users between the ages of 18 and 24.

Given this latest trend, CNET reports that newspapers are seeking opportunities to get involved in the blogosphere.

The Associated Press recently signed a cross-marketing deal with Technorati, a search-engine for blog postings. Technorati will scan for blogs that include links to AP stories, and the search will then create a web page where it will display the blogs in addition to original AP stories.
BlogBurst, a blog syndication service, provides newspapers with the ability to publish to any of its more than 1,500 blogs.
The American Statesman, newspaper in Austin, TX, offers tools for people to create their own blogs, which can be posted on the newspaper's web site.

However, being a news agency and getting involved in the blogosphere comes with its share of challenges.

The Washington Post had to deal with plagiarism issues when it hired a former Bush administration aide to write a blog.
The Los Angeles Times recently announced it was discontinuing the column and Internet blog of a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, because he posted comments on his blog and other online sites under assumed names - a violation of the Times' policy.
Boring content - managing editor of the Dallas Observer, says that too often newspaper blogs are filled with leftovers from stories too long to fit in the paper that day.

For more information on newspaper readership view Newspaper Circulation Down.

Filed In: Newspaper Blog Burst Blogosphere Associated Press Washington Post Los Angeles Times Technorati

Understanding Web Site Performance

2006-05-29T13:06:00.000-04:00

Internet Retailer's article, What Your Web Site Can Tell You, provides 10 important points to watch when measuring your site's effectiveness.

Study Site Search Results and Non-Results
Optimize the Home Sweet Home Page
Know What Works on Landing Pages
Use the Shopping Cart for More than Just Checkout
Look at the Look-to-Book Ratio
Understand How Shoppers View Cookies
Know Affiliate and Search Engine Marketing ROI
Use Analytics to Make E-mail Marketing More Effective
Manage Customer Category Movement
Find Out Why Shoppers Are Not Checking Out

I found this to be a good source of information. It definitely gave a lot to think about.

Filed In: Internet Web Site Search Shopping Cart Cookies Marketing ROI Email

RSS Marketing Tips

2006-05-26T13:42:00.000-04:00

Bill Flitter of iMedia Connection offers 5 marketing tips for using RSS.

Identify feed characteristics
Not all feed readers are the same. Some offer only headlines while others offer full content. To effectively market to consumers, you need to know how content is being presented. Once you understand the distribution method and how consumers receive your feed, you're better prepared to implement marketing strategies using RSS.

Tell a story. Don't sell a product.
RSS consumers prefer engaging content, and want to learn about the specific topics discussed in their chosen RSS feeds. Ads need to tell a story and present interesting facts or quotes from recent news about the your product's benefits. Or, end your ad copy with an intriguing question that you answer on your website.

Keep the creative fresh and new
The recommended standard is to change your creative for every six new posts in the feed. Having the same ads appear in too many feeds will hurt clickthrough rates.

Build a relationship with the potential customer
RSS advertising offers an opportunity to build relationships with the RSS readers. As a result of it's opt-in nature, consumers review their feed subscriptions on a regular basis giving advertisers the ability to communicate with them on a deep, consistent level while eliminating spamming. Companies and advertisers can really speak to the interests of their readers and know that many in their target audience will attentively read their content.

Choose and define your audience wisely
RSS is still in its growth stage and as a result consumers are typically small, well-informed early adopters. In RSS, hitting targeted audiences is crucial, and doing so should provide high clickthrough rates and conversion rates required to deliver a great return on your RSS investment.

Filed In: RSS Marketing Tips Target Audience Content Advertising, Copy Clickthroughs

Arbitron Recognizes Growth for On-Demand

2006-05-21T16:23:00.000-04:00

Arbitron's "Internet and Multimedia 2006: On-Demand Media Explodes," found that 51 million Americans have a "heavy preference" for on-demand consumption versus 27 million a year ago. The report reveals a tremendous increase in the number of Americans, age 12 and older, who engage in multiple On-Demand services including watching Video On Demand (VOD), listening to online radio, and/or own one or more On-Demand media devices such as a portable digital audio and video player (e.g. iPod®) or a digital video recorder (e.g. TiVo®).

Key Highlights:

Eighteen percent of Americans own or use a digital video recorder.
People are watching TV through nontraditional ways like buying or renting TV series on DVD (27%) or Video On Demand (23%), streamed TV programming over the Internet (10%), downloaded episodes from sites like iTunes (5%), and TV clips on a cell phone (4%).
Ownership of MP3 players has grown from 14% in 2005 to 22% in 2006 with 12 to 17 year-olds contributing to most of the ownership growth from 27% last year to 42% this year.
Fifty-eight percent of those who have Internet access at home use either a cable or DSL modem, compared to 38% who use a dial-up service.
Nineteen percent of Americans have viewed Internet video in the last month and 12% have watched Internet video in the last week.
Given a choice between never using the Internet or never watching TV, 4 in 10 would choose to keep the Internet and eliminate television.
Twenty-one percent of Americans age 12 and older listened to Internet radio in the past month.

Although I don't watch Internet video nor use a DVR, I can definitely see myself in Arbitron's findings.

I recently switched from dial-up to broadband access via cable modem to sign up with Vonage, download podcasts, and go wireless. I've switched from listening to free radio and CD's to listening to music over the internet, my iPod and Sirius Satellite Radio. I'm still at TV fan, but if I had to make the choice between Internet or TV, I'd probably choose the Internet because it can do so much more than a TV.

One area the study didn't cover and wish it had, is satellite radio. I know subscriptions are growing, at least with Sirius, and I think it's got lots potential for future growth.

Filed In: Arbitron On-Demand MP3 Internet TV Radio

Newspaper Circulation Down

2006-05-09T12:26:00.000-04:00

In recent article, MediaPostPublications reported that the Newspaper Association of America found more than one in three web users visit a newspaper site on a monthly basis.

Where that maybe encouraging, the down side of that is of the 770 newspapers measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulation's bi-annual FAS-FAX report, daily circulation fell 2.5 percent, while Sunday circulation at 610 newspapers fell 3.1 percent. The strength in online traffic might not be enough to make up for the continuing drop in paid circulation.

Ken Doctor, an analyst with Outsell, Inc., a research firm focused on the news and information industries stated a few interesting points worth noting.

"Ad revenue is really generated by demonstrating an ability to touch readers. They (newspapers) know they need to be achieving reach and duration. Users don't come often enough, and when they come, they don't stay long enough."

"News aggregators like Yahoo News appear to fare better than online newspapers when it comes to keeping visitors on their sites. Overall, aggregators' news time is substantially ahead of individual news sites, and the growth in their readership is quicker."

Seriously, is this a surprise?

Filed In: Newspaper Association of America Circulation Online Visit

Blog Network for Marketers

2006-05-07T18:39:00.000-04:00

Federated Media recently launched an ad platform designed to give marketers access to its network of highly literate and well-trafficked blogs (i.e. BoingBoing, Digg, GigaOm, TechCrunch, Techdirt and 45 others). The platform offers a do-it-yourself planning tool that allows companies, especially small ones, to plan, create and execute ad campaigns across Federated's blogs.

In his interview, John Battelle of Federated tells Advertising Age...

"Every advertiser is going to have two or three blogs they want to be on because they or the agency reads them, but what if you wanted to do what media planners do and campaign across significant reach? In blogs, you'd have to negotiate deals with 50 different sites. With the friction of that system, I found that advertisers aren't going to do it. And there's a new media model emerging: Publishers don't have to own content, which is what everyone in traditional media does. In this model, we don't hire authors, authors hire us. As a publisher, we're providing a service and a partnership but we're not telling them what to write. "

Sounds kind of cool!

Filed In: Federated Media Advertising Age Marketers Blogs BoingBoing Digg GigaOm TechCrunch Techdirt

Best Practices for Mobile Marketing

2006-05-03T20:22:00.000-04:00

Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has developed the Consumer Best Practices Guidelines to ensure that as the mobile content market develops, consumers not only have a positive mobile experience but they are treated fairly.

The report covers:

General Conduct
Advertising & Promotion
Opt-In
Help
Out-Out
Subscriptions
Chat
Examples
Glossary

This is a good reference guide if you're thinking about and are currently implementing mobile marketing.

Filed In: Mobile Marketing Association Best Practices

Don't Hype-Up The Subject Line

2006-05-02T19:18:00.000-04:00

Turns out emails with boring subject lines out perform subject lines with over-hyped sales language.

According to Anne Holland, of MarketingSherpa, after analyzing 40 million emails the top 20 performers, with open rates of 60%-87%, appeared as though the copy had not been written by a marketer. The subject lines typically included the company or brand name and mentioned "newsletter," "news" or "update." The subject lines of the best performing emails included:

Eye on "Company Name" Update
"Company Name" Newsletter
Invitation from "Company Name"
"Company Name" News Bulletin!

The 20 worst perfoming emails, with open rates of 1%-14%, appeared as though marketers had written the copy because they included the most hype with subject lines like:

Last Minute Gift - We Have the Answer
Valentine's Day Salon & Spa Specials!
"Company Name" Pioneers in XYZ Technology
You Asked for More...

I kind of take offense that marketers can't be boring. I can be boring. And, I think some of my internal customers would agree. I've even had a few voice their opinions that my headlines aren't "flashy" enough, and a more flashier headline would make a night and day difference in the success of their marketing activity. The next time that happens, I'll have to remember to tell them about this post and one of my previous posts - Too Much Hype.

As a consumer, I'm very sensative to hype. I don't want to deal with it nor do I have time for it. Just give me the facts spare me the fluff. I consider myself to be part of the growing trend of educated consumers who consult various resources and look at marketing materials with a skeptic eye. Similiar to these findings, marketing materials and messages that spare me of the hype have a better chance at getting my attention and holding more credibility.

Filed In: Email Subject Line Hype Marketing Message

Marketers Overlook Search Engines

2006-04-26T19:20:00.000-04:00

With search engine research now being a daily routine for consumer shopping, many marketers have yet to adjust their advertising strategies to address this new reality. RISMedia highlights the importance of search engine advertising and what to consider when integrating search advertising in marketing campaigns.

Key Highlights:

Forty-one percent of web users find brands through search rather than typing a URL into a browser.
One of the key drivers of search is TV.
Laptops share the couch as consumers watch TV with 66.2% of consumers regularly watching TV and using Internet simultaneously.
Burger King and Pontiac are good examples of integrating TV advertising with search. When it's Super Bowl commercial ran, Burger King purchased keywords/phrases like"Burger King", "Whopper", "Whopperette" and "Super Bowl Commercial". Pontiac's commercial stated, "Don't take our word for it, Google 'Pontiac' to find out!"
With companies having the ability to bid higher on their competitors keywords and potentially woo away customers, Yahoo is starting to restrict purchases of trademark names only to their owners.
Marketers should purchase a lot of different words, test them and determine what words work best. It's not always necessary to buy the top position, rather number 2, 3, 4, or 5 may be better because those positions perform well for the cost.
Purchase keywords that take the length of the buying cycle into account. Buyers start searching using generic terms. As they come closer to purchase, their search narrows to brand names, specific products and locations.

I can definitely relate to this article for two reasons: I'm part of the 66.2% who sits on the couch watching TV while searching on the Internet (my husband thinks I'm a junkie), and I'm also like many marketers who don't include search in marketing plans. As much as I follow the consumer pattern, I failed to recognize it from a marketing perspective. I suppose I thought of my behavior as more of a personal trait than being part of a trend.

Even though this article has provided me with a good understanding, I'm not sure if I could include search in my promotional plans. I work for a college and we don't have large marketing budgets for each program. Sadly though, I was searching for a specific program earlier today and by page three I still couldn't find our program, but I did find the same program at a college approximately an hour away from us.

What's in a Logo?

2006-04-23T20:00:00.000-04:00

It's important that a logo be unique, attention grabbing, memorable and understandable at any size. Vigor's blog provides five categories for logo development in it's Is Your Logo A "No Go?" post.

The five categories include:

Readability - whether tiny or huge, a logo needs to be readable and recognizable
Originality - your logo should look different and be uniquely yours
Color and Fonts - they should relate to your target market
Relevancy - the composition needs to be relevant to your industry
Complexity - keep it simple yet strong

For companies with 5 or more years in business, the post recommends a total identity update as those businesses are more established in their industry. Whereas, companies in business for less than 5 years can get away with a just a logo redesign to enhance their image and brand strategy.

Whitepaper on Communication Strategies for the Blogosphere

2006-04-22T12:20:00.000-04:00

In its Communication Strategies for the Blogosphere: a perspective on integrating blogging into a strategic public relations program, Brandchannel.com provides good information for companies looking to understand the effects the blogosphere has on industries and companies.

Key highlights:

Responding to blogs: having your say after the fact
Blog outreach: actively pursuing bloggers
Becoming your own blogger: getting in on the action

Filed In: Brandchannel.com Communication Strategies Blogosphere Public Relations Blog Bloggers

Brand Searches Lead to Other Web Sites

2006-04-18T20:26:00.000-04:00

DMNews reports people who search for a company's brand name don't always go to the brand's web site, and instead visit the web sites of its competitors, affiliates or price-comparison sites because those sites rank the highest in results. This and more details were obtained from Hitwise's Search Brand Management Report.

The report tracked 30 leading online brands in the travel, retail and business and finance categories in February. Where 85% of the searches resulted in consumers visiting the brand owner's web site, it lost 15% in potential sales from searchers going to other sites.

Marketers now need to be even more savvy about buying keywords on their brand names as consumer search engine usage increases in searching for brands. Hitwise found 75 of the top 100 search terms across all categories, in February, contained brand names - an increase of 17% from February 2005.

I'm not too familiar with search engine marketing, but after reading this I'm beginning to think I need to be.

Filed In: DMNews Hitwise Marketers Brand Search Engine Keywords

Blogging, Social Networking, and Local Information Sites Growing Strong

2006-04-07T16:02:00.000-04:00

According to Washington Post Staff Writer, Leslie Walker, sites focused on social networking, blogging and local information are growing tremendously. Her article, New Trends in Online Traffic, highlights findings from ComScore Media Metrix, which examined visitor growth rates among the 50 top Web sites over the past year.

Key highlights:

Top-ranked sites growing with the most visitors from Feb. 05 to Feb. 06 include Blogger.com (528%), MySpace.com (318%), Wikipedia (275%), and Citysearch (185%).
The number of people posting or reading material on Blogger jumped to 15.6 million last month from 2.5 million a year ago.
Although Yahoo has the largest US audience, its visitor growth slowed to almost 5 percent last year.
Google's user rate rose to 21 percent in the past year largely as a result of expanding its market share for Web search and attracting new users with new services such as e-mail, mapping and personal publishing. Combined traffic, from all the properties it owns including Blogger.com, Google's total audience jumped 27 percent last year.
MySpace experienced the most recent dramatic growth with pulling 37 million visitors last month, 28 million more than a year ago. Based on total pages viewed and the time spent by each visitor, MySpace ranked No. 2 on the entire Internet, behind Yahoo.

Gary Arlen's, a research analyst and president of Arlen Communications Inc, statement-"The growth in blogging reminds us the Internet is fulfilling its original promise about participation. This medium empowers users in such a way that they can do what they want and be heard"- confirms the huge marketing potential for businesses to reach and interact with customers and potential customers.

Filed In: Blogger MySpace Citysearch Wikipedia Google Yahoo Visitor Growth Rate Marketing

Corporate Branding in Sports Going Too Far?

2006-04-04T22:47:00.000-04:00

We've all seen the impact of corporate advertising in sports - large stadium advertisements to corporate sky boxes to corporate named stadiums.

Here in Baltimore, the Ravens play at M&T Stadium. Previously, it was PSI.net Stadium, but when the company was suffering it could no longer afford the stadium sponsorship. Although Baltimorians had fun toying with possible corporate sponsors, like "Rent-A-Wreck Stadium" and "M/T (empty) Stadium - a.k.a. M&T Stadium," considerations for naming a stadium are much different than the days of Memorial Stadium - a football/baseball stadium that was dedicated to honor the dead of World Wars I & II.

Now I've just read where Red Bull is the owner of a Major League Soccer franchise in New York, and has named the team the New York Red Bulls. I have to wonder if Red Bull ever decides to sell the team to another company, will the New York Red Bulls change their name because the new owner/company doesn't want to advertise the former?

Personally, I think commercialism has gone too far when stadiums, and most certainly teams, are being named after companies. Going from a mentality of dedicating a stadium to those who lost their lives in World Wars I & II to intentionally seeking to name a stadium after a company that's willing to pay the most, is just sad.

Professionally, as a marketer, renaming a team is like renaming a brand. It's extreamly challenging because of issues like consumer loyalty and perception. I would imagine it would be even more difficult as team fans express such loyalty that it becomes a cultural way of life.

Filed In: Corporate Sponsorship Memorial Stadium M&T Baltimore Rebranding Advertising New York Red Bull

Association of National Advertisers Launches Blog

2006-03-30T17:55:00.000-05:00

The Association of National Advertisers (ANA) recently launched it's new blog, ANA Marketing Maestros.

Wow, this must be the month for advertising associations to launch blogs. Like everyone else who is blogging, they see the opportunity and don't want to be left out.

Filed In: Association National Advertisers Marketing Blog

AdCouncil Starts Blog

2006-03-26T08:43:00.000-05:00

The AdCouncil, the same folks who brought you Smokey the Bear, started a blog - Adlibbing.

"We've started this blog to broaden the reach of our public service campaigns and give you new insight into how we raise awareness for critical social issues. And, we hope that you'll join us in taking our public service campaigns to the next level -- discussion. We'll update the blog periodically, focusing on new and existing campaigns that the Ad Council produced. You'll find our thoughts behind the campaign, relevant links for action, and we'll also follow the discussions that the world is having in response to our PSAs. So, check back often for updates (you can even subscribe to our RSS feed), and help us start meaningful dialogue on these critical social issues."

Filed In: AdCouncil Advertising Blog

Google Selling Ad Space in Magazines?

2006-03-25T08:31:00.000-05:00

According to BusinessWeek, Google auctioned off ad space it purchased in about two dozen magazines, including Martha Stewart Living and Road & Track, but the results were disappointing.

The auction was open to thousands of advertisers, but Google had to extend the auction to lure more bidders. Nicholas Longo, CEO of CoffeeCup Software, which makes tools for creating web sites, only paid $4,000 for each of his three half-page ads in Martha Stewart Living, which typically costs more than $59,000 for one half-page ad.

Barry Schnitt, Google spokesman, acknowledged low demand for its print auction, but stated Google did little to market the opportunity to its network of several hundred thousand advertisers. Its primary goal was to test the auction process for print ads.

This is not the first time, Google has experimented with selling print ads. Late last year, it conducted its first trial by purchasing and reselling ad space in a handful of magazines. Although Google raved about its success, a BusinessWeek analysis found that 8 of 10 participating advertisers were disappointed with the results and probably wouldn't buy print ads through Google again.

Google executives are seeking to expand Google's online advertising with radio, print, and television ads. In an attempt to further that effort in January 2006, Google acquired dMarc Broadcasting, which facilitates the sale of radio advertising.

Seems that Google's breaking a basic marketing principle - create a niche and stick to it. Target marketing tells us you can't be all things to all people. By branching into print advertising, and deviating from what the Google entity is known for, it's no wonder the results were disappointing. Google's target market of advertisers perceive Google as an online provider of ad space, and it's hard for them to make the jump in considering Google for anything but an online advertising provider.

Brand perception is everything. If Google really wants to make a concerted effort in expanding it advertising efforts, it needs to do so under a different brand name, with a different brand image, niche, and target audience. Changing consumer perception on your brand image is very difficult, and if not done properly, your customers will become confused and leave.

Filed In: Google Print Online Advertising BusinessWeek Target Market Brand Name Image Niche Perception

Tips for Becoming a Heavily Quoted Source

2006-03-21T21:47:00.000-05:00

PR Newswire offers Six Simple Steps for Turning Your Company into a Heavily Quoted Source.

According to Dan Forbush, president and founder of ProfNet, a lot of media pickup isn't always driven by stellar press releases. "There are two essential approaches to media placement. One is to persuade reporters that your organization has news worth reporting - this approach is deliberate and release driven. The other is to persuade reporters that there are individuals within your organization who - because of their industry perspective or some form of expertise - are worth interviewing. This approach is opportunistic and pitch driven."

Forbush's tips include:

Play reporter. Understand the readers you must satisfy - topics of interest, unique story angles, and sources of expertise.
Become a matchmaker. Identify individuals within your organization or clientele who can satisfy the reporting needs and any presentations that would be persuasive.
Identify ideas for the masses vs. tailored pitches. Tailor an idea for a single reporter by taking their interests into consideration.
Adopt a long-term perspective. Craft your pitch in a way that if it's not picked up, you can be confident your next pitch will be read. You want to position yourself as a reliable source.
Perform an Expert Audit. Identify colleagues or clients and who can talk effectively about specific topics.
Develop platforms for spokespeople. Profile your spokespeople and other expert resources on your website. Send a media advisory alerting reporters on the availability of your spokesperson on hot topic issues.

Filed In:PR Newswire Spokesperson Reporter Pitch Stories

How Damaging is Word of Mouth?

2006-03-19T11:42:00.000-05:00

If you've ever wondered just how damaging negative word of mouth is, the Verde Group and Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania recently released it's Customer Dissatisfaction Study. The study provides lots of good data and quantifies the importance of good customer service.

Key highlights:

More than 50% of Americans reported that a negative shopping experience of a friend or colleague deters them from shopping at a particular retailer.
As shopping problems are repeated, they often get embellished and become up to five times more damaging to customer retention than the initial negative shopping experience.
For every 100 American shoppers, 64 will be told about a store's poor products or services and no matter what that store does to entice shoppers -sales, promotions, advertising, marketing - they will not shop at that store.
Dissatisfied shoppers are five times more likely to tell a friend about their experience than contact the company.
Top problems include timeliness, merchandising, and front line staff.
The bigger the store, the more likely poor customer service.
Department stores and mass merchandisers have more customer service problems related to time and accessibility.

Filed In: Customer Service Wharton Retail Shopping

E-mails Become More Targeted

2006-03-18T18:43:00.000-05:00

eMarketer recently reported that e-mail marketing messages work so long as you research your target audiences' needs and interests, and that more receivers of e-mail marketing messages are reporting that those messages are relevant to their preferences.

Aren't marketers suppose to identify its target audiences' characteristics with any marketing initiative whether it be print or electronic? With spam blockers and the growing trend towards permission based marketing, understanding your target audience is proving to be more crucial in communicating with them electronically.

Filed In: E-mail Target Market Messages

College Acceptance Podcast

2006-03-16T22:09:00.000-05:00

Fitchburg State College is doing away with acceptance letters in favor of podcasts. The Wired Campus recently reported more than 1,000 accepted students will receive an e-mail directing them to iTunes for Robert V. Antonucci's, the college's president, podcast.

A year ago, I was at a University Continuing Education Association conference where the keynote speaker said if you're not utilizing communication technologies that your students use, then you're not providing their preferred option of communication and likewise, eliminating their communication with you.

With the college's move toward podcasting, Fitchburg State College is making the statement that it understands how its students prefer to communicate. But, Wet Feet PR raises a good question of what communication is given to those who do not get accepted.

At the college where I work, Frederick Community College, we surveyed students on how they preferred to receive communication for their first semester, and surprisingly they overwhelmingly chose snail mail over electronic communication. Go figure?!

Filed In: Podcast, Communication, Students, College

Build an Opt-In E-Mail List with Message Boards

2006-03-12T16:43:00.000-05:00

With spamblockers, e-mail postage, and other technologies supporting permission based marketing, developing an opt-in list is becoming more and more necessary.

Connie Casparie recommends using popular message boards to build an opt-in list, and where I think that's great idea, I'm a bit skeptical on her suggestion for offering prizes. Seems to me that people opt-in because they truly have an interest, and the free prize isn't as much of an enticer as it is a bonus.

I agree that people like freebies, but rather than using them to grow relationships use them to strengthen relationships.

Categories: Opt-In, E-mail, Message, Boards, Prizes, Freebies, Spamblocker, Postage, Permission, Based, Marketing

Hilton Develops Microsites for Specific Audiences

2006-03-09T19:50:00.000-05:00

According to ClikZ, Hilton is trying to increase its online booking and is attempting to do so by launching dozens of microsites designed for specific target audiences - government and military travelers, wedding planners, and U.S. Olympics sports organizations just to name a few.

Online bookings, which cost the company less and enables it to implement CRM initiatives with customers, grew 30 percent from 2004 to 2005, and are fast approaching $2 billion in revenues.
Bala Subramanian, senior VP of distribution and brand integration for Hilton Hotels, stated "Anything that people book online costs a third of what it costs if they call us, and it costs one tenth of what it costs if they come through an intermediary."

Plus, online booking makes it possible for a hotel guest to enter Hilton's CRM system well before check-in, so it could potentially offer revenue producing services like a pre-ordered dinner for someone who will be checking in late.

It's another pioneering move in online target marketing. Not to sound too critical, but after seeing Hilton's busy homepage, I can see why they may need microsites.

Filed In: Hilton, Target, Marketing, Microsites,

Tips for Getting Comments

2006-03-07T20:51:00.000-05:00

A recent Conversations with Experts podcast interviewed Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion. In addition to asking him about the future of blogging and corporate blogs the hosts also got his insight on getting comments.

A couple of interesting points to note:

1. People may feel uncomfortable about commenting because they're concerned about security and don't want to publish personal information on the web (i.e. email addresses).

2. If you're looking for comments, ask questions.

To follow his advice, do you know of any measures being taken where readers can comment anonymously without using email addresses, as well as any other security measures for posting comments?

Filed In: Comments Micro Persuasion Conversations with Experts Steve Rubel Blogging Corporate Blogs Security

Goals for Your Blog

2006-03-04T14:14:00.000-05:00

If you're blogging than you must obviously have a reason for it. But there real question is, do you have a well thought out plan for your blog especially if your blogging for business?

Blogs and Connections: Process and Goal Setting provides good insight on developing your blog for the purpose you intend.

Key highlights:

Identify what your blog is expected to achieve in the way of goals.
Develop an action plan for writing timely and informative posts, the number of posts written per week, finding new and interesting content ideas, building a readership audience through increased visitor traffic, and developing interaction and connections with the readers, other bloggers, current and potential customers and clients, and the internet population as a whole.
To create a successful blog and develop long term connections and relationships, your blog must have predetermined goals that are flexible to change.

I initially created my blog to get into podcasting. I have an iPod and I enjoy listening to podcasts, so I thought it would be fun to get into podcasting. Although, that's still a goal I hope to achieve, my blog currently provides me with a means staying up-to-date on marketing issues and sharing that information and my thoughts with others; utilizing technology that will, one day, totally change the way I, as a marketer, communicate with target audiences; and, unexpectedly, a course to propose to local colleges.

The action plan is probably the most difficult. I initially thought I would post everyday and after a week or two, reality set in. With work, volunteer activities, and trying to find sometime for a social life with family and friends, I don't have the time to post everyday. Plus, looking for news, that interests me, isn't always easy. So, now my action plan for posting is down to two - three times a week.

Filed In: Blog, Goals, Action, Plan, Content, Posting, Podcasting, Marketing

Bloggoggle

2006-02-26T18:18:00.000-05:00

If you're blog is more professional than personal, there's another great way to promote yourself and your blog - Bloggoggle.

Bloggoggle is a customized directory of blogging professionals aimed at building and sharing networks of industry expertise. Categorized and rated by peers, the site tells readers who you are and where to find your industry insights.

Filed In: Bloggoggle, Blog, Industry, Profession, Promotion

Corporate Blogging Survey 2005

2006-02-23T20:10:00.000-05:00

Backbonemedia.com offers it's Corporate Blogging Survey 2005, which focuses on why a company would want to start blogging, who should blog, what make a blog successful, and how a company can use blogging to positively impact its business.

The study finds that corporate blogs provide established corporations and obscure brands the ability to connect with their audiences on a personal level, build trust, collect valuable feedback and foster strengthened relationships while and at the same time benefiting sales and marketing.

I particularly enjoyed reading about companies who are blogging including Annie's Homegrown, IBM, iUpload, Macromedia, Maytag and Microsoft.

Filed In: Blog, Corporate, Blogging, Survey, Sales, Marketing, Customer, Relationships, IBM, Microsoft, Macromedia, Maytag, iUpload, Annie's, Homegrown,

The Internet's Impact on PR

2006-02-19T07:54:00.000-05:00

Like everything else, the internet is changing the way press releases are published. David Scott's e-book, The New Rules of PR, suggests a new rule of self publishing as replacing the old rule of writing a release and hoping it gets picked up by the media.

There's lot of good content in this e-book including:

Content strategy
Publishing through a distribution service
Publishing on your website with RSS feeds
Optimizing your press release for searching and browsing
Links in your press release
Keywords and phases
Using gobbledygook or, as I like to refer to it, hype - Review Too Much Hype on creating markeing messages for customers.
Providing content that drives action
Driving people into the sales process with press releases
The new news cycle - web based communication proving to be highly effective
Media pick-up

Filed In: PR, e-Book, Press, Releases, RSS, Links, Keywords, David, Scott

Guides to Using RSS & Email for Marketing

2006-02-15T19:25:00.000-05:00

I'm always interested in "how to guides" and I found a few at MarketingStudies.net that I thought I'd share.

The 7-Step Marketing Plan

Start using RSS as an end-user
Plan your RSS feeds
Create a list of RSS marketing/publishing requirements
Choose an RSS publishing tool and create your first feed - mentions using SimpleFeed. For more details on an interview with SimpleFeed's CEO, Mark Clarson, refer to Marketing with RSS.
Promote your RSS feeds through your own channels
Promote your RSS feeds through external channels
Other key RSS activities

RSS and E-mail #1: How They Can Work Together?

Understand the relationships between RSS, e-mail, e-zines and blogs
Identify how to integrate RSS into your e-mail marketing strategy

RSS and E-mail #2: Delivering Your E-zines via RSS

Announcing your e-zine via RSS
The process: e-mail e-zines
The process: RSS content delivery
The process: RSS e-zine delivery
The technology

Filed In: RSS, E-mail, E-zines

Email Postage: AOL & Yahoo

2006-02-12T07:46:00.000-05:00

With AOL and Yahoo! partnering with Goodmail, and recently announcing its a per-message fee for commercial e-mail senders to gain certain privileges, it's no surprise that AOL had received much backlash from email senders and other stakeholders on phasing out it's Enhanced Whitelist.

AOL's CertifiedEmail service would require emailers to pay for the automatic display of images and hyperlinks - privileges that had previously been available for free to senders who earned placement on AOL's Enhanced Whitelist for good sending behavior, and who maintained very low complaint rates.

Matt Blumber, Return Path's CEO told ClickZ, "It seems unfair to mailers who have permission relationships with their recipients, have maintained low complaint rates, and have earned their way onto a whitelist. The big issue is the lack of an unpaid way to get those privileges. If Goodmail is a better solution, the market will decide, but the senders who already do everything right shouldn't be punished."

Instead of phasing out the Enhanced Whitelist in favor of the new CertifiedEmail, AOL will offer both, but it has yet to publicly state how much the per-message fee will be other than a fraction of a cent per e-mail and that discounts will be offered to early-adopters in the first year.

This is just another step in the movement towards permission based marketing and supports the importance of seeking out-in communication like RSS.

Filed In: Goodmail, AOL, Yahoo!, Email, Postage, Enhance, Whitelist, CertifiedEmail, ClickZ, RSS, Permission, Based, Marketing

Tracking Your Comments with coComment

2006-02-10T20:48:00.000-05:00

One of the necessary actions in promoting your blog is commenting on other blogs, but leaving so many comments or even just a few -for the forgetful like myself - can be difficult to remember. coComment is a web application that keeps track of all the comments you leave across blogosphere.

You add a bookmarklet to your browser, and whenever you make comments on another blog, you'll do so using the bookmarklet. The service focuses on three main areas:

Capture
In "Your Conversations," you'll find a centralized list of all the comments you've made on other blogs with a link back to the original blog where you made the comment. Additionally, you'll find all comments posted by other coComment members which are related to your original comment - creating a flowing conversation.

Share
Use "Blogbox," a display a window on your blog, that displays a miniaturized version of "Your Conversations." You don't have to go to coComment's web page to view your conversations, and it brings the value of your comments on other's blogs back to your blog. Lastly, it allows readers of your blog to see your comments, conversations and topics of interest from within your blog.

Alert
The comment stream generated by your conversations are available to you not only in your blog box, but also as an RSS feed, so you can track your conversations on your favorite RSS reader.

Sounds like a great idea. Is anyone using this, and if so do you like it?

Filed In: coComment, Tracking, Comments, Blogs, Promoting, RSS

State of the Blogosphere

2006-02-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

The blogosphere continues to grow at a quickening pace, according to David Sifry of Technorati. The site currently tracks 27.2 million weblogs with that number continuing to double about every 5 1/2 months.

New blog development continues to grow with Technorati tracking over 75 million new weblogs each day, and 13.7 million bloggers still posting 3 months after their blogs are created.

Beyond just the blogosphere is in a tremendous growth phase, the report also highlights:

Dealing with spam
A news cycle measured in megahertz
The continued rise of tagging
Tags for blogs

Too Much Hype

2006-02-03T07:48:00.000-05:00

Michael McLaughlin, author of the Guerilla Marketing blog, provides good information on what does and doesn't work in ads in his Words Are Worth a Thousand Pictures post.

Key items worth noting:

"I don’t doubt that people fail to read most of the advertising copy they come across, but that’s because of the hype that’s part of most ad copy, not people’s lack of time to read."
Your clients are interested in reading about your services, but you must grab their attention. What’s new about your offering? What’s your story? Is there news?
What’s most important is that the fluff be ruthlessly eliminated from your ad copy, web page or other marketing communication.
Ten different studies have shown that when the bull is stripped from ads, consumer interest skyrockets.

This just goes to show that as consumers become more savvy, they're less tolerant of hyped up marketing messages. Looking at ad copy with the perspective of what’s new, what's the story and is there news reminds me a lot of pitching a news story to the media, and they too aren't isn't interested in the hype.

Filed In: Guerilla, Marketing, Advertising, Copy, Writing, Graphics,

Ice Cream Company Provides Financial Advice?

2006-02-01T13:33:00.000-05:00

John Nardini, executive vice president of marketing at Wayland-based Denali Flavors Inc. (the company that sells the Moose Tracks ice cream), is blogging, not about ice cream, but finance. By offering financial advise, this company has seen a 30 percent spike in visitors to its company web site.

Not sure what ice cream has to do with financial advice, and I'm not sure how comfortable I'd feel about using an ice cream company as a financial resource, but it seems to be working for them.

However, one has to ask the more important question, how many of those visits have translated into sales?

On a more personal note, stories like this scare me. I have a Masters in Marketing from Johns Hopkins University, and I'm left wondering if everything that I learned about target marketing has been a waste.

Filed In: Ice, Cream, Blog, Finance, Sales, Websites, Visitors, Target, Market

Perspective: Blogging's Impact on Advertising

2006-01-28T21:22:00.000-05:00

Rob Hyndman's expresses some interesting thoughts in his "The Democratization of Advertising" post.

He wonders if the blogosphere will change target marketing - I think it will, but not to the degree he describes. I don't expect it to be a quick change as blogging is still a new technology that's not widely, or as widely, used as websites. I know more folks who don't know what a blog is, let alone conduct a search on them, than those that do.

I don't ever see advertising going away. There will always be bloggers and podcasters who are willing to sell ad space. They're already doing it.

The blogosphere actually provides an opportunity to companies as they develop their own blogs - like GM. There will still be people who are brand loyal and wanting to subscribe to their favorite brand's blog.

Some organizations are hiring marketing/PR professionals just for the purpose of monitoring what's being said about the company via the internet, comment on blogs, and maintain the company's blog. I remember reading, some months ago - before I blogged, where Target hired a professional to monitor statements on the company via the internet.

If marketers need information on bloggers, podcasters, RSS subscribers and whatever else, I have faith in future entrepreneurs to provide solutions. Just review Marketing with RSS and learn what SimpleFeed has and is planning to offer.

Marketers are going to have to become more savvy in how they reach target markets as consumers customize the media they receive with blogs, podcasts, customized home pages and various others resources. We may need a better understanding of our target market's psychographics and not rely so heavily on demographics.

Filed In: Advertising, Marketing, Target, Markets, Consumers, Brand, Loyalty, Blogs, Podcasts, RSS, Subscribers, Psychographics, Demographics, Customized, Media, SiteFeed, GM, Target, Comments, Monitoring, Internet, Technology

Home Depots Offers New Experience in Online Shopping

2006-01-25T22:37:00.000-05:00

"Our mission is to become the world's largest online home improvement retailer," remarked Home Depot Direct President Harvey F. Seegers.

According to DMNews, Home Depots recently announced it plans to double its online business each year for the next five years with technological advances including:

Expertise on demand with videos - soon to be sold on a subscription basis
Virtual product demonstration that provides real-time configuration of products being viewed
Remote diagnostics so customers can set or unset home security systems, turn on indoor or outdoor lights, even turn off the sprinkler system from HomeDepot.com
Handling shopping and transactions in 20 languages

Marketing with RSS

2006-01-21T17:42:00.000-05:00

Is RSS changing the way marketers reach target audiences? It appears so.

RSS allows every visitor to subscribe and receive updates on items that interest them. For marketing professionals, that means providing information to potential customers without knowing a thing about them including what it is about your business that interests them - a definite change in target marketing based on consumer research.

As Greg Sterling posted on MarketingShift, "Eventually RSS will be entirely mainstream, driven by consumer usage of newsreaders and other personalization tools (e.g., Firefox, MyYahoo, MyMSN). Content providers and marketers will need a simple way to adopt RSS distribution to connect with those users. Indeed, for marketers, the potential and promise of RSS is the elusive goal of one-to-one marketing."

MarketingShift's interview with Marc Clarson, CEO of SimpleFeed, provides good insight on the complexities of implementing RSS feeds for marketing and information on the company for those looking to outsource.

Two key points to note:

There is a need for personalization (multiple feeds) and it's hard to do. Too many can be overwhelming to viewers and an in house staff.
Marketers still want information on subscribers making seamless integration of RSS with client databases and distinct information on users and content interests desirable.

I can honestly say I recently proposed an RSS feed to my employer and it's something our IT department is investigating.

Filed In: RSS, SimpleFeed, MarketingShift, Marketing, Subscribers, Personalization, FireFox, MyYahoo, MyMSN, Target, Audiences, Customers, Consumer, Research

Crazy ShutterFly.com Ad

2006-01-16T22:29:00.000-05:00

I was recently listening to the Dec. 22nd podcast of the PodCast Radio Show, and heard a totally off the wall shocking commercial for ShutterFly.com. It goes a little something like this...

Mothers, do you have an ugly baby?
Does your baby stop traffic?
Does your baby put the health of elderly people at risk?
Does the bus driver tell you "You can't bring that monkey on board" saying "I don't care if you've gone to the trouble of dressing him up in a onesy."

If you've answered yes to any of these questions, you got the rarest of creatures - The Ugly Baby, which leads to a difficult decision: should you be taking photos of your ugly baby? The answer is yes! After all, it's better than coming face to face with the real thing.

So for that one in a million ugly baby, or the merely beautiful ones there's ShutterFly.com where it's easy to get film quality prints from your digital camera. Just go online to ShutterFly.com and have beautiful prints delivered right to your door. You can hold them in your hands an marvel at the miracle of that precious monkey, ugh child.

I totally couldn't believe what I was hearing. I guess with podcasts you can get away with a lot more, because I just can't imagine hearing this on free radio and it being successful and not offending the masses. However, after the first time I heard it I remembered the name, told a coworker about the ad, and visited ShutterFly's website.

Filed In: ShutterFly.com, Advertising, Website, Podcast, Baby, Photos

Goggle Continues to Expand Brand Advertising

2006-01-14T07:38:00.000-05:00

According to Brandweek , Google recently signed a deal to take a five percent stake in AOL, which will sell search and display ads in Google's AdWords system, permitting AOL to sell search ads on its own site and package brand and search campaigns to advertisers.

Google's already began allowing its advertisers to choose specific sites in its network to place graphical advertising, and now, AOL's sales force, experienced in dealing with brand advertisers, will also sell such ads.

AOL hopes to direct more users to its free web portal from the partnership. AOL's content will likely gain more prominent placement on Google Video, a search engine that catalogs Web video.

Filed In: Google, AOL, Advertising, AdWords, Search, Engine, Sales, Web, Video

Sprite & Bud Light Advertise on iPods

2006-01-10T14:52:00.000-05:00

The interest in advertising on iPods just keeps growing. Sprite and Bud Light are offering entertainment shorts for folks to watch on their iPod. Sprite provides a series of comedy videos entitled Marcus hates his job, and Bud Light offers the psuedo-documentary about Ted Ferguson, Daredevil.

Does this cross the fine line between entertainment and advertising? Perhaps, but that's what makes the most memorable ads memorable.

Monitoring the Competition with Your iPod

2006-01-03T19:17:00.000-05:00

Podcasts aren’t just for listening pleasure, rather the more savvy sales and marketing professional uses them for a competitive edge. With there currently being 6,000 podcasts and 6 million subscribers and growing (according to PodBlazes White Papers), podcasts provides another outlet in staying on top of what your competitors are doing.

Many large companies, like GM, already have blogs and some are starting to launch into podcasting. Granted many podcasts are more home-grown efforts and range from every topic imaginable – just take a look at PodCast Alley. However, many cover the latest in business news. So, if your main competition isn’t podcasting, you may still be able to monitor their actions from a business news podcast.

Christopher Carfi provides important points to note when using podcasts for monitoring your competition.

Filed In: Podcast, Monitoring, Competition, White, Papers, GM, Blog, PodcastAlley, Business, News

Predictions for Technology & Advertising

2005-12-29T16:10:00.000-05:00

With the start of each new year, strategic planning often follows. For marketers who have to plan for the year(s) to come, Eric Picard’s predictions in using technology for advertising may be of some help.

Predictions include:

Free WiFi networks
TV content over the internet
Filtering technologies for advertising
Radical technological changes

Amazon Introduces Blogs for Authors

2005-12-28T21:44:00.000-05:00

As a means of increasing traffic and sales, Amazon.com recently introduced a new service that allows authors to blog on its site. According to Kevin Newcomb’s article, the service provides authors with an opportunity to market new books while readers are driven to visit Amazon.com as they seek to visit their favorite authors’ blogs.

Unfortunately, readers are unable to post comments and subscribe to RSS feeds – the componets that make blogs interactive and successful. Hopefully, as Amazon.com continues to provide the service, it will continue developing the program to provide a more interactive forum for readers and authors while enhancing customer service at the same time.

E-mail Newsletter Can Help Build Your Brand

2005-12-14T20:15:00.000-05:00

Review this White Paper on increasing customer retention with email newsletters. The paper focuses on providing value through relevant content and staying in front of the customer.

Search Engine Advertising Highlight of Ad:Tech Conference

2005-12-13T18:29:00.000-05:00

According to Jupiter Research, search advertising will grow at a compound annual rate of 12% over the next five years while display or banner advertising only grows at a compound annual rate of only 7%.

Kate Maddox’s article, for B to B, focuses on tracking search driven calls with iProspect’s SearchTalk and SearchForce’s Search Marketing Management Platform. The article also covers various other products including:

ClickFraudIndex – provides reporting click activity and pricing
IMN (iMakeNews) – allows marketers to preproduce podcasts into their newsletters
Feedster Media Network – provides RSS feed publishers to participate in Feedster’s ad network to generate revenue through RSS feeds
InFocus – assists marketers in identifying audiences through behavioral, local contextual and demographic targeting

Are Online Donations Outperforming Offline?

2005-12-08T07:59:00.000-05:00

According to this White Paper, a recent study shows that online contributions are 30% more than offline with Andrew Mosawi’s article reporting the average offline contribution, in the United Sates, at $89.25 and the average online contribution at $116.65.

The paper covers strategy for online contributions and the tools to reach contributors.

E-mail Marketing Statistics

2005-12-05T20:26:00.000-05:00

Now marketers can benchmark their performance with the recent launch of Bronto Software’s online resource for e-mail marketing statistics. It provides weekly updates for several industries including:

Advertising/Marketing
E-Commerce/Retail
Education
Financial Services
Government
Health Care/Insurance
Legal Services
Manufacturing/Distribution
Non-Profit/Association
Publishing/Media
Real Estate
Services/Consulting
Technology
Travel/Hospitality

Be sure to read their quarterly industry statistics report for more details on their research.

Permission-Based Ad Technology for TiVo

2005-12-05T20:19:00.000-05:00

TiVo; in cojunction with Interpublic Media, OMD, Starcom Mediavest Group, The Richards Group, and Comcast Spotlight; will be adding ad search capabilities for its digital video recorders (DVRs) this spring. The new technology allows viewers to opt-in and search for ads by keyword or product categories, as well as create a customized profile for the ads they want to receive.

Not only should this come as a relief to advertisers who were concerned about DVR users skipping commercials, but it provides a new opportunity to for them to reach target audiences in a much more focused and direct manner.

TiVo has been working to develop solutions to make ads more appealing to viewers and advertisers like testing a program to show mini-ads while viewers fast-forward past full commercials and launching an interactive direct response advertising program where viewers are asked to respond to a customized call to action or branded "tag" in select commercial spots.

TiVo’s new search technology is just another example of the trend toward permission-based marketing.

Movie Clips Available to iPods

2005-11-29T20:44:00.000-05:00

Disney is making good use of video podcasting with it’s “Chronicles of Narnia” movie. You can now download the film’s promotional video to your video iPod. Once you have installed the Narnia channel, it automatically checks for the movie’s updates.

Disney makes the film's trailers, clips, behind-the-scenes segments, interviews, and other film content available – all as a part of its online promotion strategy. And if that wasn’t enough, they’re offering interactive options like send to a friend, check for movie times and purchase tickets.

Jack Pan, vice-president of marketing at Disney's Buena Vista Pictures Marketing, told ClickZ News that "moviegoers are increasingly elusive to reach. We want to be able to deliver our content to them to view on the device they want to view it on, in the highest theatrical quality."

With the trend towards customization, reaching target audiences is becoming more of a fine art where marketers are having to become increasingly savvy and adopt methods outside of traditional norm – as Disney and the film industry are now noticing.

Click-to-Call Ads

2005-11-28T20:55:00.000-05:00

If you haven’t already, you may notice a phone icon next to the ads appearing in Google’s search engine pages. Google is making it easier for you to contact advertisers by testing it’s click-to-call feature.

The service is free to users. All you have to do is click on the phone icon, enter your phone number and click “Connect for Free”. It’s Click-to-Call FAQ provides more details.

Not sure if this costs the advertisers, but with Click-to-Call and AdSense, their ads are likely to gain more visability while providing the consumer with access choices.

Advertiser Gains More Visibility by Enticing Bloggers

2005-11-27T22:38:00.000-05:00

With Google AdSense, bloggers can now make money by displaying relevant Google ads on their blog’s content pages. It’s pay-per-click and pay-per-impression advertising, pay bloggers for valid clicks on the ads mentioned on their blog.

It should come as no surprise that blogger.com, Google’s free blog service, make’s it easy for their bloggers to incorporate AdSense into their blogs. Smart move on Google’s part – capitalize on offering a free blog service by getting it’s users to post Google ads on their blogs.

And, because the posted ads are closely related to the blog’s content, Google’s ads are getting more visibility that’s targeted.

White Paper Offers Information on Podcasting & Marketing

2005-11-27T18:20:00.000-05:00

A good resource for those who are new to podcasting is Podblaze.com's Podcast White Paper. It reveals the potential marketing value of podcasting and how to leverage this new media technology for maximum benefit. The White Paper includes:

Podcasting Defined
The History of this New Media
Who is Listening
Market Overview
Marketing Benefits
Podcasting Trends
Podcasting Visibility
How To Create Podcasts
Podcasting Best Practices
Corporate Podcasting
Technical Overview
Podcasting Examples
Podcasting Tools
Podcasting Resources
Summary

Sponsorships Make Their Mark on Podcasts

2005-11-27T14:56:00.000-05:00

Podcasts like The Cubical Escape Pod announces commercials and sponsorships on their podcasts. For advertisers, podcasts will provide a huge target marketing opportunity as more people customize how they receive their news.

More interestingly though, as we are accustomed to listening to audio announcers (i.e. radio) with advertising sales departments, most home grown podcasts demonstrates that the announcer is the show and advertising sales rep.