In the high stakes, winner take all game of internet marketing, if you’re not on the first page of Google, it’s game over.
These marketers go to great lengths, using all types of tools to put themselves in that coveted first position. It’s worth about 40% of the clicks from the prospective searchers.
Let’s assume you have a brick and mortar business. Can you imagine if 40% of the traffic driving past your store were to stop and come in. What would that mean to your business?
You want your prospective customers to find you, right? Why not take the time and resources to ensure that they can do so. Managing your Web site’s effectiveness is an excellent objective if you want to boost your marketing ROI.
Search engine optimization is certainly the first step. But there are many more legitimate tools you can and should use to get your site on Google’s first page. Google makes it easy to follow their guidelines.
Even if you are in a crowded space like weight loss or eye skin care or lasik surgery, you can separate yourself from the competition and make it easy for your prospective customers to find you.
In his new book, Tribes. We Need You to Lead Us, Seth Godin makes the point that traditional barriers to leading a movement … a market … a “tribe” have been erased because of the Internet. Geography, cost, time are all non-factors because of the Internet’s capacity to connect us with a few or vast amount of people who have a similar passion, point of view or just something in common.
But, the Internet cannot provide leadership, that is still up to us as individuals. (more…)
I ran across an interesting article in Internet Retailer that highlighted how traditional retailers are using online video to boost ROI in their stores. They cited Wet Seal, a clothing chain that targets young female shoppers.
They used YouTube to post a video about a new contest and then asked young women to make their own videos, post them back to YouTube for the chance to win a back-to-school fashion makeover. Here’s the video they posted.
The article pointed out that the contest is a good example of how a retailer can leverage online videos, social networks and community sections of their web sites—combining the volume of traffic on a site like YouTube with the strength of a retailer’s own brand and customer base on its own web site.
Here’s the number I love … Wet Seal reported that the video traffic has helped them encourage visitors to generate more than 100,000 custom outfits on WetSeal.com since the retailer launched its Boutique and Runway outfit-creating sections in April. Visitors to these sections convert to buyers at TWICE the rate of shoppers who don’t visit them.
A little creative thinking about how to leverage a combination of delivery channels can go a long way toward driving better ROI. And it strengthens the connection between the brand and the customer.
This is not a partisan post, but rather an observation on what we can learn about gathering data and then leveraging it to produce maximum ROI. The Obama campaign recognizes the power of data, and uses it to build their brand, involve supporters in a dynamic experience and create a highly intelligence-based approach to understanding their supporters.
Here is the first page that comes up when you go to Obama’s Web site. Pretty simple, yet a well crafted data-collection tool. It’s a good illustration of how to develop an personal conversation with your target.
There was an informative article on cnn.com today from Leslie Sanchez entitled, “Obama’s high-tech edge in presidential politics.” A self-identifed Republican, Sanchez was director of the Bush White House Initiative on Hispanic Education from 2001 to 2003 and is the author of “Los Republicanos: Why Hispanics and Republicans Need Each Other.” She is not a paid consultant to any current candidate. Sanchez is CEO of the Impacto Group, which specializes in market research about women and Hispanics for its corporate and nonprofit clients. It’s a good read and offers further insight into how the Obama campaign is taking data and using it in ways here-to-fore not used in political campaigning.
As marketers search for strategies to improve their overall ROI, I think there’s a lesson to be learned here. Take a few minutes and see if you can identify all of the opportunities the Obama campaign gives visitors to share information … just like the hidden pictures in Highlight’s Magazine. That dates me.
I get excited when I see what’s happening with the evolution of social media marketing. The biggest challenge remains how to monetize it and measure the marketing ROI. Procter & Gamble is taking a big step forward in that effort.
Brand Week reported that the Cincinnati-based giant is launching a campaign targeting You Tube fans asking them to submit videos giving their tag line ideas for the new Wintergreen Ice toothpaste.
It’s a brilliant example of the new age of advertising … where digital marketing and social media are allowing the consumer to drive the content as opposed to the advertisers.
And this will allow P&G to measure ROI on many levels. And that’s what excites me.
Think of ways you can apply this example to your business. What would you ask your customers to do?
E-mail is the most widely used channel in all of direct marketing according to the Direct Marketing Association. Among its many benefits, e-mail is excellent for creating a personalized conversation with prospects and customers. And its proven that lift occurs when you can develop a one-on-one relationship.
However, there are influencing issues with e-mail that should be considered. Because of ISP spam and phising blocking efforts, a percentage of mail may not find it’s way to the intended reciepient, or some functionality like embedded video may not play.
I read a recent article on clickZ.com about the online ticket broker StubHub’s effort to minimize such incidences. They practice what we advise clients to do … maintain an on-going dialog with your customers. StubHub found that distribution of their monthly e-newsletter was being blocked by AOL about 25% of the time.
They decided to test an e-mail campaign (I love companies that understand the value of testing) a certified e-mail solution from Goodmail against their normal distribution technology. The results were dramatic.
Open rates lifted 26% and ticket order lift was 17%. According to the article, once it implemented certified e-mail more widely, StubHub also enjoyed a 36 percent increase in sales that could be directly attributed to its use of Certified e-mail.
Talk about boosting your marketing ROI!
Note: If you want to learn more about certified e-mail, here is a link that you may find helpful.
A recent study through the Pew Internet & American Life Project revealed that six out of 10 adults viewing video online prefer that those videos are produced professionally . If you are thinking about using online video to bolster your marketing efforts, this is something you’ll want to consider to ensure that you maximize your return on investment.
57% of online adults use the internet to watch or download video, according to the study. And of those, 19% report doing so daily. There is no doubt that marketers see this as a viable component of a multi-channel marketing platform.
eMarketer reports that 80% of all internet users will watch at least one video in 2008. If you’re counting, that’s 52% of all Americans, or 154 million people.
News-centered content is the most watched. Think about how you can leverage that preference to benefit your business-to-business efforts. Both customers and prospects are actively seeking reliable content sources. If you can become one of them, offering professionally produced online video that delivers timely information about your industry, products and services, your relevance to your targets is increased.
Even though most of us wince when we fill-up our gas tanks these days, there are those who are benefiting from escalating fuel costs. No, I’m not talking about the oil producers, (more…)
I just read a very informative article on Internet Retailer’s IR NewsLink regarding a demonstrated return from social marketing. It’s not the percentages of buyers that impressed me, but rather the strategy used to engage customers in an interactive experience resulting in actual sales. Here’s the article in full. (more…)
It’s no secret that marketing as we knew it is no longer. Traditional strategies, ideas and formulas have an increasingly marginal role. One-to-one communication and peer sharing is transforming the success equation.
I came across an interesting video from Brian Fetherstonhaugh, Chairman & Global CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide. He makes the point that the pillars of marketing since the 60’s: Product, Place, Price and Promotion are being replaced. Instead of the four “P’s, he sees them as the four “E’s”
Before you watch the video, write down what you think are the four “E’s” and compare answers.
