New Marketing Tools in 2010
By marketingsavant.com
To say that much has changed in 18 months is a bit of an understatement.
The effectiveness of the tools that we’ve used for decades has been called into question on the past few years.
Marketing technology goes well beyond and before the advent of social media. Surely, some of the tools we discuss are social media tools. However, and more importantly, they are the state-of-the art vehicles that today’s marketers need to understand to grow their bottom line and keep pace with the ever-advancing customer base and marketplace.
10 Questions Marketers Want Answered About Digital & Social Media
1. What are the best practices and tactics to use?
2. How do I measure the effectiveness of social media?
3. Where do I start?
4. How do I manage the social balance?
5. What are the best sites and tools out there?
6. How do I make the most of my available time?
7. How do I find and focus my efforts on my target audience?
8. How do I convert my social media marketing efforts into tangible results?
9. How do I cohesively tie different social media efforts together?
10. Does social media marketing work, and if so, how effective is it?
What Is Buzz Monitoring?
Marketers are known for talking, not listening. Sure, we lis¬tened, but if advertising history is telling of anything it tells us that marketers love to produce “stuff” that they hope consumers will like. Social media listening and buzz moni¬toring flips that mind-set; it’s a phrase used in online pub¬lic relations and social media marketing to track relevant conversations on the Internet. It provides great opportunity to learn at a grassroots level what people really think about your brand, products or services in the statusphere, the collection of all the online conversation in social networking areas such as Facebook, Twitter and others.
By monitoring the online conversation happening in blogs, forums, social networks and other social media channels, businesses can bring the voices of their customers directly into their marketing departments and cut down on the need for expensive market research tools such as focus groups and phone surveys. In fairness to the market and marketing researchers worldwide, social media listening will never fully replace a scientifically developed panel, customer advisory board or survey that gives us statistically significant and valid data on which to base our marketing decisions.
How Do Marketers Find Out Who’s Talking and What Do They Measure?
There are different parts of the conversation - enterprise, mainstream media, and consumer generated content. Unless you’re monitoring the buzz, you won’t know what’s there. In every social media moni¬toring program, there are a few fairly obvious things that every marketer should track. If you need more reasons to track social media, think of the new product ideas, keyword research for SEO, warnings of possible scandals and customer reactions that you’ll be able to amass.
In addition, there are three key metrics involved in what is referred to as “Online Reputation Manage¬ment”:
1. Share of voice. This is a measurement of how much and to what degree people are talking about you.
2. Tone of voice, a.k.a. “Sentiment analysis.” This is a measurement of whether the conversation is largely positive or negative. If the sentiment is positive, reward those who speak well of you. If the tone is largely negative, you need to take action to get to the root of the problem IF one really exists. If it’s based in misinformation, you’ll need to engage the critics and correct their misunderstanding.
3. Trends over time. It’s important to monitor the above metrics over time to see the effects of your advertising, marketing and public relations efforts.
Best Practices for Monitoring the Conversation
Getting started monitoring the online conversation can be pretty straightforward, but there are a few guidelines that can help you get a jump start.
1. Look for evangelists and help the spread the good word
2. Engage with ‘middle ground’ consumers to influence them.
3. Look for “incidental detractors” and engage with them to fix problems.
4. Seek out and minimize “determined detractors” - the people who just can’t seem to be happy.
Monitoring Steps
1. Conversation discovery – Use brand monitor¬ing services, keyword watch lists and alerts or, at a minimum, at least doing persistent searches?
2. Conversation aggregation – How are you gathering your data? Options include Google Reader or MyYahoo.
3. Conversation escalation – The decision to move from passive to active participation in online conversations.
4. Conversation participation – Determining how to participate. It could be via emails, comments, posts, tweets, etc. OR you can participate more indirectly through social bookmarks, tagging, etc.
5. Conversation tracking – There are many op¬tions, from customer relationship manage¬ment software to review of email strings.
Next month Microblogging that’s growing fast, make sure your in the know.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Driving Sales with Pay Per click
Driving Sales with Pay Per click
By networksolutions, LLC 2009
In tough economic times, customers are holding back and buying less. They are pickier about what to buy. On average, shoppers spend a month doing research online before making a purchase. This makes online search even more important to marketers.
Research shows that search engine marketing (SEM), including Pay Per Click (PPC), is expected to grow and reach $26 billion by 2013.
In the Internet world, 81% of all users start at a search engine to find what they are looking for. “Customers are going to search engines because they are looking for better deals”, says David Hallerman. “And marketers are going to search engines because that’s where the customers are.”
Since the majority of the online public turns to the search engines first, marketing on search networks such as Google® and Yahoo!® should be a critical component of your online marketing strategy. And the fastest way to break into search engine marketing is through Pay Per Click advertising.
Online marketing analysts agree that a successful Pay Per Click campaign can generate a conversion rate of 1.5% to 3%. For online retailers, Pay Per Click is particularly effective, with a conversion rate sometimes reaching 5% or higher. Pay Per Click advertisers continue to report the highest return on investment compared to other forms of online marketing:
What Is Pay Per Click?
Pay Per Click advertising builds on the popularity of search engines to bring your message to consumers at exactly the time they are looking for you. Most Internet users are familiar with PPC ads – i.e., sponsored links – which appear to the top and right of natural search results. These ads are displayed when the user types a keyword into the search engine that matches the keyword chosen for your search engine marketing campaign as relevant to your business.
An advertiser only pays for an ad when a visitor clicks on it and is taken to the advertiser’s Website. PPC campaign managers bid on keywords with the amount they are comfortable paying per click and the search engine uses that bid, along with a number of other factors, to determine ad placement and how often the ad will be shown.
PPC is relevant advertising. Unlike other forms of traditional and online advertising, only consumers that are already searching for your products will see your ads. This leads to a friendlier user experience for shoppers, less wasted ad costs for you, and a higher conversion rate for your ad campaigns all around. In addition, Pay Per Click lets you to create ads that are targeted to a specific geographic area where your customers are located.
In 2001, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) reported that online advertisers were spending an average of 4% of their marketing budgets on PPC advertising. In 2007, that number jumped to 48%. The PPC industry is booming and with search engine usage rising rapidly year over year that trend is likely to go up.
It Is More Than Just Clicks
Pay Per Click advertising can mean more than visitor traffic to your Website. It can be a source of relevant customer leads that are created when visitors to your Website are encouraged to take action such as making a phone call or filling out an inquiry form. There are a number of actions that potential customers can take online or even offline. Your campaign manager will be able to recommend lead types that will benefit your business the most.
Phone calls – Customers clicking on your search engine ad can be directed to a page on your Website that prominently features a unique phone number. Customers will call this number to inquire or buy your products and services. Your PPC service should be able to track all phone calls and even record them so that you can listen to the conversations at your convenience. Phone call tracking is ideal for service-based companies.
Emails – In addition to a phone number, your landing page can feature an email form that potential customers will use to reach your business. This can be a great way to build a marketing database of customer contacts.
Forms – Submission forms are unique for each business. Customers use these forms to subscribe to a company newsletter, receive discount offers, request a catalog or sign up for a free trial. In return, you get valuable information about potential customers who are interested in your products and services.
Shopping cart checkouts – For online retailers, a search engine ad can lead to a Web page with an Add to Cart or Purchase button that allows customers to complete the transaction online. Your PPC service should be able to track online purchases that originated from your search engine ad and thus, provide an accurate measurement of your return on investment.
For all of the above actions to take place, it is important to have an effective landing page or the page on your Website that customers visit immediately after clicking your sponsored listing. This page must be consistent with the message that you are trying to convey in your online ad. Effective landing pages guide visitors toward taking an action with clever content, attractive graphics and strategically placed links and buttons for the user to click.
By networksolutions, LLC 2009
In tough economic times, customers are holding back and buying less. They are pickier about what to buy. On average, shoppers spend a month doing research online before making a purchase. This makes online search even more important to marketers.
Research shows that search engine marketing (SEM), including Pay Per Click (PPC), is expected to grow and reach $26 billion by 2013.
In the Internet world, 81% of all users start at a search engine to find what they are looking for. “Customers are going to search engines because they are looking for better deals”, says David Hallerman. “And marketers are going to search engines because that’s where the customers are.”
Since the majority of the online public turns to the search engines first, marketing on search networks such as Google® and Yahoo!® should be a critical component of your online marketing strategy. And the fastest way to break into search engine marketing is through Pay Per Click advertising.
Online marketing analysts agree that a successful Pay Per Click campaign can generate a conversion rate of 1.5% to 3%. For online retailers, Pay Per Click is particularly effective, with a conversion rate sometimes reaching 5% or higher. Pay Per Click advertisers continue to report the highest return on investment compared to other forms of online marketing:
What Is Pay Per Click?
Pay Per Click advertising builds on the popularity of search engines to bring your message to consumers at exactly the time they are looking for you. Most Internet users are familiar with PPC ads – i.e., sponsored links – which appear to the top and right of natural search results. These ads are displayed when the user types a keyword into the search engine that matches the keyword chosen for your search engine marketing campaign as relevant to your business.
An advertiser only pays for an ad when a visitor clicks on it and is taken to the advertiser’s Website. PPC campaign managers bid on keywords with the amount they are comfortable paying per click and the search engine uses that bid, along with a number of other factors, to determine ad placement and how often the ad will be shown.
PPC is relevant advertising. Unlike other forms of traditional and online advertising, only consumers that are already searching for your products will see your ads. This leads to a friendlier user experience for shoppers, less wasted ad costs for you, and a higher conversion rate for your ad campaigns all around. In addition, Pay Per Click lets you to create ads that are targeted to a specific geographic area where your customers are located.
In 2001, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) reported that online advertisers were spending an average of 4% of their marketing budgets on PPC advertising. In 2007, that number jumped to 48%. The PPC industry is booming and with search engine usage rising rapidly year over year that trend is likely to go up.
It Is More Than Just Clicks
Pay Per Click advertising can mean more than visitor traffic to your Website. It can be a source of relevant customer leads that are created when visitors to your Website are encouraged to take action such as making a phone call or filling out an inquiry form. There are a number of actions that potential customers can take online or even offline. Your campaign manager will be able to recommend lead types that will benefit your business the most.
Phone calls – Customers clicking on your search engine ad can be directed to a page on your Website that prominently features a unique phone number. Customers will call this number to inquire or buy your products and services. Your PPC service should be able to track all phone calls and even record them so that you can listen to the conversations at your convenience. Phone call tracking is ideal for service-based companies.
Emails – In addition to a phone number, your landing page can feature an email form that potential customers will use to reach your business. This can be a great way to build a marketing database of customer contacts.
Forms – Submission forms are unique for each business. Customers use these forms to subscribe to a company newsletter, receive discount offers, request a catalog or sign up for a free trial. In return, you get valuable information about potential customers who are interested in your products and services.
Shopping cart checkouts – For online retailers, a search engine ad can lead to a Web page with an Add to Cart or Purchase button that allows customers to complete the transaction online. Your PPC service should be able to track online purchases that originated from your search engine ad and thus, provide an accurate measurement of your return on investment.
For all of the above actions to take place, it is important to have an effective landing page or the page on your Website that customers visit immediately after clicking your sponsored listing. This page must be consistent with the message that you are trying to convey in your online ad. Effective landing pages guide visitors toward taking an action with clever content, attractive graphics and strategically placed links and buttons for the user to click.
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