March 27, 2012

Email marketing is one of the most cost effective techniques or channels of E-marketing. Even if your marketing budget gets cut, email marketing provides an easy way to deliver your message in various ways. If you can optimize your email communication and follow your customer needs and preferences, your email ROI will surely follow a strong path.

1. The R Word – The R word refers to relevancy, which senders need to ensure of their offers. 2012 is the time of tailor made offers that are capable of matching the recipient’s preferences. Relevance has the capacity to increase conversion, sending reputation, and decrease the chance of the note ending up in a junk folder. Examples include Gmail and Hotmail’s continued approach to individuality.

2. Personalization 2.0 – The conventional email introduction of “hello, (first name) is no longer impressive to the recipient. It is now about customer data of purchase history, website activity, and customer relationship management in order for retailers to ensure their emails are as personal as possible.

3. Click “Send” Less Often – This sounds like something you don’t want to hear but clicking the send button less often is something you should definitely consider doing. This doesn’t mean sending fewer emails, however communication is becoming more event based so that a subscriber should be the catalyst in sending an email. Examples include:

“Sending emails when a customer abandons her shopping cart’

“Sending welcome messages to new subscribers”

“Sending “thank you for being with us” newsletters”

http://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2012/6734/the-email-marketers-success-kit-five-trends-for-2012//.

4. What, When, How… Let ’em Decide – The social media boom has become extremely popular as we are seeing more and more users sign up for sites like Facebook and Twitter. The article says that 15% of email opens were generated via mobile devices in 2011 but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the traditional desktop email will die very soon. Facebook fans sign up for newsletters on fan pages and email users hit the “tweet” button to share new offers with their followers. For 2012, make sure your messages are readable on a smartphone, capture customers email addresses on Facebook and let them share your offers with their network and those people’s networks. Don’t forget that you can be social via Facebook, Twitter, blogs, SMS, PC’s, smartphones, etc. If you work across channels, you will be successful.

March 23^rd 2012

As Facebook gears up for one of the largest IPO’s in the technology space in recent years, its online revenue model launches some new gadgets for marketers to utilize.  I recently read an article that speculated on the fact that Facebook’s online marketing revenue model was slowly becoming a smaller percentage of total revenue. However, soon the world will be able to see for them selves how much of that speculation is reality. Despite this fact, Facebook’s online marketing direction is starting to integrate with the types of content users engage with the most. At the company’s marketing conference in New York, here is what they proposed is new for Facebook:

The Reach Generator:

In order for this tool to work, a brand must have a certain number of fans (this number is still undetermined). When the company posts a few times a week, (# also undetermined) Facebook guarantees that these posts will reach 75% of the brand’s fans each month. This is not a free tool so marketers should be careful to determine the long term ROI. This means that Facebook will have to offer some of the Google AdWord analytics such as an impression based system. Strategically, companies who are thinking of using this tool should analyze whether the information they are posting is relevant in order to eventually generate higher sales.

New Products:

• Premium display ads on the logout page- to date I have seen the Bing search engine and an Axe body spray commercial appear on the Facebook log out page.
• Sponsored stories in the news feed on mobile devices
• Offers- ability for businesses to share discounts and promotions directly from a Facebook page.

These new products that Facebook are proposing are part of a larger trend to merge all of the sites content. Their goal is to eliminate the distinctions between the various types of content. Despite introducing the sponsored stories that show up on mobile devices, the company has been extremely conservative on their mobile presence. Many of their users are logging on to their personal pages through their mobile phone, however the problem exists of monetizing this channel. I think this poses one of Facebook’s major concerns and we can expect to see further updates and improvements related to their mobile marketing revenue.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012 | 6:55 AM

As we discuss Google Analytics in class, I began thinking how one actually analyzes the value of social media to their marketing campaign. Measuring the value of social media has proven a challenge for many business owners and marketers for quite some time, especially because activity is taken place both on and off their website.

As the social media industry continues to develop at a fast pace, there is a strong demand for analysts to get their hands on reports that can tell them how effective these channels are. I’ve always thought that its only the brand websites not the social networking sites which are driving buying decisions which can be tract as conversions.

I found an article published on Google Analytics that introduces a new set of social reports within the Google Analytics tool. The new tool is a nice connection between social media and the metrics that every marketer cares about. It allows you to:

• Identify the traffic drawn from social sites and a direct lead to conversions.
• Understand social activities happening both on and off of your site which helps increase social KPI’s.
• Make smarter data-driven decision in your social media marketing campaign.

Here are a couple of the things you can do with the new reports:

Overview Report: Allows you to see at a macro level how much conversion value is generated from your social channels. The social value pictured compares the number and monetary value of all your goal completions against those that resulted from social referrals.

Conversion Report: Now marketers can measure the value of each individual social channel by seeing each channels conversion rates and the dollar value they drive for you business.

Today (March 20, 2012) I read an article I found on LinkedIn about Google introducing what they call Google Social Search. This ultimately means that a site has the capacity to jump from #30 to #3 in the SERPs simply because someone in your Google+ circle shared the link. Traditional SEO suggests that it would have been very difficult for a small start up company to compete against popular sites in terms of search engine ranking. Social SEO levels the playing field and allows smaller companies to compete against the big guys. The article suggests that social media should already be implemented into every company’s business strategy and below lists 7 of the target strategies to start using right now:

Published link of 8 steps I’ve turned into 7

1. Beef up your Google+ presence– Google is implementing Google+ into almost every Google social search. This has the capacity to put your company in a number one spot because someone put you in a Google+ circle.
2. Build relationships and Increase Followers- Every new follower you get has the potential to see your brand’s site in his or her SERPs in the future and building strong relationships (whatever it takes) helps facilitate a follower base.
3. Post your Articles Immediately on Social Media- If you tweet your content, it helps your content get indexed faster (if your material is time sensitive, then this could be very beneficial). It also helps to have your articles posted on Google+ and LinkedIn (where I actually found this article) to get indexed faster.
4. Have Shareable Content- If someone that doesn’t even follow you on any social media sites shares your content, that persons entire network may see the post by searching relevant material in a Google Social Search.
5. Add +1 Buttons to Everything- This is the Facebook Like button of Google, add it anywhere you can.
6. Get on Pinterest- Pinterest sends nearly as much referral traffic as Twitter and Google now crawls pins and boards (hashtag relevant keywords on each pin).
7. Add A “Pin It” & A Stumbleupon Button to Your Site- Stumbleupon is second to Facebook in terms of referral traffic.

An article published on an E-Commerce news website via The Wall Street Journal indicates that Google may be on its way to further improving the way people search on Google’s search engine. This new process which is still speculation form technology analysts from Wall Street banks say that this new methodology could significantly alter the way consumers search on the Internet, and how companies expect to see their ads displayed on Google. The proposed new methodology is a process that doesn’t just take the inputted term as recognizing keywords but rather takes into account the meaning of the search term. At then end of the day the search page will not just be a link but also facts about the related term.

Despite news being taken in various directions, there is likely something new underway at Google. One theory states that Google’s motivation to improve search has come because the rise of mobile use and its related poor user experience. Right now it might be Apple’s Siri that is Google’s biggest threat in terms of artificial intelligence.

However, Amit Singhal senior VP and Google fellow states that this is still speculation at this point and the company is taking baby steps and inviting readers to stay tuned for updates. It will be exciting to see what Google does next to stay on top in this fiercely competitive technology space.

Link: Search Overhaul

Blogging is becoming an increasingly popular tool for marketers to broadcast messages, videos, ideas, tools, and even make money. After reading other blogs from my E-Marketing class from school, I thought to myself what makes a blog successful or what draws traffic to certain blogs. I found an article published on February 13, 2012 that outlined 7 E-Marketing tips to be a good blogger. After reading the article and watching a YouTube video about successful blogging, I have tried to shorten and elaborate on these tips with my own input.

1. Care about what you blog– Passion for a topic can be easily extracted from good writing. If you care about a topic, chances are your post will reveal that.
2. Be concise yet descriptive– you don’t want to loose the reader in extremely long text, however you want to say enough to engage the reader and potentially seek additional information about a certain area. Readers enjoy reading the point of the blog at first glance. If an article is too long, perhaps you can make it into 2 posts.
3. Be analytical– this refers to an analysis of your blogging topic. Readers like your own opinion because it promotes outside of the box thinking and provides avenues for further analysis.
4. Stay focused– this refers back to tip #2 about being concise. No one can be an expert in every aspect, so stay focused on the main subject you are blogging about.
5. Stay up to date– whatever you’re blogging about; it’s very important that you are up to date on the latest news on the area of focus in order to add value to your posts.
6. Be persistent– I think this is one of the key success factors of a good blog because it gives your readers a reason to keep reading and shows personal interest. Many people start blogs but very few actually continue blogging.

Over the past week I have been analyzing our clients website for our in class E-Marketing project. The company is Rod’s Exotic Auto Spa, which is an auto detailing business specializing in luxury vehicles. By navigating through the home page and photo gallery section, I noticed many photos that where either too small to portray what the owner was intending or very pixelated. I recently came across an article (linked below) about the importance and correlation of high quality online images and higher sales. In the retailing sector, a survey concluded that 80% of online shoppers stated that they where “very to somewhat” influenced by content quality when making purchasing decisions.

Improving product images on e-commerce websites

Here are 4 Tips to optimize product images on a website:

1. Use thumbnails to entice the customer, then provide more options- do enough to initiate the first click, once they are on the site they can choose to enlarge the picture or view it from a different angle.

2. Zoom in on the product- especially useful when the product is very detailed.

3. Show your image to Google- when you don’t use the “alternate text” tag in your code for an image, you have effectively made your image invisible to Google and other search engines.

4. “Knock it out”- this term refers to showing pictures in isolation of any background clutter.

These tips can be applied to many different businesses that are trying to improve their search engine optimization.

The youtube video link below, “The Social Media Revolution 2012” broadcasts the success of the Internet and specifically social media sites in generating user traffic. It poses the question whether Social Media is a fad or the biggest shift since the industrial revolution. Some interesting statistics from this short video include:

• 80% of companies use social media for recruitment.
• Ashton Kutcher and Britney Spears have more twitter followers than the entire populations of Sweden, Israel, Switzerland, Ireland, Norway, and Panama.
• Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US.
• Facebook attracted 200 million users in less than a year
• If Facebook where a country it would be the third largest country in the world

Social media is increasingly becoming more popular in the business community with regards to online marketing efforts. The enormous network size provides an incredible platform for business owners to target specific markets. However, Social media doesn’t directly generate cash for businesses, but it enhances a company’s online presence to help build relationships, create awareness, connect with users, and increase consumer interactivity to stimulate growth.

<iframe width=”640″ height=”360″ src=”https://www.youtube.com/embed/0eUeL3n7fDs” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

The Social Media Revolution 2012

An article published by PR Web on January 5, 2012 outlined the top 10 Internet marketing trends of 2012. Below is the summary of these trends and how they can potentially change the world on online marketing. These trends provide opportunities for companies to take advantage of their online market to increase leads, sales and profitability. Longer descriptions can be found at <http://news.yahoo.com/national-positions-names-top-internet-marketing-trends-2012-081046108.html>

Number 1: Value Based Marketing. Companies will demand an Internet marketing strategy that shows tangible results. It’s not just about rankings and traffic; it’s about leads, sales & measurable results that prove ROI.

Number 2: Rich Snippets. Google will provide more information about your website to searchers without them having to click to the site. This hurts your marketing efforts because it reduces page views and makes your sales funnel a bit smaller.

Number 3: Vanishing Data. Google will hide more information about your website in Google Analytics.

Number 4: Mobile Marketing Grows Up. Customers are now using mobile search to do their shopping, especially for local products and services.

Number 5: The Rise of Local Search Marketing. Google will continue to make local results a more crucial component of its search algorithm. As a result of so many mobile users looking for local products and services, mobile and local are intertwined. Thus, a new marketing strategy called “MoLo.”

Number 6: Social Media Merges With Search. Google+, the search giant’s new social network, will impact search engine rankings. As a result, Google+ is going to be a key part of your company’s SEO strategy in 2012.

Number 7: Video Content Matters. Video is more important as the web moves mobile and becomes more interactive.

Number 8: Don’t Let Others Tarnish Your Reputation. As the Internet becomes more valuable, so does your company’s online reputation.

Number 9: Nurture New Leads, Don’t Waste Them. As your online market becomes more competitive, leads are harder to come by and more valuable. Every lead must be nurtured via email marketing.

Number 10: Your Linking Strategy Must Evolve for SEO. Linking remains a pillar of your search engine exposure, but link diversity is now more crucial than ever. Simple anchor text links must be replaced with varied anchor text links to look more natural and gain the approval of the search engine crawlers.

Facebook, the worlds largest social media site with 800 million users has finally filed with the Securities Exchange Comission to go public (Feb 1, 2012). The company has a bullish valuation of 75-100 billion dollars and is expected to raise $5-10 billion as soon as shares hit the market. Social media sites like Facebook play a dominant role in online marketing which is becoming part of this web 2.0 strategy. Very limited financial data is revealed, however in 2010 78% of their revenue was derived from online marketing. The site attracts a huge volume of traffic which drives its success in e-marketing. Companies are advertising on the site because they have access to the consumer interests and personal information of members. This allows companies to specifically target their audience.

Only time will tell whether this company has the ability to use this new source of equity capital to grow its online business model and generate significant returns for its shareholders. An interesting statistic will be to see how revenue with respect to online marketing changes throughout this process. This will be a very interesting company to follow as soon as shares start trading.