Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Online B2B Marketing to Grow 12% Annually
Thursday, January 21, 2010
6 Mobile Musts for Your Online Business
Use these tips to prepare for the coming smartphone search revolution. By Allen Moon | January 20, 2010 |
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By Allen Moon
According to a recent study by comScore, the number of people in the U.S. using multipurpose smartphones such as iPhones, Blackberries, and Droids more than doubled last year. Of those who used mobile devices to access news and information on the Internet, 22.5 million--or 35 percent of the total--did so on a daily basis.
And this year, that number is expected to skyrocket even further as more companies--T-mobile, AT&T, Spring, Garmin, and even Google--gear up to release their own Android-supported mobile devices. In fact, experts predict that mobile Web usage will overtake PC usage in five years.
The online tools people are using to find and share information with their mobile devices are changing, too. The comScore study shows that the number of people who used smartphones to access a social networking site or blog increased by 427 percent last year, more than any other category. So what does this mean for you?
If you want to put your business in front of this exploding online population, then you need to know how they use their mobile devices to access and share information online. You need to know the community sites where they hang out, and understand how they communicate with one another if you want to engage them and build lasting relationships.
Smartphone users are looking for genuine, trustworthy information--recommendations, reviews, rated answers to questions--and they're already geniuses when it comes to filtering out and ignoring inauthentic voices.
Here are five important things you need to do to ensure your business is primed to take advantage of the mobile media storm:
1. Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
Mobile users are impatient people. They want information and they want it now. You have to make sure your website delivers that information in a way that's useful for them. Fortunately, there are a number of ways to create a quick mobile version of your website. If you use WordPress, there are plugins like this one that can help you create a mobile-friendly edition. Or you can use a paid converter such as MoFuse and MOBIFY to do the job.
2. Make sure your website is optimized for mobile search
Did you know that both Google and Bing have separate indexes for mobile content? And right now, they return far fewer--and far more localized--results than regular search. So the sooner you get your site optimized to rank well in the search results, the sooner you can put your site in front of the hundreds of millions of mobile device users.
3. Start a Facebook Fan page
Because so many mobile device users are active on Facebook, the world's top social networking site, it only makes sense to have a presence there. Encourage your customers and visitors to sign up as Facebook fans so you can use the networking site to keep in touch with them and share information about your business.
4. Become involved in Twitter
The same logic applies here--Twitter is one of the fastest-growing properties on the Web because it's so easy for people with smartphones to use for accessing and sharing information. If you start building relationships with your visitors and customers via Twitter now, you will be light years ahead of the competition when the smartphone explosion really hits its stride.
5. Make sure you're listed on Google Maps
A huge and growing number of mobile users go to Google Maps first when searching for a local business. You can make sure your site conforms to Google's quality guidelines here.
6. Encourage customers to review your business on Yelp or FourSquare
Yelp is a business review site that has active users in cities all over the world. More than 26 million people a month use Yelp to find information about more than twenty different categories of businesses. FourSquare is somewhat similar in nature. Its members use FourSquare to keep one another informed of their whereabouts. You can also write reviews and recommend places to fellow FourSquare members.
You may think you're not at the right place to start thinking about mobile marketing yet. But no matter where you are in your business building efforts, the time to start laying the foundation for an effective mobile marketing strategy is now. The mobile revolution is happening right now, and if online marketing has taught us anything, it's that the way to be successful is to put your business where the customers are. And that means reaching them on their smartphones.
Allen Moon is Director of Marketing for the Internet Marketing Center. He leads a team of internet business experts who stay on top of the changing online landscape--testing the latest approaches on real commercial websites, then passing on their knowledge in easy-to-use information products, software, and personal training services.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Content 'still king' as search market consolidates
Monday, January 11, 2010
Free Guide: Website Marketing Budget - The Real Costs of Going Online
Whether you’re just starting out, or re-evaluating your website strategy, it’s important for you to get your plan and budget right.
The rule “Build it and they will come” rarely works in the online space. For you to be successful with your website marketing strategy – you need to have a proper plan and be realistic about the real costs of doing it properly.
Too many business owners spend $1000’s on getting a fancy website developed, only to find they have no money left to promote it.
One of our sales guys uses this analogy
“It’s like building a shopping mall in the desert. Without the budget to promote it – who’s going to find it?”
So to help you get your website design and marketing budget right – here’s a quick guide to what you need and the approximate costs to do it properly.
- 1. The website: Development/Design & Maintenance
The development of a website has many variables. Accordingly the costs can vary significantly depending factors such as whether its static or dynamic, whether includes a shopping cart, is the design bespoke or templated etc etc etc.
The reality is that websites can vary from $1000 – $50,000. And 90% of the time, you get what you pay for.
If it’s really cheap – it’s likely that there won’t be much functionality and it’ll use a template. The flip side of that is that if it’s too expensive – ask yourself whether you “really” need all the bells and whistles.
And most importantly – shop around. Get your requirements tight and then check with a few website designers/developers to get the best price.
Also - don’t forget to budget for hosting and maintenance. Websites often need to be tweaked in terms of content and system updates, and without hosting - you wont appear anywhere.
- 2. SEO – Search Engine Optimization
The majority of website traffic comes from search engines and directories. Many of our clients see upwards of 60% of traffic coming from search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. While the organic search engine traffic is free (no click costs), you do need to invest in an SEO to ensure you’re maximizing this free search engine traffic.
SEO campaigns again vary significantly. To hire a industry leading SEO consultant can cost as much as $1000 per hour.
Here’s a guide on SEO pricing that Rand Fishkin from SEOmoz posted 2 years ago. As you can imagine – prices have grown since then…but it serves as a guide for the premium end of the scale:
Service | Low End | Mid Range | High End |
Site Review + Consulting | $500 | $2,500 | $10,000 |
Hands-On Editing of Pages/Code | $2,000 | $10,000 | $50,000 |
Manual Link Building Campaign | $500 | $5,000 | $20,000 |
Keyword Research Package | $100 | $500 | $2,000 |
Monthly Retainer for Ongoing SEO | $2,500 | $7,500 | $20,000+ |
Proper SEO is an investment. If you’re in business for the long haul – you’d be crazy not to allocate a decent proportion of your early online budget on SEO – (or if your budget is tight, then study hard and invest the many hours needed to do it yourself).
To get started with an SEO campaign (fully managed by an experienced SEO professional) that’s going to generate serious results – you should be looking to pay at least $500 per month.
- 3. PPC – Google AdWords and Other Search Advertising
As with all things, you’re probably looking for some quick wins in terms of traffic and results from your website. This is where PPC (pay per click) Search Engine Advertising (e.g. Google AdWords) helps.
With a well setup Google AdWords campaign, you can have highly targeted visitors delivered to your website almost instantly. It’s a great way to ensure you’re still getting a return on your website investment while your SEO and other strategies take effect.
Professional PPC campaigns, depending on your industry and how much traffic you need, can cost as little as $200 per month. But be aware that with cheaper campaigns, you’ll find most of your investment is going into the setup and management – rather than the media (click costs) – which makes it hard to generate decent ROI.
A serious PPC campaign for a small business should start at approx $500…and depending on your goals – go up from there.
- 4. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is a is very cost effective way of generating traffic for your website. With most affiliate networks offering CPA models (cost per acquisition) – it allows you to generate traffic that for your website and only pay when that traffic converts (makes a purchase, signs up for a newsletter, submits a query).
The challenge with affiliate networks is that they take time to be effective and the best networks are often very selective as to who they promote.
Most decent networks will charge a small set up fee ($100 upwards) and then take a commission on every sales or acquisition. Some of the larger ones will also charge a monthly management fee to help you optimize your campaigns.
Most publishers will be looking for between 10% - 30% commission on sales, or a decent bonus for lead/enquiry based programs.
- 5. Social media, Email marketing & Ad Networks
There’s a range of other website promotion opportunities such as Social Media, Email marketing and Ad Networks.
With Social Media, it’s definitely an area that small businesses should be getting involved with, but remember; it’s not a fit for every business and Social media is like SEO - it’s an investment and normally takes a while to generate good results.
Email marketing is a very cost effective form of website marketing. It’s CPA rates are often as low as search engine marketing, but the biggest challenge is finding and building lists. So it often comes into its own after a business is up and running for a while, and you’ve had a chance to build a decent subscriber base.
There are also a range of ad networks to promote your website. Most work on a fixed monthly fee or CPM (cost per 1000 impressions basis). As neither of these models offers any guarantee on traffic to your website, they have fallen out of favour with the emergence of PPC models such as Google AdWords. That said – if you find the right network – they can still provide great exposure and traffic.
There are plenty of other ways to drive more traffic to your site, but in reality – the areas mentioned above will be your key traffic sources.
So with that in mind – you can now get a much clearer and more realistic picture of what it costs to get serious results online. Even if we use the lower end version of these costs as a guide, small business owners should be looking at
Cost Guide | |
Website Development | $1000+ |
Hosting & Maintenance | $120+ |
SEO - 6mth program | $3000 |
Search Advertising (PPC) - 6mths | $1200 |
Affiliate Marketing | Depends on Program |
Others | Depends on Tactics |
TOTAL | $5320+ |
Now that’s only a starting guide, and as I’ve mentioned previously - the cheapest options aren’t always the best in terms of results and generating good ROI.
So if you’re starting a new website project - you can see there’s more to consider than just the website design costs. If you want your new website in 2010 to be a success - be realistic when doing your planning and budgeting!
Friday, January 8, 2010
How marketers are blowing lead management
Article Highlights:
- The first challenge for lead buyers is a lack of urgency around contacting leads
- Another issue plaguing marketers and their clients is finding the ideal call frequency
- The marriage of quality leads and a solid lead management process will enable advertisers to reach marketing nirvana
Online marketing has always been moving toward performance-driven models. A clear example of this evolution is Google's recent adoption of a cost per lead (CPL) model with the introduction of comparison ads. This transition has been in the making for almost two years, and at the same time, more and more advertisers are demanding this same pricing model. The reason for the shift is clear: The CPL model mitigates the risk between the advertisers/brands and marketers working on their behalf. It also ensures that both sides are invested in campaign success. However, success isn't gauged on lead volume. It's based on conversions.
Regardless of engagement structure, industry, or lead type, lead management is a critical and overlooked component of marketing. A study performed by lead management software company Leads360 exposed a number of important facts about performance-marketing and lead management. One important statistic shows that converting a lead is 57 percent lead quality and 43 percent an efficient sales process. This is noteworthy because it proves that success does not come from cultivating the highest quality leads. Success comes from lead management and lead quality. One without the other is not the answer.
I've had the pleasure of implementing performance-marketing campaigns for a very diverse range of industries, from life insurance to for-profit education companies, from cellular carriers to pharmaceutical companies. This experience has exposed two distinct problems in lead management programs that are troubling companies -- regardless of their industry.
Speed to contact
The first issue for lead buyers is a lack of urgency around contacting leads. To fully realize the importance of this point you first have to understand one very basic fact: Your prospective clients are shopping to find the best deal. In many cases, consumers are undecided on which company best addresses their needs, and they need help deciding. It's a widely accepted fact that consumers complete 2-3 forms before ending their searches. Contact speed is the single most important factor in lead management. Consumers need to be addressed when their interest is high. A minute later, they may lose interest or, even worse, give their business to a competitor.
A study performed by MIT, and recently confirmed by LeadQual, showed that the odds of converting a lead are five times greater when the lead is contacted within five minutes of form completion versus waiting 10 minutes. Waiting 30 minutes after receiving a lead means the odds of making contact are 100 times less than if a call was placed within five minutes. The goal is to contact leads while they're still online before they request information from a competitor.
A worse scenario is when leads are not called at all. The same survey notes that of a 423 lead sample, 37 percent were never contacted. Advertisers should use a lead management system to guarantee timely lead delivery. The rules of lead management are simple: Call your leads, and call them within five minutes. Doing so will greatly affect your bottom line, guaranteed.
Call frequency
Another issue plaguing marketers and their clients is finding the ideal call frequency. There is wide range of best practices, but I would like to narrow the field of choices.
A recent study released by Leads360 put solid data behind the answer to this question. Its study proved that there is an optimal number of contact attempts. I'm not talking about cold calling or prospecting, just about following up with contacts who have requested information or expressed interest in hearing from your company. Calling a lead at a higher frequency than recommended will not improve your chances of contacting said lead. In fact, the opposite is true. The study looked at 15 million leads and concluded that six attempts should be made to contact a lead. A more detailed explanation of this study can be found in a comment on a lead generation industry blog. The comment clearly details the likelihood of connecting with a lead with up to the 20 calls. One other thing to note is that marketers have an 87 percent higher chance of contacting the lead on call No. 2 versus call No. 1.
My suggestion is to call a lead at different times of the day for each succeeding call until the best time to call is determined with successful contact. Calling your leads at the same time every day will decrease your chances of reaching them. Your goal should be to spread your net across the largest, most diverse time range. It is also important to note that the optimal call volume may vary slightly from vertical to vertical, so a closer look at your company's specific situation should be taken into consideration.
Conclusion
Generating leads for your company or client is only half the battle, literally. The marriage of quality leads and a solid lead management process will enable both the marketer and advertiser to reach marketing nirvana. The biggest mistake companies can make when launching a lead generation campaign is only focusing on how leads are generated, not how they will be managed. The first goal is to create leads, and it's not until they filter in that advertisers realize their lead management process needs work. If you're a lead generator or marketing executive, it's your responsibility to process leads effectively. Lead management should be a top priority. Otherwise, you're setting yourself up for failure.
Michael Ferree is an account director at Geary Interactive.
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Thursday, January 7, 2010
Does the Google Phone Need a $100 Million Push?
Among the ways Google aims to defy conventional wisdom with the Nexus One -- besides selling the unlocked device directly online--is not to promote it with a splashy cross-media ad blitz. Don't expect a $100 million campaign with a series of high-impact TV commercials like that which accompanied the roll out of the Droid.
That's partly because there's no carrier, like Verizon Wireless, to foot the bill for a high-priced traditional campaign. TV ads also just aren't part of Google's DNA-it sets a bad example when the biggest Web company is spending a ton of money on 3o-second TV spots. Instead, Google has said it plans to focus promotional efforts for the Nexus One primarily online.
"Because the Nexus One is exclusively sold online, our marketing plan will heavily focus on online marketing to educate users on the benefits of the phone and the new way of buying it," the company explained in response to a TechCrunch enquiry Tuesday. The post noted Google has already slapped a prominent link to the Nexus One official YouTube channel and is running a bunch of related keywords like "smartphone" and "Android" for the phone.
It's now also promoting it directly on the Google homepage below the search box with a small phone icon and an invitation to "Experience Nexus One" with a link to its new Web phone store.
While Google hasn't detailed its full plans for advertising the phone online, TechCrunch expects the company to put a lot of marketing muscle behind it. Even so, it points out analysts have already questioned whether average consumers will even notice the device without a big push. Does it need a $100 million boost?
A recent comScore study credited Verizon's ambitious Droid campaign with helping to increase awareness of Android phones generally. And Apple's signature TV ads for the iPhone (lampooned in the Droid ads) obviously haven't hurt sales of the device Google is going head-to-head with. But spending $100 million to plaster ads everywhere doesn't necessarily deliver results. (See: Yahoo.)
Still, most consumers may not only be unaware of the Nexus One but also that Google has set up a new online store to sell it and other Android devices and related products as its direct-to-consumer channel expands. When people think of Google, they think "search engine" not "online retailer." And unlike other products Google has quietly rolled out previously, the Nexus One at $529 without a contract, is far from free. It won't go viral.
So making a marketing push beyond its own properties in this case at least would make sense if Google wants its flagship phone to be more than a Droid, let alone, iPhone wannabe. It's not like it doesn't have the cash.