Internet Marketing, Social Media, Business | StuckInTheFunnel

Small Businesses to Increase Email, Social Media Spend in 2010

Small business respondents to a survey conducted by Vertical Response, Inc said that they would be increasing their Email and Social Media marketing ad spend in 2010, but will be reducing their budget for search engine marketing and online display advertising.

831 Businesses were surveyed and 74% said they plan on increasing their email marketing spend and 68% said they plan on increasing their social media budget.

Are small businesses still scared of SEM and Display Advertising?

It appears so. I have worked with many small businesses in the Raleigh area and whenever I bring up SEM or Display Ads, I am usually met with opposition and hear things like “Well, what we do works for us”.  I am still a huge advocate of SEM and Display (mostly due to it’s measurable nature) and think that this presents an opportunity for vendor education.  If Internet Marketers can better educate SMBs on the benefits of these channels, it will only help their clients.

Don’t Become a Social Media Burnout

In a world where you can let 1500 of your friends know what you are doing instantly, while tracking the status of your Dominos Pizza order online, there’s no secret as to why many of us may suffer from information overload.

I purposely spent some time the past couple weeks away from the computer during off hours to read and take a tour of North Carolina’s beautiful mountains.

Unlike most of my getaways, I only used my laptop and BlackBerry to access information that was pertinent to my trip itinerary which meant no work email. At first I thought I could not do it unless I tied my hands behind my back, but in the end, it was worth it.

The effectiveness of your Social Media marketing efforts are largely based on the amount of time and labor you put into them. That being said, it is important that use this time effectively so you get the most out of the time you sacrifice.

How to get the most out of Social Media without burning yourself out:

Set valuable and measurable goals

I stress the word “valuable”.   Telling yourself:  “I will spend 2hrs a day on Twitter”  is not a goal. Instead, commit to something like building 3 new relationships with potential prospects or professionals in your industry. This rule can be applied to any of the networks you participate in, whether it be Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, etc. Bottom line: get the most out of the time you spend.

Syndicate for success

With a little planning, you can syndicate your online content and reduce the time it takes you to spread your message across all of your social pipelines.

Here are a few tools that can help you do this:

• Tweet Deck (update Twitter and Facebook simultaneously).
• Word Press Twitter Plugin (Display your Tweets on a Word Press Blog)
• Twitter Feed (Automatically feed your blog posts to Twitter)
• Hoot Suite (for scheduled Tweets and other workflow)

While these programs may take some manual labor off of your hands, it is important not to abuse them. Don’t use them to blast your audience with never ending streams of content. Use them ethically and remember to build your audience organically.

Track and Refine

The only way to determine if the time you have invested has been well spent is to measure the goals you have set. If your goals are to build relationships and network, maintain a directory of the new contacts you have obtained and where they came from. If your goals are to increase sales and revenue, use a tool such as Pea Shoot to log your conversions and ROI.

Be Patient

Don’t expect to achieve all of your goals overnight. Just like any other campaign, get ready to struggle, test and refine. Do it smartly and you will achieve success while making time for the other important things in your life.

Twitter Users are Twice as Likely to View Your Ads

According to a study from research firm  Interpret, LLC, Twitter users are twice as likely to click internet ads than those who stick to traditional social networks such as Myspace, LinkedIn and Facebook.

The study was conducted on 9200 Internet users in August 09 and concluded that 24% of Twitter users had rated or reviewed products online compared to 12% of those who used other social networks, but not Twitter.

It was also found that the users of Twitter are twice as likely to view online company profiles than non-Twitter users (20% vs. 9%).

Why is this the case?

Given the hyper/ADD nature of Twitter and the fact that it is not a destination site is the primary culprit behind these numbers in my opinion.

Twitter’s rapid stream of information is more conducive to link clicks than social sites which provide content that requires more concentration and engagement.

What does this mean for your business?

Get on Twitter and start building those relationships. Put a strategy in place that leverages Twitters’ click happy audience and get your brand noticed.

Consumer Resistance to Mobile Advertising Will Not Stop Its Growth

According to Gartner, mobile advertising will increase 74% ($913.5 million) this year and is expected to exceed $13 billion by 2013, despite initial consumer resistance.

I’m guessing the the ability to implement location based ad targeting is luring marketers to adopt mobile based advertising. If you have a GPS like me, you may have already seen ads display for nearby stores/restaurants within close proximity to your current location. Increases in GPS technology will continue to make this trend stick, especially with the younger demographic.

A study from Parks Associates released in July said that mobile advertising revenues in the US and Canada will grow from $208 million in 2009 to $1.5 billion by 2013, despite possible early consumer resistance to mobile ads.

The Parks Associates report said that the adoption of smartphones, 3G network data plans (or newer wireless services), and downloadable applications will spur this growth in ad revenues, with significant increases beginning in 2010.

As an Interactive Marketer, I am excited to explore this trend. However, as a consumer, I am a bit apprehensive about receiving targeted ads on my smart phone. It will be interesting to see how things develop.

Oprah Puts the Squeeze on Internet Marketers

Using celebrities to help sell products and increase click through ratings of online banner ads is not a new practice. It doesn’t just impact celebrities, either. During the last presedential election, Internet Marketers plastered President Obama’s face and logo on all types of online creative.

Oprah, a strong force and idol for empowered women has decided that this needs to change. She has teamed up with Illinois State Attorney General’s Office to form a lawsuit against 50 Internet Marketers who have used her logo and other icons without permission.

I first found out news of this from Mashable, who learned about it from Azoogle, a large online affiliate network. Apparently they notified their members of the pending lawsuits:

“The Illinois State AG has filed actions against three parties for deceptive advertising practices in the marketing of acai berry products and other dietary supplements. Please keep in mind that the regulators are choosing to directly pursue affiliate marketers for their marketing practices. The full text of the press release can be found here.

Dr. Oz and Oprah Winfrey have also filed a lawsuit in New York for copyright and trademark infringement against approximately 50 companies, including advertisers, suppliers, ad networks, and affiliates. To put it bluntly, they are very unhappy of their celebrity status being used to market dietary supplements and cosmetics, without their permission. They have specifically listed hundreds of affiliate sites they want discontinued immediately, because the URLs use their name or the sites claim endorsements from Oprah/Dr. Oz. The full story can be found here.”

Honestly, I am trying to get to the bottom of Oprah’s motives here. Many celebrities like the additional promotion they get from Internet Marketers using these tactics, given the product is decent. Does Oprah have a problem with products that are using her image like the Acai diet or is she trying to start a movement that will ban Internet Marketers from using celebrities to enhance their promotions in general?

Does Increasing Display Ad CPM Indicate an Economic Recovery?

Although the economic downtownturn did cause some cutbacks on Internet Marketing ad spend, a new report by Adify revealed that CPM for various display advertising verticals increased overall in 2009.

Adify’s Vertical Guage (AVG) measures quarter to quarter online CPM data for 13 Internet Marketing vertical categories on their platform. The platform includes 200 ad networks and 12,000 sites and blogs.

Analyzing internet marketing verticals is not just handy for seeing where your CPM costs may rise, but they also reflect the current economic status of many business sectors.

Some detailed findings include:

Real Estate CPMs grew 100% between Q4 2008 and Q2 2009 and are aligned
to housing starts. Across all verticals tracked by Adify, real estate($6.49 in Q2 2009)
has shown the most noteworthy CPM growth, up 100% over
Q4 2008.

Sports and entertainment CPMs are up nearly 20%. The sports vertical
($7.09) dipped slightly in Q1 2009, but is up 18 percent in Q2, thanks to
college hoops, pro-basketball championships, and the baseball season.
Entertainment has grown steadily (up 19%) since October 2008, in keeping
with the trend that the entertainment industry tends to fare well during
recessions.

News recovers. In Q2, news-oriented content commanded CPMs with a
median value over $10; that represents 20% growth over Q4 2008, but a
decrease since Q1 2009’s Presidential inauguration and the temporary news
audience growth that went with it.

Travel, technology, automotive, and health held onto the highest
absolute CPMs, despite fluctuations. These traditional CPM leaders are
continuing to command the highest rates among premium vertical ad networks.
Technology ($16.01) experienced a significant decrease in Q1 and has since
begun to rebound. Both automotive ($15.33) and travel ($19.89) have grown
over Q4 2008 with some contraction since Q1 2009.

Moms/parents and beauty/fashion verticals are down slightly. This fits
expectations because these verticals have cyclical advertising seasons. Q4
2008 was strong due to committed campaigns and traditional holiday
advertising. Adify expects these verticals to experience CPM growth in late
Q3 2009 and throughout Q4 2009

Hopefully these verticals will continue to improve as we move into 2010.

Fox News Calls Internet Marketing a Scam

I was writing a blog on landing page optimization and came across this page in my Tweet Deck stream:

Full article from Fox >>

 Needless to say, I stopped writing my other article.

 Growing up in the Y generation has given me a different perspective on news. In all honesty, I watch little to no news on television, primarily because I feel that I cannot trust the integrity of the information.

The advent of social media (and the internet) has changed the way people get their information. We no longer have to shift our focus to the television in the morning or evening to get our fill of daily happenings. As the web spawns more user generated content, I anticipate more attention being spent on various non-mainstream news channels.

Fox News’ crack on Search Engine Marketers is downright appalling and juvenile, especially considering they have their own SEO team. Their quote from the article says it all:

 ”Ever wonder why “nonsense” Web sites sometimes turn up in your search results on Google or Yahoo? That’s because search engine optimizing scammers work full-time to create thousands of other Web sites that link to the spam site. For example, the creator of spamlaw.com is hoping to dupe would-be visitors to spamlaws.com, a legitimate site that bills itself as an online security resource.”

More »

Internet Marketing Surges as Click Fraud Declines

Research conducted by Click Forensics, a web traffic quality expert, showed reduction in click fraud during the second quarter of 2009.

For the past two years, the average percentage of fraudulent clicks of an advertisers total was around 15%.  The number dropped to about 13.9%  at the beginning of the first quarter.  At the end it had dropped to 12.7%.

Click forensics claims that improved blocking efforts and monitoring have been responsible for the the drop in fraudulent clicks.

However, the fight is till not over as stated by Tom Cuthber, president of traffic monitoring:

“Ad networks should pay close attention to such threats [as publisher collusion fraud] in the coming months,”

If the Internet Marketing industry continues to see improved figures like this, it will only be that much easier to sell the benefits of advertising online. Will the percentage of fraudulent clicks ever be as low as say 3%? Only time will.

Internet Marketing Day Parting Trends Move Torwards Early Morning

If you are a Pay Per Click manager or Search Engine Marketer, you may have heard that the best time of day to use up more of your ad spend is during lunch hours, as many people browse the internet at that time.

However, according to a recent post by the  NY Times, internet and social media junkies can no longer hold off till lunch time before checking the web for news, friend requests and more:

“This is morning in America in the Internet age. After six to eight hours of network deprivation — also known as sleep — people are increasingly waking up and lunging for cellphones and laptops, sometimes even before swinging their legs to the floor and tending to more biologically urgent activities”

This goes to show what an important role the Internet plays in the daily lives of people around the world. What does this mean for Internet Marketers? - Start displaying those ads early!

Microsoft Sells Razorfish for Over $500 Million

Today, the Wall Street Journal announced that Microsoft would be selling the internet marketing and interactive ad agency they purchased back in 2007: Razorfish.  The agency is being sold for a whopping $500-$600 million and has had some big name clients such as Kraft, Best Buy and AT&T.

Publicis Groupe SA, a french Internet Marketing and Advertising firm will take Razorfish by the horns going forward. Bidding for the company was a fierce batte. It has been rumored that Dentsu, Japan’s largest ad agency bid higher than Publicis, but was still denied the acquisition which has caused some speculation.

This move by Microsoft comes shortly after their agreement made last month with Yahoo to use Bing as the search engine to drive www.yahoo.com and use Microsoft’s ad center for self serving ads. Razorfish never used Microsoft’s technology in this matter, so unloading them after the new Yahoo deals makes sense in my opinion.