Data for newspaper-based Web sites for April 2008 - Newspapers still going strong!
Click Here for article
Tuesday
Come up with customized solutions for your clients...don't sell just on CPM!
Why Web Sites And Online Marketing Suck
By Joe Marchese
I have long been convinced that standard online marketing metrics were not only ineffective and inefficient for marketers, but were also destroying the quality of content on the Internet. Over a year ago I wrote about "Advertising's Role In Crippling The Internet As A Medium" and again in "
The Online Advertising Conundrum - More Metrics, Less Meaning." The basic gist was this: because marketers were demanding metrics (i.e. impressions,
clicks) that did not necessarily equate to value for a marketer, and could be faked or gamed, traditional media metrics were creating a lose-lose-lose eco-system on the Internet for publishers, advertisers and people.
I have never met Avinash Kaushik, Google's new Analytics Evangelist. But after reading "Google's 'Analytics Evangelist' Explains Why Websites 'Suck,"' an article by Mya Frazier about a talk Kaushik gave to a group of marketers, I think he and I would get along very well. From the article by
Frazier: "Mr. Kaushik employed the word 'sucks' frequently when he talked about the traditional metrics used for measuring online marketing. And as far as online marketing goes, it sucks too. He likened it to a 'faith-based initiative."'
One issue: placing all emphasis on reach over quality. How many BILLIONS of impressions is your campaign getting? If you are a publisher or ad network, you've heard it before; if you are a marketer, you're probably guilty of it.
Are you going on faith that you are actually affecting consumer opinions of your brand with those impressions? Media buyers are forced to compare CPM or CPC costs, because that is the only common metric that they have to compare across online media buys. But what does the number of impressions generated have to do with value generated for a brand? Maybe something, maybe nothing.
And we are back to marketers relying on faith. No wonder only CPA campaigns and other direct marketers are putting a significant percentage of dollars against online.
What should Web sites and ad networks be delivering to brand marketers? I would argue that there is a metric that could accurately measure online campaign effectiveness. This metric would measure the affect on brand awareness, brand perception and intent to purchase the campaign had on people exposed to various campaign assets. How? Ask the people exposed to the campaign. Sounds a lot like focus group testing, I know, but imagine focus group testing with scale and real-time results. It is not impossible, given the two-way nature of social media, that we could achieve a statistically significant sampling to measure the effectiveness of a particular campaign. Of course the Web site or the ad network couldn't provide this type of survey; it would require a third party that could compare the results across various online advertising methods to provide comparative results. Also, this method would presuppose people's willingness to engage with marketers, or finding the right motivations.
Metrics that matter are closer than you think. Imagine if Web sites didn't have to compete for "trick clicks" or massive impressions, but could report how effective their media was for marketers. They could focus on being more influential over their readers, meaning creating better quality. And marketers could focus on the number of people their campaigns actually affected. Imagine a new era in Internet advertising by applying methods marketers have been using for decades to social media.
Joe Marchese is President of socialvibe.
By Joe Marchese
I have long been convinced that standard online marketing metrics were not only ineffective and inefficient for marketers, but were also destroying the quality of content on the Internet. Over a year ago I wrote about "Advertising's Role In Crippling The Internet As A Medium" and again in "
The Online Advertising Conundrum - More Metrics, Less Meaning." The basic gist was this: because marketers were demanding metrics (i.e. impressions,
clicks) that did not necessarily equate to value for a marketer, and could be faked or gamed, traditional media metrics were creating a lose-lose-lose eco-system on the Internet for publishers, advertisers and people.
I have never met Avinash Kaushik, Google's new Analytics Evangelist. But after reading "Google's 'Analytics Evangelist' Explains Why Websites 'Suck,"' an article by Mya Frazier about a talk Kaushik gave to a group of marketers, I think he and I would get along very well. From the article by
Frazier: "Mr. Kaushik employed the word 'sucks' frequently when he talked about the traditional metrics used for measuring online marketing. And as far as online marketing goes, it sucks too. He likened it to a 'faith-based initiative."'
One issue: placing all emphasis on reach over quality. How many BILLIONS of impressions is your campaign getting? If you are a publisher or ad network, you've heard it before; if you are a marketer, you're probably guilty of it.
Are you going on faith that you are actually affecting consumer opinions of your brand with those impressions? Media buyers are forced to compare CPM or CPC costs, because that is the only common metric that they have to compare across online media buys. But what does the number of impressions generated have to do with value generated for a brand? Maybe something, maybe nothing.
And we are back to marketers relying on faith. No wonder only CPA campaigns and other direct marketers are putting a significant percentage of dollars against online.
What should Web sites and ad networks be delivering to brand marketers? I would argue that there is a metric that could accurately measure online campaign effectiveness. This metric would measure the affect on brand awareness, brand perception and intent to purchase the campaign had on people exposed to various campaign assets. How? Ask the people exposed to the campaign. Sounds a lot like focus group testing, I know, but imagine focus group testing with scale and real-time results. It is not impossible, given the two-way nature of social media, that we could achieve a statistically significant sampling to measure the effectiveness of a particular campaign. Of course the Web site or the ad network couldn't provide this type of survey; it would require a third party that could compare the results across various online advertising methods to provide comparative results. Also, this method would presuppose people's willingness to engage with marketers, or finding the right motivations.
Metrics that matter are closer than you think. Imagine if Web sites didn't have to compete for "trick clicks" or massive impressions, but could report how effective their media was for marketers. They could focus on being more influential over their readers, meaning creating better quality. And marketers could focus on the number of people their campaigns actually affected. Imagine a new era in Internet advertising by applying methods marketers have been using for decades to social media.
Joe Marchese is President of socialvibe.
Monday
TW Online Contest Continues....
Just a refresher; we have three ways to win 1. Top Revenue = $200 cash!
2. Most online clients = $100 cash 3. Most new online clients = $100 cash....
You all asked me to post updates...so here it is!
Karen Laney = $2257 online revenue; 5 clients; 1 new client
Michelle Rettig = $1940 online revenue; 6 clients; 3 new clients
Jason Willis = $1774 online revenue; 3 clients; 1 new clients
Cindy Marks = $1770 online revenue; 5 clients; 1 new clients
It is only $487, 1 client; and 2 new clients that differentiate who could walk away with $400 extra cash this month.....
There are also quite a few of you who have 2 new clients on the books....2 more and you could win the extra $100!
Let the games continue!
2. Most online clients = $100 cash 3. Most new online clients = $100 cash....
You all asked me to post updates...so here it is!
Karen Laney = $2257 online revenue; 5 clients; 1 new client
Michelle Rettig = $1940 online revenue; 6 clients; 3 new clients
Jason Willis = $1774 online revenue; 3 clients; 1 new clients
Cindy Marks = $1770 online revenue; 5 clients; 1 new clients
It is only $487, 1 client; and 2 new clients that differentiate who could walk away with $400 extra cash this month.....
There are also quite a few of you who have 2 new clients on the books....2 more and you could win the extra $100!
Let the games continue!
Web Terms in Plain English
5 minutes, watch these videos! Our reporters are really embracing blogs and podcasts as new web tools to report the news. These videos will help us understand them in a way that is easier to educate our advertisers. If the news is on the web, then readers are on the web. If readers are on the web, advertisers want to be there as well.
http://radiocaffeine.blogspot.com/2008/05/web-terms-in-plain-english.html
Enjoy!
http://radiocaffeine.blogspot.com/2008/05/web-terms-in-plain-english.html
Enjoy!
TW Traffic
Just a reminder!
Knowing who is on our site is like knowing your newspaper circulation:
Here are some facts about ThisWeekNews.com you should know!
* approx. 135,000 unique visitors each month
* 368,000 page views in April
Top Ten Content Pages for April!
1 Home
2. Powell
3. Grove City
4. Dublin
5. Community News Directory
6. Hilliard
7. Johnstown
8. Westerville
9. Gahanna
10. Carfagnas (clicking to their online ad)
Do you know what we can tell our advertisers that very few of the other media entities in town can? We can tell our advertisers not only the demographics of our users, but the geographic location of our users!
Common sense would tell us that the majority of the people reading the Dublin pages of ThisWeekNews.com will be from Dublin..so let's get the advertisers that want to reach those people...(that goes for every community...it's the TARGETED REACH, which is what we do best, in print and on the web!)
Ok, enough of a pep talk, let me know if you have any questions.
Knowing who is on our site is like knowing your newspaper circulation:
Here are some facts about ThisWeekNews.com you should know!
* approx. 135,000 unique visitors each month
* 368,000 page views in April
Top Ten Content Pages for April!
1 Home
2. Powell
3. Grove City
4. Dublin
5. Community News Directory
6. Hilliard
7. Johnstown
8. Westerville
9. Gahanna
10. Carfagnas (clicking to their online ad)
Do you know what we can tell our advertisers that very few of the other media entities in town can? We can tell our advertisers not only the demographics of our users, but the geographic location of our users!
Common sense would tell us that the majority of the people reading the Dublin pages of ThisWeekNews.com will be from Dublin..so let's get the advertisers that want to reach those people...(that goes for every community...it's the TARGETED REACH, which is what we do best, in print and on the web!)
Ok, enough of a pep talk, let me know if you have any questions.
Thursday
Ways to Optimize Email Marketing
To reach optimum returns on your emails, invest some time in filtering your email strategy through your brand standards and your marketing goals to arrive at a selection of possible messaging approaches. Then test the variables, using a basic A/B split or any other segmentation that is important you.
Here are a few things you can test.
Offer -- what offer will move your audience closer to a purchase? You may intuit the answer, or have to follow a business directive to make a particular offer, but by all means test themes and variations to create an offer the audience can't refuse. (Be careful of too much product discounting unless you want your brand to be associated with "cheap.")
· Financial incentives: money off, free shipping, two for the price of one, discounted service contract or installation.
· Non-monetary value: perks, quality upgrades, valuable information packet, accumulated rewards.
· Time-based incentives: 3-day sale, offer ends Saturday, for the month of May only. Audience empathy -- test ways of connecting on an emotional or intellectual level with your prospects.
· Exclusivity: be the first to own, leave the crowds behind, apply for exclusive entry.
· Problem-solving: a better way to ___, take the back-break out of ___, get results faster, smarter, more reliably.
· Emotion: because you love your children / pet / garden / beer, because you care about this issue / institution / group. Tone and manner -- while these must follow your brand standards, email is inherently a more personal medium than many other channels, so you can test some variables here.
· Timbre: taking a warm, personal approach versus a more clinical exposition of facts.
· Length of copy: test long, medium and short copy (depending on the product or service).
· Persuasion versus urgency: test to see if some of your audience wants to be schmoozed with reasons to buy (product attributes and excellence) versus receiving nonstop promotions. Structure -- where the offer appears may make a difference in how it is understood and acted on.
· Placement: try placing offers in the subject line, the headline, the call to action, a sidebar, and in image captions and call-outs. Make each instance a link and then track opens and where users click.
· Graphics -- be careful with presenting headlines and key offers in graphics, which may well get blocked from view in the inbox. Simpler is often better.
You can test which copy approach yields the best results simply by tracking click-throughs and conversions on sent emails. To dive deeper, you can also perform other types of research. Use focus groups or surveys to test the impact and takeaway of your offers and the way they are worded. You can also do eye-tracking studies to find out how readers scan your emails. When you learn what path their eyes follow, you can maximize the effect by placing your key inducements, either copy points or visuals, along the same path, in order of importance.
There are almost always several good ways of writing and designing any advertising message. If you try to test every possible combination of variables, you'll go cross-eyed. Apply lessons learned from your marketing in other channels to your email advertising, and vice-versa, and you will find the options narrowing nicely into a powerful set of guidelines you can use creatively again and again.
Here are a few things you can test.
Offer -- what offer will move your audience closer to a purchase? You may intuit the answer, or have to follow a business directive to make a particular offer, but by all means test themes and variations to create an offer the audience can't refuse. (Be careful of too much product discounting unless you want your brand to be associated with "cheap.")
· Financial incentives: money off, free shipping, two for the price of one, discounted service contract or installation.
· Non-monetary value: perks, quality upgrades, valuable information packet, accumulated rewards.
· Time-based incentives: 3-day sale, offer ends Saturday, for the month of May only. Audience empathy -- test ways of connecting on an emotional or intellectual level with your prospects.
· Exclusivity: be the first to own, leave the crowds behind, apply for exclusive entry.
· Problem-solving: a better way to ___, take the back-break out of ___, get results faster, smarter, more reliably.
· Emotion: because you love your children / pet / garden / beer, because you care about this issue / institution / group. Tone and manner -- while these must follow your brand standards, email is inherently a more personal medium than many other channels, so you can test some variables here.
· Timbre: taking a warm, personal approach versus a more clinical exposition of facts.
· Length of copy: test long, medium and short copy (depending on the product or service).
· Persuasion versus urgency: test to see if some of your audience wants to be schmoozed with reasons to buy (product attributes and excellence) versus receiving nonstop promotions. Structure -- where the offer appears may make a difference in how it is understood and acted on.
· Placement: try placing offers in the subject line, the headline, the call to action, a sidebar, and in image captions and call-outs. Make each instance a link and then track opens and where users click.
· Graphics -- be careful with presenting headlines and key offers in graphics, which may well get blocked from view in the inbox. Simpler is often better.
You can test which copy approach yields the best results simply by tracking click-throughs and conversions on sent emails. To dive deeper, you can also perform other types of research. Use focus groups or surveys to test the impact and takeaway of your offers and the way they are worded. You can also do eye-tracking studies to find out how readers scan your emails. When you learn what path their eyes follow, you can maximize the effect by placing your key inducements, either copy points or visuals, along the same path, in order of importance.
There are almost always several good ways of writing and designing any advertising message. If you try to test every possible combination of variables, you'll go cross-eyed. Apply lessons learned from your marketing in other channels to your email advertising, and vice-versa, and you will find the options narrowing nicely into a powerful set of guidelines you can use creatively again and again.
OTM Online Sales Contest
Here's the rules - Everyone can win!
* Every rep that gets 10 listings on TheBag.com between today and the end of the month
gets $100 cash
* The rep that sells the most online listings (above 15) will recieve an additional $250 incentive!
That's it....it's that simple! Let's get more listings up for our users to come back for!
* Every rep that gets 10 listings on TheBag.com between today and the end of the month
gets $100 cash
* The rep that sells the most online listings (above 15) will recieve an additional $250 incentive!
That's it....it's that simple! Let's get more listings up for our users to come back for!
Monday
New Media Marketing Confidence on the Rise
The articles linked below provide valuable advice about your audience, but it's up to you to learn it and share it with your advertisers. Educating yourself on the new ways your audience uses media is the only way to continue creating more effective solutions to your client's marketing problems
87.4% of Executives to Invest in New Media MarketingConfidence in new media is on the rise, according to the American Advertising Federation's AAF Media Investment Survey 2007. Results show a growing inclination among executives to augment traditional media with new media properties and experimentation, and responses indicate that traditional media categories are in serious need of innovation if they are to remain competitive.A full 87.4% of respondents believe that the pace and scope of innovation in the media landscape inspire creativity, and they are willing to invest their budgets to harness that creativity.Other findings:
* 73% of respondents reserve 1%-20% of their budget for experimentation and new media properties.
* 12.37% of respondents reserve 21%-40% of their budget for experimentation and new media properties.
Concerning media planning in 2007, respondents ranked "I am always open to new ways to use traditional media" at 78%, "
the right media mix almost always includes a balance of traditional and nontraditional media" at 75.5%, and
"the search for new media properties to grow my brand never stops" at 57.7%.
On Similar Topic...Email is a key point of influence for consumer purchase decisions, according to the Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions research released in January by Word Of Mouth Marketing Association member company Microsoft. The findings suggest that many of consumers' major decisions are influenced by email conversations with friends and family and point to the medium as a place where marketers can insert messages that might impact consumers during the decision-making process.
Other findings:
45% of frequent online users say email is their primary form of communication.
66% of male and 81% of female respondents discuss social arrangements (what films, concerts, or events to see or where to eat) via email.
41% of men discuss financial services purchases via email.
77% of women discuss travel plans via email.
Combining the stats regarding company intention to invest in new media with the information regarding how people use email ought to provide some interesting ways for you to use email marketing tools to help your clients.
87.4% of Executives to Invest in New Media MarketingConfidence in new media is on the rise, according to the American Advertising Federation's AAF Media Investment Survey 2007. Results show a growing inclination among executives to augment traditional media with new media properties and experimentation, and responses indicate that traditional media categories are in serious need of innovation if they are to remain competitive.A full 87.4% of respondents believe that the pace and scope of innovation in the media landscape inspire creativity, and they are willing to invest their budgets to harness that creativity.Other findings:
* 73% of respondents reserve 1%-20% of their budget for experimentation and new media properties.
* 12.37% of respondents reserve 21%-40% of their budget for experimentation and new media properties.
Concerning media planning in 2007, respondents ranked "I am always open to new ways to use traditional media" at 78%, "
the right media mix almost always includes a balance of traditional and nontraditional media" at 75.5%, and
"the search for new media properties to grow my brand never stops" at 57.7%.
On Similar Topic...Email is a key point of influence for consumer purchase decisions, according to the Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions research released in January by Word Of Mouth Marketing Association member company Microsoft. The findings suggest that many of consumers' major decisions are influenced by email conversations with friends and family and point to the medium as a place where marketers can insert messages that might impact consumers during the decision-making process.
Other findings:
45% of frequent online users say email is their primary form of communication.
66% of male and 81% of female respondents discuss social arrangements (what films, concerts, or events to see or where to eat) via email.
41% of men discuss financial services purchases via email.
77% of women discuss travel plans via email.
Combining the stats regarding company intention to invest in new media with the information regarding how people use email ought to provide some interesting ways for you to use email marketing tools to help your clients.
ThisWeek Online Sales Contest
Click here for info on the web contest:
Who will win?
** Just a friendly reminder, update your voicemails with ThisWeekNews.com/CP.com, there are points to be won!!!
Friday
Newspapers + Online = Success for Your Clients
According to this article from the Newspaper Associations of America, "research shows newspapers + Internet = more consumer purchasing power; Ads that appear in both mediums reinforce consumer confidence in products and services
http://www.naa.org/PressCenter/SearchPressReleases/2008/NAA-ANALYSIS-OF-NEW-GOOGLE-RESEARCH-FINDS-NEWSPAPER-ADVERTISING.aspx
Put this in your media kits to give clients...there are some amazing stats in here to show your clients.
* 58% of newspaper readers respond to ads
* 52% of people said they would be more likely to purchase a product if they saw it on the web and then in the paper (reinforcing the strength of using multiple advertising mediums)
* 30% of Internet-using newspaper readers went online to research at least one product that they saw in the newspaper (on average, they researched nine).
http://www.naa.org/PressCenter/SearchPressReleases/2008/NAA-ANALYSIS-OF-NEW-GOOGLE-RESEARCH-FINDS-NEWSPAPER-ADVERTISING.aspx
Put this in your media kits to give clients...there are some amazing stats in here to show your clients.
* 58% of newspaper readers respond to ads
* 52% of people said they would be more likely to purchase a product if they saw it on the web and then in the paper (reinforcing the strength of using multiple advertising mediums)
* 30% of Internet-using newspaper readers went online to research at least one product that they saw in the newspaper (on average, they researched nine).
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