Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

1. Local Search.  Newspaper readership, Yellow Pages use, and TV audiences continue to shrink, making local consumers, hard to reach. The good news is that more and more consumers are going online and using local search to find everything from attorneys to plumbers to child care. For you, local search can be far less expensive than traditional marketing. It also can deliver a much better “cost of acquisition.” Since local search zeroes in on your own highly targeted audience, you’ll get leads that are more relevant and it will take less time and money to convert those leads into customers.

2. Online Video. . Studies show that video can boost click-throughs 50%. It also boosts your search engine visibility. That’s why smart marketers are starting to use video in eMail, eNewsletters, microsites, press releases, and in advertising and awareness campaigns on sites like YouTube and Facebook. During 2009, experiment with using video! Some ideas: product demos, testimonials, introduction to your website, special report, a status report (e.g., progress on a project or how you’re renovating your offices), etc.

3. eCommerce. Online sales continue to grow. More and more customers are staying in the comfort of their own home and saving the gas to make purchases. If you do not sell online. You really should.

it may not be a whole new ballgame, but the lineup is shifting.

Online sports properties have the perfect ingredients to engender the kind of customer engagement that all businesses crave. “Sports sites have a built-in audience of passionate fans who are loyal to the teams they follow,” says Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer and author of the new report, Sports Site Marketing: Ad Revenue Models Pull Ahead. “These fans have an insatiable thirst for facts, figures, statistics and trivia—and they like to share their knowledge and opinions with others.” Most importantly to marketers, sports fans are willing to pay for premium content and merchandise, and are used to the presence of sponsors and advertisers around sports events. “As the Internet continues to evolve toward ad-supported models,” says Mr. Verna, “sports sites will follow suit.” eMarketer estimates that total revenues for

“The increase will be largely due to the growth of ad-supported sports content models,” says Mr. Verna. eMarketer estimates that US sports site revenues from advertising will rise from 55% in 2007 to 66% in 2012.

“Additional revenues will come from ancillary sources such as ticket sales, merchandise and memorabilia, partnerships, and Website and production services that sports sites provide for third parties,” says Mr. Verna.

Marketers intent on following the money need look no further than their computer screens. According to a new survey from marketing service and software provider Alterian, 45% of DMers spent at least $500,000 in 2007 for online efforts, compared with just over one-third in 2006.

That spending increase has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is likely from offline efforts. Among DMers, 30% spent less than $100,000 on offline campaigns, up from 23% in 2006 and 18% in 2005.

The move to digital marketing should continue: 84% of those surveyed anticipate their online spend will increase during the next 12 months, with only 1% foreseeing a decline.

Part of this may reflect the relative youth of the online space, but part may also reflect marketers going where the customers are. Only 44% of all marketers said their offline spending would increase, compared with 52% in 2006 who expected it to rise. The number expecting decreases was 11%, identical with 2006.

Aside from boosting their online spending, two-thirds of all marketers said they were allocating additional resources (such as headcount, man-hours or research) to database and analytical functions. Forty-two percent are putting more resources toward digital efforts, and 39% are investing more in process and operational functions.

Survey respondents are also embracing specialists for certain marketing functions. Forty-five percent outsource creative design to agencies, while another 41% rely on vendors for e-mail campaign execution. Nearly four in 10 (37%) turn to list companies to manage their files, and 35% use outside database and analytics firms. Seventeen percent have outsourced their campaign management functions.

But as marketing departments embrace a wider variety of channels, their ability to coordinate all their functions through a single management system has dwindled. Seventy percent of all marketers use at least three marketing applications to accomplish their responsibilities, and 20% rely on seven or more.

Alterian’s survey was conducted during October and November 2007 through online questionnaires and in-person interviews at direct marketing trade shows. The study incorporates responses from 852 marketing professionals.