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In the online marketing world it is all about the lead, but because so many marketers are concentrating on clicks, leads sometimes fall by the wayside. Why is this? Because clicks are relatively easy to measure, leads and engagement levels are harder to determine, but can be much more lucrative to the savvy marketer.

by Kristina Knight

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27.11.2009 20:01:55 In the words of Shefali Nagdev, “Delivering optimum results is an ongoing process, and so is adapting to the ever changing computing technology.”

(live-PR.com) - We live in an age where the widespread penetration of the World Wide Web into our everyday lives cannot be debated. While the internet has been a great way for businesses to reach out to their customer base in the past, things are only getting better with the passing of time, and affordable social media services have given many businesses

Online marketing and advertising is no longer limited to the traditional PPC and SEO campaigns, and social media is the new buzzword. Popular websites such as Facebook, Digg, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, and many more are all part of the social networking platform; and the main reason that advertisers are looking at this platform is because of the large number of internet users that visit these sites, a number that only continues to grow.
If you are looking to increase awareness about your business, then using the social media platform to do so is definitely a good idea. However, since effectively putting into place an online marketing

strategy does call for some expertise, using the services of a social media expert is the safest way to go about it. This is where a social media expert such as Shefali Nagdev can be of help.
The services that are offered under her umbrella include creating and managing accounts on popular social networking sites

such as Facebook, Twitter, etc, as well as services such as video posting, forum posting, blog posting, review & comment submissions, directory submissions, article writing, etc.
The services of Shefali Nagdev have already helped a number of businesses in achieving their desired targets, but in the words of Shefali Nagdev, “Delivering optimum results is an ongoing process, and so is adapting to the ever changing computing technology.”

Based out of India, Shefali Nagdev has been associated with the social media network since its very inception and offers a range of affordable social media services. Also being of the opinion that “social media optimization and marketing is simply the merging of social marketing, search engine marketing, and traditional media forms”, you can be sure that all aspects of online marketing at looked at whilst your needs are addressed.

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Issued by: AlterSage

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Jeffery Boyd, Priceline’s CEO, is among the merchants who “betrayed” customers, according to members of the Senate Commerce committee.

Last week, the U.S. Senate Commerce committee revealed that some of the Web’s best-known retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Hotwire, Yahoo, Pizza Hut, Travelocity, Fandango, and Victoria’s Secret, were part of a dubious marketing operation designed to mislead their own customers.

Serious questions about who’s policing e-commerce were raised after the Commerce committee issued a report detailing how three marketing firms, Affinion, Webloyalty, and Vertrue, generated $1.4 billion with the help of the e-tailers–largely by deceiving consumers into paying up to $20 a month for loyalty-program memberships. (Note to reader: take a look at the Commerce committee’s report (PDF), as it’s well written and seems to catch the e-tailers cold).

The lure for millions of consumers typically starts this way: Marketers present ads to them late in the transaction process at a retail site. An often-unwitting consumer is offered cash-back rewards if he or she provides an e-mail address. Tucked into the fine print are the full terms of the deal. By providing an e-mail address, a consumer agrees typically to pay between $10 and $20 a month.

For this number of marquee merchants to be mixed up in such a questionable gimmick seems unprecedented in the brief history of online commerce. Going into a holiday season that is already supposed to see soft spending, the scandal could undermine confidence in Web shopping, which generated $60 billion in sales during the first half of this year, according to the Senate report.

In their report, Senate investigators learned that Webloyalty surveyed 308 past and current users. This was the result.

(Credit: U.S. Senate Commerce committee)

One of the most glaring side issues of this fiasco is that for nearly a decade, consumers complained about these practices but few people in authority seemed to care. What is apparent is that many people in positions to help shoppers didn’t, or from the perspective of some consumers, may not have done enough. They include:

Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal
On paper at least, Connecticut appears to be a haven for controversial marketing companies. All three of the marketing firms under investigation by the Senate–Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty–are based in the state.

In 2006, Blumenthal settled a lawsuit with Trilegiant (PDF), the name Affinion was called then, for $14.5 million. But Affinion continues to operate, and Blumenthal hasn’t won anything from the other two firms.

In April, Blumenthal launched an investigation into Webloyalty. That came one month before the Senate Commerce committee launched its probe. The feds have since held a public hearing and shared revealing information about all three marketing firms with the public. Blumenthal, who has been Connecticut’s attorney general since 1990, promises more action.

“I will continue to vigorously and aggressively fight membership club scams,” Blumenthal announced on the day the Senate Commerce committee held its hearing.

Blumenthal did not respond to multiple interview requests.

The retailers’ directors and CEOs
For readers who question whether the CEOs and directors of such companies as Orbitz, Continental Airlines, US Airways, and 1-800-Flowers knew about what the marketing companies were up to on their behalf, this is what the government had to say:

“Committee staff has spoken to more than a dozen e-commerce partners of Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty and has reviewed thousands of pages of e-mail communications,” according to the Senate report. “The interviews and the e-mail communications provide abundant evidence that the e-commerce partners are aware that their customers are being misled by the enrollment offers from Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty.”

What would make a director or CEO take such risk with their company’s reputation? In July, blogger Andrew Left, who specializes in shorting stocks, wrote that VistaPrint, an online printing company and a retail partner of Vertrue’s, has generated as much as 44 percent of its quarterly net income by charging Vertrue access to its customers’ credit cards.

But for even the most profit-at-all-cost investor, the questionable ploy could risk breaking customer trust and appears to have already battered stock prices.

Last week, the stock price of VistaPrint traded at nearly $56 the day before the Senate hearing on November 17, but it closed Tuesday at $50, a 10.7 percent drop. Shares of United Online, parent company of Classmates.com–which reportedly generated $70 million from the questionable marketing practices–fell from $8.40 before the November 17 hearing to $7.05 on Tuesday, a loss of about 16 percent.

When contacted, VistaPrint referred me to statements the company made earlier in the year in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In a 10-K SEC filing, the company said it expected revenue from membership discount programs “will decrease in the future” to possibly zero.

The big question is whether VistaPrint made that disclosure thinking that its payday would end as a result of the Senate investigation or one of the several lawsuits filed against it and Vertrue.

Visa, Mastercard, and American Express
The biggest credit card companies might also want to explain how they continued to process transactions from Webloyalty, Affinion, and Vertrue, when apparently they had received scores of complaints about these companies.

When consumers ask their credit card company to force a retailer to issue a refund, it is called a chargeback. A merchant that sees too many chargebacks is supposed to suffer some penalties. For instance, at Visa, chargeback-prone merchants are supposed to be fined and eventually booted off Visa’s network. What happened here?

A Visa spokeswoman said she was unable to comment at this time. Representatives from Mastercard and American Express were not immediately available. 

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Sears, Kmart and Others Begin Holiday Sales Ahead of Time as Shoppers Start Early Search for Deals

By Jack Neff and Natalie Zmuda
Published: November 22, 2009

http://adage.com/article?article_id=140669

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Black Friday 2009 has become a massive game of chicken among retailers and consumers, as the closely watched post-Thanksgiving sales data will largely decide who succeeds at outsmarting the other.

Consumers are planning more and earlier to get the best deals this holiday season, starting their shopping and online price comparisons weeks ahead of last year. Retailers, meanwhile, have been more conservative with inventory even if they’re offering what some observers see as the best Black Friday deals ever, hoping to avoid big late-season and post-season markdowns. Black Friday will go a long way toward deciding which side comes out on top.

Google data show the upswing in searches for “Black Friday deals” started about two weeks earlier this year than last, beginning in October. Search on that phrase actually hit a short-term peak Nov. 13 and declined through last week, though it may pick up again this week. Experian Hitwise is now seeing searches for Black Friday starting as early as August.

Thriftier consumers are making Black Friday more important, said Kohl’s CMO Julie Gardner. “The environment has never been more difficult,” she said. “The interest, from a consumer standpoint, on how to be the smartest shopper will be amplified.”

Interest is intense enough that the traditional boundaries around Black Friday and Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) are breaking down fast. Amazon announced last week it will begin Black Friday deals starting Monday Nov. 23, essentially a week before online retail’s traditional “Cyber Monday” shopping peak. Black Friday, however, already had become an online phenomenon, with ComScore reporting last year that traffic to online retailers was up 98% over the previous year’s Black Friday.

Circular leaks
Meanwhile, early online leaks of retailers’ offline Black Friday circular ads have become so pervasive that Walmart, which for years has threatened to sue the small websites that preview them, finally relented last week. It let BlackFriday.info publish a leaked version of its entire Thanksgiving Day circular, though it still declines to confirm or deny its veracity. That came a day after Walmart confirmed six of its Black Friday prices to CNN.

Realistically, Walmart may have had to cave rather than lose buzz to other retailers that let their leaks flow more freely. Price wars over what might have once been “Black Friday” deals, such as books and Xbox 360 gaming consoles, broke out weeks ahead of Black Friday among Walmart, Amazon, Target and Sears.

Sears, sibling Kmart and Kohl’s were among retailers that started rolling early “Black Friday” themed holiday sales in early November. These early deals, combined with signs of unusually early shopping and planning by consumers and surprisingly strong October sales numbers for many retailers, raises the question of whether retailers have stolen some of the thunder from Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Sara Kleinberg, head of marketing for retail at Google, doesn’t think so, pointing to survey research by Google and OTX showing 32% of consumers plan to do most of their shopping during Thanksgiving weekend. Another 40% plan to do so in early to mid December, according to the survey, based on data from the week of Nov. 2.

A poll by the International Council of Shopping Centers found 16% of shoppers plan to begin their holiday gift shopping on Black Friday, up from 10% last year.

By all appearances, the deals, including LCD HDTVs from Walmart and Target for $248 and $246, respectively, $3 small appliances at Target and a $59 Garmin GPS at Walmart, are better than ever, said Scott McCollum, managing director-shopper marketing at Ogilvy Action. But the question is how successful retailers will be at getting people they lure in with sweet deals to buy higher-margin items, and whether consumers will have anything left to spend by mid-December.

“We are definitely seeing more people shopping from lists,” Mr. McCollum said, “and less impulse shopping.” Adding to consumer discipline, he said, is that more people plan to buy holiday gifts with cash, not credit.

Layaway has accordingly gotten new life, particularly among retailers looking to differentiate themselves from Walmart, which did away with it more than two years ago. Sears, Kmart and Best Buy are among retailers that have added online layaway this year. Google actually shows a steady increase in searches for “layaway” plans the past five years, with an 8% increase this September-November period vs. a year ago and a 40% increase in searches for online layaway.

Seemingly Black Friday and the holiday season should be better for retailers this year, if only because last year’s same-store sales were so dismal. Going into this holiday season, most retailers were reporting surprisingly strong sales momentum in October or the third quarter, with Walmart — last year’s standout — being one of the few to see deceleration this year.

Dismal projections
But most projections for overall holiday sales are gloomy. The National Retail Federation forecasts a 1% decline. Nielsen’s annual holiday retail survey fielded at the beginning of November found 42% of respondents plan to spend less than a year ago vs. only 4% who plan to spend more. NPD Group was slightly less gloomy, with a 30% to 11% split.

While it’s clear people have done more research online in advance of the holiday season, it’s far less clear they’ll be buying more online as some may trade the convenience of online shopping for deals they hope to find on Black Friday in stores.

Research released last week by Digital Research and ThinkVine showed 39% of consumers plan to spend less online this holiday season, compared to 20% who said they’ll spend more. That jibes with Nielsen’s survey, which found the percentage of consumers who plan to do at least some holiday shopping online declined 10 points to 63%.

On the other hand, Forrester projects online retail sales will actually rise 8% this year, breaking out of a funk that saw third-quarter e-commerce sales down 2% according to ComScore. One factor in favor of the online retailers, according to Forrester, are those tight offline inventories retailers are using to avoid late markdowns, which could drive people online to find what they can’t in stores.

Either way, freebies will be big drivers of online success, as Google reports strong double-digit increases in searches for free shipping and coupon codes.

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Written by Jart Armin

11/23/2009 18 comments

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Are you ready for the future of search marketing? It’s going to creep up on you if you are not. In fact, it’s already creeping. How long have you spent worrying about keywords? Is that all you worry about? Hopefully not, because there’s a lot more to successful online marketing than that, even search marketing.

This is the basic plot of a keynote speech delivered by Charlene Li, co-author of the book Groundswell, and Founder of Altimeter Group, at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose.

The big picture is largely about social media and interaction. This is nothing new right? You’ve had social media marketing talk rammed down your throat for a while now, but that’s separate from search engine marketing right? Well, yes and no. Social media may play a bigger role in search engine rankings that you realize, and that could even become truer in the future, and probably will.

Here’s the thing. Searchers want relevant results. It’s all about relevancy. That’s all the search engines strive for, and that’s what users want. As Li says, “There is a new type of relevance called engagement.” People must be at the center of your search strategy. Not keywords.

There’s a reason that real-time search is such a hot topic. Some think it’s just a buzzword, but it’s more than that. It’s an ever-growing element into what people want to know.

Now we’re not talking about real-time search taking over traditional search. Right now is not always more relevant than something from three years ago. In many cases, it is more relevant though. User intent might be considered the holy grail.

There’s a reason Google is working toward updating its algorithm to incorporate a faster indexing speed. People want freshness. That’s why Twitter has become such a hot source of buzz that seemingly all radio and television programs cling to these days. It’s up to the minute info about what people are saying.

Facebook is doing it now too, and Li mentioned the importance of this in her keynote as well. One very important thing to keep in mind is that outside search engines aren’t indexing the information that can be found in Facebook updates. Facebook is huge now, by the way - way bigger than Twitter. We’re talking up there in Googleland in terms of users.

Social is an important element of search. We still have to look at it as a thing of the future though, because we are still so early in the evolution of the social web. The major search engines are still trying to make sense of it all. Li noted that the real time web presents many challenges to search engines, because how do you place value on things like retweets, @replies, short URLs, etc? There are a lot of new elements to consider.

Now think about search engine advertising. Li asked, “What if search engines augmented my search ads based on knowing who I am?” Think about data like influence, and number of friends. The number of influential friends could influence search results and search engine ad targeting.

The web has largely become a very social environment, and will continue to become even more so. This is why marketers should focus on people rather than keywords. If you want an example of how this plays directly into Google results already, Li mentioned how the YouTube video called ” United Breaks Guitars ” ranks number 4 in Google when you search for “united”. United doesn’t own that keyword anymore, because people have lifted this video up.

The synopsis of Li’s book reads, “Right now, your customers are writing about you products on blogs and recutting you commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging up on you on social networking sites like Facebook. These are the elements of a social phenomenon.”

Well, it’s the truth. You’ve got to engage out there. There are watchers, sharers, commenters, content producers, and curators. Focus on the sharers and the watchers. Focus on people and relationships, and listen to customers. 

Li says you should also get you back end data in order. By this, she means having a single place where people can sign in to your site, and integrate off-site behavior and data. Figure out the value of specific visitors. Integrating social into your site is a good way to do this.

“Prepare to tap into ‘chain of intent,’” she says. “Google now combines chains of searches to determine intent.” (Emphasis added.)

Know that customers can take their social networks anywhere with them at this point. Thanks to all kinds of tools from the networks themselves, as well as browser plug-ins, etc. people always have their social functions a click away. You’re going to have to accept this and realize that you have less control over your brand than ever. That’s why you need to deepen relationships and get engaged. It’s even important than ever for search.

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All of the search engines are rushing to incorporate more social media elements into their interfaces. Examples of this are evident in things like Google and Bing’s deals with Twitter and Facebook. You can see it in Yahoo’s new Twitter tab for news results. You can see it in Google’s Social Search lab. Really you can see it in everyday search results.

Do you consider a social presence an important element to your search campaign? Discuss here.

A lot of Internet users spend a great deal of their time socializing or using social media sites in one way or another, whether that is to connect with others or simply to obtain information. Information is a key component of social media that often takes a backseat to communication in discussion of social media tools.

The fact of the matter is that more and more people are getting more and more of their information from social sites. That could be in the form of following a news publication on Twitter, following company updates on a blog or a Facebook page, or something as simple as a friend sharing a link.

Given that people are getting more info from social media sites, of course search engines want a piece of that, because their whole reason for existence is naturally to help users find what they are looking for on the web.

So, it stands to reason that if you want people to find information that you are producing, it can help a great deal to publish information and participate in conversations on social media sites. Never mind that users of those particular sites will have access to it. The general public will as well by way of search, regardless of whether or not they are a part of any particular community.

In an interview with WebProNews, Vanessa Fox, who used to work for Google, talked about reasons that businesses should be thinking about social media with regards to search. It’s about visibility. If you are having discussions out there about relevant topics, they could appear in search results not only in real-time search, but further down the road as well.

In other words, if you have a conversation with a peer on Twitter about some topic related to your niche, there is a good chance the resulting tweets of that conversation could appear in search results for that topic on Google, even a year from now, if that tweet happens to be relevant enough. That’s just an example (note: it’s hard to say at this point, just how tweets will impact search once the Google-Twitter deal starts showing results).

There are a variety of ways in which a social campaign can contribute to your performance in search engines, regardless of what these recent deals might produce. Like Lee Odden of Top Rank Online Marketing recently discussed with WebProNews, you can optimize your social content.

The web went blog crazy a few years back. Marketers found out that blogs were great for achieving search engine visibility because of the content and links that can come from them. It’s not that different with social media now. The web has largely moved into a social media-heavy phase, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. Search engines obviously know this and care about it.

As Fox says in her interview, it’s getting to the point where more businesses are starting to realize that they need to be involved with social media. However, surveys still frequently suggest that many are reluctant, and even if they do engage to some extent, they are still holding back, and not reaching the potential they could be.

You know search is important to marketing on the web. Really, it’s important to marketing, period. If you operate on the web or off, your customers are on still online, as Fox noted. Social media is growing increasingly important to search. And search is only one aspect of online marketing. There are many more benefits to social media than that.

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By R. Gregg, Raleigh Telegram 20.NOV.09
RALEIGH - During a recent email marketing class organized by the Raleigh Telegram, three email marketing experts offered some crucial tips in executing online marketing campaigns. The group also offered some do’s and don’ts for those starting out with email newsletters and offers.

Speaking at the event held last Thursday, November 12th were Chuck Hester from iContact in Durham, Julie Wade from Bronto in Durham, and Jeremy Smith of Twine Interactive in Raleigh.

Answering questions from the moderator, R.Gregg of the Telegram, and from members of the audience, the expert panel offered plenty of tips for businesses using email campaigns to reach current customers or for those hoping to acquire new ones.

Some of the tips included:

–Don’t buy email lists to start your campaign. Often the lists include people who have not opted in to the list and also email providers often put special emails on such lists to see if they are used by spammers.

–Don’t put too much information in an email. Try to keep it simple, with one message and one call to action per email.

–Keep it “above the fold”. In other words, try not to make the message too longer and allow the recipient to read it entirely without having to scroll down.

–If you’ve got a video, be sure to put a “play” button on there. Including a play button in the email will dramatically increase click-through rates for videos as opposed to just including a picture or text link.

–Don’t oversend emails. If you’re sending out an email every day to your customers that’s probably too much. Depending on your product, once a week may be the most you want to send a message to your customers.

–If you’re trying to reach customers who haven’t responded in a while, use an emotional appeal. Putting “We miss you” or “We miss talking with you” will get people to open up the email and it conveys a personal message that indeed, you do miss them both as a person and as a customer.

–Offers and giveaways don’t hurt. It helps to have incentives for customers to open emails such as offers of prizes, discounts, specials, etc. Try to include something fun that will get their attention without going overboard.

SEE PHOTOS FROM THE CLASS:
click here

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