Archive for February, 2010
Optimizing Your Google Base Data Feeds
Author: Penton
Why should we spend time optimizing products for Google Base?
Let’s start by discussing why we should even bother with using Google Base. First and foremost, let’s look at the placement of Google Onebox Results when compared to organic search results. OneBox results are actually placed above the organic search results. As far as page real estate goes, this is extremely significant in terms of the number of impressions and clicks you will get on your product listing.
It is also important to note that Google Base uses the information from Base listings for more than just Google OneBox results. This data may also be displayed in Google Product Search (previously Froogle), organic search results, Google Maps, Google Image Search and more. That adds up to a variety of exposure your site could potentially receive from a single Google Base listing.
How to Optimize your Data Feeds
Now we will get into some specific guidelines that will help you increase the effectiveness of your product listings and thus increase your product conversion rates.
Do Your Keyword Research: Before filling out any information on your data feed, use Google’s Keyword Tool External to find out what people are searching for. You can then optimize your product title and description accordingly. This is very similar to SEO for title and Meta tags. Limit your title to about 65-70 characters and your description to about 160 or so. Also be sure to include your desired keywords, about two or three of them, in both your title and description.
Automate Your Data Feeds: Schedule to have your data feeds automatically sent to and updated in Google Base. Create an xml or txt data feed on your website and then simply supply Google Base with the location of this file. You can then specify how often (daily, weekly, or monthly) you would like Google to update you product listings based on the information from this file. To create the xml or txt data feed for your products, try using shopping cart add-ons such as this one for Drupal or this for osCommerce.
Product ID: Each product in your data feed will have a unique product id. Be sure to keep this id consistent when updating your data feeds.
Product Type: Google Base uses product taxonomy to categorize your products. Be sure you use the correct categories and are as specific as possible. You can view the taxonomy structure here.
Include Relevant Information: Be sure to provide as much relevant information as possible. Google Base has three categories of product attributes; mandatory, recommended, and optional. Include all of the mandatory and recommended attributes and as many of the optional attributes as possible.
Important Attributes: There are a few product attributes that are very important to include in your listings. The first is tax and shipping information; Google Base will often give better listing placements when these two attributes are clearly defined. The second is a quality picture for the same reason. Do not include a general picture or company logo. Finally, include the Manufacturer’s Part Number (MPN) or Universal Product Code (UPC) when possible. This will assist people who search for a very specific product.
Target Country: Make sure you select a target country for your listings. This will both increase the relevancy and quality of your traffic as well as lower your bounce rates.
Custom Attributes: This is extremely important for achieving good results on Google Base. You can define any custom product attribute you want that will help customers find your products. For example, if you are selling an LCD TV you could define the following attributes; model number, screen size, resolution, aspect ration, brightness, response time, etc. That way when someone searches ‘LCD TV 52” 1080p’ your product will have a better chance of coming up versus other listings that have not included this information.
Data Feed Format: Make sure your data feed is formatted correctly. Simply review Google Base Help for formatting guidelines to be sure you don’t have any errors in your data feed.
Track Your Listings: Make sure you track your items through Google Analytics. You can then find out what is successful and what is not. Be sure to adjust your listings based on feedback from Google Analytics. You can find information on tracking your products with Google Analytics here.
Build Up Your Seller Rating: Simply put, Google Base will give priority and higher rankings to products sold by a seller or store with a lot of positive ratings. One suggestion would be to encourage your customers to leave feedback for your store on Google. Offer them a small discount or free shipping on their next purchase if they leave a review.
Final Thoughts:
By providing Google Base with a lot of specific and quality information, your products will tend to rank for longer tail keywords, such as ‘Samsung LCD TV 52” 1080p.’ When searchers are typing in these longer tail and highly specific keywords, they are more likely to be in a position to buy the product rather than just browsing. This is what will separate product listings that do ok from the ones that absolutely kill it with very high conversion rates. Now that you have a basic guideline, you are ready to optimize your Google Base data feeds.
Popularity: 35% [?]
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SUMMARY: We wanted to know how organizations allocated their online marketing budgets for each of the following tactics, including personnel, media and other direct costs. This is what we learned.
By Sergio Balegno, Research Director
Social Media’s Share of the Online Marketing Budget
Social media, which would have accounted for a very small increment of the “Other online marketing” slice just a few years ago, is now garnishing 11% of the average online marketing budget. Based on other trends indicated in this report, social media’s share will continue to increase in the year ahead.
While email and search have been online marketing’s workhorse tactics in recent years, Web sites have become the hub of marketing strategy for many organizations. As such, the majority of content stored on a company Web site is created as the destination point for visitors arriving from email, search and other marketing campaigns. Nonetheless, the cost of creating this content is often allocated to the Web site, resulting in the largest slice of the online marketing budget pie.
For additional research data and insights about social marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.
Popularity: 1% [?]
SUMMARY: There is often reluctance to fix a machine that’s not broken. But when the machine is wasteful, minor tweaks can bring greater efficiency without sacrificing performance.
See how a menswear retailer brought their catalog circulation issues under control, realized huge savings, and invested in customer acquisition. Includes six lessons from their experiences.
Like almost every marketer last year, Scott Drayer, Director, Marketing, Paul Fredrick, and his team had to focus on cutting costs without sacrificing performance.
The professional menswear retailer relied heavily on catalogs to reach customers, so the team looked for savings in that channel. They analyzed customer data to identify segments that could receive fewer catalog mailings without depressing sales. As a result, they’ve saved almost 30% on catalog spending, with some customers receiving up to 50% fewer mailings per year.
The team then invested the savings in customer acquisition, lifting acquisition rates by more than 20%. And, according to Drayer, they still have some money left over to offset the effects of the recession.
Here are the six lessons Drayer’s team learned by cutting back on catalog mailings and investing elsewhere:
Lesson #1. Overcirculation is an opportunity
Drayer’s team sent a large amount of catalogs — up to 10 per quarter for some customers.
“We need to be there communicating with our customer the day he goes into his closet and finds one shirt with a coffee stain, another missing a button, and without any shirts to wear,” Drayer says. “He’s not shopping. He’s filling a need.”
This strategy worked when times were good, but when the recession hit, the team worried about costs. They had never conducted a detailed analysis of customer data to estimate how often catalogs should be mailed, so they knew that if the process found ways to reduce catalog frequency, it presented a tremendous savings opportunity.
Lesson #2. Strong customer data is required
In order to estimate how customers would respond to fewer mailings, the team needed a significant sample of customer data to analyze — about four to five years of purchase history.
Information vital to this effort included:
o Data maintained on a customer level
o Purchase channel
o Advertising channel that drove the sale
o Advertising combinations that reached the customer before the sale
Drayer’s team was diligent about capturing and storing data, but they were less adept at analyzing it for trends and insights.
Lesson #3. Use an analyst
Since they did not have one in-house, the team needed to hire a specialist to analyze data, look for trends and make recommendations.
The analyst’s role was to spend three to four weeks looking at the data to identify customer segments that would perform equally well if sent fewer catalogs, and to recommend appropriate reductions in frequency for each segment.
The team identified three customer segments that relied on catalogs to differing degrees when making a purchase:
- Catalog customers
These customers typically ordered products over the phone from a catalog. The data clearly showed that catalogs drove their sales. The team did not want to decrease mailings to this group.
“The whole point is that the people [who respond] best to catalogs are still going to be getting them,” Drayer says.
- Transitional customers
These customers were likely former catalog customers who showed a growing propensity to order products through other channels, such as the website. These customers represented a moderate opportunity for decreased mailings.
- Loyal online customers
The final group of customers would likely continue to order from Paul Fredrick with a sharp decrease in catalogs. These loyal customers often purchased through the website, and provided the strongest opportunity for decreased mailings.
Lesson #4. Accept some risk
The hardest part of this effort was accepting “the possibility that it didn’t work and you just cost yourself a lot of money,” Drayer says.
Drayer was convinced that potential benefits greatly outweighed possible drawbacks, and decided to move forward with the effort. He has no regrets.
“Our results have been more than favorable. It was worth the effort, most definitely.”
Lesson #5. Hedge your bets
Although the team had confidence in their analysis, they did not want to overexpose themselves.
They tested some of the analyst’s suggestions, cutting catalog frequency by 25% and 50% for certain segments, even though the analyst suggested cutting catalogs by up to 75% for some groups.
“We played it a little more safe than sorry,” Drayer says.
Continued monitoring of sales data will determine whether the team can further cut frequency for some segments, Drayer says.
Lesson #6. Reinvest in acquisition
The team saw substantial savings in its catalog mailings with negligible impacts on performance. They used some of this money to offset recession-based setbacks. But they invested the majority in customer acquisition.
Catalog savings alone have helped the team:
o Test television and radio advertising
o Expand paid search marketing
o Launch a retargeted banner advertising effort
o Invest in testing software for their website
Popularity: 1% [?]
Chart: Social Marketers Preparing for the Challenges Ahead
Author: Penton
SUMMARY: We asked more than 2,300 social media marketers how they thought important challenges to social marketing effectiveness would change in 2010. Here’s what we found.
By Sergio Balegno, Research Director
Challenges Becoming Increasingly Important in the Year Ahead
The learning curve has been steep during the past year and marketers have overcome many previous challenges to the effectiveness of social media marketing.
Going forward, the increasingly important challenges are those related to key performance indicators like ROI and conversions. Two years ago, a popular marketing myth was that ROI for social media programs could not be easily measured. Marketers have dispelled this myth by proving that not only can the ROI of social media programs be measured, but the return on social marketing invest is exceptionally high.
Marketers are learning that social media does not perform effectively as a standalone tactic. As social programs are strategically integrated into the marketing mix, fans and followers who are learning about brands in the socialsphere are following the trail of breadcrumbs back to Web sites and conversion pages where they become leads and ultimately customers. This conversion from social media user to customer is becoming increasingly important as marketers become more proficient at it.
For additional research data and insights about social marketing, download and read the free Executive Summary from MarketingSherpa’s 2010 Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Competition Spy
Author: Penton
Spy on your competition in five minutes! Using three free tools available on the web, it is possible to quickly do competitive research and discover insightful information. Find your competitor’s monthly visits, average page views, organic rankings, pay per click budgets, and pay per click search terms, and more, simply by knowing your competitor’s URL and entering it into these tools!
Tool #1 Quantcast
Quantcast, while originally designed for advertisers and publishers, is a great tool to find out information regarding the visitors to your competitor’s website. Enter the competitor’s domain and press “Go.” Quantcast visitor information includes number of monthly visitors and demographic information such as gender, age, presence of children in the household, income, ethnicity, and education. For more information on how to interpret the Quantcast data, read here.
Tool #2 Compete
When you first visit Compete, enter your competitor’s URL and hit the button “Get Site SnapShot.” The Compete SnapShot returns several metrics related to your competitor’s site. Similar to Quantcast, Compete also offers an estimate of the monthly visitors to the website. Compete data also includes statistics on pages per visit and average stay (or the number of minutes the average person spends on the site). For some websites, the “More Site Information” section may include data as to whether or not the site is “Trusted,” meaning it has been validated by GeoTrust and it has an “extensive site history” and may list current deals being offered by the website. For more information about the Compete SnapShot, click here.
Tool #3 Spyfu
Spyfu is a fantastic tool, especially if your competition is engaged in Pay Per Click advertising. Enter your competitor’s domain and hit search. Spyfu returns data not only on organic search terms and rankings and that website’s organic competitors but also a wealth of PPC data as well. Spyfu can provide you with your competitor’s paid search terms and positions (as well as paid competitors) and other helpful estimates such as daily ad budget, clicks/day, average cost/click, average clicks/day, average ad position, average number of competitors for an ad, etc. Spyfu data can be very helpful in planning your own PPC campaign strategy.
The most important things about all of these tools they are easy to use, accessible, and best of all, they’re FREE! So, what are you waiting for get out there and find out what the competition is doing!
Popularity: 1% [?]
SUMMARY: Here are the winning campaigns in MarketingSherpa’s fifth-annual Email Marketing Awards.
Browse this gallery of 23 campaigns that delivered exceptional results and get inspired to improve your own efforts. This year, we focused on crucial programs and tactics, such as autoresponders, newsletters, list-growth campaigns and dynamic content. Winners from the B2B and B2C space include Alaska Airlines, Electrolux, Microsoft, Dell, and The Orange County Register.
For the fifth year in a row, we’ve examined hundreds of submissions to select the most impressive campaigns for our Email Marketing Awards. The competition has gotten more intense each year, with many great campaigns that might have been winners in the past falling just short in this year’s judging.
As always, results carry the day in this competition. The first thing our judges consider are the campaign’s performance metrics, and this performance is given the most weight in the final scoring. But they also assign scores based on campaign strategy and tactics — was there advanced segmentation at work? Personalization? Use of dynamic content? Social media integration? And email creative also gets a look, especially when creative decisions are supported by testing and optimization.
Based on this process, we’ve selected 23 campaigns as Gold, Silver or Honorable Mention award winners. Browse the list below, and click the links to read a description of why each campaign won and see samples of the creative used.
We hope you find inspiration for your own campaigns, and generate results worth sharing in next year’s competition.
#1. Best Email Newsletter
Gold B2B
Royal & SunAlliance Canada
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
Royal&SunAlliance.pdf
Gold Consumer
Indiana Office of Tourism Development
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
IndianaTourismOfficeBestEmailNewsletterGoldB2C.pdf
Silver B2B
Click Rain
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
ClickRain-BestEmailNewsletterSilverB2B.pdf
Silver Consumer
The Orange County Register — OC Moms
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
OrangeCountyRegisterBestEmailNewsletterSilverConsumer.pdf
#2. Best Promotional Message — Direct Sale or Lead Gen Offer
Gold B2B
Follet Software — TitlePeek Trial Email Campaign
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
Follet-BestPromoGoldB2B.pdf
Gold Consumer
NW Natural — Smart Energy Challenge
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
NWSmartEnergy-BestPromoGoldB2C.pdf
Silver B2B
Landry & Kling — 7 Things Hotels Don’t Want You To Know
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
LandryKlingBestPromo-DirectSalesSilverB2B.pdf
Silver Consumer
CPAP.com — New Mirage SoftGel Nasal Mask Introduction
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
BestPromoSilverB2C-CPAP.pdf
Honorable Mention Consumer
Ace Hardware — Email Coupon Campaign
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
Ace-BestPromoB2CHM.pdf
Honorable Mention Nonprofit
World Wildlife Foundation Deutschland — “His Home is Our Climate” fundraising campaign
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
Rabbit-BestPromohonorablemention.pdf
#3. Best Opt-In or List Growth Campaign
Gold B2B
Huttig Building Products — List Growth Campaign
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
Huttig-BestOpt-inGold%20B2B.pdf
Gold Consumer
Dell — Alienware Launch
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
DellAlienwareBestOpt-inGoldB2C.pdf
Silver Consumer
Coca-Cola — My Coke Rewards Community Invite Email
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
Coca-Cola-BestOpt-inSilverB2C.pdf
#4. Best Single Welcome Letter to New Subscribers
Gold B2B
Covad — Customer Welcome Email
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
CovadBestWelcomeB2BGold.pdf
Gold Consumer
ATP World Tour — Fan Credential Welcome
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
ATP-BestWelcomeB2CGold.pdf
Silver Consumer
ALCO — Rewards Program Welcome
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
Alco-BestWelcomeB2CSilver.pdf
#5. Best Triggered Email or Autoresponder Series
Gold B2B
VNR.de — Subscriber Reactivation Campaign
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
VNR-BestTriggeresEmailGoldB2B.pdf
Gold Consumer
Alaska Airlines — Shopping Cart Abandon Program
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
WhatCountsBestTriggeredGoldB2C.pdf
Silver Consumer
Vanderbilt LASIK — Welcome Trigger
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
LASIKBestTriggeredSilverB2C.pdf
Honorable Mention Consumer
Dortmund Airport — “Database Eraser” Reactivation Campaign
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
Rabbit-BestTriggeredEmailHMB2C.pdf
#6. Best Dynamic Content or Personalized Email
Gold B2B
VerticalResponse — Social Media Webinar Series Campaign
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
VerticalResponse-Social_Media_Webinar_Series.pdf
Gold Consumer
Microsoft — Enhanced Hotmail and Messenger Launch
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
Microsoft-BestDynamicContentGoldB2C.pdf
Silver Consumer
Electrolux Major Appliance — Electrolux/Frigidaire Spring Savings Campaign
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/emailawards2010/Creative
ElectroluxSpringSavings.pdf
Popularity: 17% [?]
Facebook is a social networking platform that is more than the latest fad. It is boosting marketing and sales for local businesses. Here are the five main ways that Facebook can help your local business:
1. Build Awareness
Facebook offers very affordable, targeted cost-per-click advertising options that can be laser-targeted to the city you do business in. You only pay per click, so costs are minimal. Also, a Facebook page or group can be created to help get the word out about your organization.
2. Distribute Information
Local businesses need to affordably communicate events, news, products and services. Facebook allows you to leverage your personal and professional contacts to share information — for free.
One of my favorite restaurants in Santa Barbara closed last year. I learned that it re-opened because one of my Facebook friends messaged all his personal contacts to share the news that he took over as the General Manager. He earned lots of business and boosted awareness by one easy (and free) message.
3. Create Community
Social networking serves to bring people together. Your local business can brand, build, and boost business by creating a Facebook page or group so your local contacts can converse with each other. Let your community become your best sales people and free focus group. Listen to the conversations and allow raving fans to share and get in on the conversation.
4. Offer Additional Customer Service
Through Facebook, you can answer questions, receive free feedback, promote events, and provide news to be of additional service to your locally-based audience. Facebook gives your prospective and current customers an additional web option to find and connect with you.
5. Boost Sales
Local businesses have to fight harder than ever to survive in this tough economy, but your business can have a competitive edge with Facebook. Tapping free social networking tools like Facebook to build awareness, share information, educate, build community, increase connection, and enhance customer service will all work in unison to make sales.
When used with the right intention and managed regularly, Facebook can be a no-cost marketing tool to help your local businesses gain a competitive edge. Converse directly with locals, create a community of conversation — learn, share, and connect — all in a fun way.
Facebook has over 350 million users; I am willing to bet that your local audience is waiting.
Lorrie Thomas, MA is a The Marketing TherapistTM. She helps small businesses get BIG with web marketing. Her team of “wild web women” at Web Marketing Therapy support clients as a web marketing agency and web marketing training company. Lorrie speaks nationally and teaches Web Marketing, Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing courses at UCSB and Berkeley Extension.
Popularity: 1% [?]
SUMMARY: At last month’s MarketingSherpa Email Summit, Bob Johnson, VP and Principal Analyst, IDG Connect, presented exclusive new research into technology buyers’ email opinions and habits. Topics included factors that influence buyers to opt-in and open vendor email, and how specific content and offers affect subsequent actions, such as pass-along and clickthrough.
We’re now highlighting key takeaways from that research. First is a look at the value buyers place on email as an information source, and which factors make them more likely to receive email from a vendor. Includes four new charts and insights into what the numbers mean for marketers.
The good news for B2B marketers is that buyers still consider email one of the most valuable sources of product and services information during a purchase process.
But to make the most of this opportunity, marketers need to understand what makes buyers more likely to sign up for (and open emails from) vendors — and what buyers say are the biggest weaknesses in the emails they currently receive.
The data below helps answer such questions. In partnership with MarketingSherpa, Bob Johnson fielded two surveys on the subject of B2B marketing email. One asked buyers about specific factors that motivate them to receive, open, or engage with vendor email. The second presented the same questions to B2B marketers, but asked them to specify what they believed motivated buyers who receive their emails.
The gaps between what buyers say and what marketers believe represent great areas for potential improvement. Here are four insights Johnson offers from the data on what motivates buyers to receive and open email:
Insight #1. Buyers rely on email more than marketers think
Marketers and technology buyers both identified search and email marketing as the two most valuable channels for receiving information about products and services. But marketers are underestimating how much weight buyers still place on information delivered through email — especially compared to social networks.
- 32% of buyers said email was their favored method for receiving product/services information, compared to 20% of marketers who believed email was a buyer’s favored method.
- Only 12% of buyers said social networks were their favored method of receiving information, compared with 18% of marketers.
So, if you’re working to integrate social media into your lead-generation strategy, don’t assume that social media activity can replace email outreach. Johnson’s research has found that buyers tend to use social media most heavily at two stages of the buying process:
o General education
o Business-case development
In and around these stages, well-timed emails that deliver relevant content, and offers that prompt prospects to take an action, are crucial touches that help move them to sales-ready status.
Insight #2. Provide offers that direct readers to take the next step
Underwhelming offers are the biggest weakness of most emails, according to buyers. Marketers also identified lack of compelling offers as a significant weakness, though with less emphasis than buyers.
The effort to provide relevant content in an email message might cause marketers to overlook the importance of tying content to a compelling offer. In this case, Johnson says, the offer should be a call-to-action that offers a clear next step — or options for next steps — that helps readers build understanding of an issue, and to make buying decisions.
“Marketers can always ask themselves if the email represents an island, in that there are not different directions the user can move as a result of reading it,” says Johnson.
Insight #3. Personalized sender information can increase engagement
Buyers cited “known sender” as the most important factor in determining whether or not they open an email. But making the most of this opportunity means more than just using your company’s name in the “from” line, says Johnson.
Marketers should consider personalizing B2B email communications with an individual’s name — preferably, a name connected to a particular business area, job function or area of expertise that’s most relevant to the prospect. For example, emails aimed at IT prospects could come from a member of the organization’s technical staff. Likewise, emails related to a specific business function, such as finance, should come from a team member who is an expert in those topics.
In fact, marketers may be able to increase their email communication with prospects by using multiple personalized senders. When the survey asked about senders from which buyers were most likely to open emails, two different types of vendor personnel were ranked #2 and #3 (behind industry peer):
o Vendor subject matter expert
o Vendor product/service support
“You are trying to build up individuals to have not a guru status, but some level of personal contact,” says Johnson.
Insight #4. Appeal to buyers’ personal, not just organizational, motivations
Marketers and buyers were largely on the same page when it came to naming specific factors that motivate buyers to receive more email from a vendor. Both groups picked the same factors as the top two motivators:
o Email that helps buyers in their jobs
o Email that offers fresh insight and ideas
But pay close attention to buyers’ third ranked choice: An area I want to learn about.
This response reflects the importance of personal and professional aspiration in buyers’ decision-making processes. “Buyers want to do good job for the organizations work for, but they’re also looking out for number one,” says Johnson. “So much of an investment decision, no matter how rational and practical people say it is, is really more emotional.”
By contrast, marketers ranked personal learning areas dead last as a motivator. The discrepancy represents a common mistake often made by marketers, says Johnson. They tend to focus email copy and content on the benefits offered to a buyers’ organization, rather than to the buyer him- or herself.
Look for opportunities to frame product and service descriptions around the personal benefits a buyer will reap — or the threats and concerns they face. For example:
o Presenting concerns in a peer-to-peer manner — “Did you know that 65% of IT managers are concerned about X?”
o Highlighting managers’ personal responsibility for inefficient processes or system downtime
o Describing how managers can benefit when they improve their department’s efficiency and financial performance
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