Social Media Metrics Vary Based on the Community February 5, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentFor many marketers, metrics are a stumbling block when it comes to social media. Like snowflakes, no two communities are the same. Whether you’re using social media to connect with employees—like McDonald’s—or consumers makes a big difference in how you judge their success. E-Centric recently talked with David Carter, CTO and co-founder of Awareness and Mike Lewis, vice president of marketing of the Waltham, MA-based company about the best ways to gauge the effectiveness of an online community. Awareness recently introduced a prefab, ready-to-deploy, online community building solution.
Read The Rest—>Social Media Metrics Vary Based on the Community
Welcome to the Murky World of E-mail List Sales January 14, 2009
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentWelcome to the murky world of e-mail list sales
Anti-spam outfit Aspews.org lists EmailAppenders and Sales Universe as two aliases among many used by Sloan Marketing. But it doesn’t mention Data Champions.
nother company possibly related to EmailAppenders is NetSalesLists.com. A man claiming to be Jeff Parker from that firm e-mailed various firms this fall, pitching business-to-business append services. But his messages contained no postal contact information. When asked, he supplied this address: 14781 Memorial Drive, Suite #1155, Houston, TX 77079.
An Internet search revealed that this address is that of the Memorial Postal Center. An employee at the center confirmed that the “suite” is a post office box.
Parker reportedly said in an e-mail to a marketing executive that NetSalesLists and EmailAppenders are “just channel partners.”
But e-mail addresses of people claiming to represent various list sellers contain striking similarities, indicating at least a technical relationship.
An e-mail from someone claiming to be Keith Kentala at Data Champions Online pitching data services came from Keith.Kentala@psmails.com.
NetSalesLists’ Parker’s e-mail came from JeffP@psmails4.com.
A Raymond Murphy, claiming to be from EmailAppenders, sent his messages from Ramondm@psmails9.com. A B-to-B prospecting e-mail from Andy Fischer at ListGalaxy came from Andyf@smails69.com. A prospecting message claiming to be from Lance Carter at EmailAppenders came from Lancec@smails69.com.
Is it possible that the similarities between these addresses are coincidental, and that the salespeople using them in various locations across the country are unrelated other than as channel partners? Sure, but it seems unlikely.
Cooper says he’s speaking from his home in an unnamed New York City suburb, and that his company and its divisions are not trying to be difficult to reach.
“We have an 800 number which is manned 24 by seven,” he says.
When asked if EmailAppenders was headquartered Bangalore, India, Cooper says: “We have offices there, yes.” But he denied any connection to Data Champions/Sloan Marketing. “We deal with hundreds of channel partners and they’re all over the place,” he says.
So where is the company based?
“I will say we’re a global marketing outsourcing firm,” he says. “Anything wrong with that? I think we are based in three countries; we service clients in over 20 countries now.”
Cooper adds that his 100-plus channel partners operate under dozens of different names.
“The reason we have separate divisions is that at the end of the day, it’s just like InfoUSA [now InfoGroup] has 10 different Web sites,” he adds.
Immediately after speaking with Direct, Cooper contacted Harold and MacAdam, promising to make things right. As of deadline, he hadn’t. But deadline was immediately after the interview.
All the facts are not yet in. But one thing is certain: EmailAppenders and other e-mail list sellers are responding to market forces — those driven by marketers’ worst instincts.
Spamhaus maintains spam traps — addresses that never signed up for everything — to catch people mailing to harvested lists.
Many marketers assert to Spamhaus that their addresses are double or confirmed opt-in — that new e-mail subscribers have responded to a confirmation message. But it’s not always the case, says executive director Steve Linford: “Some mailers use confirmed opt-in only on parts of their operation and buy lists from other places and then mix the two together.”
What happens when they’re informed that the list is not confirmed opt-in, or COI? They usually admit that “one of our guys did buy a new list last week, which we’ve decided not to use anymore.”
As Linford puts it, this means: “We’re generally COI except when we’re not.”
Read The Rest—>Welcome to the Murky World of E-mail List Sales
The Incredible Shrinking Database: Direct's annual CRM/Database Survey December 19, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentThe money isn’t there anymore.
That’s the overwhelming message from Direct’s annual database practices survey.
DMers are spending less, on everything from systems to staff. And they’re expecting a lower return on investment.
Of those polled, 15% will allocate less to develop or maintain databases in 2009. That’s triple the level seen last year, and it holds true of both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers.
How times have changed. In last year’s survey, not a single consumer marketer planned to cut its database budget.
Moreover, only 40% expect to increase investments, compared with over 50% last year.
The biggest drop is in the B-to-B sector.
Read The Rest—>Database: Direct’s annual CRM/Database Survey
Hasbro Drops Suit Against Scrabulous Makers December 19, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentToy maker Hasbro has agreed to drop a lawsuit against the company that created a phenomenally successful Facebook game—one that Hasbro forced the social network to drop as being too close to its own Scrabble title.
Hasbro had filed the lawsuit against RJ Softwares last summer, alleging that its Scrabulous infringed on the intellectual property of Hasbro’s title in look and feel.
Documents filed in U.S. District Court in New York last Friday show that Hasbro has decided to drop the lawsuit, although they did not give specific reasons for the withdrawal.
Read The Rest—>Hasbro Drops Suit Against Scrabulous Makers
Verizon to Add Wireless Elements to Disney Parks December 5, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentVerizon will demonstrate aspects of its wireless service in Walt Disney Parks as part of a multi-year deal to create interactive experiences for visitors and direct them to various attractions.
The first blush of the Verizon touch will be Disney’s Kim Possible World Showcase in Epcot at Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. The interactive experience will guide visitors through the park with clues from a Verizon “Kimmunicator” on a virtual quest to save the world from a gang of comic villains. It’s slated to debut during the first quarter of next year.
Read The Rest—>Verizon to Add Wireless Elements to Disney Parks
Miller High Life Goes On a Loyalty Binge November 14, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentThe Miller Brewing Company has never backed off the almost punnish nature of its Miller High Life brand, given the slang use of the word high.
“High Life” has been, after all, the brand trademark for decades—to the point that a couple years back Miller could release a short-lived product trademarked, simply, Miller Beer. It is in this spirit of shirking subtle communication points that Miller Brewing has introduced the High Life Extras loyalty initiative—in essence, its hoppy version of MyCokeRewards.
Read The Rest—>Miller High Life Goes On a Loyalty Binge
Stupid Association Watch: DMA Resurrects eMPS November 5, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentFor reasons known only to the folks at the Direct Marketing Association, the group has included its cockamamie e-mail preference service, or eMPS, in its newly revamped direct mail opt-out service DMAchoice.
The move has caused confusion in the marketplace with Dylan Boyd blogging about it here and Al Iverson blogging about it here.
As Iverson points out, the DMA’s eMPS isn’t new. It was launched in the late 90s under then president Robert Wientzen as part of his “one-bite-of-the-apple” argument in support of unsolicited commercial e-mail. It was an idiotic idea then. It’s an idiotic idea now.
eMPS was an e-mail idea concocted by direct-mail minds. It can’t work.
As far as I know, few if any marketers use it. Those who do are most assuredly engaged in activities that get their mail blocked by Internet service providers. Think about it: Marketers who use the DMA’s eMPS are by definition labeling themselves spammers.
Read The Rest —->Stupid Association Watch: DMA Resurrects eMPS
To Win, Candidates Need to Go Digital | How Obama and McCain are using Digital Media in their campaigns October 8, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commenthere’s an old saying, “All politics are local.” But today, thanks to digital, ‘local’ has gotten a lot larger.
Nearly 38 million viewers tuned in to watch the first African-American accept the Democratic nomination for president. Republicans made history when they scaled back opening festivities as Hurricane Gustaf threatened New Orleans three years to the day after Hurricane Katrina.
As a digital marketer who consistently recommends digital media to clients, it was only natural that I got to thinking about how Obama and McCain have—or have not—been using digital to advance their campaigns. Regardless of your political persuasion, most marketers agree that Obama’s campaign has done the best job of integrating the many aspects of the digital and direct world. While the debate goes on about the effectiveness of the announcement’s timeliness and impact, it’s difficult to argue that Obama’s decision to announce his running mate to his supporters first by opt-in text messaging and on his Web site (http://www.BarackObama.com) was a brilliant database gathering tactic, capturing an estimated 1.7 million interested parties. Additionally, Neilson Mobile reported a total of 2.9 million mobile subscribers.
Banner Ad Clickers Not Like Other Web Users: Study February 13, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentBy Richard H. Levey
That lead generated through your banner ad was probably from a consumer between the ages of 25-44, with a household income under $40,000. This demographic accounted for 50% of all banner-ad clicks, despite comprising only 6% of the population, according to a new study.
This group differs in others ways from the general Internet-using population as well. While they spend four times as much time online as less-enthusiastic clickers, their spending does not reflect this level of online participation, according to the study.
They are also more likely to visit auction, gambling and career services sites than less-enthusiastic banner ad clickers.
Furthermore, there didn’t appear to be any correlation between measured attitude towards a brand and the number of times an ad for that brand was clicked. Research sponsors Starcom USA (a media agency); behavioral targeting network Tacoda, and digital consumer insight company comScore suggested digital campaigns that have a branding objective should reconsider optimizing for high click rates, as doing so does not necessarily improve campaign performance.
“While the click can continue to be a relevant metric for direct response advertising campaigns, this study demonstrates that click performance is the wrong measure for the effectiveness of brand-building campaigns,” said Erin Hunter, executive vice president at comScore, in a statement.
There were several anomalies that tipped off the research. For instance, women traditionally are much more likely than men to participate in online sweepstakes. Yet sweepstakes players click through offers for products that skew male – such as electric shaves, sports memorabilia, home repair items at the like – much higher than other groups do.
Hunter continued, “For many campaigns, the branding effect of the ads is what’s really important and generating clicks is more of an ancillary benefit. Ultimately, judging a campaign’s effectiveness by clicks can be detrimental because it overlooks the importance of branding while simultaneously drawing conclusions from a sub-set of people who may not be representative of the target audience.”
Is there any benefit this group can offer marketers? Well, if exposure, as opposed to sales, is a goal, heavy clickers tent to spend five times as many minutes, and view eight times as many Web pages, as non-clickers. They may not be buying in proportion to their clicks, but they certainly are looking.
The Economy of Attention: Captivate Your Online Audience or Be Stuck in the Past July 31, 2007
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , add a commentThe Economy of Attention: Captivate Your Online Audience or Be Stuck in the Past
By Cam Balzer
The proliferation of conferences in the online space is staggering. I’ve found several that are well-run and consistently provide valuable content, like Search Engine Strategies, Search Insider Summit:, SMX:, Searchonomics: and Webmasterworld PubCon.
I recently attended Future of Online Advertising, a nicely presented new media economy conference, and would say that it is worth attending for a forward thinking view on the industry. Top notch speakers and good sessions.
It was in a great venue too, New York’s Gotham Hall, a former bank built in the colossal Roman style, a temple to the old financial economy. The contrast between old and new was highlighted by a series of aphorisms carved into the granite walls circling the three-story-tall hall:
“Waste neither time nor money but use both for your own and your neighbor’s good.”
“There is no gain so sure as that which results from economizing what you have.”
“It is what we save rather than what we earn that ensures a competency for the future.”
These paeans to frugality sound quaint in an era where the average U.S. household carries $9300 in credit card debt. However, they also seemed strangely appropriate given that many of the speakers directly or indirectly addressed the key resource in the new economy: consumer attention.
The Economy of Attention
Marketers often behave as if they are in sole control of consumer attention, powering print and television via their ad spending, pushing messages to captive audiences. Unfortunately, this tendency has frequently been transferred to the online space unchallenged.
In that old economy, consumers didn’t have easy means to speak back or turn the shouting match into a conversation. Clearly they have always selectively doled out their proactive interactions with ideas, brands, products or media. The Internet and especially Web 2.0 tools enable nearly frictionless response. In fact, the ease with which consumers can express themselves online prompts other consumers to respond in kind. Suddenly, the voice of the consumer is amplified, sometimes reaching volumes unmatched by even the biggest advertising budgets.
Competition for consumer attention is at an all-time high, and it shows no signs of stopping. In an age where consumers can be more selective able what advertising they view, and where they use their extra time and energy to create unique conversations, they demand more careful attention from marketers. This reversal of value flow in the new economy has huge implications for marketers and publishers.
Here are a few recommendations for marketers distilled from the Future of Online Advertising conference speakers:
Stop shouting and listen: do you really understand what consumers want?
Serving existing ads in new places might work better than it does in the old places, but that’s only because of novelty. In the long run, marketers will better engage consumers by creating ads tuned to specific conversations, which necessitates analysis and understanding of those conversations.
Your brand, their terms
Consumer 2.0 wants to “license” your brand on their terms, not simply buy your products. There are exactly two reasons a consumer is going to blog about or review your product: it’s extremely cool or annoyingly bad. If it’s cool, the consumer will endorse it and by doing so “represent” it—or maybe actually let it represent him/her—in a blog or social site profile. Mediocre products get no visibility at all, only the remarkably good or bad get play. Marketers will expend energy trying to drown out negative reactions. If marketers are attentive, active participants in online conversations, they won’t make bad products in the first place.
Let go, let flow
Relax and be playful. You can’t control your brand the way you could 20 or even 10 years ago. Instead of being a drill sergeant when it comes to controlling the brand, perhaps there’s room to aspire to be a summer camp counselor, facilitating a good time for all and intervening only when the safety or the collective good time is jeopardized.
The old world messages emphasizing frugality were primarily directed at consumers, with temple-like banks meant to instill awe and respect for the institutions managing those funds on a saver’s behalf. But in this century, that same frugality exhortation should be heeded by marketers. Treat attention as the most valuable asset your consumers can give you. The old aphorists were on to something: when it comes to the attention economy, what you save still ensures “a competency for the future.”
Cam Balzer is vice president of emerging media at DoubleClick Performics, and a regular contributor to Chief Marketer. Contact him at cbalzer@doubleclick.com.
