Getting On Board With Metrics

Next time you board a plane embarking on your dream vacation, take a moment to consider the metrics that will get you to your desired location; thorough testing, proprietary evaluations and performance analytics before and after takeoff. These metrics along with campaign analysis, optimization and reporting are just as important for marketers looking to keep their campaigns on course for success.

Metrics for campaign effectiveness need to be maintained since they are constantly changing and continuously improving. And there are proven methods that will help you determine whether or not your ads are clear for take-off.  A proactive approach is your best approach. Staying on top of sales leads, click-throughs and traffic before and after a campaign takes off will help you track its effectiveness. Offering incentives and creating a sense of urgency sparks consumer interest and prompts action. Perhaps most importantly, tapping into the power of social media outlets enables clients to target a relevant audience and generates buzz. According to Nielson research, social advocacy is responsible for a 4x increase in buyer intent.

So before you prepare your next campaign for takeoff, remember to consider the metrics in order to ensure optimum campaign performance.

Multichannel Integration: Making it Work, Live at DM Days

Trying to grow a business in an uncertain economy is never easy, especially when the products and services needed to drive growth are luxurious in nature. Steve Strauss, CEO of American Laser Centers (ALC) was faced with this dilemma late in 2009. Marketing tactics that had worked in the past now lacked potency. Marketing spend reflected the financial climate.  ALC couldn’t run the risk of creating a campaign that lacked efficiency and a high-level message. Enter MediaWhiz.

ALC accepted MediaWhiz’s proposal to deliver not only growth but to continuously improve performance. ALC provided MediaWhiz with sales data to determine what was working and what wasn’t. Daily contact between ALC and MediaWhiz as well as continuous analysis revealed that user experience and a concise sales process were important to successful campaign execution. The MediaWhiz Program of Continuous Improvement optimized ALC’s multi-media marketing strategies while streamlining the ALC sales process. ALC doubled their online marketing budget and increased profitability. MediaWhiz successfully developed and implemented a Performance Marketing Program of Continuous improvement that drove unprecedented results for ALC including a 20% increase in lead volume, a 22% increase in bookings, a 9% increase in the show rate, and a whopping 58% increase in conversions to sale.

Come to Digital Marketing Days this Wednesday, June 16th for a 2:30 session with ALC CEO Steve Strauss and MediaWhiz CEO Jonathan Shapiro to learn more about this successful online performance program and how to make multichannel integration work.

Privacy Moves Beyond Facebook

It has finally happened – privacy now transcends Facebook. Potential congressional legislation spearheaded by Virginia Democrat, Representative Rick Boucher, would require ad networks to obtain user consent to track their third party activity by way of an opt-in option.  Ad agencies are understandably miffed by Boucher’s proposal fearing it will stifle their ability to market brands and services in what has always been a free-flowing Internet.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) is also up in arms over the proposed legislation, especially the section that calls for consumer consent when agencies collect information via cookies, IP addresses or unique user names. On the flipside, consumer groups fear the legislation does not go far enough instituting protections. In this curious game of privacy 'He said, she said', one must ask why this is a relevant political hot potato.

Rick Boucher uses Twitter. He is on Facebook. How can someone clearly trying to benefit from social media, so-called privacy infringing social media, be so hell bent on passing this type of bill? Welcome to campaign season. Representative Boucher is facing a serious challenge to his seat. Positioning himself as a champion of the people could serve him well in his campaign. Considering Facebook came out of its privacy battle relatively unscathed, Boucher's fight could help him without adversely impacting the digital landscape.

Interactive should take a collective deep breath. In a world where people routinely divulge their location via mass tweet or subscribe to mobile applications trading personal info for a great deal on designer shoes, Boucher's bill - pass or no pass - will go a long way toward eventually killing itself.

The Impact of IPv6

It turns out the infinite online space is anything but; the Internet is going through something of a cyber jam. By September 2011, the final extensive batches of addresses will be distributed. Yes, final. A few months later, there will be no new addresses available. I can sense the creation of 2000glitchredux.com rapidly approaching. But in all seriousness, the ramifications of IPv6 could ultimately prove devastating – to some.  

While the major search engine and online presences are ready for the switch, small businesses in particular are wary of the new technology from financial and systemic standpoints. But they aren’t the only ones feeling the heat. Content providers also need to get with the IPv6 program. And did I mention performance marketers?

IPv6’s impact on a full-service digital marketing suite of products and services may be hard to quantify but it is necessary to understand. Now is the time for digital agencies to leverage the power of IPv6 and implement it into their marketing strategy. Developing expert knowledge relevant to the coming internet protocol will foster trust with customers, essential for improving optimization, increasing consumer profitability and driving results.

MThink’s Blue Book Top 20

Affiliate marketing fraud, or at the very least the perception of it, remains an industry-wide blight. Regardless of federal regulations and threats of increased government oversight, affiliates, advertisers and publishers continue to do themselves more harm than good playing a constant game of one-upmanship. Whether it’s buying bad conversions, deceptive ads and links or charging for clicks that haven’t been used, affiliate marketers must cease and desist with these irresponsible practices.

The temptation of affiliates to adopt new traffic sources without considering the effect they will have on advertiser conversions is an example of individual greed undermining industry growth. But affiliates are not solely at fault. Advertising and publishing networks have their own bottom lines to meet. As profits and conversions rise, networks tend to concern themselves less with the long-term health and tricky legalities of affiliate marketing. But this needs to change.

Affiliates, advertisers and publishers need to resist the temptation of the quick money fix. Business owners rely on sound publishers just as publishers rely on legitimate network offers. Advertisers, publishers and business owners must view themselves as being part of a trilogy responsible for driving results and continuously improving profitability and the industry as a whole.

Though affiliate marketing fraud is a problem, all is not lost. The release of the Blue Book’s Top 20 performance marketing networks proves that following the rules can maximize profits. Still, these performance marketers must apply the best practices they used in achieving their top 20 rankings to put an end to the misleading affiliate offers currently polluting the online space. Affiliate abusers have been one step ahead of the game for far too long. As skilled marketers, this is one game of one-upmanship we need to win.

Email and Engagement: The “E’s” Driving Economic Recovery

As we tip toe toward economic recovery, marketers would be wise to remember the role email marketing played in making the recession a wee bit more tolerable. It was one of the few strategies that effectively drove profitable results both globally and domestically. The news that the recession is over is certainly welcome but simply announcing that its end is here doesn’t guarantee that consumers will get the memo.  After all, it’s true what they say about assuming. Taking a passive approach will fail to engage potential customers.

Email marketers must engage and involve consumers by giving them more control of information by emphasizing social networks, Email Preference Centers, (EPCs) and the overall value of sharing data. Sharing is caring. Continuous improvement means continuous metrics advancement. Marketers need to strengthen email marketing usability and functionality across channels. While digital and traditional markets haven’t always been simpatico with regard to email marketing, leveraging e-commerce along with in-store promotional strategies can enhance email marketing capabilities. Ultimately, the better your email marketing methodologies, the more advanced your data acquisition and lead generation systems will become.

Can Startups De-FaceBook?

Some call themselves social operating sites or people platforms. Others stick to the widely accepted social media and/or social networking nomenclature. You say tomato, Steve Jobs says apple. Regardless of classification, newbies to social like Pip.io, Diaspora and OneSocialWeb are pitching their sites as untainted alternatives to Mark Zuckerberg’s privacy invading juggernaut, FaceBook. The ire over FaceBook’s controversial Open Graph application and its “Like” tool has spawned QuitFaceBookDay.com, a campaign calling for users to cancel their accounts on May 31st. Be that as it may, if people are so up in arms over FaceBook, why are these new sites struggling to get off the ground? Why have only 13,000 of FaceBook’s 400 million members vowed to sever ties with the social network?

I think the inconvenient truth of the matter is that for all their complaining, users are experiencing a crisis of conscience and a struggle for identity. FaceBook initially marketed itself as a place for friends. Those friends created the rules of the game. Users started marketing themselves, their interests, their industries, their affiliations. It should not be called invasion of privacy if you’re doing the striptease. And stripteases get noticed.

Companies, large and small, caught on to the power of social networking and influencing in marketing their products and services. The place for friends changed into the home for honchos. FaceBook traditionalists, if they could really be called such, may hate the thought of sharing face time with big business but that’s the price of innovation.

I’m sure many FaceBook users are tempted to test the social waters, whether or not they completely opt to jump from Zuckerberg’s ship. But the reality is FaceBook successfully separated itself from the pack by continuously improving its model, not settling on one formula or aspect of social networking to survive. For social newbies to truly compete with FaceBook, they would be wise to forego an independent strategy. They should outsource digital performance marketing expertise to draw from what Zuckerberg has mastered and invest in innovation, improved analytics and optimization to drive results far greater than 13,000.