'Net Features : marketing

7 Hot Summer Marketing Strategies for Merchants

Allison Howen — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:20:00 GMT

The flowers are blooming and the temperatures are rising, which means that summer is getting ready to make its official debut.

While this leaves most of us fantasizing about lying by the pool and sipping fruity drinks with umbrellas, online merchants are left strategizing ways to attract customers and increase sales during this notoriously slow time of the year. In order to allow merchants more time for the beach, Website Magazine has eased the process by compiling a list of seven hot marketing tactics that will help get customers out of the heat and onto your website. Check them out below:

1. Sizzlin’ Social

Just because consumers will be spending the majority of their time at picnics and parks this summer, doesn’t mean they won’t be checking in with social networks on their mobile devices. This is why an active social presence can greatly benefit merchants during the summer months. Merchants should use these channels to promote products, sales and events. However, in order to capture attention, it is important to keep all status updates relevant (for example, don’t promote a bathing suit on a rainy day), as well as to include a variety of content formats, such as images and videos. In fact, marketers can even save time by cross-promoting social content. For example, if a clothing retailer uploads a filtered photo of a best-selling outfit on Instagram or creates a video about summer’s hottest fashion trends on YouTube, that content can also be shared to networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to reach a larger audience.

2. Effective Email

Just as consumers check their social networks while en route to their favorite summer activity, they also check their inboxes, which is why it is important for email campaigns to be optimized for mobile. That said, in order to influence consumers to skip the BBQ for a shopping trip to your brick-and-mortar store, merchants should re-evaluate their email strategy. For instance, maybe it's time to consider implementing better targeting features so that messages are more relevant. On the other hand, it’s probably a good idea to retest delivery times, because the change in season often brings changes in schedules. However, aside from launching more targeted messages and prominently featuring sales, merchants can also try to influence customers into making purchases by incorporating ratings and reviews into their messages, which is feature that Listrak launched earlier this year.

3. Hot Pricing

Although it is always a best practice to maintain competitive pricing, this is especially vital during the summer months. This is because an extra-low price or big sale could give consumers the extra bit of incentive needed to convert. In fact, merchants should use the summer holidays and events, such as Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day and “back-to-school” time, to launch and publicize promotions and discounts. Moreover, featuring a “Summer Clearance” section on your site and spreading the word about it through social and email can help to boost sales and clean out some inventory.

4. Must-Attend Events

Summer is a time for special projects, so why not throw an event to gain some exposure for your business? While brick-and-mortar retailers have the ability to throw an event at their physical location, online retailers can get innovative by hosting an event at a local park or with a platform like Google Hangouts. For example, a brick-and-mortar beauty store could host a skincare workshop, while an online pet supply store could throw a “picnic in the park” event at a local dog park (with the park’s permission, of course). Furthermore, both types of retailers can throw an event, like a Q&A or new product showcase, on Google+ with Google Hangouts.

5. Real-Time Targeting

In order to influence the purchasing decisions of the consumers who have taken time out of their busy summer to visit your site, consider implementing real-time targeting to help close the sale. Fanplayr, for instance, offers a Smart & Targeted product that analyzes a merchant’s site to determine the profiles of visitors that would be the most receptive to specific offers. According to the company, these real-time offers can increase conversion rates by up to 30 percent and average order values by up to 50 percent. Conversely, SteelHouse has a Real Time Offers platform that also allows merchants to provide personalized offers to shoppers based on their real-time behavior.

6. Blog for Traffic

As previously stated, summer is a time for special projects, so if your business doesn’t already maintain a blog, it’s time to start. Blogging can help merchants improve their visibility, as well as provides extra content for social and email campaigns. In fact, a HubSpot study reveals that on average, companies that publish 15 or more blog articles per month generate five times more traffic than companies that don’t blog at all. Blog content should stay true to your brand and touch on topics relevant to your industry. Additionally, you can reach out to industry professionals for contributed content to post on your blog. Not only will this help you foster relationships with influential people in your industry, but it will also boost the visibility of your business, as the professional will most likely market the content to their friends and social networks.

7. Fresh Advertising

Last, but certainly not least, merchants should launch a solid advertising campaign this summer. In fact, brick-and-mortar merchants in particular should be using Google’s new Enhanced Campaigns to reach customers who are on-the-go. For example, merchants can launch mobile-specific ads that target consumers within a certain location, such as within 5 miles of the brick-and-mortar establishment, and during a specific time-of-day, like business hours. Moreover, since summer is a time for vacationing to new places, merchants should consider launching ads on Yelp to target traveling consumers. Not only can merchants launch daily deals on this location-based service, but they can also advertise at the top of the Yelp search results and on the pages of related businesses.

With Smart Marketing, Nothing is Boring

Administrator — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:25:00 GMT

:: By Amie Marse, Content Equals Money ::

For certain businesses, developing a dynamic marketing campaign is extra challenging due to products that are quite boring to the average consumer. However, these products don’t have to be boring. A creative, exciting marketing campaign can make any product seem interesting, even remote servers and email hosting.

Fashioning an engaging marketing campaign requires an awareness of the needs of the consumer. A recent survey conducted by Lightspeed Research and the Internet Advertising Bureau found that the top three components wanted in advertisements are relevance, usefulness, and a discount. Younger adults were more focused on the inclusion of entertainment, while older adults were insistent that advertisements should concentrate on presenting significant information.

Examples of Smart Marketing

With these points in mind, the marketing strategy for your “boring” product must first consider the desires of your target consumer. One example of a company that has capitalized on the needs of the consumer is Dropbox. Using an innovative referral marketing strategy, Dropbox has generated an impressive consumer base that continues to grow. By offering customers incentives for referrals, Dropbox relied primarily on word-of-mouth promotion to gain popularity in the “boring” but competitive industry of cloud storage.

The primary lesson to learn from the example of the Dropbox marketing campaign is to play to your strengths by developing an understanding of what does and doesn’t work for your campaign. When Dropbox first launched, traditional marketing didn’t do the company a whole lot of good. However, analysis of the company’s growth showed the marketing team that word-of-mouth marketing was the most effective component of their campaign. Once the marketing campaign shifted towards a focus on word-of-mouth and referral marketing, the company really took off.

A second recent example of a company creating an exciting marketing campaign for “boring” products is General Electric, which realized that their marketing department was ineffective in making decisions about the company’s promotional strategies, so the business came up with an entirely new approach to marketing. The new marketing strategy was concerned with eight disciplines that the company found to be significant in developing a marketing campaign. In addition, the marketing department identified four important roles that marketers had to play in creating an effective campaign. With this well-defined new approach General Electric entered a new era of intentional promotion for its products instead of relying on the high quality of the products to speak for themselves.

How To Develop Brilliant Marketing

The first step in producing a dynamic marketing campaign for your “boring” product is to ask the right questions about the industry that will allow you to understand what customers want in a product. Competitive analysis might help in this part of the process. Most importantly, learn to empathize with your customers so that you can present content that will be useful and relevant to their needs. As you determine who will be your target audience, generate a conceptual customer persona to whom you will address your content.

Successful content will be helpful and educational to your audience. Even if the product seems boring, informational content that addresses any questions or problems the customers might face will be valuable to your audience. In order to create this kind of beneficial content, avoid generic content and instead generate content specific to the customers’ concerns. Your understanding of the industry will assist you in coming up with particular topics that uniquely appeal to your target audience.

Your interesting marketing campaign doesn’t have to be silly. You may see viral videos and memes that promote a product and think that you have to create something goofy to grab attention, but depending on your industry, dignified content may be more productive. Try incorporating different types of attention grabbing content, such as an interview with an authority in your field, a helpful infographic, or a shocking statistic. Don’t shy away from humor, but incorporate humor that appeals specifically to your target audience.

Don’t forget to build a space where your customers can engage with your brand. Have a place to answer questions, offer a forum, or produce a podcast that takes customer calls. If your customers see your company as a source of information, they will keep coming back.

Building Great Content

As you create your content, remember that quality content requires the investment of your time. Find a tone for your content that is relatable and not over-bearing. Take time to make sure that any written content is high quality and easily readable – try adding bold font or bullet points to make the content look more appealing. Don’t be afraid to present static content – if the information is useful to your audience, it will remain relevant and continue generating interest in your brand.

Once you have implemented these strategies in your campaign for your “boring” product, take time to analyze the results of your marketing tactics. Follow the example of Dropbox and identify your greatest strengths so that you can capitalize on them and continue to produce a dynamic campaign that makes your product seem vital and exciting.

About the Author

Amie Marse, is the founder and managing partner of Content Equals Money, a content writing service for agencies and Web-based clients.

Marketers Pay Top Dollar to Reach the Digital Elite

Allison Howen — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 20:10:00 GMT

Marketers are paying top dollars to reach an audience segment that has been dubbed the “Digital Elite” by a new report from marketing solutions provider Turn.

Turn’s Digital Audience Report, which highlights insights from the first quarter of 2013, calls the Digital Elite “the world’s most valuable audience” and claims that marketers are seeking out this audience because of their active online habits and spending behavior. In fact, the Digital Elite, which is only 2 percent of consumers on the ’Net, sees 24 times more ads than the average consumer – which puts them in such high demand that marketers are willing to pay an 85 percent higher eCPM (cost per thousand impressions) in order to reach them.

So what does a member of the Digital Elite look like? According to the report, these Web surfers are typically aged 21-34, live in cities and love foreign travel. They also average an annual income of more than $76,000, as well as love gadgets and upscale brands. Moreover, the Digital Elite can frequently be found at bars and concerts, and have diverse media tastes – consuming a variety of content ranging from public radio and Family Guy to Elle and GQ. The report also reveals that 85 percent of the Digital Elite is located in the U.S., and that the average eCPM of this group is $1.15, which is 85 percent higher than the average of $0.62 that is paid for other audiences.

Conversely, the report found that the audience group targeted least by marketers includes an inconsistent number of people who are retired or mothers of young children. This group typically makes less than $51,000 a year, are price-sensitive, save their money and are more likely to be devoted sports fans.

It is also important to note that the report shed some light on ad format trends, revealing that marketers are paying more for display, video and other rich media ads, and less for mobile and social ads. In fact, global average video eCPM grew from $9.41 in January to $9.99 in March, while display eCPM increased from $0.92 to $1.06 in Q1. On the other hand, mobile ads remain inexpensive, with mobile eCPM dropping from $1.31 in January to $0.72 in March. The report claims this is most likely because an ecosystem for anonymous tracking isn’t in place for mobile yet. Furthermore, social advertising remains both low-cost and efficient for brands, with the eCPM for Facebook ads dropping from $0.30 in January to $0.24 in March.

The Five Myths of Lead Generation

Administrator — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:30:00 GMT

By Jeffrey Cody, Senior Marketing Manager, Campaigner®

Myths, folk tales and urban legends make for entertaining storytelling, and can even teach a lesson or two. But when it comes to the real business of lead generation, myths and misperceptions can cost you money and customers.

Myths about lead generation can lead to faulty practices and missed opportunities. Below we bust five of the most common myths about lead generation. Use our tips to debunk bad practices and craft strategies that will deliver the happy ending of leads that convert to customers.

Myth #1 - It’s all about cost per lead

Many marketing departments focus on achieving a certain number of leads at a certain cost per lead. Lead efforts should instead be focused on cost per acquisition, cost per upselling the customer, and cost per lifetime value of a customer, all worked backward into the lead generation effort. It’s easy to build a campaign that will create thousands of leads for a nickel per lead but you run the risk of none of them ever converting. You can lose thousands of nickels, frustrate your sales team and not get anything out of the program.

For example, if you have a model that says you think your best close rate is $50 per lead to get a program done, you might find an opportunity where $1,000 per lead closing at 80 percent and is worth 50x per customer. Instead of a hyper-focus on cost per lead of the campaign consider a comprehensive formula that measures the true return of your efforts.

Myth #2: Lead scoring revolves around lead source

In recent years, the emergence of marketing automation tools have led sales teams to believe that they can create millions of leads and score them initially based on “lead source.” Using these tools, sales & marketing teams score leads and then realize that they no longer like the lead source. They then change the scoring, raising or lowering the base lead source score, and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The right way of measuring a lead should be around explicit and implicit information provided by the lead at initial sign-up. You should focus less about the source, but rather on job title, industry, the number of sales reps, or budgets. After all, if you didn’t think the source was worthy, you wouldn’t have started there to begin with. You can then follow those attributes all the way through the sales process and build a lead scoring profile. For example, you may find that CEO leads come in and close or it may be deals of a certain sales size that have a high close rate.

The inverse is when you find a certain job title that doesn’t close well, takes a lot of the sales people’s time, isn’t a high-revenue deal, has a high rate of churn or has high support costs. You can use these profiles as a part of your lead scoring to help you improve your targeting to reach more of your best leads and to assess whether to continue certain types of campaigns.

Myth #3: Landing pages produce the most leads

In the past, marketing departments used single-page Web forms with minimal information to get more out of their lead generation efforts. Prospects would be driven to these pages and forced through a call-to-action gateway before they could access any other information. There are times when this is the right action, but often good prospects, who may be more qualified than the average lead you are capturing, are turned away because they are unable to find the extra information they are seeking.

This is common when prospects find your site via a search engine. The path is determined by the type of link they click – organic or paid. The organic link would have led to your website where they would have found the information, but the paid click leads them through this forced funnel. You should treat the same person who could randomly have picked either path with the same amount of respect, especially since people want more data before giving up personal information. Educated consumers often become your best customers, so make it easy for all prospects to access information about your solutions. When you provide equal access regardless of link type, you will have shorter sales cycles, fewer frustrated leads and a better reputation.

Myth #4: Drip campaigns are a necessity

Never run a drip campaign for the sake of checking it off on your campaign list. Every time you send an email out you are welcoming prospects to unsubscribe and if they unsubscribe you have lost the ability to ever communicate with them again. Worse, you could provoke them to cancel your services, increasing churn. It is essential to find a balance between having a drip program because you know you need one (and you know it can work) and risking that really critical information, such as a product enhancement or a special promotion, may not get delivered to them because they unsubscribed four emails back.

A good strategy for drip campaigns is to adopt a “less is more” approach or a triggers-based approach. In this way you maintain communication so that prospects remember you but minimize the risk of them unsubscribing or canceling your service.

Myth #5: The Marketing team is controlling the communications stream

To make the most of lead generation, you need to have a communications plan that includes sales and marketing. Let’s say you have a free trial on your website or sign-up form and it requires sales intervention to follow-up. The marketing team creates a drip email campaign to keep the lead engaged for days zero through 30 of the trial period. But your plan has a flaw.

Your 12-email, 30-day drip campaign is not the only way prospects are getting communication. No matter what, the prospect will be contacted by the sales team. You have a controlled process in place but without considering the dynamics of the entire process you risk frustrating or losing a prospect.

In conversations with a salesperson a shift may have occurred in the prospect’s need, but your drip marketing program doesn’t reflect that need. As a result, your messaging may annoy, misinform the prospect, or lengthen or kill a sales cycle. When it comes to planning lead nurturing communications, less can be more. Use your automated tools to personalize campaigns based on real time information. This will ensure targeted, relevant messaging that helps turn a lead into a customer.

Myths and legends make for good conversation but cannot provide a sustainable foundation for engaging your customers. Knowing the difference between fact and fiction and using that knowledge will enable you to build a solid and sustainable lead generation process that delivers results.

Grow Your List with Text-to-Join

Allison Howen — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 15:52:00 GMT

Growing your email list can be as simple as receiving a text message, thanks to a new SMS feature from Bronto Software.

The commerce marketing provider has added a Text-to-Join feature to its marketing platform. The feature provides marketers with a simple interface for managing customer acquisition and organizing email and cross-channel campaigns to drive revenue.

“Text-to-Join is a great way for retailers to drive signups because it’s such an effective and widespread medium,” said Joe Colopy, CEO of Bronto. “With the majority of consumers tied to their mobile phone during shopping, it’s a matter of creating a relevant experience using the right medium. In recent months, we’ve been innovating to help marketers grow revenue by remarketing to current customers. We also recognize that acquisition and list growth are among the top priorities for marketers, so we wanted to make Text-to-Join easily accessible to them.”

In order to create a Bronto Text-to-Join campaign, marketers must choose a keyword consumers will use to sign up, and then generate an automated response message to be triggered when a consumer texts the keyword. Additionally, marketers can promote Text-to-Join through a variety of channels, including on social profiles, shipping boxes, invoices, receipts, posters, flyers, in-store signs, direct mail pieces and catalogs.

It is also important to note that Text-to-Join is integrated with other functions within the Bronto Marketing Platform, such as contact management and reporting. Moreover, marketers have the option of adding consumers who sign up via Text-to-Join to a list or to multiple lists. There’s also a visual activity report that makes it simple to monitor the effectiveness of Text-to-Join campaigns.

Is Tealium Taking Tag Management to the Next Level?

Michael Garrity — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 18:05:00 GMT

Tealium, the tag management solution provider, has been working hard over the last few months to help “move the needle” and evolve the rapidly growing tag management space with a slew of new additions to its core product, including mobile tagging, the Tealium DataCloud and a new multi-CDN architecture.

Going Mobile
The first of these initiatives were the company’s new mobile tagging capabilities that were released last November. While the company now enables marketers to manage tags on mobile websites, which work in much the same way as they do on traditional websites, the bigger initiative is the inclusion of a mobile application tagging option that allows marketers to better manage their marketing solutions and analytics without ever having to recertify their apps. All they have to do is implement the Tealium iQ tag management solution into the app.

Mobile app tagging presents users with support for the “most popular” native environments, including iOS and Android, as well as conditional tag loading that allows them to control which tags will load on specific screens within the app and event-based tracking that deploys tracking links and other events in the app. And as a nice bonus, Tealium’s customers never have to bother updating Tealium iQ once it is integrated into the application.

Big Solution to Big Data
Since then, the company has launched the Tealium DataCloud, a new add-on service that will extend the value of Tealium’s tag management capabilities. To do this, the DataCloud will make it easier for digital marketers to manage the exchange of data between third-party vendors by giving them a raw feed of their rich data stored in a centralized location.

This helps marketers uncover what Tealium CEO Jeff Lunsford called the “Holy Grail” of big data, which is “to have one common database with all of their customer information,” making this solution ideal for companies with multiple locations and/or properties. So, with the DataCloud, Tealium customers will be able to create powerful, visitor-level profiles that will ultimately help improve their customer acquisition campaigns.

But that’s not all that the DataCloud does; it also adds the ability to handle non-JavaScript tagging environments (i.e. Google Checkout) that don’t accept the JavaScript tags that many vendors use. In other words, companies can now deploy mission-critical third-party tags across their entire e-commerce environments, whether they support JavaScript or not.

All of the data gathered by the Tealium DataCloud can be imported into various big data platforms, business intelligence platforms or third-party reporting tools, including AgilOne, Anametrix, Tableau Software and Quantivo.

Reinforcing the Foundations of CDN Architecture
Finally, Tealium’s other big announcement was its move to a new multi-CDN (or content delivery network) architecture to provide its customers with optimal performance, thus making Tealium the fastest tag management delivery network currently available.

This new CDN architecture contrasts Tealium’s old single-CDN approach through Limelight Networks. The main reason for making the change was to better service its clients’ tags to vendors around the world by increasing their speed and redundancy rates. To do this, they’ve started to use CDNs from Akamai Networks and Edgecast Networks.

The performance of each Tealium CDN will be monitored across 30 global regions every 10 minutes to show the best and most up-to-date performing networks. Already, this new approach as been able to shave approximately 100 milliseconds off of the company’s CDN performance, a number that Lunsford says shows a “very noticeable difference” for its customers, improving e-commerce conversion rates and time-on-site and page view metrics for content providers.

The Next Big Thing
Tag management is being heralded by some as the next big thing in digital marketing, and it has certainly proven to be a useful tool for those marketers that have already embraced it. With these new improvements, Tealium is sure to help take the industry to the next level. Will this be enough to convert new customers?

Start Promoting: Holiday Guide for Merchants

Allison Howen — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 21:20:00 GMT

The term “holiday” is defined as a day of festivity or recreation when no work is done. For merchants, however, holidays tend to increase the workload and (hopefully) sales, because holidays typically give consumers more free time (and a reason) to shop for themselves, for others and for festive products, in general.

In order to receive the benefits that holidays can bring in, merchants must first spend time creating a marketing plan for each special day. For example, popular holidays, such as Thanksgiving or Independence Day, require months of planning and robust marketing, including search advertisements, an email campaign and a social strategy. On the other hand, merchants may decide that email and social are suitable channels for promoting smaller holidays, like Grandparents’ Day or Groundhog Day.

To prepare the appropriate type of campaign for each holiday, merchants must first choose which special dates to acknowledge. Luckily, Website Magazine has compiled a list of holidays, complete with some strategic tips, to help merchants plan out their marketing initiatives. Check out the month-by-month breakdown of important dates below:

(Note: the dates are based on the 2013 calendar)

January

Merchants should use January not only to recuperate from last year’s busiest shopping season, but also as a time to start preparing for next year’s holiday shopping season. This is because December’s holiday campaigns are still top-of-mind, and should provide merchants with insights into what worked and what didn’t work. That being said, January also has some pretty important holidays that merchants can use to promote sales, such as New Year’s Day and Martin Luther King Day.

January 1 – New Year’s Day

January 20 – Inauguration Day (Once every four years after the presidential election)

January 21 – Martin Luther King Day (third Monday in January)

February

February hosts both popular holidays that require strong marketing, such as Valentine’s Day, as well as some quirky holidays, like Groundhog Day and Mardi Gras, that can be promoted with a strategic email and social campaign. Additionally, Leap Day occurs in February about every four years, which presents merchants with a unique opportunity to offer some exclusive sales. Lent also provides some clever marketing tactics, as those who observe Lent typically give up a personal vice during this time (from Feb. 13 through March 30). Perhaps you can encourage them through their journey by offering replacements.

February 2 – Groundhog Day

February 10 – Chinese New Year (The first day of the Chinese calendar)

February 12 – Lincoln’s Birthday

February 12 – Mardi Gras (The last day before Lent)

February 14 – Valentine’s Day

February 18 – Presidents’ Day (third Monday in February)

February 29 (2016) – Leap Day (typically every four years)

March

The most popular holiday in March is typically St. Patrick’s Day, however, in 2013, Easter also falls in this month, which means that merchants should plan their campaigns accordingly. Furthermore, March 20 is the first day of spring, which merchants can use as a way to promote new spring/summer items.

March 17 – St. Patrick’s Day

March 20 – First Day of Spring (Spring Equinox)

March 25 – Passover Begins (starts on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan)

March 31 – Easter (first Sunday after or on the first full moon, after the Spring Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere)

April

April might start out as a joke, but merchants should take marketing campaigns during this month seriously. This is because Tax Day is April 15, which means that a good majority of consumers are going to have some extra spending money.

April 1 – April Fool's Day

April 2 – Passover Ends

April 15 – Tax Day

April 22 – Earth Day

May

Before the flowers begin to bloom in May, merchants should have their Mother’s Day campaigns running in full force – as this is one of the busiest shopping times of the season.

May 5 – Cinco de Mayo

May 12 – Mother’s Day (second Sunday of May)

May 27 – Memorial Day (last Monday in May)

June

With summer on everyone's mind, June is a great time to launch some “hot” Father’s Day deals.

June 16 – Father’s Day (third Sunday of June)

June 21 – First Day of Summer (Summer Solstice)

July

Independence Day is summer’s biggest holiday, which means that merchants should start launching their marketing campaigns for Fourth of July shortly after Father’s Day in order to receive the best results.

July 4 – Independence Day

August

Although August may be lacking big-name holidays, merchants should use this month to promote end-of-summer and back-to-school sales.

August 21 – Senior Citizens Day

September

Back-to-school sales typically run through the end of September, but there are a few notable holidays in this month that merchants can use within promotions, such as Labor Day and Patriot Day.

September 2 – Labor Day (first Monday in September)

September 8 – National Grandparents’ Day (first Sunday after Labor Day)

September 11 – Patriot Day

September 22 – First Day of Fall (Fall Equinox)

October

October is a time when merchants can launch spooky sales to capitalize on Halloween. They should also use this time to start preparing for the busiest shopping season of the year, which is right around the corner.

October 6 – Boss's Day

October 14 – Columbus Day (second Monday in October)

October 31 – Halloween

November

The busiest shopping season of the year officially kicks off on Thanksgiving every year, which means that merchants should start launching holiday-related search advertisements at the beginning of this month in order to see sales skyrocket on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday.

November 11 – Veterans’ Day

November 28 – Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November)

November 28 – First Day of Hanukkah (25th day of Kislev, according to the Hebrew calendar)

November 29 – Black Friday (first Friday after Thanksgiving)

November 30 – Small Business Saturday (first Saturday after Thanksgiving)

December

Holiday sales should be in full force by December 1, but merchants should continue their holiday marketing initiatives through Christmas, before switching to year-end sale campaigns.

December 2 – Cyber Monday (first Monday after Thanksgiving)

December 5 – Last Day of Hanukkah (Eight days after the start of Hanukkah)

December 7 – Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day

December 21 – First Day of Winter (Winter Solstice)

December 24 – Christmas Eve

December 25 – Christmas

December 26 – Kwanzaa (until January 1st)

December 31 (New Year’s Eve)

Other Important Dates

While this list has more than 40 important dates on it, there are undoubtedly many other holidays that merchants can create marketing campaigns around – like National Hug Day (January 21), National Pancake Day (February 28) and Sweetest Day (the third Saturday in October). Moreover, merchants can create sales and promotions around dates that are special to their company, like an anniversary or founder’s birthday. By creating sales around specific dates, merchants can help increase traffic and conversions as it provides consumers with a sense of urgency. That being said, it is also important to not overdo or promote holidays too close together, because consumers won't pay attention to a "special holiday sale" if it occurs too frequently.

Bring Content Marketing Functionality to Your Blog

Michael Garrity — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 20:40:00 GMT

When blogging first became a thing, it was primarily utilized by online content publishers and bored teenagers. It wasn’t really until years later that their usefulness as a content marketing tool really became evident.

Unfortunately for marketers, blogs were not traditionally built with them in mind, and modern online content marketing often requires greater flexibility in blog creation and management.

Because of this, the all-in-one marketing platform Genoo has released a new blog management tool for marketers and business owners that provides them with a suite of tools for content management, search engine optimization, lead nurturing and social integration.

This blog management tool lets users post and connects relevant content to their blogs, other posts within the blog and relevant landing pages on their websites. Moreover, Genoo’s blogging tool makes it possible for marketers to feature new sidebar content on every blog post, rather than simply putting up static sidebar content on each page, which can include links to other posts, contact forms or other various calls-to-action. Users can even turn all of the content of a single post into different sections with a table of contents that links all of the sections together.

Each blog post can be directly connected with Google Authorship qualifications, which adds information about the author’s Google+ presence, bio and a photo to their blog posts when they appear in Google’s SERPs.

In updating its blog content management tools, Genoo has also integrated lead management capabilities, which allow bloggers to track their visitors, subscribers and commenters and place them into a lead nurturing process.

Conversational Marketing Requires Big Data

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:55:00 GMT

There is more pressure than ever for digital marketing departments to measure performance and optimize the total marketing mix. To do that you'll need access to some robust analytics of course; fortunately, there's no shortage of solutions to make this digital dream a reality.

Case in point, Neolane, which provides a conversational marketing platform, has released a new version of its marketing analytics product which it hopes will do just that. And it's doing it all with access to big (and better) data.

While there is no shortage of marketing paltforms which provide some level of data, what may make Neolane's updated solution potentially appealing is that it aims to empower marketers to optimize, excute and monitor their own campaigns without requiring a "Data Scientist or employing additional help from IT departments;" something which you're probably all too familiar with.

“With Neolane Marketing Analytics, we are offering unique data analysis features for marketers to address the emergence of Big Data and have a better understanding of their customers’ behavior,” stated Stephane Dehoche, president and CEO, Neolane.

“Most of our clients have dramatically increased their productivity and are now measuring their customers’ reactions in real-time. Marketers are therefore empowered to effectively use data and deliver personalized cross-channel experiences.”

Flash-in-the-Pan: Capturing 15 Minutes of Digital Fame

Administrator — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 19:45:00 GMT

Despite how hard everyone seems to try, it can be difficult to get noticed on the Internet; after all, there are a lot of people out there competing to get their voices heard, and it’s easy to get overlooked with all of that digital noise.

For those Web professionals that are trying hard to build up some long-term authority in their industries, this climb to relevance is even more arduous and painstaking, as it takes time (and lots of it), as well as great content, tons of networking and measurable success, to really become an authority.

But we all have to start somewhere, and sometimes for the up-and-coming Web worker, the best thing they can do right now is just get any recognition. So, if you’re only interested in establishing your name and getting 15 minutes of virtual fame (for the time being), here are five steps that you can take to do just that. As they say, any publicity is good publicity.

Step #1: Create Something

In order to gain digital popularity, you must first produce some type of content that will grab an audience's attention. One way to do this is by creating something that answers a commonly asked question within your niche. For example, an apparel retailer could create a guide for “Choosing Your Best Color” in a blog post, while a fitness expert could create an infographic about the “Dangers of Fast Food.”

It is also important to note, however, that although most content forms have the potential to go viral, visual content like videos, images and infographics, tend to resonate better with audiences and are more “shareable” in the social world. That being said, it is important to include branding within content, as well as hashtags when possible, so that consumers will be able to identify where the content came from. This will not only provide free marketing for your brand, but it also has the potential to drive traffic to your website.

Step #2: Post It

Once you’ve created your intriguing content, it’s time to put it out there for others to see, react to and share accordingly. How you go about doing this will depend greatly on the type of content you produce, but regardless of what it is, you should start by making sure it’s on your website and/or blog, so that when people find it, they can also find you.

However, you shouldn’t stop there. You should also post your content in those places on the Internet where it is most likely to be found. For example, if you created a video, upload it to YouTube (which has 800 million-plus unique montly users), Vimeo, DailyMotion or any of the other dozens of video hosting services on the ‘Net. Same goes with posting photos to Flickr, Imgur or a similar service. Just anywhere that users are going to go to look specifically for that type of content.

Step #3: Share It

After the content is prepped and posted, it is time to share it with the world. While it is important to share content through email and on large social sites like Facebook and Twitter, you should also take time to share it on news-discovery sites like Reddit and Digg, so that it will have the ability to reach additional audiences.

Moreover, it is also important to share your content with the audience that will appreciate it the most, which are typically the people within your niche. To do this, you can target specific people on Twitter, post the content within relevant LinkedIn groups or spread the word within smaller and more targeted social networks.

Step #4: Talk About It

Word-of-mouth still remains one of the most effective ways to make your content go viral and soak in those 15 minutes of fame. Thankfully, the Internet has made word-of-mouth marketing exponentially easier; in fact, it’s so easy that basically anyone can do it.

Forums, blogs and the various comment sections that can be found on most content-based websites are all great places to go to spread the word about your cool new video, image, blog post or whatever it is you’ve created. Generally, getting into these discussions is as easy as signing up for an account on the website (which usually only requires a working email address), and then you can start talking about your new content and sharing links to it with potentially interested parties. All you need to do is make sure that the forum or blogs you’re commenting on are attached to websites that cater to your target audience, so that you won’t be talking to disinterested users. Also, try not to spam these boards with links to your content, but rather just mention it in a conversation (or as a conversation starter) to generate some organic interest among the users. Allowing the attention to grow on its own and not annoying everyone is going to be your best chance at helping your content go viral.

Step #5: Capitalize On It

While everyone can appreciate 15 minutes of fame, the most successful people find a way to capitalize on it. After all, it would be silly to let a surge in website traffic go to waste.

This is why it is important to identify the goal of your viral content. For example, is the goal to drive people to your site, so they can see your new merchandise or big sale? Or is the goal to acquire more subscribers on your email list? Regardless of what the goal is, it is vital to identify what the expected outcome of your viral campaign is and prepare for it; that way, you can get the most out of the traffic that your captivating content is sure to send to your site.

Allison Howen is an Associate Editor at Website Magazine, writing primarily about e-commerce and social media.

Michael Garrity is an Associate Editor at Website Magazine, focusing primarily on search, design and development and affiliate marketing.

A Wish Come True for Online Marketing Managers

Allison Howen — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:05:00 GMT

Your wish for a simpler way to manage and monitor all of your brand’s online marketing initiatives has just been granted.

Wishpond just launched a new social marketing suite, which provides businesses with a platform that can be used to build, execute and track all of its online marketing activities. This marketing suite is also designed to help users attract, engage and analyze customers across a variety of channels, including mobile, social and the traditional Web.

“In the past we have done some different pieces of the equation and we were helping social commerce specifically, but now (the platform) has evolved to become more of a complete suite of products,” said Ali Tajsekandar, CEO of Wishpond. “It is really an all-in-one marketing package for retailers and brands.”

On social networks, marketers can leverage the platform to create promotions, (e.g. discount offers, local specials and sweepstakes), as well as to launch photo, donation and voting contests across Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and Wordpress. Additionally, the platform offers discovery and engagement tools, including social stores and social buttons, to assist brands in attracting customers and increasing conversions.

One of the platform's other features is analytics, which can help marketers discover their traffic sources and also provide insights into audience demographics, such as age, gender, location and Facebook Page likes. This data is important because it can be used to optimize future marketing campaigns to better target and engage a brand’s most valuable prospects.

When it comes to the Web, retailers can leverage the platform to extend their product reach on Google. For example, the marketing suite enables merchants to create Google Product Listing Ads (PLA). Potential users will be happy to know that the platform will soon extend its ads and distribution functionality to networks such as Facebook, Amazon, Bing and Yahoo.

To date, Wishpond’s marketing suite has already been adopted by more than 15,000 businesses to help capture more customers, market products and grow sales. Also, by leveraging social apps like sweepstakes, these brands have seen a 120 percent average growth in their fan base.

Check out some of the platform's screen shots below:

Performance Insider: Seasonal Trends of Marketing Verticals

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:30:00 GMT

One of the more challenging hurdles to surmount for digital marketers is simply choosing the right time to execute campaigns for their industry vertical (niche); essentially, when they should spend their time and financial resources to market their products and/or services.

If you are already planning your digital strategy for 2013 (here’s to hoping you are) then check out Website Magazine’s insights on the seasonal trends of top marketing verticals and some strategic guidance to help in your yearly planning.

Win Major Marketing for your SMB

Allison Howen — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:11:00 GMT

Is your small business in great need of a marketing boost? Prove it.

Interactive advertising agency Blue Collar has teamed up with digital marketing and measurement agency SwellPath to launch JumpStart, a campaign that will give away $100,000 in agency services to an emerging company. Interested business owners must submit a pitch that explains why their company deserves the prize by Oct. 26, 2012.

“It has always been a goal for our agency to make connections with people who believe in hard work and have a clear vision and passion for their business,” said Rob McCready, partner and account director with Blue Collar. “We realize that it hasn’t been the easiest of economic times for business owners and entrepreneurs, so we want to help energize a passionate business that needs our help by offering $100,000 in agency services. We’re looking for a unique and inspired business who offers a great product or service—a small dog with big fight.”

The JumpStart campaign provides a marketing boost to the business with the strongest pitch, which will include resources to evolve an effective and distinctive brand experience that creates demand in the marketplace. Participating entrants must share their business vision and convey their passion in a short essay, and can also include creative examples, such as videos or images, into their submission.

“The proposal isn’t supposed to be elaborate or traditional,” said April Donovan, partner and creative director with Blue Collar. “Our team understands that the best ideas are not created in the boardroom and presented in a three-ring binder. In today’s business environment, creative thinking is critical. We’re looking for client partners who are curious, innovative people who value teamwork, lead by example, and love what they do. We’re most inspired by people with heart and soul who dare to do the impossible.”

After the Oct. 26 submission deadline, the judges will announce five finalists on Nov. 9, 2012. Then the public will be able to vote for their favorite JumpStart business. The campaign’s winner will be determined by popular vote, and will be announced on Nov. 16, 2012.

Increase Exposure with Facebook Coupons

Allison Howen — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 15:00:00 GMT

There are many ways that marketers can promote their brands on Facebook – and Trumpia has just added another.

The multi-channel marketing solution provider has launched Facebook Coupons, which enables businesses to offer printable coupons directly from their Facebook Page. The coupons can be found within a business's Facebook Tabs, which act like additional Web pages on a Facebook Page. Trumpia clients can also customize Tabs and coupons by applying a template or by using the platform’s HTML editor. Additionally, graphic coupons can be added to the Tabs by entering valid barcode numbers from a POS system.

Launching social coupons can prove to be a valuable marketing strategy because they can help businesses go viral within an online community. This is because businesses can set up their coupons to only be redeemable after customers “Like” their Page, and the more "Likes" a business collects, the more exposure it will gain by having its updates appear on fans’ newsfeeds. This means that businesses are not only offering their customers money-saving deals by offering coupons, but can also use the coupons to strengthen their brand, increase visibility and boost sales.

“We've seen firsthand how Facebook can help businesses grow. What we’re doing to magnify that growth is adding features and capabilities that Facebook doesn’t directly offer,” said Ken Rhie, CEO of Trumpia. “Businesses can target their online audience to gain exposure in today’s digital world and bring in revenue.”

Are You an All-Star Marketing Athlete?

Allison Howen — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 17:47:00 GMT

You may not be able to beat Tom Brady on the football field, but with a little investment in planning and inbound marketing strategies, you have the ability to be an all-star athlete within the marketing industry – according to a recent study from Optify.

The inbound marketing software provider announced the findings of its first annual survey on the B2B marketing athlete, which are individuals who have mastered multiple channels, tactics and techniques to become successful within the marketing industry. The survey found that 47 percent of marketers were labeled as “Star Performers,” because these marketers consistently met their lead-generation goals by investing more time per week on planning, as well as exhibited the highest scores for attitude and focus.

According to the study, marketing athletes tend to be very productive – with 82 percent reporting that they spend the majority of their time on activities important to their business. The most time-consuming task is content creation and management, with 30 percent of respondents claiming to spend more than 15 hours per week on these tasks and 40 percent spending between 5-15 hours. To break down tasks even further, the areas that occupy the most of marketers’ time include content (30 percent), lead generation (17 percent) and website management (16 percent).

The study also found that star performers tend to invest more time and effort into inbound marketing tactics such as content creation, PR, SEO and social media. However, when it comes to tactics, social media is undoubtedly the most popular choice – with 91 percent of respondents claiming that they are social media experts. In fact, more marketers spend at least 15 hours per week on social media than any other tactic, and only 16 percent report spending no time on social media. On the other hand, paid search is the least popular tactic with 57 percent of marketers not spending any time in this area.

It is also important to note that even though 73 percent of respondents claim to spend less than five hours per week on planning, it seems as though this is a very important task that shouldn’t be overlooked. This is because 42 percent of star performers report spending more than five hours per week on planning, while 14 percent report spending more than 15 hours per week on this task.

“Marketing athletes are the unsung heroes of B2B marketing, and this survey puts into perspective the amount of work and knowledge they possess,” said Rob Eleveld, CEO of Optify. “The study confirms our many discussions with customers and prospects; marketing athletes work across multiple channels to achieve their aggressive goals. We are building Optify to help them manage and track all their marketing campaigns in one single place.”

Other findings from the study reveal that most marketing athletes handle key marketing activities in house. However, a large percentage of respondents also outsource expertise-heavy and labor-intensive tasks to contractors and digital marketing agencies, such as Web design and maintenance (45 percent), SEO (35 percent) and PR (33 percent).

To sum up the study, key factors that set star performers apart from their peers included more time spent on planning and execution in areas directly related to generating revenue, and less time spent in non-productive areas like administrative work. Additionally, star performers tend to have a more positive attitude and focus more time in vital areas like lead generation and content development.