INSIGHT blogArchive: July 2007

Archive for July, 2007

What’s In Web 2.0

28
July
2007

Companies are using Web 2.0 technologies to help manage their organization’s knowledge to various audiences. But with the changing trends of social maketing – what constitutes the Web 2.0 toolkit?

George Assimakopoulos

Principal Manager

Many of our clients ask us to define for them the technologies or trends that make up Web 2.0 – or how businesses leverage Web 2.0 to share information with customers through social methods.  The following list of nine Web 2.0 tools serve as our response to this question:

1. RSS: Really Simple Syndication – allows people to subscribe to online distributions of news or other information relevant to them

2. BLOGS: Short for Web Logs – these are online journals or diaries hosted on a Web site and often distributed to other sites or readers using RSS

3. Collective Intelligence: Refers to any system that attempts to tap the expertise of a group rather than an individual to make decisions. Such technologies include collaborative publishing and common databases for sharing knowledge

4. Mash-Ups: These are aggregations of content from different online sources to create a new service. An example would be a program that pulls apartment listings from one site and displays then on a Google map to show where the apartments are located

5. Peer-To-Peer: P2P is a technique for efficiently sharing files (music, video, or text) either over the Internet or within a closed set of users. P2P distributes files across many machines – often those of the users themselves

6. Podcasts: A multimedia form of a blog or other content. They are often distributed through an aggregator such as iTunes

7. Web Services: These are software systems that make it easier for different systems to communicate with one another automatically in order to pass information or conduct transactions. For example, a retailer and a supplier might use web services to communicate over the internet and automatically update each other’s inventory systems

8. Wikis: Such as Wikipedia, these are systems for collaborative publishing. They allow many authors to contribute to an online document or discussion

9. Social Networking: This refers to systems that allow members of a specific site to learn about other members’ skills talents, knowledge, or preferences. Commercial examples include Facebook and MySpace. Some companies use these systems internally to help identify experts

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Viral Marketing for Politics

24
July
2007

With the Internet (Web 2.0) comes the power; The power for people to learn more, get involved, make themselves heard, and perhaps most importantly, spread information. In the political realm, this ability can be both a blessing and a curse.

Keith Vera
Account Manager

With the Internet (Web 2.0) comes the power; The power for people to learn more, get involved, make themselves heard, and perhaps most importantly, spread information. In the political realm, this ability can be both a blessing and a curse as both positive AND negative information has the potential to spread like wildfire. The ability to harness the power the Internet provides is crucial to the success of any political campaign, and it all starts with building a community.

When I say “building a community”, of course I’m talking about a community of supporters. Finding individuals who will donate money and campaign for candidates is far more important than simply banking a large donation from a single supporter. There is a massive advantage to the candidate who can leverage the backing and donation power of hundreds of thousands of individuals over the candidate who relies exclusively on large donation supporters. The way to tap into this resource is a concept that every political campaign should be implementing, and that is to make their messages viral.

Techniques for the political side of viral marketing can range from tapping into social networks, to embracing micro-targeted campaigns to initiating viral fundraising efforts. Broad campaign messages can be spread to millions, specific messages can be tailored to help gain supporters in areas that may have been previously impenetrable, and millions of dollars in donations can be harvested. These are just some of the quality ways to spread campaign messages and develop that essential community of supporters.

The Internet gives the power to political candidates to keep people informed and increase the reach and frequency of their messages better than ever before. The question is simply, who will be able to harness that power the best?

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Which Day of The Week?

12
July
2007

How many emails you send in a particular week – and what your competitors are doing with their campaigns – can have an impact on your e-mail open rates.

George Assimakopoulos

Principal Manager

According to eROI’s "Email Marketing Statistics by Day and Time" study for the second quarter of 2007, the best days for opens are Wednesday, followed by Monday and Thursday, Tuesday and Friday, Sunday, and then Saturday. While 27% of email is opened on Wednesday, only 12% is opened on Saturday. Click-through rates follow a similar pattern, with 5% clickthroughs on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but only 2% clickthroughs on Saturday and Sunday.

Recently, Email Insider shared research that they conducted in an article that best stated the effect of frequency based on the day selection…

"When retailers sent one email in a given week, their overwhelming favorite day was Tuesday, with Monday in a distant second place. However, when retailers sent two emails in a given week, Thursday was their favorite, followed by Tuesday. Wednesday was the least popular workweek day. When retailers sent three emails in a given week, Thursday was the most popular, followed by Monday. Those two days were by far the most popular. Wednesday’s fortunes were much brighter when retailers sent four emails in a given week. While Monday was the most popular, Wednesday was a fairly close second."

While these can make for helpful benchmarks, we urge everyone to test their day selections, as well as their frequency to determine what your particular subscribers respond to best.

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Better AdWords Insight is Only a Tab Away

2
July
2007

Google unveils two new AdWords reporting features that should help many AdWords advertisers gain significant insight into their campaigns.

Keith Vera

Account Manager

Last week we took a look at Google Analytics as a solution to Google AdWords conversion reporting errors. This week however, it is worth discussing two of the recently introduced AdWords reporting features that should help many AdWords advertisers gain significant insight into their campaigns.

The first new reporting feature is the Search Query Report, which allows advertisers to see all the search queries that triggered their ads. This delivers much more transparent information then what was previously offered, where you were only able to see metrics for the associated keywords and not the actual search query. This new reporting feature is most beneficial to those who are just starting an AdWords campaign, or to those who are using a majority of “Broad” or “Phrase” match terms within their campaigns, as it helps to build keyword lists and to quickly identify any terms that need to be on negative keyword lists. The only real limitation that I have found is that this report classes some queries into a bulk category entitled “All Other Queries”, however for the most part this new tool that is worth a look for most AdWords advertisers.

The second new reporting feature is essential for anyone who is running, or even thinking about running ads on Google’s Content Network. The new Placement Performance Report allows advertisers to see each site and specific page within the Content Network that their ads are being displayed on, along with the typical impression, click and conversion metrics. With this new report, advertisers can easily identify and remove irrelevant sites from their Content Network campaigns, and to start a Site-Targeted Campaign for those sites that are producing relevant traffic and positive conversion figures.

All in all these two new features are a solid effort from Google to provide greater account transparency through their reporting, and are worthwhile reports for any AdWords advertisers looking to further optimize their campaigns.

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“iPhone” Marketing

2
July
2007

With the iPhone off the shelves, Apple may transform the mobile marketing and advertising industry as it did with the iPod and the portable music player industry.

Author: Dinos Papanastasiou

Research Analyst

As I posted from Ad-Tech 2007 the world of mobile marketing is right at our doorstep. With the new iPhone flying off the shelves, Apple may transform the mobile marketing industry as it did with the introduction of the iPod in the portable music player industry. With accumulated iPhone sales said to hit half-million dollars for the opening weekend, the iPhone appears to be living up to expectations. Mobile marketers and advertisers seem to be overjoyed with these sales, seeing the iPhone as a mobile channel powerhouse with possibly limitless potential.

CEO of Third Screen Media, Tom Burgess has said, “There’s no doubt that it is a step in the right direction for a more robust marketing medium." Gene Keenan, vice president of digital marketing services Isobar, claims that the iPhone will “spark a revolution,” and many across the country agree, myself included.

Steve Jobs holds his prediction that 10 million iPhones will be sold by 2008. Though some analysts disagree that 10 million iPhones will influence the industry, when compared to iPod sales, a "marginal" 376,000 in 2002, the potential is certainly there. If Jobs’s predictions hold true, advertisers should be prepared for complete transformation of the mobile marketing industry.

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