September 30th, 2006

Ben & Jerry’s Alaskan Adventure Sweepstakes

As we mentioned in our last email newsletter, we are very excited to be working with Ben & Jerry’s to promote their Alaskan Adventure Sweepstakes and educational efforts for combatting global warming.

The Sweeps end Oct. 5 (this Thursday), though, so be sure to visit their entry page now for a chance to win a trip to Alaska, a year of free ice cream, and a year of renewable energy credits to offset your air travel. And download the free “Planet Chill Sustainable Travel Guide” while you’re there.

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September 20th, 2006

Where does affiliate marketing fit in?

In general, the interactive marketing world seems to focus mostly on tried and true tactics like search engine marketing, email marketing and web advertising. Now, the hot words of the day seem to be “mobile marketing”, “online video” and “social networking”. But what about affiliate marketing? This often ignored marketing strategy contributes to a major portion of sales for many online retailers. Amazon.com, with perhaps the most popular affiliate program in world, has estimated figures of up to 30% of their sales coming from their hundreds of thousands of affiliates (Amazon does not disclose actually figures on this).

Affiliate marketing should definitely be given more of your attention. As an advertiser, if you can find the right publishers (aka “affiliates”), you can increase your marketing reach drastically and only have to pay out on a CPA (cost-per-action) basis. This means your ROI is essentially… whatever you want it to be. For website and email publishers, if you have a targeted and loyal audience, then promoting affiliate products can be a great way to monetize this traffic.

So how can you get started? Advertisers will need to first decide on their program’s objective and offer. Think about what makes sense for you: percentage of sales, or a fixed payment amount for a newsletter subscriber or just a landing on your site. The other main components are resources and technology. Building an affiliate program, while it may be very lucrative in the long run, requires significant effort. Along with this, the technology of tracking your program is not always easy to bring in house. For many organizations, it makes sense to consider an outsourced affiliate partner. Some of the most popular and respected include Commission Junction, LinkShare, and Performics, but there are many others for different needs. These services are usually able to completely handle the technology to serve ads, track sales and payments, as well as give you access to their own network of affiliates.

The process is usually much simpler for publishers. In general, most affiliate programs are completely free to sign up for, so it makes sense to try a number of different ones to see what works for you. Try doing some research by looking for programs from sites of online retailers you trust, or sign up for an account with each of the outsourced affiliate partners mentioned above to get access to countless other programs. Look for products that you think will sell easily, and are related to the content of your site/email. The more relevant a product is to your users, the more likely they are to buy it. Also, try to find programs that offer good and varied marketing materials that you would like to use.

Try to think beyond the hype, and give this little talked about but potentially highly-effective marketing tactic a chance. Maybe you will be the next Amazon.com (likely not, but worth a shot).

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September 20th, 2006

Corporate Blog Success Story

Now that you have read my article about the incredible power of a blogs, you are probably chomping at the bit to get started on your own, but maybe not too sure where to begin. Fortunately, I just happened to come upon a very interesting interview that provides a wonderful checklist for getting started on and maintaining a successful blog!

In a recent interview with ad:tech Betsy Weber of TechSmith discusses her personal experience with the development and launch of their successful corporate blog. In this interview Weber outlines nine key strategies for a successful corporate blog.

Definitely well worth the read! Click here for article.

One of the keys to success identified by Weber was a review of other corporate blogs to get an idea of what worked and what did not. To help you with that, I would encourage you to take a look at the MarketingSherpa Reader’s Choice Blog and Podcasting Awards 2006. This is a great resource with lots of links and additional information.

Click here for article.

Another very interesting article on the growing impact of blogs and how large corporations such as Dell, Wal-Mart and McDonalds are now starting to actively monitor and react to them can be found here:

Click here for article.

Happy Blogging!

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September 19th, 2006

Choosing the right email lists

Our other services have caught up in the last year or so, especially search engine marketing, and most recently consulting, co-registration and affiliate marketing — still, we’ve run more email campaigns for our clients than anything else over our history.

During that time, I’ve been our main email guy, personally planning, managing and executing many dozens, if not hundreds, of these campaigns.

I’ve come to learn that choosing the right email lists for your campaign is one of the most critical components of a successful campaign.

A recent article on choosing email lists by Jeanniey Mullen on ClickZ gives some great tips in this regard, including listing the “various ways to select a target list: behavioral targeting, demographic matching, data overlays, competitive segmenting, and even the more recent e-mail trend, lifestyle targeting.” As she rightly points out, which approach works best depends on the campaign’s goal.

For acquisition efforts, what our mostly small and mid-size clients usually request of us, she recommends lifestyle targeting. This method reaches an audience where they work and live, as opposed to demographics, for example. It’s somewhat similar to psychographics which looks at an audience’s mindset and what makes them buy certain types of products or do business with certain types of organizations.

In our case, because of our niche and the types of clients we serve, that means looking at our clients’ objectives in regards to the green, conscious, LOHAS, cultural creative consumer (yes, these terms are more-or-less synonyms and no, LOHAS is not a Hawaiin greeting, but stands for lifestyles of health and sustainability).

I never make list buys based on demographics — in fact, I routinely ignore media kits sent to me with that information. Instead, I look at political orientation, interests in charities, environmental mindset, spiritual orientation, interests in health & wellness, etc.

For email newsletter ads, it’s even more difficult than for email solos/blasts. Here are just a few questions I ask before doing business with new newsletters, which informs not only whether I’m willing to advertise, but how much I’m willing to pay:

• In what form can you advertise – text, graphics, or a combination? (Text is often the better choice if limited to one). What are the specifications – number of words, graphic pixel dimensions, etc.?
• Where, within the newsletter, are ad(s) placed? Top, middle, bottom; left or right sides? (The higher and to the left or middle, the better).
• What’s the average issue open rate?
• What’s the average, or range, of click through rates? Conversions?
• Can I see the subscription form(s) that people used to subscribe?
• What offers worked best in this newsletter in the past? Which sponsors have been repeat customers?

Do your homework, pick your lists well, and you’re halfway to running a successful email campaign.

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September 13th, 2006

Blogs. The New Secret Weapon.

A few years ago to identify yourself as a ‘blogger’ I am sure would have raised a few eyebrows. I still recall the quizzical look my ten year old son gave me when I told him I was working on a “blog”. His mental images of green slime or some other such unearthly invasion were quickly dashed when I told him that all it really meant was a journal entry on a website!

Lost in this relatively simplistic definition of a blog, is the incredible sales and marketing power that a blog can have. Blogs which used to be primarily online diaries of personal life, are now increasingly being used by both online and offline companies to communicate directly with their target audience.

Believe it or not, used properly a blog can be your sales and marketing secret weapon.

A key component to successful sales is having a relationship with your customer. This is were the potential of blogs really shines through! A blog will allow you to:

Humanize your business: given a choice, people like to buy from people they know. A blog allows your company to become a person that your customers can identify with. No longer are you ABC Natural Products Inc, instead you are Sally Smith a real person.

Engage your customers in conversation: through a blog you can actually have a conversation with your customers! You can tell them about new and exciting products that are coming; address frequent questions or just brighten their day with a funny story. All of these things are great ways to strengthen the all important relationship with your customer.

Develop Credibility: a good blog with lots of information will quickly become a go to resource for other people in your industry. As a trusted resource, not only will your market reach expand, but so will your influence in the industry.

Increase traffic to your site and make sure they don’t get lost: In addition to being a plus for impacting organic search results, a blog can also be a very effective way to highlight particular areas of your site.

For example in writing a blog about the benefits of a particular natural supplement it is easy and logical to put in a link that will direct customers the section of your site that provides more detailed product information. However, put a link in only if it is logical and would be useful information for the reader, not purely as a sales technique.

Without question, a good blog can be a powerful secret weapon for your sales and marketing efforts! By all accounts, blogs are not only here to stay, but they are growing in popularity and impact. As a result, the necessary time spent to learn about and develop an effective blog for your company will not be wasted.

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