digital marketing

Breaking Waves For Marketers To Catch

By Keith Boswell

The Internet marketing landscape has grown rapidly over the past few years, spreading out over the Internet like warm saltwater in the sea. Initially focused on banner advertising and search engine submissions, the environment has grown considerably in terms of tools and sophistication of the techniques that Internet marketers are employing.

Jupiter Media Metrix has spotted a recent shift in advertising/marketing dollars into online channels that deliver less expensive distribution, greater personalization, and higher response and tracking rates than traditional marketing dollars are able to capture.

What is emerging in the online marketing space is part digital marketing and part online advertising. Online advertising is an online marketing model based largely on traditional metrics and thinking. Online advertising learns its lessons from television, print, and radio. Examples of online advertising are banner ads and website/content sponsorships.

Digital marketing is a model based on the possibilities created by tightly networked markets. For example, in the next 24 hours web surfers will search for “used cars” an estimated 36,507 times. Marketers are able to insert themselves into these online markets in ways they never could before (see Keyword Markets to learn more). Even in a world filled with spam, consumers and businesses are finding each other on the Internet in unobtrusive ways.

Companies employing digital marketing tactics are actively working to ensure their customers are getting the best and most relevant information that they need to make purchases. Digital marketing consists of search engine optimization, permission-based email marketing, and online coupons.

Marketers were led into online advertising first because it most matched the traditional marketing channels they were accustomed to and the tools for effective digital marketing didn’t exist yet. Like exploring new coasts with dated maps, it was only a matter of time before those marketing online gained better tools and information to make them more successful.

According to Jupiter, spending in online advertising in the United States grew by only 5 percent in 2001. Once the economy settles down, they expect it to bounce back and grow at a compound rate of 22 percent over the next five years, reaching a total of more than $15 billion by 2006.

During the same time period, Jupiter predicts that spending on digital marketing initiatives such as search engine optimization, e-mail, and coupons will surpass that of advertising and reach more than $19 billion by 2006.

The growth for online marketers will be huge. According to Jupiter’s Internet Advertising Model, by 2006 online advertising and digital marketing will account for 7 percent of the total advertising market, up from 3 percent in 2001.

As marketing online matures, we continue to learn a tremendous amount about how people are conducting themselves online. Traditional models didn’t grasp how powerful combining hyperlinked information and marketing tactics could be.

Driven quickly through hyperlinks to information, context becomes an important factor for success. Varying levels of trust are created depending on where information is found.

Companies must ensure they are being found in search engines in order to attract a captive and interested audience. A study from the NPD Group released in February 2001 found that search listings are more effective than standard banner or button advertisements when it comes to brand recall, favorable opinion rating and inspiring purchases. The study found:

In unaided recall, search listings outperformed banners and buttons by three to one
More than twice as many people gave a more favorable opinion of companies in the top three search positions than those featured in ads
55 percent of online purchases were made on websites found through search listings
Only 9 percent of online purchases were on websites found through banner ads

These studies suggest that people are inclined to trust services like search engines much like they trust a librarian, a trust that people would not be lead wrong by those who would choose to lead them. Search engines work because they are a passive tool, awaiting input from the user to find what they want.

Email works because it takes the concept of direct marketing and turns it into an active communication channel driven by valuable information and transactions. Research released from DoubleClick in November 2001, indicates that over 88 percent of online consumers have made a purchase as a result of receiving permission-based email, up from 61 percent last year. The research also found that 37 percent had clicked through an email and purchased immediately, up from 20 percent last year.JCPenney is an example of a company that is using email to drive sales. Between 1998 and 2000, JCPenney’s online sales rose from $15 million to $294 million. JCPenney hasn’t released online sales figures for 2001, but projections were for sales over $400 million. How has the business grown that much? By focusing on targeted email lists from a willing audience of over 4.5 million shoppers. A family with children headed back to school will get promotions that highlight JCPenney’s back to school specials.

A blinking rich media banner ad can’t begin to work that way. It might have relevant information or appeal, but only about one one-thousandth of the time. Banners, in all shapes and formats, live in the desert of the online world like billboards on a lonely stretch of dry, forgotten highway.

Digital marketing, like search engine optimization and email, fills your belly and growls at you because you’re hungry for it. It’s what you want…not what someone perceives you to want. When a person searches on a search engine for a specific product or service, they are qualifying themselves as a potential customer.

Online advertising reminds you that a company has not faded away, sticking to a one-sided, high-frequency push of information it believes will draw people to it like a lighthouse. Digital marketing looks to meet you up on scenic deck #2, where mutual conversations drive transactions and relationships. In a shifting sea of choices, marketers’ budgets will soon reflect where the real money and conversations live.

Source: http://www.marketleap.com/report/ml_report_24.htm

Cloud Computing and Cars: A Web Services Primer

By Bridget Townsend

Keeping up with shifting technology is an uphill battle when marketing in the automotive vertical. See how web services can help you focus on promotion, rather than your infrastructure.

Web services are not a new invention, but only recently have we seen them gaining acceptance in many industries, including automotive. If you consider the nature of a vehicle, combined with the exploding number of consumers heading online to research and shop for vehicles, this makes sense. Because a vehicle can have over 10,000 options and pricing configurations, ensuring that an automotive selling site has the most up-to-date and accurate information, and that it has the tools that consumers demand (such as allowing consumers to build their own cars by adding options, colors, etc., and then comparing them to other models) is a monumental job. Enter web services.

What web services can do
Before we delve deeper into how web services can benefit a wide range of industries, let’s step back and explain more concretely what they are and what they do. Web services are interfaces that exchange information between an application and a remote data source. They allow software applications to access and use functionality and data created by another provider, or multiple providers. This is an abstract concept, so let’s make it tangible with an example of web services, courtesy of the website XML.com: a music CD. If you want to play a CD, you put it into a CD player and the player plays it for you. The CD player offers a CD playing service. You can replace one CD with another, or take your CDs to a friend’s house and play them on their player. No matter what music is on the CD or what player you use, you can listen to it because the systems talk to each other. This works the same way as web services do. Without web services, every CD would come with its own player and the two would not be separated. This sounds odd, but it’s the way many software systems have been built. In effect, building a software system has been like re-inventing the wheel every time, with all the development time and costs that includes. With that basic definition, let’s circle back to how industries are using web services, and why they would want to. Let’s take Google as an example. Google has popularized web service utilities for businesses and for the general public. Groups ranging from non-profit organizations to book clubs use their Google Groups and Google Docs to share information and stay in touch. Another example is cdyne, which applies web services to a specific domain or demographic. Their demographics web service delivers enhanced census data, which their clients use to target customers or neighborhoods for their own services and products.

Web services for automotive
In the automotive industry, this same concept is applied to a vertical market. Online vehicle shoppers want quick and easy access to the most up-to-date and detailed vehicle data. A vehicle manufacturer or portal site could re-invent the wheel by developing its own configuration and comparison tool to combine raw data with available options, but the creation is time-consuming and requires sophisticated programming skills and constant data updates. Using web services, they create a simple consumer-facing interface and flow data through it from a data provider. They don’t have to create an infrastructure or manage data updates; the provider takes care of that. Every interface is customized for look and feel so every website retains individuality. Check out Vehix.com and Sam’s Club Auto Buying Program for examples. Both use web services to deliver vehicle data, but each interface is customized and unique. And neither company has to worry about updating the data or keeping the service running; the web service provider takes care of that. They’ve increased their capability without having to invest in a new infrastructure, derail their development team or invest in new personnel. Why they work
To continue with the “why” of web services, reduced cost and development time are key. A basic example to illustrate this point: a Microsoft Word document. When you go to write a document, you would never dream of starting by developing your own word processor. Microsoft has already done that, and done it well. They’ve provided the platform and they are responsible for managing it, updating it and releasing new versions. You only have to use it.

Web services follow the same logic. An expert in the space has already developed the platform; customizing it is much cheaper and faster than developing it all over again. Consider the example of cloud computing, which allows developers to exploit functionality without having to implement a full-blown application. Because this practice is cheaper, and because the internet is increasingly more reliable, more companies are adopting this approach. Early adoption within a handful of Fortune 500 companies, including Proctor & Gamble and General Electric, sets the stage for cloud computing to go mainstream. This “cloud” allows companies to more efficiently and cost-effectively store, manage and share data without any hardware or software to download, install or maintain. Their customers can focus on their core competencies, not the infrastructure.

Another benefit of using an existing web service is access to the innovations of that implementation. As we all know, technology is never static; changes are happening every day and trying to keep up with new functionality can derail a development team from focusing on the core competencies that result in immediate revenue.

As an example from the automotive industry, many companies need to be able to decode vehicle identification numbers (VINs), but they generate revenue by creating consumer-facing websites that help consumers find the their perfect vehicle. They don’t need to build a VIN decoder, they need to buy one. What they’re presenting to the consumer is key, not what is happening on the back-end.

Conclusion
If you are developing websites for your clients, or are tasked with bringing all the providers together who are essential for functionality and deployment, you should consider taking a closer look at web services. By using an off-the-shelf solution and then building on that platform, you can save your clients time to market and significant funds and give them access to groundbreaking innovations. As a result, you have more money left in your budget for marketing and promotion, and your clients can get a head start on generating more revenue.

Bridget Townsend is director of engineering, product and client services for Chrome Systems, Inc.

Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/20362.asp

Web Marketing Grows, but How Much?

JULY 3, 2008

A Look Behind the Numbers

“More than one-half of the average marketer’s budget is now spent online,” according to a press release from lead generation company Clash-Media. The firm conducted its “Online Lead Generation (B2C) Report 2008” in May with E-consultancy.

But the press release may be a misreading of the report. According to respondents, a greater proportion of lead generation budgets is being spent online (on average, 53%) than offline (44%).

The survey’s methodology seems to confirm the point.

Of those polled, 73% said their channels to market were “online or multichannel,” and 23% said “online only.” Only about 4% said they were “offline only.”

So respondents were focused largely on online approaches. The rest of the summary issued with the report was more accurate. Among the findings:

Seven out of 10 responding marketers said their companies used search engine optimization, paid search and e-mail marketing to in-house lists.
Offline marketing methods largely decreased, with only press and television advertising growing. Over 90% of marketers saw online lead generation as a growth area.
Print media was still the most commonly used offline method to generate consumer leads (65% of organizations).
Natural search (79% of respondents), e-mail marketing to in-house lists (75%) and paid search (71%) were the three most commonly used online methods for lead generation.

Without question, online ad spending in the US is rising quickly. eMarketer predicts double-digit growth will continue for the next several years.

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006376

Auto Ad Spending Down, Except Digital

Double-digit Web ad growth

Automotive advertising spending in the US dropped to $1.99 billion in Q1 2008, according to TNS Media Intelligence. That was down more than 14% compared with Q1 2007.Ad spending is “sinking as fast as new car sales,” said Jon Swallen, senior vice president of research at TNS, in a July 2008 Detroit Free Press interview. Mr. Swallen noted that consumers’ focus on fuel economy has cut into truck sales, which has affected ad spending. “A year ago, for every dollar spent on truck advertising, they spent 80 cents on passenger auto,” he said. “This year, the ratio of truck advertising to car advertising is almost 1-to-1.”Automakers have traditionally been the biggest advertisers in the country. General Motors is the fourth-largest advertiser in the US, and the company spent $535 million in Q1 2008, according to TNS data cited in a July 2008 Media Life article. GM spent $2.1 billion on ads last year, which was the third year in a row of lower ad spending for the company.

Last year total auto ad spending was down 10.8%, to $12.3 billion, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus data cited in the Detroit Free Press article.

If there is a bright spot in auto ad spending, it is online. Internet spending was up 57.9% last year, to $441.6 million. TNS put GM’s Internet spending alone at more than $212 million (excluding search and online video), 79% over the previous year’s spending.

eMarketer predicts double-digit growth for auto online ad spending through 2012, when it will reach more than $5.61 billion.

Learn how auto marketers are using the Web. Get your copy of eMarketer’s Automotive Marketing Online: Negotiating the Curves report.

Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006426

Focus on the customers, not the clicks

By Chris Chariton

Traffic to your website is great, but engaged customers are what you really need. Here’s how to turn anonymous clickers into promising sales leads.

It’s time we re-framed the concept of “driving traffic” to websites.Just what is traffic anyway?Once upon a time, it wasn’t much more than a bunch of anonymous vehicles, people or things moving from one place to another. But since the dawn of the web, it’s what companies receive when visitors click from one place to another. And that’s the dissatisfying result: if your web strategy focuses on driving traffic, you end up with anonymous clicks and page after page of site traffic reports of limited value.

Rather than “driving traffic,” focus on getting motivated prospects and valuable customers to visit your websites and convert them into qualified sales leads. By re-framing your objectives, you may end up reallocating some of your online marketing investments.

Take keyword ads on general search engines. While these are important parts of an online marketing strategy, your ads may not be reaching the audience you are interested in targeting. You can end up paying for a glut of unqualified traffic — even if you have the right keywords.

One way business-to-business advertisers can avoid attracting unqualified traffic from the vast ocean of consumers visiting mass market search engines is by being more focused with your keywords. Instead of using “pumps,” consider using “turbine pumps,” a keyword geared toward a specific audience. Using long tail SEO keyword practices will attract people with the same specific and targeted interests.

Another strategy delivering motivated prospects — not just clicks — is displaying ads only to targeted audiences. You can’t always do this on general search engines, but you can with some B2B oriented destination sites — vertical search engines — where your filtered, targeted audiences are aggregated for you.

Other strategies to drive qualified prospects to your site include having a presence in relevant online directories, advertising in appropriate e-newsletters and showcasing your capabilities with banner ads on targeted web sites.

A robust, visible presence — more than just a link to your website — in online directories provides branding and messaging capabilities to motivate qualified prospects to visit you. Look for directories that are geared exclusively toward your B2B audience. They offer multiple options for showcasing your company and products.

Purchasing ads in e-newsletters can also change the focus from traffic to qualified leads. When determining an e-newsletter advertising strategy, consider both the size of the audience and the mix of readers. Ask the publisher for both the number of subscribers and a subscriber profile, preferably by industry and job function. Review the subscriber profile and you’ll know if you’re targeting the right audience.

Finally, don’t forget online banner ads that appear on targeted websites. Seek out a partner that offers a banner ad network allowing you to reach targeted audiences across multiple sites with a single buy, helping to save media research, program management and tracking time.

These strategies drive prospects to your website, usually to a specific landing page deep within the site containing relevant content. Now the other half of the equation comes into play: You need to convert these visitors into qualified leads.

The easiest way to accomplish this is by offering valuable content that qualified prospects will register to obtain. In other words, exchange something valuable to you (their contact information) for something of value to them (a white paper or Webinar offer). Your lead-focused landing page should also include a simple form that captures an email address and a phone number.

Converting site visitors from nameless, faceless clicks to identifiable prospects also gives you a way to accurately measure the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives, allowing you to shift dollars to the programs that perform best.
Follow these suggestions and you’ll never again incorrectly focus on “driving traffic” to your website. Your focus will be exactly where it needs to be: on customers, not clicks.

Source: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19928.asp

Your Virtual Lot Needs Attention Too!

by : Arnold Tijerina

In this digital marketing age with more and more consumers choosing to utilize the Internet to assist in making their automobile purchasing decisions, it is increasingly important to monitor the activity within your Internet departments.

Judging the effectiveness of your Internet traffic cannot be done solely by evaluating its production. Whether you are using third-party lead providers or driving traffic to your own web site or a combination of the two, you need to be aware of what’s going on with the leads. Just like you look at how your ups are being worked by your salespeople, closers, or sales managers; you should know what’s going on with your Internet ups.

What most dealers forget to include in evaluating their Internet departments and/or where the budget is being spent to provide leads is the most basic factor imaginable:
1. Are my Internet managers working the leads properly?

2. Do I have a process in place to insure that I can use to hold them accountable?

It’s important to have processes just like any sales force has. Would you expect your salespeople to take a customer on a test drive before writing them up? Of course you would. Internet leads are ups in the same way as someone that walked onto your lot. In fact, you may get more ups through your virtual lot than you do on your physical one. There are many dealerships that have Internet departments that account for 30-40 percent (or more) of their business but this is the department that is typically the most neglected and least monitored of all departments by sales managers. Dealers pay a lot of money for these ups yet fail to work them as hard as they would any customer that had walked on the lot because they don’t see the potential of turning these ups into sales today. The mentality that exists, and has existed, is that this is a today business. While we would all prefer to sell a car today (anybody waiting for the be-back bus?), I think everyone would agree that selling a car eventually is better than never.

Through my experience and observations, I’ve noticed that unsuccessful Internet departments tend to have Internet managers that don’t continually work a lead. Maybe they call a few times over a week or so but then they just give up and restart the process on fresh leads. This circular pattern neglects the customer that’s not ready to buy today, but is a buyer. With most Internet customers being seven weeks out from initial contact to sale, no wonder you are losing business. I understand how frustrating it is for an Internet manager to call someone 18 times and never get a hold of anyone and never have any calls returned. That doesn’t mean these aren’t buyers, only that they’re not ready to buy or not enough of an impression has been made to earn their response. Just like any salesperson knows, you can give a customer every way to contact you imaginable: the dealership’s phone number, your home and cell phone numbers, your work and personal e-mails, etc., build great rapport and ask the customer in every way possible to call you when they want to come in and that you will be there to assist them and, despite all of this, the customer will still show up when they are ready to purchase without calling the salespeople. Knowing this, why is it hard to believe that a customer who nobody at your dealership has ever even met in person would do the same thing?

I’m a firm advocate of utilizing a business development center (BDC) to follow up with your customers whether they are prospects or previous customers rather than entrusting your customers to salespeople who may or may not follow up with them. At least with a BDC, you can create a consistent process with dedicated people that follow up with your customers and prospect for your dealership. This simple addition to your business will increase your sales immediately and create greater customer satisfaction and a great first impression. Have you ever heard a customer say that nobody ever contacted after requesting information? How about feedback from a customer saying a salesperson never called them back after promising to?

By paying more attention to your Internet departments, Internet managers and leads, you will be able to increase your sales within that department immediately, without any additional expense to you. If your salesperson were burning ups, you’d stop the behavior. Why allow your Internet managers to do the same thing? If you don’t pay attention, you only have yourself to blame.
Source: http://www.dealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1907

This Time, It Is Personal

When you send out direct marketing materials, be they postcards, letters or emails, how personal are they? You’ve certainly abandoned the “Hello Valued Customer” greeting for a first name… but is that where it stops? Are you using past purchase history, geographic information, age and income levels and such to create truly personal messages and offers?

The database technology the drives today’s direct marketing — and the digital printing and data-driven email marketing that make the data come to life — allows for a level of personalization that we could only dream of a decade ago. And these technologies open up new doors for the smart marketer — and give us all a new responsibility — to make good use of that data.

This means not offering a minivan to the 24-year-old single male, or the two-seater sports car to the mother of three. It means targeting the customers who bought big SUVs from you 3 years ago with messages about the new hybrids or other vehicles that will get them out of that gas guzzler. It means being smart — and that will lead to profits.

D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC

No More Excuses

There are no more late adopters

For years, we’ve heard the excuses. At first it was, “most of my audience would rather shop on the lot,” and then it was, “Some my audience still doesn’t have internet access,” a short time later we heard, “There are still some people out there who don’t use the web to do their background research,” and even later we got this, “There’s still a group of consumers out there who refuse to use the internet, so we have to stay in the paper and on television.”

Well all of those excuses had merit at one time or another. And now, we’re here to say, that the time for all of those excuses has passed. The number of people who are both capable of purchasing a new or used automobile, and are non-internet users is so incredibly small as to be unworthy of your time and attention. And the same can be said for dial-up internet users… don’t you worry about them anymore either. The age of the late adopters has come and gone. And even those that came late to the online party have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

So what does that mean to your marketing? A few things…

1. No sense in segmenting your marketing into digital and non-digital formats, now. Every consumer is a digital consumer.
2. Assume that every customer is going to visit your web site. Count on it. It’s already happening.
3. Assume those customers know as much (or more) about pricing, options, financing, special offers and manufacturer’s incentives than your sales people do.
4. Don’t shy away from multimedia content, embrace it. Your audience is broadband.
5. Focus on the user experience of all your digital marketing. It’s just as, if not more, important than the experience a customer has when they visit your lot.
6. Don’t apologize for being digital. In fact, target your competition who isn’t up to date on technologically.
7. Realize that all your materials, now more than ever, need to work together.

These are just a few of the ways an all-online audience will change the way you approach identifying and reaching out to new customers. The days of the late adopter are long gone. Act accordingly.

D. Jones
Marketing Strategist/Creative Consultant
SmackDabble, LLC

Ensure That Your Web Site Pulls in Buyers

From Digital Dealer Magazine May 2008
by : Peter Batten

Your online store is just as important as your showroom, and the reason why is clear: 70 percent of new vehicle buyers use the Internet to vehicle shop, as do 61 percent of used vehicle buyers (2007 J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com & Used Autoshopper.com studies). But, as you may have noticed, simply having a web site will not increase your traffic, leads, or sales. In fact, a flaccid web site can do more harm than good as potential customers quickly ascertain that they will not find the information they want and leave your site in favor of a big portal or automaker site. But it does not have to be that way. You can make your dealership web site a best-in-class consumer destination with the features and tools that give your customers the comprehensive content, intuitive navigation, and breadth of information found on leading portals and manufacturer sites. That’s right: your site can be as impressive as any automotive site out there. And you can do it all with a minimum of development time.

Lifestyle search capabilities
With a lifestyle search, a consumer can search for vehicles that match their needs without having to know any esoteric vehicle information. For example, a customer can search by body style, like SUV, coupe, or convertible, instead of having to start searching by make and model. Many consumers do not know what exact trim they want; they just know they need an SUV because they carry cargo on slippery roads, or a compact because they want to save on gas bills. Lifestyle searches are intuitive for consumers, allowing them to find the vehicle they want with the least amount of hassle and frustration.

Powerful comparison features
A J.D. Powers and Associates study focusing on best practices on manufacturer web sites found that consumers loved powerful comparison tools that allowed them to compare multiple vehicles at one time (2006 Manufacturer Web Site Evaluation StudySM – J.D. Powers and Associates). They found that side-by-side and advantage-based comparisons are especially useful because shoppers can quickly scan the results and even print out results for future consideration. There are several companies who can equip your web site with a robust comparison tool in record time.

Vehicle images and videos
The same J.D. Powers and Associates study cited above found that consumers gravitate to vehicle images and videos, which put them immediately in the virtual driver’s seat. Videos are especially valuable for demonstrating functionality and versatility of a vehicle including: acceleration, cornering, stopping, and much more. Color changes and interior shots are invaluable for helping the consumer to experience the vehicle and for generating excitement and the desire to buy. Consider including a comprehensive equipment listing for each of your vehicles alongside a detailed photo that consumers can click to view different angles, interior shots, colors, and live-action video. Build-A-Car tool tied to your inventory
The advantages of a Build-A-Car tool on your web site have been well documented. Give consumers the opportunity to design the car of their dreams and they will stay on your site longer, return again and again, and convert into a valid prospect at a higher rate. Bump this tool up to the next level by integrating it with your inventory so customers can see what you have available.

Online credit applications
You want prospects to become buyers. An additional feature to help you meet this goal is the online credit application. By including a secure link to a credit application that a customer can immediately complete, you are saving that customer time and hassle and also converting a lead into a viable prospect. Use the credit application as a virtual shopping cart to close qualified buyers in record time.

http://www.digitaldealer-magazine.com/index.asp?article=1914

7 Strategies for Marketing in a Downturn

Published: May 22, 2008, from iMedia Connection, by: Guy Maser

The following tips will carry your company through the lean times and beyond.

In a challenging economy, you must find new ways to make marketing work more effectively, get more out of marketing investments, and measure and account for marketing decisions. In short, you must make changes. Doing the same things in an uncertain economic environment and expecting the same results is, at worst, a definition of marketing insanity. At best it is a flawed strategy.

How can your company be one of those success stories that market and grow their businesses during challenging economic times? The following strategies will help you allocate marketing investments to better performing programs that will carry your company through the economic downturn and beyond.

Get targeted
A fundamental but sometimes overlooked marketing tenet is to “fish where the fish are.” In other words, invest in those specific, targeted media where you know your customers and prospects will be exposed to your message.

Research shows that virtually all engineering, technical and industrial professionals now use the internet throughout their work process. The same holds true in most B2B markets. But the internet is vast, and the fish you are looking for may be using specific websites where the content is directly related to their information needs. Work with your media partners to identify and target those sites.

Measure performance
While it’s always the right time to purge marketing programs that don’t perform, it may be time to scale back any marketing plans whose results you can’t measure or are unsure about. In other words, re-allocate and “right-size” marketing budgets to measurable programs. Online programs — which are built around delivering visibility, impressions, clicks, leads and customers — are easy to measure.

Think integration
Integrated marketing means your marketing strategy takes advantage of multiple media, resources and customer touchpoints to create a whole that’s greater and more effective than the sum of its parts. The more that marketing efforts are integrated and comprehensive, the greater impact you can achieve in gaining visibility in your market, qualified leads and sales.

Maintain frequency and consistency
The benefits of regular visibility in the market tend to compound over time as more prospects recognize your company. This improves your opportunity to get on a prospect’s short list of potential vendors and also shortens the sales cycle. A consistent online presence where your customers and prospects are looking for information — including websites, directories, search engines and e-newsletters — will help your company stay visible as well as provide measurable lead generation benefits via online contact.

Push and pull your way to success
Most marketing can be classified as either push or pull: companies push their message out through tactics such as direct mail, advertisements and e-newsletters; and they also establish a presence in online directories, websites and search engines to pull customers in real-time when prospects are searching for information, products and services like those your company offers. Rather than struggling over whether to allocate resources to push marketing or pull marketing, seek out a media partner that has your target audience captive and can offer both push and pull programs under an integrated program.

Focus on quality over quantity
If marketing efforts focus solely on quantity over quality, fewer leads will convert, more sales resources will be wasted, and sales people will begin to distrust marketing’s lead generation programs. Commit to programs in which quality is a key attribute: programs that can deliver interested prospects, provide prospect contact information and offer reports of program performance.

Seek assistance from media partners
The economy is likely forcing you to make harder and smarter decisions about allocating budgets. While you may be facing challenges, you don’t have to face them alone. Ask media partners to demonstrate how their marketing solutions help your company achieve the strategies mentioned above.

Ask them:

Do they have your target audience’s attention?
Can they keep your company visible to prospects and customers at all times?
Do they offer a variety of integrated marketing solutions aligned with your goals?
Can they provide both visibility and lead generation?
Do they deliver targeted, quality leads with full contact information?
Do they provide reports you can use to measure the performance of your marketing and justify your marketing investments?

During challenging times or when things are going well, marketers need to clarify goals and create tailored, integrated marketing solutions that complement the current media mix and extend their companies’ ability to compete and win business in the market. Utilize a wide range of digital media advertising and marketing solutions. Consider keyword ads, email marketing, searchable product catalogs, banner ad networks and industry-leading e-newsletter advertisements. Figure out the right combination and you will deliver the right message at the right time to the right audience and integrate with your traditional marketing efforts.

http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19318.asp