Article Written by XDXY Marketing
Social Media is becoming one of the most important online marketing tactic. More and more companies jump into social network marketing field to promote their brand or product, and they brought huge amount of marketing dollar in as well. Since all marketing investment need to be evaluated returns, the question comes up: how to measure the performance of social media marketing?
I would like to share some tips about social media marketing performance measuring:
1. Impression. It’s not as easy as banner Ad to figure how many times of your page have been impressed, but you can still consider below points as performance evaluating:
* How many Social Networking platform you registered accounts?
* How many connections/followers you have?
* How many groups you joined as member?
* How many discussions you participated?
2. Traffic. One major purpose of social media marketing is to drive traffic to website, it’s all free and can be tracked clearly. If you are selling advertise on your website as well, use CPM (Cost per Mil) to calculate the ROI of social media performance.
3. Shares. People on social network platform do love to share their ideas and links with friends. They submit website links & content to major platforms, when they think either interesting or informative. It’s been called ‘word of mouth online’. So consider below 2 points on social media marketing shares:
* How many of your website / pages have been submit to digg, StumbleUpon, etc..?
* How many of your company name or product name has been mentioned over twitter, facebook, Linkedin?
4. Contacts acquisition. Acquire new contacts is one of most important thing for online marketing. The normal way is like: ’subscription box’, ‘ask opt-in in online survey’ or ‘list buy’, and you can also leverage social media marketing to acquire new contacts. People come to social network platform is intend to make friends, so be friends with them, influence them in each update, convert them as your client. How many contacts you acquired from social platform is critical factor to measure social media marketing performance.
5. Revenue contribution. Check how much revenue the social media contribute is the most direct way to evaluate social media marketing performance. Embed tracking code for all the social network post links (hide them by short URL service, like TinyURL if you want). If you sell products online, it’s not hard to track how much social media contribute.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
OCMP FACEBOOK CONTEST
This coming January the Off Campus Meal Plan card for the university will be getting a makeover, and one university student who is a member of the program will have his or her picture printed on each card.
Jonah Mytro, CEO of the Online Marketing and Media Group for OCMP, said students from the university are encouraged to submit a picture of themselves or their friends using or holding the OCMP card.
The card is a preloaded debit card to be used on food purchases throughout the semester at various participating restaurants along Main Street.
“It’s really just a great way to get people excited about the program,” Mytro said.
Contest submissions can be made online until the Dec. 15 deadline. He said the program has had the same face for the past two years and he said he hopes this contest will help bring the company closer to their target audience.
The company is looking to get a few hundred contest entries before choosing a winner, Mytro said. However, as of Nov. 16, he had seen only approximately 30 photos submitted.
He said they are hoping to have chosen a winner and have someone in place as the new face for the university program by Jan. 15, in time for the new semester to begin.
David Diana, the creator and CEO of the program, said this is the first time the company is hosting a contest to find a new face for their campaign.
“We really wanted to get make the company more personal,” Diana said. “We thought a contest like this would bring us closer to our members.”
Diana said he runs programs at schools all over the country but the university was chosen as the focus for this contest because it is one of the most successful programs he oversees.
“UDel just has a great location for a program like this because all of the restaurants are so close to campus so a lot of students take advantage of the program,” he said. “We have tremendous success here.”
The contest running now is for the university program only, but Mytro says he has high hopes for the winner of the contest.
“After somebody is chosen as the winner he or she will be the face for the UD program,” he says, “But there could be opportunity for that person to expand to become the face of the entire program.”
University student Alexandra Boris is a member of OCMP and heard about the contest on its Facebook group page. She said she became interested in the contest because she is an OCMP member.
“I wanted to support them,” Boris said. “Mostly because I love having OCMP as a food option.”
Boris said she had thought OCMP was very popular, but then realized many of her friends were not members. She said she would be happy to win the contest.
“I would feel a little cheesy,” she said. “But it would be a great thing to add to my resume, maybe I would even get some free OCMP points.”
Enter the Fresh Face of OCMP at Facebook.com
Jonah Mytro, CEO of the Online Marketing and Media Group for OCMP, said students from the university are encouraged to submit a picture of themselves or their friends using or holding the OCMP card.
The card is a preloaded debit card to be used on food purchases throughout the semester at various participating restaurants along Main Street.
“It’s really just a great way to get people excited about the program,” Mytro said.
Contest submissions can be made online until the Dec. 15 deadline. He said the program has had the same face for the past two years and he said he hopes this contest will help bring the company closer to their target audience.
The company is looking to get a few hundred contest entries before choosing a winner, Mytro said. However, as of Nov. 16, he had seen only approximately 30 photos submitted.
He said they are hoping to have chosen a winner and have someone in place as the new face for the university program by Jan. 15, in time for the new semester to begin.
David Diana, the creator and CEO of the program, said this is the first time the company is hosting a contest to find a new face for their campaign.
“We really wanted to get make the company more personal,” Diana said. “We thought a contest like this would bring us closer to our members.”
Diana said he runs programs at schools all over the country but the university was chosen as the focus for this contest because it is one of the most successful programs he oversees.
“UDel just has a great location for a program like this because all of the restaurants are so close to campus so a lot of students take advantage of the program,” he said. “We have tremendous success here.”
The contest running now is for the university program only, but Mytro says he has high hopes for the winner of the contest.
“After somebody is chosen as the winner he or she will be the face for the UD program,” he says, “But there could be opportunity for that person to expand to become the face of the entire program.”
University student Alexandra Boris is a member of OCMP and heard about the contest on its Facebook group page. She said she became interested in the contest because she is an OCMP member.
“I wanted to support them,” Boris said. “Mostly because I love having OCMP as a food option.”
Boris said she had thought OCMP was very popular, but then realized many of her friends were not members. She said she would be happy to win the contest.
“I would feel a little cheesy,” she said. “But it would be a great thing to add to my resume, maybe I would even get some free OCMP points.”
Enter the Fresh Face of OCMP at Facebook.com
OCMP Featured in UNCW Student Newspaper
Students can now use a meal plan to eat off campus.
"Our meal plan allows students a choice in when and where they want to dine at. In addition to meal variety, our meal plan costs 20 to 30 percent less than the university meal program" said Jonah Mytro, the CEO of Q4 marketing, the online marketing company for the Off-Campus Meal Plan (OCMP).
OCMP is an off-campus option for students who want to eat at local restaurants around campus. The network of restaurants that are included in the plan are 14 fast food and sit-down establishments. Chili's, Quizno's, McAlister's Deli, Krazy Pizza and Jersey Mike's, are some of the restaurants included in the plan. More restaurants are being added to the OCMP network next semester.
The OCMP program is primarily for students living off campus; however students living on campus can have the meal plan as well.
Seven different meal plans are offered by the OCMP program. Students can get from two to three meals per week, which costs $290.59, to a plan with three meals a day, costing $2,175.46.
"We allow the students to choose what meal plan best suits their needs and adjust as needed." Said Mytro, "We have students who start out with a supplemental program (two to three meals per week) while on the UNCW dining program to test out, then moved 100 percent to the OCMP program after they found how convenient it was to use."
UNCW senior Amber Cox has the smallest plan offered by the OCMP.
"I like being able to go to each of the places on the plan that are in areas all around town. I'm on the go all the time and, between the two plans, I can get a meal at anytime." said Cox.
To get a meal plan, students can go on the OCMP program Web site, select the number of meals they want for the semester and purchase the meal plan online. Students can refill their meal plan at any time and the meals are available instantly.
"You can visit any participating restaurant and, based on what you order, the restaurant will swipe your OCMP card (like a credit card) and meals will be debited from your meal total," said Mytro.
OCMP has been designing off-campus meal plans for almost 15 years. They operate at over 30 campuses around the country and work with over 1,000 restaurants.
"We are excited to be offering this program to the over 10,000 students attending UNC Wilmington. There currently are no meal plan options for the off-campus students and we feel that the students and local restaurants will benefit greatly by this program," said David Diana, the CEO of OCMP.
"Our meal plan allows students a choice in when and where they want to dine at. In addition to meal variety, our meal plan costs 20 to 30 percent less than the university meal program" said Jonah Mytro, the CEO of Q4 marketing, the online marketing company for the Off-Campus Meal Plan (OCMP).
OCMP is an off-campus option for students who want to eat at local restaurants around campus. The network of restaurants that are included in the plan are 14 fast food and sit-down establishments. Chili's, Quizno's, McAlister's Deli, Krazy Pizza and Jersey Mike's, are some of the restaurants included in the plan. More restaurants are being added to the OCMP network next semester.
The OCMP program is primarily for students living off campus; however students living on campus can have the meal plan as well.
Seven different meal plans are offered by the OCMP program. Students can get from two to three meals per week, which costs $290.59, to a plan with three meals a day, costing $2,175.46.
"We allow the students to choose what meal plan best suits their needs and adjust as needed." Said Mytro, "We have students who start out with a supplemental program (two to three meals per week) while on the UNCW dining program to test out, then moved 100 percent to the OCMP program after they found how convenient it was to use."
UNCW senior Amber Cox has the smallest plan offered by the OCMP.
"I like being able to go to each of the places on the plan that are in areas all around town. I'm on the go all the time and, between the two plans, I can get a meal at anytime." said Cox.
To get a meal plan, students can go on the OCMP program Web site, select the number of meals they want for the semester and purchase the meal plan online. Students can refill their meal plan at any time and the meals are available instantly.
"You can visit any participating restaurant and, based on what you order, the restaurant will swipe your OCMP card (like a credit card) and meals will be debited from your meal total," said Mytro.
OCMP has been designing off-campus meal plans for almost 15 years. They operate at over 30 campuses around the country and work with over 1,000 restaurants.
"We are excited to be offering this program to the over 10,000 students attending UNC Wilmington. There currently are no meal plan options for the off-campus students and we feel that the students and local restaurants will benefit greatly by this program," said David Diana, the CEO of OCMP.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Q4 Marketing Launches Affiliate Network Targeting Small Businesses
December 9th, 2009 (Boston, MA) – Q4 Marketing and Media Group launches an Online Affiliate Network targeted to small businesses focused on lead generation and customer acquisition. Small business owners now have an affordable, efficient, and performance focused platform to manage affiliate relationships to grow revenues and customer acquisitions. Firms that currently have a website can utilize the self-service affiliate platform and manage affiliates for a small percentage fee or use the full-service package that includes affiliate recruitment, campaign management, creative design, landing page optimization and consulting services.
“There are dozens of affiliate networks that work with the mid to large size companies and we see a necessity to focus on the smaller firms that do business in niche industries. Small business owners are the back-bone of our economy and we want to provide them an affordable and straight forward application to manage affiliates and promote their company and products.” said Jonah Mytro, CEO and Founder of Q4 Marketing
Q4 Marketing’s Affiliate platform allows an advertiser the ability to track sales and conversions, manage banner and email creative, manage affiliates, monitor fraud activity, and have complete control over their affiliate program with no upfront costs, setup or maintenance fees.
Mr. Mytro stated, “Any business with a website can benefit from affiliate marketing whether their goal is lead generation, acquiring new customers, or increasing sales. We built this system to allow the novice internet marketer to benefit from the affiliate marketing industry and grow their business.”
Q4 Marketing and Media Group is a online marketing and consulting firm located in Boston, MA specializing in helping businesses increase their sales through all facets of online marketing including search (SEO and SEM) , media buying and planning, email marketing, affiliate marketing, social media and lead generation.
Contact:
Press@Q4Marketing.com
“There are dozens of affiliate networks that work with the mid to large size companies and we see a necessity to focus on the smaller firms that do business in niche industries. Small business owners are the back-bone of our economy and we want to provide them an affordable and straight forward application to manage affiliates and promote their company and products.” said Jonah Mytro, CEO and Founder of Q4 Marketing
Q4 Marketing’s Affiliate platform allows an advertiser the ability to track sales and conversions, manage banner and email creative, manage affiliates, monitor fraud activity, and have complete control over their affiliate program with no upfront costs, setup or maintenance fees.
Mr. Mytro stated, “Any business with a website can benefit from affiliate marketing whether their goal is lead generation, acquiring new customers, or increasing sales. We built this system to allow the novice internet marketer to benefit from the affiliate marketing industry and grow their business.”
Q4 Marketing and Media Group is a online marketing and consulting firm located in Boston, MA specializing in helping businesses increase their sales through all facets of online marketing including search (SEO and SEM) , media buying and planning, email marketing, affiliate marketing, social media and lead generation.
Contact:
Press@Q4Marketing.com
Monday, October 26, 2009
Yahoo Mail outages Monday Oct 26th
My yahoo mail has been down since 9am and after reading some blogs about it, it seems a majority of the Yahoo Mail users reported problems today with the service inaccessible for some and spotty for others.
TechCrunch noticed a Twitter spike in reports of problems with Yahoo Mail, and another company called Downrightnow also reported problems accessing the service over the last several hours. Several CNET employees reported that they could access their in-boxes, but mine is unavailable. Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo's home page appeared to be working fine.
Yahoo Mail is the most widely used Web e-mail service in the world by a wide margin, with over 100 million unique users in July, according to ComScore.
TechCrunch noticed a Twitter spike in reports of problems with Yahoo Mail, and another company called Downrightnow also reported problems accessing the service over the last several hours. Several CNET employees reported that they could access their in-boxes, but mine is unavailable. Yahoo Messenger and Yahoo's home page appeared to be working fine.
Yahoo Mail is the most widely used Web e-mail service in the world by a wide margin, with over 100 million unique users in July, according to ComScore.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
4 Landing Page Optimization Tips
I recently worked with Green America Today, a niche green and socially responsible company that runs Green Festivals around the country to help them improve their registration conversion for their trade show. Here are some things you can consider when trying to maximize your landing page conversion (especially when a credit card is required to register).
1- Minimize the Registration Process: Its industry average that for each additional page you send a user to, you will loose roughly 50% of your audience. Starting with 100 users who intend to complete the reg path, including a 3-step registration process will net you roughly 12 registrations. Minimize your reg path to 1 or 2 pages max. Simplify it, make it easy for users to complete the form.
1- Minimize the Registration Process: Its industry average that for each additional page you send a user to, you will loose roughly 50% of your audience. Starting with 100 users who intend to complete the reg path, including a 3-step registration process will net you roughly 12 registrations. Minimize your reg path to 1 or 2 pages max. Simplify it, make it easy for users to complete the form.
2- Add Life to the Page: Simply put, this mean adding images and/or people to the page to add life and a warm, inviting feel for the user. Check out inexpensive images at Istockphoto.com
3- Remove Distracting Links and Banners: Your goal is to convert a user and get them to input their credit card and complete a transaction...so remove anything that will distract them from this goal. Links, banners, pop-ups are no-no's..You have spent time and money to get them to your site, keep them focused on completing the form. If you have to include links or banners, make sure they load in a new window, keeping the reg form in front of the users.
4- Use Arrows and Symbols, not Words: People don't read, its a simple fact...minimize the amount of copy on the landing page and utilize arrows, symbols and images to push the user through the registration process.
Samples of Good Landing Pages
https://register.ad-tech.com/Default.aspx?e=New+York+2009
4- Use Arrows and Symbols, not Words: People don't read, its a simple fact...minimize the amount of copy on the landing page and utilize arrows, symbols and images to push the user through the registration process.
Samples of Good Landing Pages
https://register.ad-tech.com/Default.aspx?e=New+York+2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
ADtech NYC - Register before October 2nd 2009
ADtech, one of the largest online marketing and media conferences and trade shows in the world is now charging a small fee of $35 for exhibit hall passes if you register after October 2nd and before the day of the show. On-site registration fee is now $75 (up from $50 last year) and make sure to register by Friday to take advantage of the free exhibit hall pass.
The show is also moving to the Javits Center from the New York Downtown Hilton (which was becoming cramped due to the tremendous amount of attendees and exhibitors.)
Register at ADTECH/NYC
The show is also moving to the Javits Center from the New York Downtown Hilton (which was becoming cramped due to the tremendous amount of attendees and exhibitors.)
Register at ADTECH/NYC
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Product Reviews = Best Marketing Tool
From Advertisingage.com
Last fall, executives from Oriental Trading Co. read a product review from a woman planning her autumn wedding complaining that her order of fall leaves didn't look anything like the picture on the website. The execs went straight to the warehouse, pulled the product and compared for themselves. She was right -- it didn't look the same. The explanation: The company had recently switched vendors for that particular product, and the new vendor's version wasn't up to snuff. So the company pulled it.
While the first lesson of the story is that you never want to disappoint a bride, the more important one is that marketers are learning to listen. And for all the ink spilled on the importance of Twitter and Facebook as feedback and customer-service channels, there's another social-media tool marketers are increasingly finding useful, not just as an online-shopping tool but as an internal, culturally changing consumer-criticism channel: the humble product review.
The right way to use reviews
EMBRACE THE FEEDBACK. Sure, it's scary to let customers say what they will about your products on your home turf -- your website. But both the positive and negative feedback provides hints to what you're doing well and where improvement is needed. FIGURE OUT WHO NEEDS TO KNOW. Assign a team to read all the lowest reviews. Make sure it includes the right mix of people who can react quickly and fix the problem -- before more customers can get riled.
TOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS' FAVORITES. While negative ones give insight into manufacturer or customer support problems, positive ones can make great ad copy. Use them in circulars, marketing material and on store shelves.
INCORPORATE CUSTOMER SERVICE. Negative reviews can tip off your customer service and support teams to issues that they'll soon be dealing with. Use them as early warning signs.
DON'T STOP THERE. Oriental Trading started with reviews but after seeing how people liked to share their opinions, it has turned its website into a more robust community. It asks users to help solve each others' problems and share their stories, using Bazaarvoice's other tools.
The feedback is altering not just how the marketing department works but also how companies design their products and work with suppliers. And it's not limited to small, nimble players; companies using product reviews range from niche retailers such as Oriental Trading Co. to big, broad-based behemoths such as Walmart.
Samsung used consumer reviews and insights to modify the speaker placement on its flat-panel TVs. After hearing complaints that the speakers on the side of the TV, which add a few inches, rendered them too wide for many customers' entertainment cabinets, it redesigned the product to hide the speakers underneath.
Crate & Barrel kids-furniture subsidiary Land of Nod reissued a $400 activity table with a more-durable wood when consumers complained it was too soft and showed punctures and dents from normal kid use. Even though return rates were still low -- who wants to bother shipping disassembling and shipping back a clunky table? -- the reviews uncovered the problem.
Scouring every complaint
"We're not just guessing, we know exactly which products have issues and what exactly the issue is," said Oriental Trading CEO Sam Taylor, who logged time at HP, Best Buy, Land's End and Disney before heading up the Omaha, Neb., party and craft supplier. "We put together a cross-functional team that cuts across product development, merchandising, sourcing, inventory, e-commerce, creative and quality. The team reads every single one- and two-star review."
Reviews are growing in importance to marketers struggling to figure out how to turn social-media conversations into insights that directly affect sales. But the good and the bad reviews are valuable. Walmart is using them to highlight customers' favorite products in its circulars; Sephora is using it in-store, via mobile phones.
And while Twitter conversation and Facebook chatter is interesting and important, it's not structured, and can be difficult for marketers to implement into their processes. Review data, on the other hand, address a particular product -- and when a consumer is in the mode to talk about it.
"A tweet doesn't give you a whole lot of insight except it's positive or negative, while reviews are about the product, what you like and don't like," said Sam Decker, chief marketing officer at Bazaarvoice, an Austin, Texas, company that manages product-review platforms for both retailers and manufacturers, including many of those mentioned in this piece. His offline analogy is a room where everyone is there to talk about your product vs. a room where they are there to talk about anything.
But even if reviews offer structured data, it's not easy to make them an integral part of a company's internal process and the ones who do have well-defined methods. Samsung uses its product-review information for four purposes: to listen and keep its ear to the ground, to enhance the shopping experience for consumers who are increasingly seeking more information, to build community among consumers and let them talk to each other and to improve customer service and support by helping them be aware early of issues that may arise.
Reviews easiest
Even before Samsung added reviews to its site, it launched an internal process for disseminating that information, said Kris Narayanan, director-marketing at Samsung Electronics America, and that included getting it in the hands of product managers and marketing managers as well as the service and support group. And in some cases, they'll make sure they filter into the R&D group.
Samsung is also listening to consumers in places such as Twitter, Facebook and on blogs, but the challenge there is that content is "very diverse" and finding patterns in it "is nontrivial."
"We use tools to track buzz, track mentions of products and brands and there's a method to the madness but I can't say anyone's discovered it," he said. But "reviews are more structured, we quite often know specifically what products they own and that provides so much more transparency for us in terms of consumer opinion vs. tracking the tremendous volume of buzz.
Last fall, executives from Oriental Trading Co. read a product review from a woman planning her autumn wedding complaining that her order of fall leaves didn't look anything like the picture on the website. The execs went straight to the warehouse, pulled the product and compared for themselves. She was right -- it didn't look the same. The explanation: The company had recently switched vendors for that particular product, and the new vendor's version wasn't up to snuff. So the company pulled it.
While the first lesson of the story is that you never want to disappoint a bride, the more important one is that marketers are learning to listen. And for all the ink spilled on the importance of Twitter and Facebook as feedback and customer-service channels, there's another social-media tool marketers are increasingly finding useful, not just as an online-shopping tool but as an internal, culturally changing consumer-criticism channel: the humble product review.
The right way to use reviews
EMBRACE THE FEEDBACK. Sure, it's scary to let customers say what they will about your products on your home turf -- your website. But both the positive and negative feedback provides hints to what you're doing well and where improvement is needed. FIGURE OUT WHO NEEDS TO KNOW. Assign a team to read all the lowest reviews. Make sure it includes the right mix of people who can react quickly and fix the problem -- before more customers can get riled.
TOUT YOUR CUSTOMERS' FAVORITES. While negative ones give insight into manufacturer or customer support problems, positive ones can make great ad copy. Use them in circulars, marketing material and on store shelves.
INCORPORATE CUSTOMER SERVICE. Negative reviews can tip off your customer service and support teams to issues that they'll soon be dealing with. Use them as early warning signs.
DON'T STOP THERE. Oriental Trading started with reviews but after seeing how people liked to share their opinions, it has turned its website into a more robust community. It asks users to help solve each others' problems and share their stories, using Bazaarvoice's other tools.
The feedback is altering not just how the marketing department works but also how companies design their products and work with suppliers. And it's not limited to small, nimble players; companies using product reviews range from niche retailers such as Oriental Trading Co. to big, broad-based behemoths such as Walmart.
Samsung used consumer reviews and insights to modify the speaker placement on its flat-panel TVs. After hearing complaints that the speakers on the side of the TV, which add a few inches, rendered them too wide for many customers' entertainment cabinets, it redesigned the product to hide the speakers underneath.
Crate & Barrel kids-furniture subsidiary Land of Nod reissued a $400 activity table with a more-durable wood when consumers complained it was too soft and showed punctures and dents from normal kid use. Even though return rates were still low -- who wants to bother shipping disassembling and shipping back a clunky table? -- the reviews uncovered the problem.
Scouring every complaint
"We're not just guessing, we know exactly which products have issues and what exactly the issue is," said Oriental Trading CEO Sam Taylor, who logged time at HP, Best Buy, Land's End and Disney before heading up the Omaha, Neb., party and craft supplier. "We put together a cross-functional team that cuts across product development, merchandising, sourcing, inventory, e-commerce, creative and quality. The team reads every single one- and two-star review."
Reviews are growing in importance to marketers struggling to figure out how to turn social-media conversations into insights that directly affect sales. But the good and the bad reviews are valuable. Walmart is using them to highlight customers' favorite products in its circulars; Sephora is using it in-store, via mobile phones.
And while Twitter conversation and Facebook chatter is interesting and important, it's not structured, and can be difficult for marketers to implement into their processes. Review data, on the other hand, address a particular product -- and when a consumer is in the mode to talk about it.
"A tweet doesn't give you a whole lot of insight except it's positive or negative, while reviews are about the product, what you like and don't like," said Sam Decker, chief marketing officer at Bazaarvoice, an Austin, Texas, company that manages product-review platforms for both retailers and manufacturers, including many of those mentioned in this piece. His offline analogy is a room where everyone is there to talk about your product vs. a room where they are there to talk about anything.
But even if reviews offer structured data, it's not easy to make them an integral part of a company's internal process and the ones who do have well-defined methods. Samsung uses its product-review information for four purposes: to listen and keep its ear to the ground, to enhance the shopping experience for consumers who are increasingly seeking more information, to build community among consumers and let them talk to each other and to improve customer service and support by helping them be aware early of issues that may arise.
Reviews easiest
Even before Samsung added reviews to its site, it launched an internal process for disseminating that information, said Kris Narayanan, director-marketing at Samsung Electronics America, and that included getting it in the hands of product managers and marketing managers as well as the service and support group. And in some cases, they'll make sure they filter into the R&D group.
Samsung is also listening to consumers in places such as Twitter, Facebook and on blogs, but the challenge there is that content is "very diverse" and finding patterns in it "is nontrivial."
"We use tools to track buzz, track mentions of products and brands and there's a method to the madness but I can't say anyone's discovered it," he said. But "reviews are more structured, we quite often know specifically what products they own and that provides so much more transparency for us in terms of consumer opinion vs. tracking the tremendous volume of buzz.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Interview with Cost Per Lead Expert - Jonah Mytro
From Clickz.com - Jonah Mytro discusses the cost per lead industry and getting started with a performance based internet marketing campaign for lead generation.
Harry Gold
Overdrive Interactive Marketing
Performance media buying is one way to minimize risk associated with media dollars in these strange economic times. I've written plenty on this topic, so this time I decided to get the scoop from an expert in the space: Jonah Mytro, director of Mediaspike, based in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Harry Gold: Please tell me about yourself and your company -- basically, what do you do and whom do you do it for?
Jonah Mytro: We are an online marketing and business development firm focusing on the development, launch, and management of Web sites in a variety of different industries including online education, debt settlement and consolidation, travel, scholarships, and parking. We own and operate each of our Web sites and generate leads and inquiries for our clients on a performance model. Clients only pay per qualified lead or inquiry and are very ROI [return-on-investment] focused.
HG: So you're not an agency then?
JM: Mediaspike is not the traditional agency where we buy media on the client's behalf. Our goal is to deliver qualified leads and inquiries to our clients who pay us on a cost-per-lead basis. From the client perspective, they are reducing their risk and only paying for a qualified lead, which they can monetize. We are focused in certain areas so we can go very deep into certain verticals and develop mature lead channels.
HG: So basically you sell media to certain industries on a cost-per-lead basis?
JM: Correct. So my expertise is in both the buy side and sell side of performance or cost-per-lead media.
HG: So in your world, what is performance media?
JM: Basically [it's]...cost-per-lead media where we, and our clients, buy media on a cost-per-lead basis. Some would consider it cost-per-click or cost-per-interaction performance media as well. But for us, it is cost per lead.
HG: So how do you generate leads for your clients?
JM: We essentially do it two ways: we have straight cost-per-lead buys via long-term partnerships with other sites and we buy and optimize our own CPM [cost-per-thousand] and CPC [cost-per-click] media as any media buying department would do. When we buy the media on a CPC or CPM basis, we need to constantly be evaluating and optimizing the media we buy so we can capture leads for less then we are selling them for. When we buy leads we need to optimize on lead quality, as our clients can and do reject bad leads.
HG: What is the difference between performance media buying and affiliate marketing?
JM: When utilizing a public affiliate marketing platform like LinkShare and CJ [Commission Junction], we find that it is hard to know exactly what all the affiliates are doing out there to generate your leads. Many might maintain compliance with the way you want your brand or client's brand represented, but all in all, you have very little control over what people do with your brand once they grab your creative and start driving traffic. They could be spammers (although they are not supposed to) and worse.
So with the Wild West atmosphere of the affiliate landscape, you really don't know what a lot of your affiliates are doing to get you leads. When we do cost-per-lead [CPL] media buying, we try to do long-term CPL contracts with sites we trust. We also work with them to create a viable flow of quality leads that works for us and them. Otherwise, the relationship will not last.
Often affiliate channels, even if they work, can be hard to set up consistent relationships -- an affiliate is less likely to work with you to dial the program in over the long haul. They are also more flighty -- even if it works, they may have something else they think will do better on so they swap you out for another affiliate deal.
HG: Can you tell me how you structure performance deals?
JM: When buying leads we are successful because we have a deep focus in specific areas and can buy a large volume of leads from a site -- much more then one individual business could commit to. So it is worthwhile for sites to come to us since they know they will benefit from a long-term relationship. We provide them with a significant and consistent revenue flow that is not dependent on a single buyer of leads. The key thing is we get them to commit to really making it work with us -- and work with us not only to optimize on lead volume, but lead quality.
HG: How do you track and gauge lead quality?
JM: We work with over 60 media partners each month and we pass media partner reference IDs to each of our clients that accept them. This technology allows us to review the conversion or lead rejection data by media placement so we can optimize the quality of our leads across our entire channel.
Ultimately, as the overall quality of our leads grows, so does the value of those leads and the price we can ask for them. The way to optimize CPL is on lead quality so it is critical that you have a fast way to gauge the quality of your leads and source them back to the property you are buying them from.
HG: Out of search, banners, links -- all the things you do, is there anything that you think is the clear winner from a performance perspective?
JM: Besides buying straight leads, there isn't one type of media placement that consistently performs better than others; it really depends on the messaging and the landing page. We have had success with all of the units you have mentioned.
HG: What's the best way to get started with a performance-based media buy?
JM: Before you venture out and start the media planning process, you have to decide on your goal metrics and campaign measurement methodology. We work with a lot of education lead-generation clients and their key metric is a cost per enrolled student. Figure out how you are going to monetize a lead or inquiry (follow-up with a phone call, e-mail, brochure, media kit), develop an ROI model you want to achieve. So one is make sure you (or your client) are able to react to the leads you generate quickly. In this business, speed wins. It is very likely that the lead or prospect has made inquiries with more then one organization. Also remember cheap leads are not always good leads. Have a feedback loop in place that lets you quickly gauge the quality of leads from your different sources.
HG: OK, then what?
JM: After that, go out and start talking to sites about creating long-term relationships where you agree to buy all the leads they can generate for you forever. Remember, sites are not interested in assuming the risk for your marketing if it is for a short-term small deal. They want to make money too and only have so much real estate on their properties.
It helps if you go out the door with pre-optimized creative that you know works. Finally, be open-minded about where the conversion happens. It does not always have to happen on your site. Let the site host your landing page and send you the leads. In these cases, you only have to gauge the quality of the leads coming down the pipe and the site does not have to lose a site visitor.
HG: Have all the brand advertisers coming into the online space over the past couple years bit into the availability of performance inventory?
JM: There are plenty of opportunities on the Internet and even with traditional media (radio, television, and print) that you can use for performance media buy. Most brand advertisers aren't utilizing these performance placements since they are more focused on brand awareness compared to being ROI focused so they want premium placements.
HG: Where do you see the future of performance media buying going?
JM: I expect that over the next 12 months we will see a change to more ROI-focused media campaigns due to the current state of the economy. When the economy hits a downturn, the first thing that is cut is the marketing budget, and the idea of lower risk marketing programs is very appealing. I see also more agencies creating specialty performance-based media buying offerings who actually buy leads of properties like ours.
HG: If an individual business or agency wants to get into performance media buying what can you suggest?
JM: Here are some quick tips:
- Make sure you or your client has a system to quickly react to the leads coming in.
- Develop a system for tracking and optimizing on lead quality.
- Know that you have to structure long-term deals with your media partners.
- Get over the idea of premium real estate.
- Make sure you are going out with pre-optimized creative and offers -- a site will not stay with you if they cannot make money of generating leads for you because your creative and offers are bad and your conversion rate is low.
- Consider letting sites host your landing page and conversion [events].
HG: Thanks Jonah. This is really good information.
Clickz.comHarry Gold
Overdrive Interactive Marketing
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