Archive for August, 2008

August 28th, 2008

How to Buy Ads on the Mobile Web

The Mobile Marketing Association is a great resource for everything about mobile media. If you haven’t taken a spin through their site, it’s worth spending a few minutes doing so.

Here’s some information on buying mobile ads from their site that’s worth sharing:

Essentially, buying ads on the mobile web is the same as buying banner ads on the internet. Although, in most cases, mobile web banner ads can be bought on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) basis or a cost-per-click (CPC) basis, mobile offers targeting possibilities beyond that of traditional media. Pretty soon, if not already, you’ll see a range of targeting options covering context, demographic and behavioral attributes. (Note: For a great video on behavioral targeting, check out “An Introduction to Behavioral Targeting” in the 60 Second Videos section of the site.)

Some operators and publishers that have mobile web sites sell mobile ads directly, while others allow their inventory to be sold by a third party, either as a premium inventory or as part of a mobile network.

The biggest difference between buying mobile web display ads and internet display ads is that the mobile web ads are not sold by unit size. Because the sizes and resolutions of mobile phone screens vary, the way the content looks on those mobile phones will also vary.

It’s worth noting that most mobile campaigns today result in significantly higher click-through rates than PC-based internet campaigns.

All this and more is available at the Mobile Marketing Association website. Check it out!

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August 27th, 2008

How to Improve the Effectiveness of Your Salesforce


Here’s a problem a lot of companies face — the marketing team complains that the leads they drive to the sales team get ignored, and the sales team complains that the leads marketing drives to them aren’t any good.

Sound familiar?

According to Lisa Cramer with LeadLife Solutions, there’s a solution to this problem. It involves developing a lead scoring system that grades leads based on a number of variables including visits to your website, length of time on your website, trade show engagement and a whole host of other important factors.

The result is that companies (like yours) can now more accurately gauge whether a prospect is in the “tire kicking” mode or the “ready to buy” mode.

I saw Lisa speak yesterday at the Customer Relationship Management Association’s Return2Customer conference in Atlanta, Georgia. If you’re interested in improving the effectiveness of your salesforce, visit the LeadLife website. Or, read “How to Win New Customers Before They’re Even in the Buying Mode.” on The 60 Second Marketer site.

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August 26th, 2008

How to Create an Email Newsletter


Email marketing is big. You know that already.

But did you know there are several key tips that you should keep in mind if you’re using an email newsletter to stay in touch with your customers and prospects?

A company called ReturnPath recently subscribed to 61 companies’ email programs and studied how those companies used email.

The Return Path Subscriber Experiences study found that:

  • 60 percent of companies did not send a welcome email message.
  • 30 percent failed to send any message at all within the 30-day study period.
  • The first regular email message arrived an average of nine days after subscribing.
  • While 70 percent of companies asked for more than email address at sign-up, three-quarters of the companies that collected additional information didn’t use it to personalize or customize their emails.

If you’re interested in creating an email newsletter, you might check out the full article on The 60 Second Marketer site. It’s called “How to Create a Great Subscriber Experience with Your Email Newsletter.”

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August 26th, 2008

Mobile Marketing Research

I came across some interesting research on mobile marketing that I thought the growing 60 Second Marketer community might be interested in. As you know, mobile marketing and social media are the next Big Things, so it’d be a good idea to keep abreast of what’s happening in those arenas:

  • An Experian study pointed out that by early 2006, thirty countries had exceeded 100% per capita cell phone usage. In the U.S., we’ve only hit about 80% per capita mobile phone usage.
  • There are twice as many active users of SMS as there are active users of email.
  • While 65% of email is spam, less than 10% of SMS is spam.

Interestingly, over the weekend, I asked my 14 year-old daughter and her two friends if they had to give us their mobile phones or their computers, which one would they give up. Their answer? All three said they’d give up the computer.

The research with my daughter wasn’t statistically significant, but it was relevant.

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August 24th, 2008

Alltop — The Digital Magazine Rack of the Internet

We’re always looking for new tools at The 60 Second Marketer to make your life easier and more efficient.

Here’s a great one — Alltop is a site that aggregates the top stories from the best websites so that you don’t have to weed through a massive RSS feed of information from other aggregators. They’ve grouped the sites into individual topics such as marketing, blogging, science, PR, Social Media, politics, automobiles and Search Engine Optimization. At each Alltop site, they display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs.

This, from the Alltop “About Us” page:

“To be clear, Alltop sites are starting points—they are not destinations per se. The bottom line is that we are trying to enhance your online reading by both displaying stories from the sites that you’re already visiting and helping you discover sites that you didn’t know existed. In other words, our goal is the “cessation of Internet stagnation” by providing “aggregation without aggravation.”

Check out Alltop. It’s a great way to make your life easier and more productive.

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August 22nd, 2008

Pepsi Bottling Agrees to Distribute Dr Pepper’s Crush Sodas.

Is there a new cola war brewing?

Just the opposite — in a case of “co-opetition,” Pepsi Bottling has agreed to distribute Dr Pepper’s Crush Sodas. That may be a pretty smart move. Last year, Fanta’s volume decreased 1%, Tropicana Twister’s volume decreased 25% (ouch!) and Sunkist’s increased 4.2%.

How did Crush perform last year? Their volume jumped up 8.3%. Which makes Pepsi Bottling’s decision to distribute Crush Soda a very sweet deal indeed.

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August 22nd, 2008

Pepsi Bottling to Distribute Dr Pepper’s Crush Sodas.

Is there a new cola war brewing?

Just the opposite — in a case of “co-opetition,” Pepsi Bottling has agreed to distribute Dr Pepper’s Crush Sodas. That may be a pretty smart move. Last year, Fanta’s volume decreased 1%, Tropicana Twister’s volume decreased 25% (ouch!) and Sunkist’s increased 4.2%.

How did Crush perform last year? Their volume jumped up 8.3%. Which makes Pepsi Bottling’s decision to distribute Crush Soda a very sweet deal indeed.

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August 21st, 2008

Does Sex Sell? Find Out in 60 Seconds.

Does sex help sell products? You may be surprised by the answer.

A recent study by MediaAnalyzer looked at whether sexy images in ads improved ad effectiveness or decreased it. The finding was that sex is a great attention-grabber, but disastrous for ad effectiveness.

Men and women alike are strongly attracted by sex in ads. However, men are so engrossed by the sexual imagery that it diverts their attention. The end result is a less effective ad.

If you want to check out the entire article, click “Does Sex Sell? 7 Golden Rules of Print Ad Effectiveness” by Charles Boyar, Vice President at MediaAnalyzer who wrote the article for The 60 Second Marketer.

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August 21st, 2008

How to Use Google Alerts to Monitor What Others Are Saying About Your Company

Here’s a funny story.

Not necessarily “ha ha” funny, but funny in a “hmmmmm” sort of way, if you know what I mean.

Without naming names, I’ve noticed that when I blog about certain larger corporations, someone who is either officially or unofficially linked to those corporations will comment back to me on the blog. Generally speaking, they’ll either add to what I’ve said or dispute an opinion I’ve stated.

There’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing. In fact, the smart marketer (that’d be you) should actively monitor the chatter going on about your brand.

The 60 Second Marketer does it. We’ve gone into Google Alerts and set up an account that sends us an email any time someone blogs about The 60 Second Marketer, marketing strategy, marketing tactics and other keyword phrases. That way, we can add relevant content back to the sites that mention stuff we’re interested in.

(Pssst. Here’s a secret — we also monitor what’s being written by and about MarketingProfs.com and MarketingSherpa.com. And you now what? Those guys are good! They write some pretty cool stuff. Hats off to them.)

Anyway, if you want to keep track of what the world is saying about you, go to Google Alerts and sign up for the email alerts on your brand name or the topics you’re interested in. Like all things Google, signing up for Google Alerts is as easy as … well, Google.

P.S. In an upcoming blog post, I’ll update you on some of the other ways to monitor the chatter about your brand including Search.Twitter.com and Technorati.

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August 20th, 2008

How to Pitch a Story to the Media


One of the most common questions we get asked at The 60 Second Marketer is how to pitch a story to the media. People want to know what the difference is between pitching a story to local media vs. national media. They also want to get inside the mind of the journalist so they can understand their needs and wants for a story.

There’s a good article on the 60 Second Marketer Articles section called, you guessed it, “How to Pitch a Story to the Media.” It’s by an industry insider and should give you most of the information you need.

All in about 60 seconds.

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The 60 Second Marketer is a free online magazine brought to you by BKV Interactive and Direct Response. We try to provide quick updates on the newest tools, tips and techniques in marketing. We also try to accomplish that with a dose of humor or levity. As it turns out, we're pretty good at providing tools, tips and techniques, but we're not actually all that funny. Which would explain why people don't call us "funny" as much as they call us "laughable." Bummer. Our offices, for those of you who are interested, are located in Atlanta (404-233-0332) and Kansas City (913-648-8333). We also have offices on Bora Bora, but they don't have the phones installed yet.

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