Twelve interactive marketing methods–including search engine optimization, viral marketing and rich media–receive a one-to-five star rating.
By Anthony Sziklai
The world of interactive marketing can be overwhelming. With so many competing marketing methods, technologies and vendors, it is no wonder that traditional direct response marketers are baffled. I am often asked to explain the difference between search engine pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization (SEO). Or the difference between banner advertising and affiliate marketing. People ask, what is rich media? What is viral marketing? I finally figured it was time to create a simple guide outlining the different types of interactive marketing.
I also have created a direct response rating system for each type of marketing. Based on a one-to-five star system, the DR Rating is intended to help direct response marketers choose the type of marketing that is best suited for them. Many forms of interactive marketing are more appropriate for branding or brand response campaigns than DR campaigns, mostly due to competition and cost. I make an effort to point this out, especially in areas where I think there is confusion. Finally, this guide does not cover lead-generation methods, such as co-registration, or buying lists. It is focused on the methods used to drive consumers to respond. Likewise, the guide is also not concerned with landing page design, or the use of video or rules-based shopping carts to increase conversions. These are sales center considerations.
Why not five stars: The cost of competitive keywords. Some people disagree with me and say that if there ever was a five, this would be it.
What is it: Search engine pay-per-click advertising involves small text ads that are linked to web pages and only displayed when search engine users query a specific keyword or phrase. A highly targeted form of advertising, pay-per-click (PPC) is popular because the advertiser only pays when someone clicks their ad. Depending on the search engine, the cost-per-click (CPC) may be based on real-time auction bidding, where advertisers compete for top placement in the search results.
Some search engines, such as Google, enable other websites to display and make money from their pay-per-click ads. Called Adsense, Google’s program delivers “contextually relevant” ads to a vast network of participating websites.
Pay-per-click has become such a large enterprise, in fact, that third-party software applications have developed around the management of keyword inventories and bids, and specialized consultants have emerged touting a “quant” approach to pay-per-click campaign management.
Who does it: You can either deal directly with the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) using their self-service platforms, or work with an interactive ad agency.
According to Ken Osborn of Liquid Focus, an agency with all of its tools, people and resources delivers the best performance here. Having a young employee buy some clicks does not make for a PPC ad campaign. Liquid Focus uses state-of-the-art tracking and optimization tools and has a staff of people working on PPC campaigns. The two just don’t compare.
Why bother: Because pay-per-click is so targeted, conversion rates are generally good. A typical conversion rate in DR is 10 clicks for every one sale. If the price of the keyword is good, you make out like a bandit. If the keyword is highly contested, your CPC may become less attractive. Avoid single-word keywords that others over-bid on. Do your research and find affordable keyword combinations (i.e., two or more words) that deliver good conversion rates.
According to Rick Fisher of Permilia, one thing not to overlook is your trademark terms and how you choose to protect them. This is particularly relevant if you allow your affiliates to utilize search. In short, the most effective campaigns work one of two ways: “closed” (meaning you and only you manage your PPC campaign, either internally or through an agency) or “open” (meaning you allow all comers, affiliates, CPA agencies and other online vendors to market your products in the PPC channel). Some products are predisposed to working better under one structure or the other. For example, products with a strong retail presence have a tendency to perform well in an open environment. Retailers usually can pay more for PPC traffic related to your product than you can. They are able to amortize the cost-per-click across their entire catalog (which they will cross-sell and upsell customers into once they are on the retailer’s site).
Products that rely heavily on their long- or short-form TV campaigns with no retail presence tend to do well in a closed environment. They are able to control the cost-per-acquisition by being the sole, relevant bidder on their trademark terms. Permilia likes closed campaigns primarily because allowing affiliates to participate in PPC search will typically increase volume and decrease margins, netting more exposure in the short term and eroded profits in the long term. You may scale a little slower in a closed environment, but you will reap the rewards of what is almost always your lowest cost-per-acquisition channel for a long time to come. Lastly, if you’re not sure where to start, it goes without saying that it is much easier to start closed and open your campaign up later than the other way around.
Why not five stars: The search engines can be fickle.
What is it: Search engine optimization involves fine-tuning a website’s code, content and links so that it performs better on the search engines. SEO focuses on improving a website’s ranking for specific keywords in the non-sponsored (or “natural”) section of the search results. This process does not involve paid advertising, and can be accomplished with minimal investment. The most time-consuming aspects include developing fresh content to feed the search engines, as well as soliciting external links from directories and other authority sites.
Search engine optimization has changed some since I started taking an interest in it five years ago. Today, much of the focus is on off-page (versus on-page) optimization, which includes tactics such as blogging, link baiting, reputation management and social media optimization. In layman’s terms: generating more content and getting people to link to you.
Who does it: Your average web designer can optimize a site so that it responds to essential keywords, such as the company’s brand name. To go after more generic keywords (e.g., “fitness equipment”), you might go with a more experienced search engine optimizer. I also recommend experimenting with do-it-yourself SEO tools, such as blog publishing and social bookmarking sites (see Social Media Marketing). Avoid link swapping or buying links from sites in categories totally unrelated to yours. This may result in a drop in ranking.
Why bother: Search engine optimization is an incredibly cost-effective form of online marketing. Organic (versus paid) search results get more clicks, especially if the site falls “above the fold” within the first five search results. The only downside is that it takes time and effort. The search engine algorithms often change, causing rankings to shift. You need to stay on top of these changes, be patient and have nerves of steel when your site drops off the first page after a Google server update.
According to Liquid Focus’ Osborn, there is a misunderstanding that SEO is easy and affordable. It takes a lot of time to properly achieve success with SEO, as well as constant work. Many companies exist to provide just this service. Putting a few meta tags on a page and playing with the content occasionally is not real SEO.
As with search engine pay-per-click, SEO can be used to protect your trademark terms from ambitious affiliates, re-sellers and even knock-off artists. I often see situations where a marketer’s corporate website doesn’t even show up on the first page of the search results–for the marketer’s own name! A few tweaks to the website along with a handful of external links from well-regarded sites can fix this relatively quickly. Knowing how to do this (or who to use) can become a survival skill if inopportune FTC or “infomercial scam” results start appearing on the first page when people search for your product.
Why not five stars: Because of cost. Some people think I am too generous assigning four stars and see this more as three stars or less.
What is it: Banner advertising involves graphic image ads that are linked to web pages and displayed on popular, high-traffic websites. These ads are typically priced on a cost-per-thousand-impressions (CPM) basis, though some publishers and ad networks also entertain CPC and cost-per-action (CPA) arrangements.
Advertisers can run banner ads across a site (called run-of-site or ROS) or across a network of sites (called run-of-network or RON). Instead of standard placement options, advertisers also can opt for more contextual, behavioral, demographic or geographically targeted options. Behavioral targeting, which relies on cookies or hidden programs to track a consumer’s web browsing and buying habits, is growing in popularity and has a lot of potential for direct response.
Who does it: Banner advertising is typically handled by interactive agencies that know what to buy and use their clout to negotiate better rates for their clients. These agencies charge a commission and sometimes make extra money by pocketing publisher discounts that they don’t pass on to their clients.
Some marketers bypass the ad agencies and work directly with the major publishers and ad networks (Yahoo, MSN, AOL, ValueClick Media, etc.), many of which offer media planning and online reporting services of their own. The planning, buying, trafficking, analysis and optimization of banner advertising campaigns is time- and data-intensive, and definitely not for the faint of heart. Complicating matters, many publishers have their own unique pricing schemes and proposals, requiring you to dig into their site stats and back into their numbers to calculate true ROI.
Why bother: Banner advertising is eye-catching and can be used to drive both branding and direct response campaigns. However, it’s expensive, mostly due to competition from the major brands. Banner advertising is best used by multichannel marketers who have a big box retail strategy and are keen on developing a brand.
That said, there are still direct response marketers who will roll the dice on a large multi-network banner blitz–and make a profit. If you are less adventurous, you can contact one of the major publishers or ad networks to try a small run-of-network direct response test (these cost between $5,000 and $25,000). Or, you can dabble on sites such as AdBrite, which allow advertisers to place ads on smaller websites at more affordable rates.
Why not five stars: Because it likes to ride on the coattails of your TV media.
What is it: Affiliate marketing involves using third parties, such as independent web publishers or e-mail marketers, to generate online sales on a cost-per-sale basis. Successful marketers who use this pay-for-performance model often have their own network of handpicked affiliates with proven track records.
Who does it: Most of the interactive agencies targeting the DRTV space use affiliate marketing. Typically, they negotiate a CPO with the customer up front, and then determine how much of the CPO they need to offer as a bounty to their affiliates. Affiliates, in turn, may have sub-affiliates working for them, so the game is often how much the middleman can pocket.
If you are committed to affiliate marketing, you can also build your own affiliate partner network. This can be time-consuming and costly, though you can start by using non-exclusive affiliate marketing networks, such as Commission Junction or LinkShare. Or you can try hosted affiliate marketing software, such as DirectTrack or Kowabunga.
Why bother: The direct response marketers I talk to have mixed feelings about affiliate marketing. The ones who work with the affiliates directly tend to be the biggest proponents–they swear by it. The ones who work through an affiliate agency, who have negotiated a CPO up front and don’t know how their media budget is being spent, tend to be the least enamored.
According to Permilia’s Fisher, you need to ensure that your affiliate marketing agency has its interests aligned with yours. Fisher says his company has taken over many a campaign where the performance potential was being choked by bad affiliate management, usually stemming from arbitrage of CPO/CPA. For example: you agree to pay your agency $40 per order, and it distributes the offer to the affiliate world at $18 per order. Results: volume is low, good affiliates don’t pick up the offer, your affiliate agency makes its money, and you end up holding the bag. Solution: pay your affiliate agency on a percentage of revenue, or tiered payouts based on volume, bonuses based on sales goals, etc.–any structure that keeps your interests aligned and gives you visibility into how your marketing dollars are being spent. Permilia works with clients on a percentage-of-revenue basis. The more they make, the more Permilia makes.
According to Osborn, affiliate marketing also has potential liability issues. For example, it ties into the regulations and risks of e-mail marketing. If an affiliate has so much as a number wrong in the zip code of its opt-out, it is in violation of the CAN-SPAM Act and many state laws. In the end, it is the marketer who can lose money here.
Why not five stars: Because of the stigma associated with SPAM, the effectiveness of SPAM blockers and potential legal and financial liabilities.
What is it: E-mail marketing involves sending ads, newsletters and other opt-in content to recipients in an e-mail distribution list. E-mail ads may contain text, images and HTML, including forms. Success metrics include e-mail open rates, ad click- through-rates (CTR) and response rates, such as conversion and pass-along rates.
Who does it: All of the interactive marketing companies in the direct response space offer e-mail marketing, typically through affiliates that specialize in this form of marketing.
Why bother: E-mail marketing can be highly effective if done right. The key is to work with a reputable vendor with a proven track record. Few will argue that unsolicited bulk e-mails, often referred to as SPAM, have given e-mail marketing a bad name. While legislation, such as the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, has tried to curb SPAM, consumers still feel besieged by unsolicited ads. Make sure your vendor only uses opt-in e-mail lists, and employs e-mail software that is CAN-SPAM compliant.
According to Osborn, few DRTV marketers (and even the agencies that service them) properly adhere to the CAN-SPAM Act, leaving themselves with way too much legal and financial exposure. The states also have their own laws. Many class action lawsuits are derived from violation of state laws.
With that said, e-mail marketing is still a high performer. According to August Kleimo of Infomercial.tv, your approach to e-mail marketing should be different than other online marketing efforts. You only have a few seconds or less to capture the attention of a potential customer. You need to structure your offer to achieve the best possible conversion rate. The best campaigns for e-mail marketing are continuity offers with a free trial sign-up. The customer only pays shipping and handling (which should cover the cost of goods) and receives a free trial, which then converts to auto bill/ship after a short period (seven to 30 days).
E-mail marketing is all about conversion rates. If you can convert just 0.1 percent of e-mail recipients into customers (one in 1,000) it can be extremely profitable even with high return rates. For example, an e-mail blast to 1 million addresses might result in 1,000 free trial continuity sign-ups.
If you are worried about tarnishing your brand with e-mail marketing, consider using e-mail on the backend to upsell and re-market existing customers. Many savvy DRTV marketers use order confirmation, order processing, shipment confirmation, and even return/RMA-related e-mails to pitch upsells or cross-market products in other product lines. According to Larry Moulton of Moulton Logistics, back-end e-mail marketing is an untapped goldmine. It can be used to save sales, generate new sales and make a big difference for campaigns that rely on continuity to be profitable.
Why not five stars: Because of the fickle, bargain-hunting online audience. Knock-offs can easily play this game.
What is it: Shopping search engines are websites that categorize products and compare different stores’ prices to help consumers make buying decisions. Consumers use the search engine feature to find products based on keyword queries. Like the major search engines, shopping search engines offer a PPC model, which is often “bidded,” meaning the price for a click varies, depending upon what other merchants are willing to pay in a given product category.
Who does it: The major shopping search engines include Shopzilla, Shopping.com, Yahoo Shopping, Froogle, NexTag and PriceGrabber. com. You can buy off-the-shelf software that allows you to send electronic feeds to these search engines to reduce redundant key entry.
Why bother: If you sell a product to consumers, you should list it on the major shopping search engines. If you work with affiliates or re-sellers, they may have already done this, so it is probably a good idea to do a search on your product and see what pops up. Shopping search engines are a good way to find products that are knocking off your brand and riding on the success of your DRTV advertising. You never know–you may even catch them before they infiltrate one of the big box retail chains.
Most of the online consumers who use shopping search engines tend to be bargain hunters, but many of them also read the reviews and favor products that they recognize. As the Internet and television converge and platforms such as IPTV become more widespread, the major shopping search engines may evolve into something similar to today’s home shopping channels. My prediction is that they will be more open (i.e., anyone can launch their products); however, marketers will be able to pay extra to have their products featured in special video promotions that are streamed on the home page and on other high-traffic pages.
Why not five stars: Because of the cost, and the fact that not all publishers support rich media.
What is it: Rich media advertising involves the use of animated and interactive banners instead of traditional static-image banners. Rich media includes streaming video ads, such as Flash-based ads.
Who does it: Most of the interactive marketing companies in the direct response space offer rich media advertising. There also are specialized rich media companies, such as Eyeblaster, Eyewonder, Pointroll and Viewpoint, that can help you with all aspects of your rich media campaign. Spend an hour reading these companies’ websites and you will get a glimpse into the future of interactive advertising.
Why bother: Rich media is eye-catching, engaging and has excellent conversion potential. Its biggest drawback is price. Like traditional banner advertising, it is dominated by big brands. If you have a low price-point item or if your television media is barely breaking even, I would not suggest rich media advertising. The only exception would be if you were building a brand and making a big push into retail.
According to Infomercial.tv’s Kleimo, rich media is also creative- intensive. It can be costly to develop the creative for a campaign (i.e., develop the interactive Flash ad content). For this type of advertising, it is best to find a full-service agency that can do all of the creative and placement in-house. New technologies like the Adobe Flash Media Server and Adobe Flex are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with rich media content. Even if you work with an agency, I would take some time to check them out.
Why not five stars: The hit-or-miss aspect. Also, it’s harder to track.
What is it: Viral marketing involves the use of e-mail, mobile phones, social networking sites and word-of-mouth campaigns to spread marketing messages from person to person. Individuals voluntarily pass along jokes, stories, funny video clips, product endorsements and other “ads in sheep’s clothing” to family, friends and co-workers–much like a virus passes from one person to another, hence “viral.” Viral marketing that is used to generate advanced interest in a product, typically through word-of-mouth campaigns, is also called buzz marketing.
Who does it: Most interactive agencies will tell you they can do this. In my opinion, you need to find a vendor that has had at least one successful viral campaign. Note that there are curious players in this field, such as MySpace mavens who have accumulated large networks of friends, or specialized word-of-mouth marketers, such as BzzAgent and BoldMouth. These boutique players may give you surprising results.
Why bother: Viral marketing can be very cost-effective–when it works. Most of the success stories that I hear about involve brands or entertainment-related campaigns, not DR. I know of several DRTV marketers who have put their spots and infomercials on YouTube, hoping for a viral lift. None of these efforts have generated serious numbers to my knowledge.
Why not five stars: The hit-or-miss aspect. Also, it’s harder to track.
What is it: Social media marketing involves using a new generation of self-publishing, online networking and bookmarking tools to improve search engine results and promote products through trusted channels, such as popular blogs and networks of friends.
Also called blog marketing, social network marketing and Web 2.0 marketing, this form of do-it-yourself promotion enables average people to do amazing things: publish their own web magazines or journals, create digital video and audio programs and instantly syndicate them for free, create online networks of friends that pass this content on to other friends, and so on.
Who does it: You can do it yourself. Create a blog on Wordpress, Bloglines, LiveJournal or Blogger. com. Use their RSS feature to syndicate your posts. If you want someone to write a post on their blog, you can use paid posting services such as PayPerPost.com or ReviewMe.com. Sign up with blog directory and social bookmarking sites such as Technorati, Del.icio.us and Digg to promote your content.
Create video and audio “advertainment” and publish it on video sharing sites such as YouTube, or podcasting sites such as Podango or Podcast.net. Create a social network profile on MySpace and FaceBook. Invite friends, build your own network and launch your latest DRTV spot on one of the most viral channels on the Internet.
If doing all of this sounds too time-consuming, I suggest hiring an assistant or seeking the help of a search engine optimization firm. Many SEO specialists have become highly competent social media marketers. You also might check out companies such as KickApps, which provides a platform for what they call “social media applications on demand.”
Why bother: Social media marketing has enormous potential, especially since you are in the driver’s seat. The only downside is the hit-or-miss aspect. You can blog and network yourself to death and still not get the search engine results or, more important, sales, that more traditional forms of media will generate. Several interactive agencies cite the lack of tracking and measurement as a reason why they don’t push this form of marketing.
According to Osborn, this is a challenge for most DRTV marketers. There is no direct result associated with dollars spent. It is a two-stage process. First, the marketer must build a database. This is typically done via a sweepstakes. So, a DRTV marketer must first spend money to obtain a database and then spend time and money marketing to that database. I am not saying that two-stage marketing methods don’t work. They do. But, most DRTV marketers I know look for direct results and aren’t prepared to spend dollars on the first stage. This also applies to mobile marketing, SEO, viral, buzz and other types of marketing.
Why not five stars: Because of the cost and newness. Ultimately, on-demand may get five stars as this is where all television advertising is heading.
What is it: On-demand TV advertising involves video ads displayed in digital video-on-demand, DVR and IPTV video streams, as well as interactive program guides. Currently, on-demand advertising is more prevalent at the local level than nationally. It is still in the pioneer phase and offers unique opportunities to innovative DR marketers.
Who does it: According to Peter Koeppel at Koeppel Direct, everyone is getting into the game. TiVo has an interactive advertising platform that was developed specifically for direct response advertisers (and why not–DRTV spots are some of the least fast-forwarded ads on TiVo). Expo TV provides on-demand infomercials. Time Warner, Comcast and Cox offer Exercise TV, which reaches 22 million homes, and where Jake Steinfeld’s Body by Jake ads are inserted into on-demand workout sessions.
Time Warner, DISH and Comcast offer short-form spots that telescope to long-form, on-demand advertising. DISH viewers can utilize their remotes to review a product, request information or purchase it directly on screen. Cox will be dynamically inserting ads into VOD content in 2008.
According to Koeppel, Time Warner also has a feature that lets digital subscribers re-start live programming, but does not allow them to skip ads in order to counter ad skipping. All of this activity (and all of this money being spent) means one thing–on-demand TV is here to stay.
Why bother: Unlike traditional “linear” television advertising, on-demand TV advertising can be tracked and quantified much like Internet advertising. It is highly suited to direct response advertisers, since it enables the viewer to respond to offers, find out more information, or order a product or service. It also allows DR advertisers to most effectively utilize a combination of short-form and long-form advertising formats.
Internet protocol television (IPTV) is getting a slow start in the U.S. for a variety of reasons; however, its promise is true convergence of television and Internet. DRTV companies that have established themselves on the Internet, such as AsSeenOnTV.com, see IPTV (and any technology that blends Internet and television) as a way to skip to the front of the line. According to Daniel Fasano of AsSeenOnTV.com, “our brand is one of the best positioned and most widely recognized by consumers across the two major viewing channels: television and Internet. Our “Powered By” solutions successfully bridge the gap between TV and Internet, allowing a seamless transition from viewing content to creating transactions in real-time. In short, our bridge allows for on-demand purchase advertising on a global scale.” Fasano sees his solutions working in today’s world, but also becoming a de facto “infotainment” standard as on-demand TV matures.
Why not five stars: Because of the maturity and fragmentation of the market in the U.S., as well as the regulatory constraints.
What is it: Mobile advertising involves displaying text, banners and video ads on data-enabled mobile devices. At this time, most ads in the U.S. are text ads delivered to SMS phones. Ultimately, many see rich content (e.g., mobile television) driving the growth of mobile advertising. There are a variety of push/pull mobile advertising models, including CPM and PPC models similar to Internet advertising.
Who does it: Only a few media buyers in the DRTV space offer mobile advertising, mostly because it’s more suited for brands at this time. The big Madison Avenue brand agencies are probably the most experienced at large-scale SMS campaigns. Many have created mobile divisions in anticipation of a boom in mobile advertising.
Why bother: Few will argue that mobile phones are a true mass marketing channel, one that supports a variety of media (Internet, video, audio, games, etc.). But how much of this is hype, especially for the direct response marketer?
According to Koeppel, mobile TV is big in Asia, but not here in the U.S. We won’t see television spots on U.S. handsets for a while. A major obstacle to the growth of mobile advertising is that most cellular phones still work on independent networks. Everything is still too fragmented. That said, it is predicted that 5 percent of digital budgets will be mobile by 2008. Major marketers such as Procter & Gamble and Nike are already using mobile advertising. Search engine heavyweight Google is looking to become a major player in the mobile Internet marketplace with its gPhone. It sees the cell phone market as a huge growth opportunity, and will most likely be at the forefront of mobile search and PPC advertising.
One of the biggest debates in the mobile world is whether consumers will tolerate invasive “push” ads, or whether they will gravitate more to pull-type promotions, such as viral texting campaigns or location-based services. Many predict that consumers will be more willing to receive coupons as they walk by stores, or use their phone cameras to scan bar codes on products to receive more information about the product. This application is already widely used in Japan, and may very well take off here.
On the other side of the debate, boosters of mobile advertising predict that consumers will be given free phones and free service options in exchange for viewing mobile ads. Personally, I would rather pay for a phone and not be interrupted by ads. And while it is conceivable that someday people will watch DRTV spots on mobile TV, I see phones evolving into more of a digital wallet and order-capture device that (once m-commerce standards emerge) can be used to buy products anywhere–at home, in a store, on a plane, etc. My future predictions aside, mobile advertising is something that I think every DR marketer should learn more about. Check out a research company, called m:metrics, to learn more about the mobile market and where it is heading.
Why not five stars: Because this is mostly used for branding, not DR. It will get more stars as in-game video advertising grows.
What is it: Advergames and widgets are software applications that allow consumers to interact with your brand in a fun or novel way. These applications are typically enabled with a few lines of code that can easily be installed on any website with a simple copy/paste. If people find a game’s or widget’s content compelling, they will voluntarily embed it into their blogs, MySpace profiles, Facebook profiles, etc. This syndication model can get seriously viral if a game or widget becomes popular.
An example might be to create an online Sudoku puzzle using Flash and distribute it as a free widget to MySpace users. This widget would include a “sponsor link” back to the marketer’s website, thus driving traffic and hopefully sales.
While relatively cheap to produce, some advergames can become projects with budgets more suited to brand marketers than DR marketers. Advergaming also involves integrated product placement and advertising in existing games, including video advertising. Likewise, some widgets, such as downloadable toolbars and desktop applications, can be used for advertising, turning the desktop into a captive direct response channel.
Who does it: Companies such as Blockdot and Double Fusion specialize in advergaming campaigns. If you are interested in developing a simple widget, there are numerous software development companies that can help you with this. You might start by getting inspiration from other widgets at Yahoo! Widgets or widgetbox.com. You will be surprised by some of the ideas, including storefront widgets designed for e-commerce.
Look at Adobe Flex technology for a glimpse of what’s possible. With Adobe Flash Media Server and Adobe Flex technologies, games and widgets of amazing complexity can be created and syndicated just like YouTube. It’s up to the imagination of the advertiser to create compelling content that people want to embed in their web pages and that ties carefully into some marketing message.
On the advergaming front, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo are all serious about the future of game advertising. These heavyweights have invested in sophisticated ad server technology and could turn in-game video advertising into a serious channel for direct response marketers. In fact, if game consoles someday win the home entertainment arms race, this could be bigger than television.
ALL ABOUT CONVERGENCE
As you can see, not all forms of interactive marketing are suited to direct response. This is probably why many traditional DRTV marketers stick with television, despite the cost. The web, for them, is simply a sales channel (versus advertising channel) where orders are taken by a shopping cart instead of a call center agent. But the writing on the wall is that everything is starting to converge: the web is becoming a passive entertainment medium, while television is becoming more interactive and measurable from an advertising point of view. People can watch TV on computers and surf the Internet on their televisions. As Dick Wechsler of Lockhard & Wechsler points out, everything is going to become just video or audio–there will be no networks or hardware limitations. Everything will be accessed via feeds.
You can see the future in companies such as FeedBurner, which was recently acquired by Google. FeedBurner allows advertisers to run text or banner ads in a vast inventory of blog-, podcast- and videocast-based feeds that appear on numerous sites across the Internet. In effect, the FeedBurner network allows ads to travel with content, no matter where it is consumed. While RSS advertising is nothing new, FeedBurner’s approach to format-agnostic feed distribution is compelling. They call it distributed media advertising and it has a lot of potential for direct response. According to FeedBurner, its media is priced on a CPM basis “so you can compare it to stodgy, old-school media.” If you are a traditional direct marketer, don’t let this kind of callous labeling bruise your ego. After all, something new will probably come along next year, rendering FeedBurner “stodgy and old school.”
Anthony Sziklai is president of Moulton Logistics Management in Van Nuys, Calif. He can be reached at (818) 997-1800, or via e-mail at tsziklai@moultonlogistics.com.
Mobile | 11 Mar 10 | 
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Is the consumer opening the browser to find tips and information to help with their shopping experience? Are they messaging home for the shopping list? Possibly.
Reputation assaults by trolls represent a menacing and growing problem. Their actions encroach on direct-to-consumer commerce and our entire society’s free speech rights. Slanderous and false online postings are being enabled and protected from traditional slander and libel laws because of what amounts to a legal loophole known as the Communications Decency Act (CDA). Reportedly, the CDA was made into law so our legislators could avoid ruling on the political hot potato of community standards regarding pornography. To date, lawmakers have not been motivated to adjust the CDA to also protect and sustain our expectations of truth within free speech and to keep our rights from being trampled on by free-wheeling, online trolls acting with impunity.
The trolls are winning. Every day they become more emboldened and empowered by the growing number of questionable sites which are posing as consumer advocacy sites. They justify reprehensible activities by posing as “the good guys” as they conduct their businesses as wolves in sheep’s clothing. They need to be outed for who they are–the trolls leading the trolls–and they need to be regulated or neutralized in some way.
Fast forward to 2009. Now, pioneers are figuring out how to make the mobile web profitable for publishers, advertisers and marketers. In this medium, the answer is callstream optimization. The callstream is the path a user takes from initial interaction through to sale, and on the mobile web, the path is very different than online. Here, it’s at once far more complicated and far more rewarding, than online. Marketers who master callstream optimization will manage to become industry leaders. They will not only create giant sales campaigns, but in the process, deliver results which will help shape and link two very different industries: mobile advertising and teleservices.
At my company, we’ve tackled this problem head-on. We’ve built proprietary technology to not just serve mobile advertisements and landing pages, but also to manage what happens next. We track things like call duration, IVR flow and queue time. We spend a lot of time on mobile-specific staffing and training. Because call-center utilization is an essential component of profitability, mobile campaigns must be scaled differently. Spikes in advertisements are bad, because they lead to high hold times and low conversions. Managing the entire value chain requires a significant investment, and the learning curve is steep.
There are millions upon millions of ways to effectively combine the respective strengths of the various digital communications channels to improve customer relationships and increase sales. In fact, simply contemplating where to start is enough to intimidate some marketers from seeking the new innovations necessary to keep their businesses ahead of the competition. However, these marketers will miss out on huge segments of the ever-evolving pool of consumers and prospects by failing to employ a multichannel strategy in their direct digital marketing.
While multichannel strategies may seem expensive and complicated, they are quite cost-effective and surprisingly simple if the right solution is available. Software solutions that combine multichannel capabilities with a marketing datamart specially designed for developing cross-channel, targeted segments is ideal.
According to Nielsen’s Three Screen Report for the first quarter of 2009, the 13.4 million Americans (up 52 percent from 2008) who watch videos on their phones view an average of 3.5 hours of mobile video every month. The research firm says the growth stems from increased mobile content and the rise of the mobile web as a viewing option.
With consumers checking their mobile phones the minute they wake up in the morning, before they go to bed and every few minutes during the day, mobile video is a medium that no marketer can afford to miss out on. To maximize their investments in this arena, Yechezkell says “test, test, test…and then test again” before putting any content out there for consumers to view.
Before you can realize the full benefit and value of successful mobile programs, it is important to grasp some helpful guidelines for mobile marketing. First, the success of a mobile program is determined in part by participation. Choosing a widely adopted consumer use for the mobile device, like SMS text messages, is fundamental for the short- and long-term success of a mobile program. A text-centric strategy is particularly relevant for opening up all of the opportunities within the mobile channel, from reminder messages to more complex mobile dialogues. Second, it is important to avoid generic messages that hold little value for the recipient, because they can be mistaken for mobile spam, a label that can derail a good mobile marketing concept before it gains momentum. Third, mobile marketing is like e-mail marketing in that good data is required. The better the data is, the more effective the mobile tactics are. Of the three aspects to direct digital marketing–e-mail, web and mobile–mobile is the most personal. Therefore, an impersonal batch-and-blast strategy is both obvious and intrusive to the recipient–a sure-fire way to turn off potentially loyal consumers. Mobile programs need an extra touch of personalization and message relevance to engage the consumer.
Mobile Notifications
It is easier to get these tactical mobile programs started now than it was 12 or 18 months ago. However, there is a time investment required to get mobile marketing programs up and running. In addition to the time needed to provision a short code, every mobile program must be approved by the mobile carriers before it can be executed on their respective networks. E-commerce or hybrid retailers seeking to expand their direct digital marketing strategy to include mobile marketing must find a good partner who has solid relationships with the U.S. Common Short Code Administration (CSCA) and a carrier aggregator to ensure a program is approved as rapidly as the system allows.
While mobile commerce has been around for almost 10 years, it is just now beginning to take center stage for retailers. Mobile web usage has been doubling every year, with massive growth expected in 2009. Customers have developed an increasing “need for speed” and a preference for optimized experiences on their mobile devices, and companies are recognizing the benefits of providing such experiences. Giving customers an optimized mobile commerce site not only drives significant sales—just as providing a secure and easy-to-use e-commerce site boosted online shopping 15 years ago—but it has become a necessity to compete in the market today. Now, more than ever, retailers have options in functionality to combine their web and mobile sites, and several e-retailers have found great success as early adopters of the trend toward m-commerce.
Ticketing and enabling small purchases on mobile phones may seem like naturals, but most people don’t think of mobile commerce as including larger buys, like an engagement ring or home appliances. Doesn’t this apprehension remind you of initial opinions regarding shopping online? As it turns out, people do make big-ticket purchases on the mobile web. 