Your Mobile Checklist

Are you exploring the mobile channel, excited to leverage its obvious potential, but confused as to where to start? If so, here’s a basic, seven-point checklist to help you build out and manage the mobile channel:

Leverage existing consumer behavior
How many conference panels have I witnessed where the line following, “This is the year of mobile,” is: “We just need to educate the consumer”? It is pure hubris to think you will “educate” the user, who is far more advanced intuitively then a pack of marauding mobile experts. They are using their phones for mobile web and SMS seamlessly throughout their day in our stores, hotels and events. Our humble goal should be simply to keep up and capture a small piece of the conversation.

Utilize the largest mobile install base
Do your best to ignore anything that looks like a “shiny object” or “new-fangled solution.” Your customer is using SMS and the mobile web as their main mobile channels. So should you. Don’t walk before you run; start at a crawl. Build your SMS opt-in community. Buy some mobile advertising inventory. Use both to drive conversion solutions. And remember, “reach” and “frequency” are two words you need to continually use in the same sentence as “mobile advertising” and “mobile marketing.”

Leverage existing promotions and CRM strategies
IT will tell you this, but I will remind you: mobile should be an extension of business as usual in the store, street and office. Use mobile APIs (application programming interfaces) and tie them into your existing communication services and databases. E-mail, IVR, SMS, MMS should all be fluid, two-way opt-in channels.

Keep it very, very simple
Somewhere between concept and launch, many mobile solution providers lose their simplicity gene. The mobile consumer is on the run: you need one click to engage, one click to commerce and one click to brick and mortar. Add one step and you have lost your consumer.

Make it a One-to-one channel
While SMS has a nearly 100-percent open rate (buzz-to-view time will amaze the most jaded CMO), it also has an equally high opt-out rate if the viewed message is not what the subscriber expected. Commit to being as relevant as possible.

Make it a “Trojan” channel
Allow your consumer to reach you directly for product and service information. They should be able to surreptitiously search, surf and txt that product directly and learn why they need to buy it now. New Balance allows the customer to txt their new shoes and walks them through a custom in-store experience. Likewise, your products can be the in-aisle expert guiding the potential consumer reviews, insights and tips. Additionally, allow the consumer to use this channel to post reviews, insights and tips to you.

Make it horizontal
In a world where most media is bought as vertical “push” media, mobile is often “pull.” It allows the consumer to SMS to get information, rewards and incentives off TV, radio, print and other non-interactive media. To help you create a synergy between channels, don’t manage your mobile channel in isolation.

Gary Schwartz is CEO of Impact Mobile and chairman of mobile for the IAB. He can be reached at gary.schwartz@impactmobile.com.

What Does Cross-Channel Really Mean for Retailers?

According to a paper from Harvard Business School titled “Crafting Integrated Multichannel Retailing Strategies,” more than 80 percent of retailers are now selling across multiple channels, including physical stores, websites and call centers. However, according to Forrester Research, less than a third of retail executives say their companies can provide a consistent customer experience across those channels.

While some retailers have implemented specific cross-channel initiatives such as the ability to purchase online and pick up the order in-store, very few are able to go beyond these basic transactional capabilities. As retailers develop their cross-channel strategies, it’s important they understand the three core principles of a true cross-channel experience.

A Single View of the Customer
In a recent CrossView study, we evaluated 26 leading multichannel retailers and assessed their cross-channel capabilities. We researched products, completed orders and tracked customer information across the online, call center and in-store channels. Of the 26 retailers we examined, only one–cross-channel trailblazer Best Buy–could access a customer’s online profile in-store. For the vast majority of retailers, this relatively straightforward–and potentially valuable–request proves to be a challenge.

Access to cross-channel information isn’t just an in-store problem. We found that in 62 percent of call center interactions, the customer service representative couldn’t access online customer profiles, either.

It’s fair to say, then, that although modern retail systems do a good job of capturing a tremendous amount of customer data, very few retailers can leverage that information to provide a single view of the customer across their sales channels. Having equal and consistent access to customer information–including customer preferences, order history and recent behaviors–is the key to creating a focus on the customer, no matter where they are.

An Endless Aisle of Inventory
Every day, countless orders are lost because products aren’t available when and where they’re demanded. Consider the simple example of a customer asking for a shirt in a specific style and size that isn’t on the rack. The product they’re looking for could be available in another store just a few miles away, or at a centralized distribution center waiting to be shipped to the customer’s home. Having visibility into available inventory regardless of location, coupled with the ability to then fulfill to any location, allows a retailer to save the sale and increase customer satisfaction.

Although this concept of the “endless aisle” has received a growing amount of industry attention, many retailers are challenged to make it a reality within their organizations. For example, according to Janet Sherlock at AMR Research, just over half of retailers are able to fulfill orders in one channel with inventory from another. We consider this capability critical for any retailer looking to derive maximum business value from their cross-channel platform.

A Consistent Customer Experience
Inconsistencies are a flashpoint for customer defection and lost sales, so retailers know that their brand experience should be consistent across channels. The same look and feel, the same tone, the same level of service–whether in a catalog, online or in-store–are all critical to maintaining a consistent experience with the brand.

Equally important is the need to maintain consistent pricing and promotions. In the CrossView cross-channel study, 58 percent of retailers offered different promotions across channels. When a customer is presented with an inconsistent experience, it can breed several levels of discontent. First of all, there is the immediate frustration that they aren’t getting the best deal. Second, and perhaps more important, the customer may feel they are being treated unfairly, creating feelings of mistrust and damaging brand loyalty.

In a true cross-channel environment, promotions and pricing are addressed once by the merchant and then leveraged across all channels. The retailer has the ability to initiate a promotion across the board, so the shopper who browses the catalog at home finds the same deals when they log in online or stroll through the store.

The Implications of Wider Cross-Channel Adoption
In spite of the clearly identified customer value of a cross-channel experience, the reality is that many retailers are bumping into the same barriers again and again. Just as we’ve defined some of the most important cross-channel principles above, it’s also critical that we address in clear terms what implementing a cross-channel solution will mean for retailers going forward.

A brief look at the evolution of online retailing provides a better understanding of the current divide in the retail business environment. The web started as a small offshoot of traditional retailing. When it entered a period of unprecedented growth, it became apparent that the web presented a formidable revenue opportunity and significant brand experience. Suddenly, the online channel had a seat at the table, so to speak. Unfortunately, that growth as an almost separate entity created side effects that are now obstacles to multichannel adoption.

The ramifications are clear. Different channel leaders are competing with one another–rather than working in tandem–for both customers and sales. For example, if the manager of a retailer’s physical store is incentivized based on in-store sales only, it’s understandable that he or she would be focused on converting and selling to the customers they have within their four walls. But this leads to lost sales and a bad customer experience.

The time has come for retailers to reinvent themselves and reconsider the traditional way of thinking. Consumers are becoming savvier by the minute. Those out shopping today already expect retailers to have these core cross-channel values in place. They become frustrated when they can’t move seamlessly between the web, the store and the call center. They become especially frustrated when they uncover inconsistencies in the overall experience, feeling that retailers are imposing their internal challenges on them, making it the customer’s problem.

A retailer risks higher customer defection and a loss of brand loyalty, which all translates into a loss of revenue. This is exacerbated by the rise of social media, which allows word of one bad experience to spread like a virus, impacting a retailer’s bottom line in near real-time.

What does this mean? The technology exists today to support full cross-channel adoption. The most significant obstacles remaining are the internal silos and the lack of alignment within the merchant organization. As a result, retail managers must lead from the top down to break apart existing barriers and advocate for improved processes for a new business environment. A retailer will need to examine all aspects of their operations–from bonus structures to organizational structures–to determine how each piece fits into a more integrated approach. Most important, retailers must establish clear cross-channel goals and metrics, and commit to ongoing testing and measuring against those goals to achieve maximum ROI.

Mark Fodor is CEO of CrossView, providers of multichannel commerce solutions for both B2B and B2C organizations. He can be reached at mfodor@crossview.com.

The ROI of Social Media

Retailers of all sizes are racing to put up their own Facebook pages, open Twitter accounts, invite customer feedback on their sites, and generally do more online to connect with their customers using social media sites and tools. But in the race to do “all things social,” retail marketers may be putting the cart before the horse; in other words, they may be investing valuable resources in programs without also investing in program measurement.

Social media marketing–the process of engaging with customers in online communities about your brand or products–is undoubtedly one of the most talked-about marketing methods today. And for good reason: participatory social media continues to grow in popularity among consumers–Facebook alone has more than 400 million users–and it presents numerous new, direct opportunities for businesses to learn from their customers and provide both better service and targeted promotions.

However, because social media is relatively new, most marketers are not only still struggling with how to reach this audience, but also with what to say to them–and when. Measurement of social media marketing programs today is usually an afterthought. A 2009 study by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education found that 84 percent of marketing professionals do not even attempt to measure the ROI of their social media marketing programs.

CMOs Want Answers
Blind faith that social media marketing will deliver a positive boost to brand awareness and product sales is increasingly becoming a risky approach. Some 72 percent of CMOs who did not measure the revenue impact of social media initiatives in 2009 will do so in 2010, according to a December 2009 study from Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club. The CMOs surveyed planned a 333-percent increase in tracking revenue, a 174-percent increase in tracking conversion and a 150-percent increase in tracking average order value from their social media programs in 2010.

The good news is social media marketing programs can be measured, analyzed and optimized with similar rigor and insight as display ads, paid search and video ads. In order to do so, however, you will first need to establish the right social media measurement program, strategy, metrics and tools.

What Marketers are Doing Now–and What They Need to Do
For those retail marketers measuring social media effectiveness today, most are focusing on analyzing website traffic; few, however, take the next step to measure whether this socially driven traffic actually impacts conversion, according to eMarketer. Site traffic is a good indicator of whether your social programs are driving engagement, but to get a true ROI number, marketers–and retailers in particular–have to measure whether this traffic actually converts.

In 2010, social media marketers need to implement tools that allow them to measure and track the actual impact of social media programs on all of the following to get an accurate reading on ROI: traffic volumes, engagement, brand notoriety and conversion. While conversion tells you whether your social programs are actually resulting in sales, it’s important to measure both hard metrics (clicks and conversion) and soft metrics (brand recognition, engagement, customer service feedback, etc.). You can assign a dollar value to these soft metrics so they become part of your overall ROI calculation.

Here are some practical steps to putting a measurable social media marketing strategy in place:

Always start by defining overall marketing goals and then connect them to social media programs, not the other way around. Do you want to drive 10 percent of sales through social media? Fifteen? Do you want your brand loyalty to rise 10 percent–or 20?

The next step is defining exactly which metrics to measure. Here are the three main social media Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) all marketers should be measuring:

Volume – Total overall conversation volume by media type (number of blog posts, social network posts, customer feedback, reviews, etc.);

Engagement - Community activity ratios (comments per post or replies per post); and

Sentiment - Online social media brand perception (ratio of positive, negative and neutral feedback trended over time).

Next, you need to select and configure the appropriate set of social media analytics tools to enable the necessary speed, accuracy and automation of data collection that will allow you to produce the KPI metrics most relevant to your social media channel programs. There are many great free or free-to-try tools available on the market, including Alterian Techrigy SM2, trackur and filterbox. Make sure the tool you choose allows you to measure conversion from social media campaigns, as well as the cross-campaign impact between paid media and social media programs.

For more advanced users who are ready to migrate from free measurement tools to more advanced stages of both brand monitoring and social media marketing campaign management, paid tools like Nielsen BuzzMetrics, Meteor Solutions, Visible Technologies and Radian6 all offer specific and detailed configurable dashboards and reporting interfaces that will enable marketing managers to optimize their social media programs on an ongoing basis.

Once you have defined your social media measurement methodology and program, including selecting a short list of KPIs, it’s time to start measuring how your brand is doing online with your target audiences–and whether your social media initiatives are helping. Here are a few key considerations and tips to focus your initial efforts:

Use your social media analytics tools to find out how many visitors arrive at your site via social content versus how many arrive via paid media ads. You may be surprised at the power of social content; several studies show that upward of 20 percent of traffic to brand websites today comes from a shared link, a Twitter update, Facebook post or some other social media initiative.

Second, find out if the people arriving via social content convert at a higher rate than those arriving via a paid ad.

Next, measure which social initiatives are working the best to drive traffic and conversion. Is your Facebook page driving the most visits? Or is it your YouTube video channel, your blog, a recent social contest or your Twitter feed? Which social program is driving the greatest conversion? Analyze traffic and conversion patterns by timeframe and demographic, before and after the launch of a paid media campaign.

Find out exactly where your social content–both the content you create and UGC–is being viewed and shared, and how this sharing is driving traffic and conversion. Is YouTube driving more pass-along of your videos than your outbound e-mail campaigns with embedded links to your videos? Are discussions about your brand’s recent TV commercial on third-party blogs responsible for a surge in site traffic? Analyze traffic patterns across both social media and paid media programs, and figure out how they impact one another.

Armed with consistent metrics, as well as a baseline of your brand’s previous performance, you will be able to optimize all of your social media program activities over time for better return on investment. And that, as savvy marketers know, is almost always the name of the game.

Clay McDaniel is founder and principal of Seattle-based social media marketing agency Spring Creek Group. He can be reached at clay@springcreekgroup.com.

Is Your Online Video Engaging Enough?

Have you ever endured one of these common videos? Shots of a guy sitting behind a desk, struggling–painfully, to himself and the viewer–to fill two-and-a-half minutes of airtime with information about his company’s mission and past successes? Obviously, this is anything but a good use of online video. Such efforts don’t cut it anymore with fickle web users who know there’s something better–much better–just a click away.

Still, many companies choose this boring route when developing their online video strategies, opting out of creating exciting, engaging clips and instead wasting time focusing on shows that only serve to drive viewers to tune out milliseconds after clicking “play.”

“Video is more engaging than any other form of communication, both online and offline,” says Diaz Nesamoney, CEO at San Mateo, Calif.-based video technology firm Jivox. “The fact that you can add personality to online videos and make them engaging is exactly why you use the medium in the first place.”

With close to 85 percent of the online audience currently watching videos on the web, Mary Spio, president of Orlando, Fla.-based digital content creation firm Gen2Media, says those firms that take the time to create engaging clips are reaping significant rewards. “We see retailers getting 20-percent increases in web traffic because they’ve ‘humanized’ the online experience through video,” Spio explains.

Those retailers are using video to guide consumers through the different buying cycles, create awareness of products and services, and to even do some hand-holding to help customers research their options and make the best purchase decisions. All of this goes a long way toward creating consumer loyalty, says Spio.

Nesamoney says smart marketers also go beyond the “television mentality,” and use interactive elements to transform online clips into an engaging experience for end users. A utility that allows viewers to download a restaurant menu, or that whisks the user off to a virtual tour of the establishment, for example, can expand the usefulness of a single video, and ensure that consumers do more than just watch for an obligatory two minutes and move along.

You can also add color and excitement to online videos with simple tools like interactive quizzes and coupons, says Nesamoney, who has used these options successfully with numerous clients. A company in the financial planning industry (not exactly considered exciting by the typical consumer), might embed simple quizzes on retirement preparation or wealth management, for example–complete with advice and recommendations–into its online videos.

Once viewers figure out that they will run out of money in 10 years if they don’t start investing wisely now, they’ll call your firm for financial planning advice. These types of interactive video elements “go a long way toward keeping consumers glued to a site and engaged in the content,” says Nesamoney.

Social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter are other great ways to spice up your online videos. By integrating them into your online video strategy, you’ll be able to invoke higher engagement from–and interaction with–your customers. Combine that with an online video component that’s updated regularly, says Spio, and the end result will be a “sticky” site that keeps viewers coming back for more.

“If you give people the tools necessary to share new videos across sites like Facebook and Twitter, you’ll transform your customers into ambassadors for your products and services,” says Spio, who points to troubled Toyota as a company that employed the strategy successfully via an online video campaign for its Scion vehicle. Other companies have used similar strategies. “We helped Coca-Cola with the same approach,” says Spio, “and wound up driving over six million people to an online destination over just three months.”

Companies looking to emulate these results must consider the many different ways that they can engage customers. Understand that some are in a perpetual rush and will never have the time to sit through a 10-minute clip, while others will pore over every last video in search of information and advice. Those with short attention spans will be more apt to “click here” for special offers, hoping to cash in on today’s best deals (or move onto another site), while those with more time on their hands will take a virtual tour of a home offered for sale, or view a product-specific video.

“It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach,” Nesamoney adds. “To get online video right, you have to consider all of the different consumers who are scouring the web for information.” Spio concurs, and says the “short-attention-span consumer” will be most prevalent online. “Keep your videos simple, short and entertaining,” Spio says. “Ignore this rule, and you’ll see dismal results from your efforts.”

The good news is that marketers who create videos that include engaging content, action, movement and multiple calls to action are reaping rewards with minimal financial and time investment. “With online video, you can measure how many people view your shows and whether or not they’re taking the next step to learn more about your products, services and offerings,” says Nesamoney. “That alone is reason enough to take more time conceptualizing and developing your online video in the most engaging manner possible.”

Tim Hawthorne is founder, chairman and executive creative director of Hawthorne Direct, a full-service DRTV and new media ad agency founded in 1986.

Properly Structured, a Keyword Database–Unlike a Mere Keyword List–Organizes More Keywords and Can Easily Identify Those Most Relevant and Valuable For Any Campaign.

By Larry Kim

Most search marketers are still building pay-per-click campaigns from keyword lists, a practice that isn’t doing their business any favors. Even if you’re a master of Excel, a spreadsheet is an inefficient and outdated way to manage keywords for PPC, leading to time and money wasted.

The keyword database is a totally different approach to PPC keyword research, and has many advantages over a keyword list:

• It’s private and proprietary, unlike lists generated by third-party tools;
• It’s easier to organize and manage than a static spreadsheet, supporting smart relationships among data sets;
• It’s easier to update, encouraging expansion over time so your campaigns can grow;
• It’s actionable, so you don’t just analyze your keywords, you take steps to get better results; and
• It’s collaborative, so multiple members of your team can work simultaneously toward a common goal.

Essentially, a keyword database is a flexible infrastructure that enables you to work with many more keywords, keep them organized and quickly determine which pockets of keywords are most relevant and valuable. It’s basically a ready-made PPC campaign structure.

Though it’s something of a paradigm shift, building a keyword database isn’t unduly difficult, and you’ll find that as your campaigns scale, it’s much faster and easier to keep things running smoothly. Here’s the basic process in four steps.

Step 1: Start Finding Your Keywords
The most important part of a keyword database is, obviously, the keywords themselves. To build a comprehensive, up-to-date database, it’s vital to look at keyword discovery as an ongoing process rather than a one-time event. Ideally, this will entail aggregating keywords from these multiple sources over time:

Public keyword tools – Web-based keyword suggestion tools are most useful when your site is relatively new or when you’re branching into new areas; they can also be helpful for competitive research. These tools, for the most part, show you the popular, high-traffic keywords related to a given topic.

Just remember that overall popularity doesn’t guarantee relevance to your audience, so you’ll need to prove out these suggestions in your campaigns.

Historical site logs - Your website’s server logs are a terrific source of keyword data, and are often underused. These logs contain a record of the real search phrases that people have used to find your site. Combining this private data with public keyword suggestions will give you a much more complete picture of the terminology your visitors and prospective customers are using.

Web analytics - This is where the “up-to-date” part comes in. The keyword reports in your analytics application provide you with a continuous stream of new keywords. Take advantage of those insights! Incorporate these new keywords into your research.

Search query reports - Likewise, stay on top of the search query reports in AdWords Editor. These tell you the actual search queries that have triggered your ads (and they may surprise you).

Pooling these sources will give you a personalized database that is highly relevant to your business–far more so than a purchased keyword list or a static spreadsheet of generic results from a keyword tool. And keeping your research up-to-date with traffic stats (the number of visitors driven to your site by each keyword) and associated goal data (sales and other conversions triggered by each keyword) will allow you to see which keywords and types of keywords really work for you–regardless of what’s most popular according to Google or Wordtracker. Those highly effective keywords are obviously the ones that are going to drive the most value in your pay-per-click campaigns.

Step 2: Group and Organize Your Keywords
Better keyword research is the first step toward more profitable PPC campaigns, but to reap the full benefits of your research, it’s crucial to group and organize those keywords based on semantic relevance. Beyond simply making your life easier, segmenting your database into small, manageable groups of closely related keywords will improve your SEM campaigns in a number of ways:

Better landing pages - It’s easier to write specific, informative web copy around tightly knit keyword groups, and your landing pages will have better chances of ranking high in the SERPS.

Better text ads - Similarly, it’s much easier to write relevant, compelling ad text around close-knit ad groups. Your keyword group structure will translate into your Google AdWords ad groups.

More clicks and conversions - More specific, relevant web pages and ads target a more qualified audience, so they’re more clickable and ultimately result in more sales.

Increased Quality Score - High click-through rates and demonstrated relevance contribute to a higher Quality Score, so you’ll pay less for better ad positions and more qualified impressions.

Especially as your campaigns scale–and as you delve into the long tail–keyword grouping becomes an indispensable tool for PPC management. So how do you actually do it? That’s an article of its own, but here are some quick tips for organizing keywords into a logical taxonomy:

Start with large, top-level groups – Top-level keyword groups for businesses are usually built around a product or service you provide–typically one word and a noun, like “coffee” or “landscaping.”

Segment your top-level groups into narrower subgroups - Second-level groups often include a modifier that specifies the offering in question (e.g., “Colombian coffee”). Continue to segment as needed so your keyword groups are small, targeted and easily manageable.

Finally, you’ll also want to make use of keyword grouping tools when you need a little help (like WordStream’s Free Keyword Grouper). This makes quick work of what would otherwise be a cumbersome manual process.

Once your database is organized into a meaningful structure, everything else you do for PPC–from incorporating new keywords to writing ads to managing bids–will be easier to manage.

Step 3: Discover Negative Keywords and Eliminate Waste
Better keyword research helps you identify opportunities–namely, pockets of related keywords that represent potential profit. But to keep your return on investment from PPC high, you also need to identify waste. Most likely, a significant percentage of your daily AdWords spend is wasted on keywords that match your ads but aren’t really relevant.

Say you’re running a paid search campaign for a computer supply store, and you have an ad set to trigger on “monitor”-related search queries. Using the broad match option is a great way to capture traffic from long-tail keywords you might not think of on your own, like “best price on flat-screen monitors.” But you definitely don’t want your ad to match for irrelevant phrases like “baby monitors” and “hall monitor”–those useless impressions will quickly drag down your click-through rate and Quality Score, driving PPC costs up.

Your budget will go a lot farther–ratcheting up ROI–if you make use of negative keywords. Here are four ways to find negative keywords:

Generic negative keyword lists - Pre-assembled lists of negative keywords are a way to get started on building a list. The downside lies in the term “generic.” Generic negative keywords may not apply to your specific niche. In addition, many potential negative keywords are likely to be missing.

Keyword research - You can find negative keywords while you’re conducting regular keyword research; just keep your eyes open for keyword suggestions that aren’t relevant to your business. For example, in WordStream’s free keyword tool, one of the top keyword suggestions for “monitor” is “heart monitor.”

Search query reports – A third way to find negative keywords is to look at your search query reports in AdWords. This report shows you the actual search queries that are triggering your PPC ads (as well as the match type, number of impressions, number of clicks, CTR and other relevant information). It’s a good idea to comb through these regularly and eliminate any irrelevant keywords from your ad groups. This method is more thorough than the above options, because it’s based on real data from your own PPC account.

Your organic log files - Your own log files are an excellent source of potential negative keywords. These files keep a record of every phrase that drives a visitor from a search engine to your site. There’s one main advantage to this method of negative keyword discovery over search query reports: You can catch negative keywords before they trigger your ads. (And as a best practice, you should eliminate irrelevant keywords from your organic keyword research as well.)

At this point you’ll have a highly organized and streamlined keyword database, which takes care of most of the work entailed in creating high-performance PPC campaigns.

Step 4: Create Strong, Targeted Text Ads
Now that you’ve segmented your database into small, clean, tightly related groups, the next step is to write text ads for each group. Because your ad groups are already highly targeted, it should be relatively easy to write strong, targeted ads.

Here are some tips for writing PPC ad copy that works:

• Include the most value-driving keywords from the group, whenever possible, in the title, text and display URL of the ad. This increases its relevance and clickability;
• Be specific – know which segment of your audience you’re targeting ahead of time. (Again, your keyword group structure should make this simple.);
• Write multiple ads for each ad group for testing purposes, between three and five ads. Google will cycle the ads and you can see which one performs best and then use that ad going forward. Pay attention to what kind of language works with your audience; and
• Be sure to include a call to action so people know what you want them to do. (You’ve heard the line “Don’t make me think,” right?)

In addition, it’s important that your ads are demonstrably relevant to their associated landing pages. Don’t write a targeted ad about a niche product and send visitors to your home page. This too affects your Quality Score.

Maintain Your Gains
Remember, one of the benefits of a keyword database is the ability to grow your campaigns without losing control of your keywords. So once your database and your campaigns are in place, keep monitoring, keep testing and keep tweaking to improve results. And keep discovering keywords! When your customers type something into a search box, they’re revealing their habits and their needs. Listen and learn from them, and put that knowledge back into your campaigns.

Larry Kim is founder and VP of marketing and products at Wordstream, a provider of keyword management solutions for PPC and SEO. He can be reached at lkim@wordstream.com.

Harmonizing Your Online Brand With In-Store Customer Expectations

By Geoff Galat

If you conduct an online search query for “offline/online disconnect,” you’re likely to see an amalgam of results with no clear definition as to what this term really implies. Yet despite a lack of definition–or arguably, even general awareness–the offline/online disconnect is very much a reality–and an inevitable challenge for any company that operates in the online channel.

The Offline/Online Disconnect, Defined
So what is the offline/online disconnect, exactly? Distilled to its essence, the offline/online disconnect refers to disparities in customer service and experience across the various sales channels, primarily in-store and online. While improving customer service in the online channel presents companies with a cosmic opportunity to boost revenue and overall brand image, many companies simply aren’t up to par when it comes to their customers’ expectations and online experiences. And the proof is in the data.

In a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive and commissioned by Tealeaf, we found that the percentage of consumers experiencing online transaction problems remains remarkably high at 80 percent. And the potential online shopping dollars impacted by transaction problems rings up at an eye-popping $47.6 billion! Further affirmation comes from recent Forrester Research data, which demonstrates that the majority of companies are still in the nascent stages of customer experience management, with far too many customers abandoning virtual shopping carts because of experiencing glitches and other usability issues online.

With customers across the online spectrum encountering barriers at the virtual checkout, it’s safe to say that brands with an e-commerce channel have a huge challenge ahead of them as they begin to match their online customer experience with in-store shopping. Compounding the offline/online disconnect is the fact that many successful companies may not even know that their online brand is being tarnished when customers’ experiences are derailed, one after the other, by an online glitch or website transaction problem.

Let’s use the example of Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest web retail mortgage lender and fifth largest retail lender. They were unaware of a major glitch in their site: a barrier was blocking one of Quicken Loans’ predominant online revenue generators being used by customers. Despite call center complaints and customer abandonment and frustration, the company simply did not have the visibility it needed to visualize and identify–and subsequently resolve–the online issue.

Quicken Loans leveraged customer experience management software to evaluate its online channel, and soon the company was able to make the small changes in the text on the online mortgage calculation tool necessary for fixing the online glitch. With online visibility finally realized, Quicken Loans increased the pull-through of the mortgage applications by nearly eight percent, which translated into more than half a million dollars in lost revenue recovered. By embracing a higher level of online visibility and tackling the issues at hand, Quicken Loans improved customer satisfaction, via the online channel, exponentially.

From airlines to Fortune 500s and every retailer in between, the proverbial virtual shopping cart needs a major makeover–and soon. With the amount of tools and services available to help companies optimize their online channel and resulting customer experience, every company under the sun is capable of closing the costly gap between their offline level of customer service and their online customer experience.

The Call Center Catalyst and Social Echo Chamber
Further exacerbating the offline/ online disconnect is the call center, as it can often function as a catalyst for online customer disapproval, as well as negative customer sentiment and experiences. Simply put, much of this “disconnect” lies in the fact that call center agents are simply uninformed about the website and so are not armed with the information they need to assist the customer.

This can be solved in part by properly training and educating employees about the website, how it works and the potential problems customers might have. Having this knowledge of the online channel is vital, but it still leaves call center agents blind to the actual experience a customer has had.

An even better solution is to provide agents with complete, real-time visibility into what a customer actually saw and did on the site–giving them the ability to replay a customer’s session while they are speaking to them on the phone or before replying by e-mail.

Today’s challenging economy has also impacted how consumers think about goods and services–every dollar counts. That, coupled with the exhaustive amount of data available on the social web, has prompted consumers to share their experiences on Twitter, Facebook and other social channels, often about sub-par online shopping incidents. The number of adults who share their experiences regarding plane-ticket bookings and other online purchases gone awry via blogs or social networks has more than doubled over the past year. These shared experiences, from a bad call center experience with an agent to a website transaction issue, can be highly influential. Online glitches can have profound effects on the “word-of-mouth” created via technology and new media.

Fostering Your Offline and Online Brand– Smarter and in Tandem
Despite the challenges ahead for online brands when it comes to customer experience and satisfaction, all hope is not lost, and there is a silver lining to the offline/online disconnect. Our survey found that online customer experience reached an inflection point in 2009. The percentage of consumers who have experienced problems when conducting transactions online showed its first substantial decrease in five years–from approximately 87 percent in all previous Tealeaf surveys to 80 percent in 2009. This improvement points to a growing business focus on delivering better customer experiences as we make our way through 2010.

Analysts and researchers alike are in agreement that more business is being conducted via the online channel than ever before. Companies embracing this new level of visibility are able to radically improve customer experience, brand affinity and agent productivity. It is also a great way to ensure that website errors or issues are rectified as quickly as possible, and customer sessions can be quickly packaged up so that underlying website issues can be corrected. With these changes on the horizon, the online customer experience, as a whole, certainly has a bright future “in store.”

Geoff Galat is vice president, worldwide marketing at Tealeaf, a provider of customer experience solutions, helping companies achieve visibility, insight and answers online. He can be reached at geoff_galat@tealeaf.com.

Marketing a Small Business Today

Here’s how I created my first small business: Two years out of law school I was fired by the boss from hell. (Her reason? I didn’t “write well enough.” Unbeknownst to her, I was about to have my first book published, and if you think I wasn’t petty enough to autograph a copy and send it to her, you’d be wrong.)

Anyway, I made a profit the first month and never looked back. My business grew because I marketed the heck out of it using all tools available to me at the time: newspaper classified ads, networking at chamber events, seminars, cable TV ads, newspaper display ads and direct mail.

Modern Marketing For a Modern World
But here’s the deal: Today there are far more effective–and economical–ways to get the same, or better, results. While my strategy would be the same (advertise and market a lot, and then do it some more), I’d replace my “archaic” tools with these:

Craigslist instead of classified ads: The growth of Craigslist is evidence of how powerful a classified ad can be, and most Craigslist ads are free. That’s hard to beat.

Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook instead of the chamber mixer: Networking the old-fashioned way was a bit of a drag–making small talk with people who may or may not be interested in what you do or sell. Yawn.

Social networking is a revolutionary improvement because, while you are still networking, it is faster, broader, more direct, and you can meet and influence a far greater number of people. Rubber chicken lunches be gone!

Podcasts instead of radio ads: I still love radio advertising in the right circumstance, but being able to create and broadcast your own original content is a great advantage.

YouTube videos and webinars instead of seminars: The value of being in front of the public is that you get to be known as the expert–the one pontificating, entertaining and informing others. With online video and webinars, you can craft that image easier, cheaper and more professionally. That you don’t have to rent a conference room at the Holiday Inn is a nice bonus.

Pay per click and pay per impression instead of cable TV and newspaper ads: If immediate sales are your goal, then a Google pay-per-click campaign can make more sense than a TV campaign. You only pay for qualified leads–people who like your ad enough to click on it–and as such you will spend far less because you won’t be paying to reach thousands of eyeballs who will never be buying from you. If branding is your goal, than a pay-per-impression campaign can yield fantastic results for much less money than TV, too.

E-mail instead of direct mail: Traditionally, direct mail has been considered successful if it creates around a four-percent response rate. But you have to buy lists, pay for postage and packaging, etc. E-mail marketing, on the other hand, costs almost nothing and usually yields better results.

As they say, everything old is new again…fortunately for us.

Steve Strauss is American Express OPEN Forum small business expert and author of the best-selling Small Business Bible. He can be reached at sstrauss@mrallbiz.com.

M-Commerce–Where to Start

The 2010 consumer is way ahead of any national retailer’s marketing department. The consumer is leveraging their phone as a “mobile mouse” to click, search and explore in the mall and in the aisle.

The retail CMO is looking for some new-fangled, high-tech way of engaging with this itinerate shopper. The sage truth, however, is that the marketing department is chasing shadows.

Instead of focusing on the consumer and how they are leveraging mobile in their stores, they are investigating widgets and apps that have little to no reach or frequency within their consumer base.

There are two simple things that I would suggest to the retail or manufacturer CMO:

Learn From History
Let’s look at the then-emerging trends of the mid-’90s Internet, remembering that history tends to repeat itself:

The web browser was becoming standard on the desktop in the mid-’90s. During this period of enormous growth, businesses entering the Internet arena scrambled to find consumer models that worked. Many companies were lured into thinking that developing applications on the desktop would give them marketshare and consumer mindshare. They did neither.

The desktop became too fragmented and difficult to navigate. As the PC browser matured and the capacity of the Internet pipes expanded–increasing browsing speeds–server-side solutions that functioned inside the browser (e.g., ASP Applications) became standard fare.

Isolated in the browser, these in-browser solutions needed a communication channel to engage and re-engage the subscriber. ASP applications used e-mail for these purposes.

Presently, we find ourselves reinventing the wheel with mobile.

With the smartphone revolution, apps are the rage. “I-want-one-too” CEOs are running to their agencies and IT departments and developing applications that only five percent of consumers are returning to after a lonely month on the phonetop.

So what are mobile consumers using?

Learn From Your Consumer
Take an undercover trip to your local store, peer through your security cameras and watch the consumer. They are doing two things with their mobile devices in your aisles: browsing and texting.

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.

But the shopper is certainly not scanning 2D codes with their phones. They are not opening the security on their Bluetooth settings for inbound offers. They are not all downloading your app to their phones. The consumers’ toolkits are relatively simple: they are using both their browsers and messaging as the first data-click. Focus on these channels.

These mobile channels are so powerful because both are standard on any phone nationally, the consumer is already on board and they are proximate to purchase intent and POS.

The CMO should start where the consumer is. What is your text CRM strategy? What is your mobile web strategy? Solve these and you have the ultimate last-mile retail solution.

Gary Schwartz is CEO of Impact Mobile and chairman of mobile for the IAB. He can be reached at gary.schwartz@impactmobile.com.

Managing Interchange Fees

A recent Wall Street Journal story reported that U.S. banks collected $45.3 billion last year from credit- and debit-card fees charged to merchants. About 75 percent of this came from interchange fees set by the two major card brands, Visa and MasterCard. Interchange fees, long a part of the card acceptance system, are the fees that a merchant’s bank (the “acquiring bank”) pays the card-using customer’s bank (the “issuing bank”) as cards are accepted for purchases. Set by the card brands and typically updated twice each year, there are more than 400 interchange categories for the two major brands combined. Over the last several years, regulator inquiry and merchant clamor across the globe have turned the spotlight squarely on the costs associated with card acceptance.

Know what you pay to manage interchange
For the majority of merchants, interchange fees make up the largest component of processing costs. For card-not-present merchants, it typically represents more than two percent of each credit card transaction. Managing these fees, particularly for card-not-present transactions, can save merchants thousands–perhaps millions–of dollars annually depending on their transaction volume. Qualifying for the best interchange rate on a per-transaction basis is a complicated process and it starts with knowing what you’re paying.

Typically, there are two different ways merchants are billed for processing, which includes interchange costs. The first is a “discount rate,” whereby the processor charges a percentage-of-sale discount on gross sales. These arrangements may also include a fixed per-item fee for each sale, as well as card brand assessment fees and the processor’s own fees. The second method is via a “pass-through” (often called “cost-plus”) basis, which distinguishes all sets of fees that you are being charged. Discount rates can obscure actual costs and make it impossible to know if you are qualifying for optimal interchange fees for your transactions.

Opting for pass-through billing allows merchants greater visibility into their true interchange costs. For instance, many transactions–for one reason or another, and usually associated with the quality and amount of data provided for the transactions–suffer from so-called “downgrades.” That’s to say, they don’t qualify for the best (i.e., cheapest), interchange rate. Sans specific breakouts of interchange fees in their billing and reporting, merchants have no idea when they are losing dollars because of downgrades. And, given the sea of qualifying rates, this is a critical point of breakdown for many merchants on the interchange fee front.

The pass-through model and a complementary reporting platform that specifically accounts for interchange costs is a good start to navigating the thousands of pages of regulations that guide major card brand interchange qualification. Most merchants have neither the time nor the resources to master the rules and regulations of interchange qualification. Their processors and processing platforms, however, should have both.

The following are some important keys to saving on interchange fees:

• Choose a pass-through rather than a discount rate;
• Scrutinize your processor’s set-up protocol before you begin sending transactions through a new platform. How have they categorized your business? By using “Merchant Classification Codes” or MCCs? Are you transmitting transaction data in the best formats?
• Ensure full, complete and accurate data transmission (bad data and inaccurate formats are the first steps toward downgrades and lower interchange qualification rates); and
• Make sure to establish accurate benchmarks and then analyze the data (if your interchange rates are increasing or decreasing over time, you need to identify causes and solutions).

Choosing the Right Payment Platform
The complexity of card acceptance is lost on most of us. Interchange, in and of itself, is extremely complicated and most merchants feel powerless when trying to minimize their interchange costs. This makes it essential for a merchant to partner with a trusted, educated payment processor whose expertise is in their area of commerce and whose platform is designed accordingly. For example, expertise in large-scale point-of-sale (POS) transaction processing is not the same as expertise in card-not-present (CNP) direct-to-consumer sales. Interchange rules and regulations vary significantly between and among commerce categories, and the orientation of both your account leaders and their platforms should be wired to your interests.

Here’s a summary of a few important best practices to keep in mind:

• Understanding your interchange costs starts with the manner in which you are billed and the reporting you receive (pass-through over discount rate);
• Benchmark and analyze constantly;
• It’s all about the quality and accuracy of transaction data; and
• Select processors and platforms on the basis of commerce-category expertise.

Partnering with your payment platform provider gives back to merchants some of the power to understand the sea of interchange rates, making it possible to manage, control and minimize the fees associated with card acceptance.

David Burrows is vice president, product management for Massachusetts-based Litle & Co., a leading card-not-present merchant account, processing and services provider. He can be reached via e-mail at dburrows@litle.com.

Online Video Trends for 2010

Q1 is here again. It’s the time when companies of all stripes strive to put their strategies into place for the new year. Budgets are set, marketing plans are approved, product roadmaps are locked in and headcount allocations are finalized.

For those of us in the digital advertising industry, the start of 2010 and of the new decade is no exception. So what will be the major story for the kickoff of the new decade in online advertising? For me, 2010 will be focused on video.

More Screens, More Content, More Eyes, More Dollars
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) conference earlier this year, one of the most dominant topics of discussion was the introduction of the iPad and other new tablet PC form factors along with other larger-screen mobile devices. Together with advancements in the smartphone market and their increased video capabilities, tablets will continue to move the needle in the total consumption of online-based video content. The introduction of these new hardware options and the increase in available content will be the core growth driver of digital video advertising inventory. Wherever consumer eyes wander, you can be sure that advertising will follow–and the rate at which consumers are watching video on their PCs, their mobile devices and internet-based TVs is growing rapidly. According to the Nielsen third quarter Three Screen Report, online video usage is on the rise, with Internet users watching 53 more minutes of video online in Q3 ‘09, a 34.9-percent increase from last year. In addition, the number of people watching mobile video has grown 53 percent year over year.

With more video being consumed on these alternative-screen devices, brands will find new ways of advertising around or during this content, and will subsequently continue to spend more on video-based ad formats. Forrester predicts that video will be the fastest growing area of display advertising over the next five years.

Ads Need to Get in Touch with Their Interactivity
As the inventory for online video ad placements has increased, advertisers have been quick to fill it with simple in-stream ads (pre-roll, mid-roll and post-roll). As a result, a customer experience issue has arisen–and the viewing experience is critical to users consuming online and mobile video content. This is a different beast than your traditional cable or broadcast viewer. Online consumers are driving innovations in our industry with the power of their clicks and engagement. Don’t expect them to sit through 15- or 30-second in-stream spots that have been repurposed from your broadcast campaigns; online consumers are demanding and expecting more.

In 2010, advertisers, publishers, agencies and technology companies will continue to push the innovation curve with advancements in online and mobile formats by focusing on developing highly customized, interactive and engaging video-based ad formats. Premium content publishers like ABC, CBS and NBC have had huge success enabling their premium full-episode player environments with custom, immersive advertising experiences. In 2010, look for new technologies, formats and features that truly engage consumers and offer opportunities to do way more than just watch the seconds count down until their video resumes.

“True” 3D–Coming Soon to a PC Near You?
3D movies like “Avatar” and “Up” have been a hot topic over the past year, with ticket sales reaching record numbers as audiences have lined up at theaters for these incredible movie experiences. One of the questions spurred by the technological advancements in production of films like Avatar is where this 3D technology will take us next. Will 3D make its way into our TV and PC viewing experiences in the near future and will advertisers be forced to hop aboard the 3D train?

The topic of 3D can be a confusing one as it relates to the interactive world, when compared to the “stereoscopic” 3D world of movies like Avatar that we see in IMAX theaters. Digital technology companies like my own are pushing the envelope with rich media technologies (like Papervision3D) that enable the delivery of real-time, rich, three dimensional online and mobile ads.

You’ll certainly hear a lot more about 3D in 2010, but 3D comes in many shapes and sizes–especially in the online advertising world. I wouldn’t be surprised to see companies emerge with software and hardware solutions for online stereoscopic (”Avatar-like”) video in the future, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if you are waiting to see it in an ad near you in 2010.

HD Online–Gaining Some Traction
High-definition content has become commonplace in our living rooms. The question for online advertisers is, “why haven’t we seen the same adoption curve in online video content?”

The simple answer lies in the economics. The cost of serving an HD video file over the web is still much higher than a standard-definition video file. This, along with the variability of serving cost when offering users the choice between HD and standard video viewing, has made advertisers reluctant to expand heavily into HD video for their ads. In 2010, look for continued reductions in serving costs and alternative pricing models that will begin to empower advertisers to explore options for HD video ads.

Continued Online/ Offline Integration
Now that video is completely digitally based, it seems inevitable that the two distinct advertising operational structures that we see today across advertisers, agencies and publishers will eventually converge and realize efficiencies of a truly unified model for video-based ad operations across traditional broadcast/cable and online/mobile platforms.

Integration is definitely a hot topic. According to a recent Forrester 2010 Predictions report, online technologies and processes are “seeping into television media. Television buyers and sellers should spend 2010 learning from their online brethren how to target, optimize and automate bid-based buys in order to be ready when the television upfront takes a backseat to the ‘online-like’ rules of order.”

The reality is that there are a lot of factors that will prove to be influencers of, or barriers to, this convergence. There is not yet a consensus in our industry on truly how much these two video workflows should converge, or how. In 2010, I expect that the following trends will continue to make this topic one to watch:

• Growth in the prevalence of online video (in terms of both content and consumption);
• The continued shift in budgets being allocated toward online and mobile video-related media buys;
• The desire for more robust and consolidated metrics and analysis around video campaigns across mediums;
• Economic conditions and the forced reduction of staffing models employed by agencies, publishers and advertisers; and
• Technology advances in TV, mobile, cable and PC hardware.

From online consumer trends to ad interactivity, 3D and HD technologies and innovations and online/offline integration–2010 is shaping up to be the year of video for the digital advertising industry.

Bryan Hjelm is vice president of marketing at Unicast, a leading rich media and video ad server and service provider. He can be reached at bryan.hjelm@unicast.com.