Check Out My Archived Stuff …

Here’s more useful Internet marketing observations and tips from my archived blog.
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Got a Catalog? Don’t Miss Out On Google Catalog Free advertising from Google. If you have a print catalog, no matter the size, you can place it in Google for free. What is Google Catalog? Go to Google Catalog. Search on any product … you or your competitor’s products. You’ll see a listing of catalogs that should match your search. Now click on the catalog and there it is, a scan of the entire catalog with contact information. Your cost to get this type of exposure – free. And it’s easy to get listed. Simply sign up and get Google a copy of your catalog. That’s it. For more information, go to Google Catalog help. Monday, September 25, 2006 Interesting Email Study Stats Internet Retailer released their latest study on email stats with some quite interesting information. Here are some bullet points: 1. Email frequency: 63.8% of retailers conduct up to three e-mail campaigns each month and another 25.2% conduct between four and eight campaigns. 62.8% also indicate that they’ve increased the frequency of e-mail campaigns in the past year. 2. Open rates: 26.5% of participants in the survey report open rates of 20% or more (11.2% reported 20% to 25% while 15.3% said more than 25%), while another 11.8% report open rates of 16% to 19%. 14.6% report e-mail open rates of less than 5%, with only 6.2% with open rates of 1% or less. 3. Conversion rates: Sales conversation rates generated by e-mail marketing are also substantially higher than a year ago. For example, 28.3% report no change in their overall e-mail sales conversion rates. But 20.6% also indicate that sales conversions as a direct result of better e-mail marketing have improved by up to 5% in the past 12 months, with 7.2% reporting conversion increases of more than 10%. 4. List segmentation: 49.1% of online retailers segment their lists by repeat buyers and another 42.1% segment first-time buyers. 33% segment their lists by purchase frequency, followed by 19% that segment recipients by average ticket, 14.7% by age, 12.9% by sex and 12.3% by household income. 78% also list “other,” indicating that there are many ways to break down a customer file. 5. Sales from email activities: 49.4% reported less than 5% of their sales are attributable to email marketing. 23.8% said email says were 6% to 10%, while 20.6% reported sales form email campaigns at 11% to 30% of total sales. Finally, 6.3% said that their email campaigns resulted in more than 30% of their sales. Wednesday, September 06, 2006 Google Gets into Click to Call Google has just announced the launch of click-to-call ads with partner eBay set to begin next year. This deal sounds like it will be simliar to pay per call services provided by Ingenio which displays its pay per call ads on AOL. Pay per call is a great venue for companies seeking lead generation through their web site, and companies that sell high priced, configurable or custom type products on thier site. The announcment also means that we might see these pay-per-call ads used in podcasts, radio, free 411 services, outdoor media, or anywhere a unique phone number can be placed. Friday, August 25, 2006 Find Me The Lazy Shoppers A study released yesterday by Forrester Research, shows that, just like in the real world, there’s money to be made in the virtual world by targetting these 2 types of people: 1. Convenience-driven consumers 2. Luxury item buyers Now number 2 is a no-brainer, but think about group 1. These are the folks that will stop at the AM/PM to pick up a half gallon of milk for 50% higher cost than the Ralph’s down the street because of the convenience. According to Forrester, here is a suggestion for snagging these types of people: Offer value-added features to address convenience, such as a “first look” at new arrivals or “longer saved” shopping carts. Do everything you can to make the shopping experience quick and easy and you’ll find that you’ll have a better chance of developing a more loyal customer base that’s likely to purchase more frequently.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Yahoo Unveils New Search Marketing Platform

Yahoo is giving us more sneak peeks into its next generation of its pay per click engine. Giving marketers more flexibility to target is one of Yahoo’s primary goals. Gone will be the ability to select your ranking position simply by bidding for a keyword phrase. Like Google and Microsoft, your ad click through performance will also help determine your ad placement.

One unique addition will be the ability for marketers to see which keywords gave �assists� to the last keyword or phrase searched before a transaction.

To select your bid, you actually will use a tool that estimates the amount of traffic generated to your site … this will then translate into a bid. And of course, the much needed geo-targetting option will now be available.

Expected launch will be Q4 of 06, hopefully in time for a busy holiday season.