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October 22, 2009

Social Media Imperative for Holiday Sales

This will be the first Christmas and holiday sales seasons since social media has become so important for driving sales. Companies are encouraged to focus on social media's ability to create word-of-mouth marketing in order to fully capture the benefits of social media during this year's holiday sales.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:53 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

SMB's Use of Social Media Difficult to Measure

Two recent studies offer conflicting information on the extent to which small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) use social media for generating leads and sales or engaging customers. However, I think the negative results must be downplayed since the survey questions were so vastly different.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:49 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 14, 2009

Cyber Monday: Just as big as Black Friday for sales

What are you doing to capture sales on Cyber Monday? Does your company plan for a special promotion or advertising campaign to increase sales on Cyber Monday (or Cyber Monday week)?

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 08:15 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 07, 2009

iPhone App Helps Road Warriors Find Convenient Places to Work

Great app for the road warrior - finding a convenient place to plug-in and work for a while in a strange town is worth its weight in gold. Thought Starbucks may not like the attention on other establishments! Wonder how you get your location added to the list?

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 04:59 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sponsorship Covers Cost of Mariah Carey's Latest Album

Great concept - lower the cost of music albums by offering advertising. Mariah Carey's latest cd apparently uses this approach as described in this article from Springwise.com.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 04:56 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

34% of e-retailers say social marketing has increased sales, study says

Interesting article from Forrester Research showing impacts of social media efforts to the bottom line.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 04:45 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Riding the Google Wave to Social Marketing

Google Wave is being touted as "the next big thing" in a lot of different ways... this article applies its benefits to social marketing.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 04:44 PM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Google now serving ads in iPhone Maps

Google Adsense is now baking advertisements into search results on the iPhone browser. Great idea and tool for advertisers who's target market relies on the iPhone. Next, Google should find ways to leverage Adsense to bake advertisements into iPhone applications (especially those that are location specific).

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 04:43 PM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

October 06, 2009

Social Media is Swell, But Don’t Forget the Basics

A lot of hype has been placed on social media lately but we must remember social media is part of the marketing mix and shouldn't be the sole effort of a marketing plan. This article recaps some of the basics in a short summary.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:10 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

September 24, 2009

MMS Gaining Mobile Advertising Popularity

SMS, or text messages, have been used for advertising for several years. But as MMS enabled phones gain in market penetration advertisers are starting to use this media rich technology for advertising. MMS offers many more options for customer engagement. This article provides research from a recent Aberseen survey.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:40 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

September 23, 2009

SkyMall Increases Sales with Customer Re-engagement

As I've said many times before, the most successful marketing and advertising campaigns are the culmination of several tools and techniques working seamlessly together to engage customers and drive conversion. SkyMall gets it.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:55 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Facebook Partners with Nielsen for Social Media Measurement

Facebook's revenue is created almost soley from advertising revenue. But how do you defend your ad rates without trusted metrics? Add Nielsen Ratings as your partner, of course. This will add the credibility that Facebook needs to drive ad revenue in the coming years from advertisers wary of social media options that usually lack traditional advertising metrics.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:51 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

September 15, 2009

Online Marketing Should Combine TV and Web

Online marketing is part of the overall marketing mix. Treating it as the only element of your marketing plan ignores many time proven, and still relevant, marketing channels:

Tess Alps, chief executive at Thinkbox, emphasised the relationship between the internet and TV at this month's Westminster Media Forum Keynote Seminar: The Future of Advertising, observing that online brands such as Compare the Meerkat are seeing great success via the medium of television.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:25 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

CRM in 2009: Personal, Social, Mobile, Adaptable

Now that many national brands are focusing on leveraging social media in their marketing mix new tools are cropping up to integrate social media feeds into existing customer relationship management and communication platforms. This report summarizes trends from Forrester Research.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:08 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

September 03, 2009

Today's Online Marketing News - 09/03/2009

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:41 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

September 01, 2009

Fire Sale on Print Ads as Newspapers Suffer from Decline

Print advertising can still be an effective tool in your marketing mix and now that newspapers are suffering wildly you can bet last year's rate sheets have been cut in half or more. Bargain on print ads anyone?

 

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:21 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Most to Access Internet via Mobile Device

Just figuring out your company's online web site strategy for viewing on PC's? Forrester Research predicts most will access the Internet via mobile device by 2014.

In the next decade, the mobile Internet will replicate the success story of the PC-based Internet as social networks, widgets, search engines or company websites adapt for mobile presentation

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:16 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Traditional Interactive Still Trumps Emerging Interactive for Advertising

Don't put those email marketing, PPC, or banner ad programs away just yet - Forrester Research concluded traditional forms of interactive advertising still have a place in the marketing mix.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:09 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WiFi Users Affluent Males Aged 24 to 49

Are you reading this article from a wifi connection? You must be an affluent male between the age of 24 and 49. Now that advertisers know this - how will they better target you with ads?

A new survey of who uses Wi-Fi hot spots in coffee shops and cafes shows the audience is generally affluent, overwhelming male and mostly between the ages of 25 and 49.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:01 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 31, 2009

Enterprises Continue to Adopt Web 2.0 Blogs Wikis RSS and Mashups

Enterprises will adopt Web 2.0 technoloies in coming years according to Forrester Research. This marks a trend already underway at many corporations.

The 5-year enterprise Web 2.0 forecast includes technologies such as social networking, RSS, blogs, wikis, mashups, podcasting, and widgets.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:48 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

27 Billion Fewer Pieces of Mail hurts US Postal Service - Email Marketing to Blame

Email marketing is making a dent in the US Postal Service's revenue. Advertisers are flocking to email marketing because of its high ROI, but will the Postal Service survive? Should it?

About 175 billion pieces of mail will be sent in 2009, down from 202 billion last year.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:39 AM | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Social Media is Outlet for Consumers - Product and Brands Should Engage

Social media is a consumer creative outlet that companies can leverage for feedback and inspiration - but keep in mind the aging population using these tools. Good news though from Forrester Research - the internet (and social media) is NOT a waste of time... whew!

Most growth in social networking is occurring among adults 35 and older, Forrester Research says. Four of five adults of all ages now use social media, including blogs, social networks and review sites, in some form at least monthly; half visit social networking sites.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:38 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Traditional Marketing Loses Impact, Replaced by Online Advertising

Here's a good list of ten reasons why traditional marketing is losing pace with online advertising and why advertisers should consider shifting more budget to online advertising.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:25 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

60% of Online Shopping Carts Abandoned - Live Interaction Helps

How to do increase sales when 60% of potential customers abandon their online shopping cart before submitting their order? Good tips on using online chat with customer support:

consumers abandon nearly 60 percent of all online transactions before they hit the "submit" button.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:14 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 28, 2009

Why Marketing Executives use Social Media

Looking to pitch social media as part of the marketing mix at your company? Use this recent and compelling survey information as ammo.

Looking to make the case for why your organization or clients should be using social media marketing? A survey last month, highlighted today in eMarketer, outlines the benefits that marketing executives cite as reasons to embrace the medium:

 

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:44 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

More US Companies Adding Email Marketing

Email marketing is an incredibly useful tool for any marketing and advertising campaign. The ROI's are extremely high when done even marginally.

53 percent of marketing budgets for US companies have increased in the past year, in the face of slow economic conditions. This extra budget is being used to fund high-return Online Lead Generation campaigns

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:33 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Affiliate Marketing Useful Pew Study Shows

For many e-tailers, affiliate marketing is low on the list of marketing tools they use to drive and convert buyers. Here are five reasons it may be a great way to stretch your marketing budget.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:22 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

5 Reasons Blog Marketing is Useful

A basic list of 5 reasons why businesses benefit from blog marketing and should be considered when creating a marketing plan for any company, brand, product or service.

Blog marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote goods and services on the internet today. Commonly referred to as business blogs, these sites are able to capitalize on their versatility and ability to interact with visitors to the site.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:06 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 27, 2009

Penetration of Online Media for Small Businesses Increases to 77%

Online advertising is a great levelling tool for small and medium sized businesses and this latest study shows compelling results for SMB's to advertise online:

According to the latest report from the Kelsey Group, in the last 12 months, the penetration of online media for small businesses has increased from 73 percent in August 2008 to 77 percent this month.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:32 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How E-mail Marketing and Social Media Can Work Together

Leveraging email marketing with your social media campaigns can create huge ROI's when compared with traditional media options:

A shift has taken place in corporate marketing strategy. If your brand, company or organization is like many others, you’ve moved away from traditional marketing strategies and are now focusing on strengthening your online efforts. Social media and e-mail campaigns, in particular, have both seen tremendous growth in recent years.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:22 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 24, 2009

Retailers Target the "iPhone Mom"

Time to make sure those iPhone apps appeal to iPhone Mom's: 

Mobile ad network Greystripe has coined the term "iPhone mom" to describe the 29.5% of iPhone users on its network that are mothers and household decision makers.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:20 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 21, 2009

Use CRM to Close More Sales Leads

What does your company do with all those sales-ready opportunities that fail to close quickly? These may be fairly long-term prospects, but without processes to nurture and retain them, they're sure to go unrealized. In order to have a leak-proof sales pipeline, your lead nurturing strategy should stretch across the entire lead life cycle, not just the front end.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:42 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 20, 2009

Top EBay sellers have some advice for GM

GM will begin selling automobiles on eBay this fall as part of its overall restructuring plan to lower operating costs (especially marketing and advertising). It will be interesting to see if GM's margins suffer from an inability to haggle, up sell, and use sales psychology to close the deal.

When it comes to online auto sales, there are no smiling, smooth-talking salespeople to help seal a deal.

So how can General Motors Co. sell more cars on EBay?

 

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:42 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Social-Media ROI Elusive: MarketingProfs Poll

Only 21% of marketers say they are now adequately measuring the impact of social-media campaigns in terms of tangible results, according to the MarketingProfs poll results.

In corporate terms, social media is a very new concept. Not suprising to me then, corporations are not sophisticated yet in measuring their social media impact. Given the loosely defined universe of "social media" will good tools ever exist to measure the ROI of social media?

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:34 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 19, 2009

Mobile internet audience continues to grow, says Forrester

The number of people accessing the mobile internet is continuing to increase, industry analysts have noted. According to Forrester Research, Weather.com now attracts more than 12 million unique visitors to its mobile website every month. In addition, the number of people accessing sites such as Yahoo! and ESPN through their mobile phones was described as "significant".

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:56 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Adding Search to Your Marketing Mix

Great research from Forrester regarding success rates, ROI, and increasing focus on search engine optimization:

The powerful capabilities of organic search engine optimization (SEO) are now a highly sought after marketing tool by many companies that want to alert customers to their products or services by focusing on certain keyphrases that highlight these offerings. And though SEO has embarked on a meteoric rise in the past few years, other non-traditional forms of marketing are now gaining a great deal of well-deserved credibility as well. More and more marketers are using paid ads to hone in on a potentially profitable client base, while other more traditional channels, such as PR and print ads, appear to be becoming somewhat less effective.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:41 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

3D Tool Decorates College Student Dorm Rooms

What's fascinating about this innovation is not that a college student can view their room in 3d - it's that the retailer has provided an innovative tool that helps customers buy their products. Imagine if more retailers did this!

DesignYourDorm is a web-based 3-D interior design tool that allows college students to customize their dorm room interiors and purchase what they need online.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:17 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Mass And Niche Social Networks Enhance Social Media Campaigns

Brands need to harness the power of both mass social media and niche social networks to extend brand awareness to online consumers according to Reality Digital, the leading provider of social networking software for brands and businesses.

Mass social networks such as Facebook and Twitter can be used as effective crowd sourcing tools, as brands seek to reach out to a larger audience and engage them, whereas niche social networks dedicated to a brand can offer deeper consumer interaction. It is a combination of the two that reaps the greatest results and ROI for businesses.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:13 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Manufacturers Shift Marketing Dollars Online

Manufacturers focusing on quantifiable ROI for advertising increasingly prefer online advertising - especially online directories/Web sites, e-mail marketing using in-house lists, and search-engine optimization.

While you may think of the manufacturing sector as "old economy," it's increasingly "new economy" in the way it conducts its marketing efforts. That's one conclusion to be drawn from a new GlobalSpec report that analyzes polling during the first quarter among marketing and sales professionals at manufacturing companies.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:00 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 18, 2009

Online Advertising Drives 9% Sales Gain For CPG Brands

Studies are proving that in a down economy online advertising makes even more sense. This latest study from the experts over at Media Post

Study: Online Advertising Drives 9% Sales Gain For CPG Brands

A new study indicates that online advertising boosts retail sales of consumer packaged goods brands by 9% on average -- comparable with the lift from TV ad campaigns.

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 01:40 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 17, 2009

Online Community Gives Early Feedback on Marketing Concepts

Interesting concept on community based feedback covered over at Springwise.com:

Marketers can now get early thoughts on new designs and concepts through Concept Feedback, which provides a simple tool for getting free, sincere feedback from like-minded professionals. more...

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Posted by Kelly Short in Fort Worth, Texas at 08:54 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)