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MediaPost Publications Zen And The Art of Online Selling 06/18/2009

MediaPost Publications Zen And The Art of Online Selling 06/18/2009.

"Who are those guys, Butch?" -- The Sundance Kid

And that is the question every marketer who ever spent an online ad dollar has asked.  Who are these guys, and why do they matter to me?  The answer is often presented in terms of demographic categories. And if your site is perceived to be the leader in a target category, you stand to do well.

But that is where the advertiser really needs the seller for the kinds of insight and intelligence that strengthen or change completely their conviction.

It is an aphorism that selling begins with customer knowledge. The customer, after all, is king -- or queen, as the case may be.

May I disagree?

It is the customer of the customer who rules, after all, isn't it?

In other words, the starting point for successful selling online is deep audience insight. And here clickstream metrics cannot give you the answers. There is no substitution for audience knowledge and insight.  You know, the kind of understanding that comes from actually speaking to them, listening to them, engaging in dialogue with them.

Do you think you do know this already? Perhaps you do. But I wouldn't be so quick to believe that, as most sales teams I know and most online publishers do not regularly use any of these audience-intelligence-gathering methods:

1.    Identify passionate site users and regularly speak with them.
2.    Create user advisory boards comprised of passionate, engaged users.
3.    Survey users on why they are there, what they are seeking to accomplish, and whether or not they were successful.

Why speak regularly with your audience? Doesn't that question itself seem silly? But I know it's rare that a sales, marketing, or even editorial person consistently engages audience members on a regular basis. About their sites, that is. And yet your customers are counting on you for that knowledge. In another context in MediaPost, I have quoted the golden words of  Brandon Starkoff, SVP/Global Director at Starcom: "We seek to place most of our business with online publishers who are leaders in their category. And one of the ways that we can see their leadership is by the extent that they know their audience."

Starkoff emphasized in that telling conversation that Starcom relied on these online leaders -- these audience experts -- for guidance in understanding how their clients could be successful. And that would include insights into the type of programs and ad units that would work.

Does your team -- or do you as a salesperson -- offer the advertiser guidance that they can take to the bank? If they can look to you as such an audience expert that they can confidently place their dollars in successful programs, well then you are in, by definition, a leadership position.

The Zen koan I would like you to consider then would be: What does it mean to focus on your customer by not focusing on your customer?

And the answer to the riddle would be: You focus on your customers by first focusing on their customer. And you can do that easily.

Some practical steps to get started on the path:

1.Send a simple survey (you can do it for free via Survey Monkey) and pose questions similar to the ones that Avinash Kaushik of Google has suggested that all sites should randomly ask their users:

a.    Why are you here today?
b.    What were you hoping to accomplish?
c.    Were you successful? Why or why not?

2.    Find users who are passionate about your site. How? If you have registration data and can ask your tech team to help, great. Otherwise you can use the above survey and find users that spend a lot of time on the site.

3.    Ask these users if they can spend 15-20 minutes with you to find out more about who they are, why they come to your site, how they feel about the content and advertising, what ads they see or would click on, etc.

4.    Create advisory boards with your best users to offer insights into your site, your content, programs, how advertisers can catch their attention, etc.

Once you connect with your users in these kinds of ways, don't be surprised if you become addicted to user feedback, advisory groups, and relationships. The insights you capture can only make your selling, marketing and content development exponentially better. And if you are not already a leader, you will become one to your advertisers.

Small Businesses' Online Plans - eMarketer

Small Businesses' Online Plans - eMarketer.

Small Businesses' Online Plans

JANUARY 12, 2009

For many, the question is when they will start using digital.

Small businesses in the US will not cut spending on most forms of online advertising in 2009, judging by a survey conducted in December 2008 by Ad-ology Research. A higher percentage of respondents said they planned to spend “about the same” in 2009 than planned to change their spending.

More small businesses said they would increase their spending on social networking than on any other format. And respondents were more likely to say they would increase spending in 2009 on e-mail and their company Websites than make cuts on those formats.

The percentage of small businesses who said they did not use various online marketing tactics was high. Well over one-third of respondents said they did not market using social networks, their own Website or even e-mail. Less than one-quarter used more tech-reliant tactics such as online video and mobile marketing.

A lot of small businesses’ marketing efforts this year will focus on lead generation, according to a study conducted in December 2008 by Issues and Answers for the Yellow Pages Association (YPA). More than one-half of responding small-business owners named lead generation as their greatest challenge. Nearly one out of five said lack of ad dollars was the toughest marketing problem they faced.

Many respondents said that ROI was the main way they measured success for their marketing tactics. The YPA took this as an opportunity to note its online search results and print ad ROI.

“Yellow Pages print and online listings received more than 17 billion searches in 2007 from consumers ready to make purchases,” said Neg Norton, president of the YPA, in a statement.

Web #2 Ad Medium in Five Years

IDG

According to a recently released study by IDC, the U.S. Internet Advertising 2008-2012 Forecast and Analysis, overall Internet advertising revenue will double from $25.5 billion in 2007 to $51.1 billion in 2012. During the forecast period, Internet advertising will grow about eight times as fast as advertising at large.

The Internet will go from the number 5 medium all the way to the number 2 medium in just 5 years, says the report, making it bigger than newspapers, bigger than cable TV, bigger even than broadcast TV, and second only to direct marketing.

Video advertising will be the principal disruptor of Internet advertising during this time...

Read More: Web #2 Ad Medium in Five Years

Alternative Newspapers & Their Sites Read By Surburbia

MediaPost

A new report issued by The Media Audit reveals that 43.8 million U.S. adults have read an alternative newspaper or visited an alternative newspaper's website in the past 30 days. The study, which compared past four issue readership among 117 papers across 88 U.S. Markets, reveals an average readership of 374,296 adults in 2007 compared to 362,938 in the previous year, a 3% increase. Further, the average number of unique monthly website visitors among the 117 papers is 113,469 adults in 2007 compared to 106,139 in 2006, a nearly 7% increase.

Bob Jordan, President of International Demographics, observes ".... one of the benefits for alternative newsweeklies is the opportunity to reach outside the city where papers are not as readily available... there are a lot of people who come into the city from the suburbs for entertainment and these alternative newspaper websites are positioned as one of the best choices for restaurant, live music, and concert recommendations."

Among the highest reaching alternative newsweekly in the country, Madison Wisconsin's Isthmus has moved to the top of the list, reaching 37.4% of all adults in Madison, compared to 34.6% a year earlier. 

• Spokane Washington's Inlander ranks second in the study, reaching 36.1% of the market
• San Diego Reader (35.6% reach)
• Tucson Weekly (33.2% reach)
• New Haven, Connecticut's New Haven Advocate (32.4% reach)
• Columbia, South Carolina's Free Times (30.6% reach)
• Eugene Weekly (29.7% reach)
• Reno News and Review (29.2% reach)
• Madison, Wisconsin's The Onion (28.7% reach)
• The Austin Chronicle (28.6% reach)

Total reach is based on past four issue readership of the newspaper combined with past 30 day website visitors.

Alternative newspaper websites with the highest market penetration include: Madison Wisconsin's Isthmus (13.5% of the market), then:

• The Austin Chronicle (11.4%)
• Charleston, Carolina's Charleston City Paper (10.3%)
• The New Haven Advocate (10%)
• The Memphis Flyer (9.5%)
• Minneapolis City Pages (9.2%)
• Madison, Wisconsin's The Onion (8.9%)
• New Orleans' Gambit Newsweekly (8.8%)
• Syracuse New Times (8.3%)
• Washington D.C.'s The Onion (8.2%)

Among the top 10 highest reaching alternatives based on persons 18+ is New York's Village Voice with over 2.4 million readers across the New York City metro area who read the paper or visited their web site, followed by:

• Time Out New York (1.8 million readers)
• L.A. Weekly (1.7 million readers)
• The Onion in New York City (1.3 million readers)
• Orange County Weekly (1.1 million readers)

More information from this report is available from The Media Audit here.

Google Earth Adds New York Times Layer

     By Mike Sachoff - Mon, 04/07/2008 - 2:35pm. WEBPRONEWS

Google has partnered with The New York Times to allow users to track the news geographically in a layer on Google Earth.

Users can follow the news by location (city, state, country, neighborhood) and by section (U.S., Foreign, Sports, Travel). Items on the layer are mapped based on place names given to each article when it is uploaded to NYTimes.com. The items include headlines and the first paragraph with links back to the full story or that particular section.

Read more: Google, NYT, Let Users Track News On Google Earth

Google News Blog: All News is Local

Link: Google News Blog: All News is Local.

All News is Local

Wednesday, February 6, 2008 11:02 PM

Posted by Andre Rohe and Rohit Ananthakrishna, Software Engineers

Something you already know about Google News is that we crawl thousands of sources from around the world. This means you get as many different perspectives on a story from many perspectives. A while back, we started thinking about how to bring this same diversity of sources to local news, so that "local" doesn't necessarily mean "limited".

Today we're releasing a new feature to find your local news by simply typing in a city name or zip code. While we’re not the first news site to aggregate local news, we’re doing it a bit differently -- we're able to create a local section for any city, state or country in the world and include thousands of sources. We’re not simply looking at the byline or the source, but instead we analyze every word in every story to understand what location the news is about and where the source is located.

You can see an example with the latest news from Duluth, Minnesota:

As always, results will be clustered with multiple sources on a story. The top stories for a given area will be at the top of your results. Our article rankings will also take into account a publication's location so we can promote all the local sources for each story.

This feature is still a bit of an experiment for us, which is why today it’s only available in English. But we hope to launch this in other languages and editions soon. Please let us know what you think!

From Greg Swanson:

I wonder if they really want to know what we think?

The Local Onliner » Pittman Eyes TV Stations as ‘Newspapers Online’

Link: The Local Onliner » Pittman Eyes TV Stations as ‘Newspapers Online’.

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Pittman Eyes TV Stations as  ‘Newspapers Online’

    January 25th, 2008            

Former AOL President and MTV founder Bob Pittman has lately focused on investments as head of the Pilot Group (he is a pilot). In an interview with broadband consultant Will Richmond’s VideoNuze on the eve of the NATPE show in Las Vegas, Pittman says he is bullish on small market TV stations – and their online prospects.

“In small markets, newspapers and yellow pages are getting wildly disproportionate share of the revenue, so we think there’s a great growth opportunity,” says Pittman.” In smaller markets the station’s coverage area nicely matches the advertiser’s reach goals. It’s also a fantastic free cash flow business.”

Online, Pittman’s stations are setting up “what are in essence ‘newspapers online.’ In our smaller markets, we’re not competing with Google or MSN, so we can get large local audiences, which allow us to better serve our advertisers.” But Pittman says there is only limited opportunity with such efforts. “I don’t think broadband is competitive with TV, putting TV shows on the Internet is nice, but you’re talking about small audiences.

Would you like a book with your beef jerky?

JULY 24, 2006 By Ben Macklin - Senior Analyst eMarketer Inc. The online food and grocery business has had a turbulent past with a variety of high profile firms such as Webvan, Kozmo and others failing as a result of their impossibly ambitious logistics requirements. Since then, however, companies such as Peapod and FreshDirect have built seemingly sustainable online businesses and online grocery shopping is once again in the headlines with Amazon entering the market. Amazon is currently selling just non-perishable goods, so is not necessarily competing directly with FreshDirect and their ilk who also offer fresh produce, but Amazon's economies of scale and logistics expertise will ensure they will have a significant impact on the market. Online grocery shopping has never been a very popular categories of online retail, compared with books or music, for example. Research from WSL Strategic Retail shows that just 12% of US Internet users purchased groceries online in 2005, up from 8% in 2003. Jupiter Research estimates that in 2005 online grocery sales totaled $3.3 billion, up from $1.7 billion in 2003. While $3 billion is nothing to be sneezed at, online grocery sales make up a very small percentage of total retail e-commerce sales, which eMarketer forecasts to top $104 billion in 2006. Currently the most popular grocery item bought at Amazon is a 100-pack of Slim Jim beef jerky. What Amazon has to work out now is what book, CD or household item they should recommend to a beef jerky eater. For more on online retail see eMarketer's US Retail E-Commerce Report.

Advertising Placements by Industry and Top Sponsored Links, May 2006

www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/advertising/article.php/3615576

The industry breakdown of ad placements and unit types and top 25 companies placing sponsored links. The data are provided by Nielsen//NetRatings.

 

Advertising Breakdown by Industry, Monthly Comparison
Industry	Total Impressions May 2006 (M)	Total Impressions April 2006 (M)	Change From Previous Month (%)
Automotive	3,256.0	3,351.6	-2.85
Business-to-business	7,086.1	7,564.3	-6.32
Consumer goods	7,012.1	6,561.7	6.86
Entertainment	3,417.0	3,259.1	4.85
Financial services	59,465.8	63,374.8	-6.17
Hardware and electronics	5,968.4	5,414.4	10.23
Health	4,619.0	3,949.6	16.95
Public services	15,156.3	16,067.2	-5.67
Retail goods and services	43,197.1	43,521.3	-0.75
Software	2,952.8	5,978.8	-50.61
Telecommunications	32,293.9	33,465.3	-3.50
Travel	9,910.2	10,135.9	-2.23
Web sedia	45,147.4	41,030.4	10.03
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, 2006

 

Advertising Breakdown by Industry, Ad Unit Types
Industry	Flash, Generic (M)	Rich Media (M)	Sponsored Link (M)	Standard Image (M)	Standard Image/Text Link (M)
Automotive	1,613.1	175.0	293.9	899.1	274.9
Business to business	707.8	45.4	2,477.8	2,986.4	868.8
Consumer goods	2,975.3	368.3	1,359.2	2,111.3	197.9
Entertainment	1,282.3	256.6	396.5	1,220.5	261.2
Financial services	8,488.7	320.9	4,242.7	10,412.4	36,001.2
Hardware and electronics	1,763.4	69.1	328.8	1,730.5	2,076.7
Health	1,932.2	118.5	802.9	1,546.3	219.1
Public services	1,494.9	140.6	1,617.6	3,160.2	8,743.1
Retail goods and services	7,052.4	310.3	12,049.8	13,416.4	10,368.2
Software	1,039.8	44.7	737.7	1,006.5	124.1
Telecommunications	8,400.9	139.9	1,118.4	18,935.5	3,699.2
Travel	4,380.9	315.1	2,764.1	1,830.2	619.9
Web media	8,380.4	147.3	13,546.6	12,630.1	10,443.0
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, 2006

 

Top 25 Companies by Sponsored Link Impressions, April and May 2006
Company	Sponsored Link Impressions, May 2006 (M)	Sponsored Link Impressions, April 2006 (M)	Change From Previous Month (%)
eBay	2,310.1	2,634.9	-12.33
NexTag.com	780.0	706.2	10.45
GUS Plc.	421.4	656.3	-35.80
Amazon.com	420.9	390.3	7.85
InterActiveCorp	419.6	399.0	5.17
Buongiorno Vitaminic SpA	415.7	613.7	-32.26
NextStudent	408.5	631.0	-35.27
Target Corp.	372.9	395.9	-5.79
Vonage Holdings Corp.	371.5	135.0	175.12
Orbitz	313.7	337.5	-7.04
Yahoo Inc.	306.3	492.9	-37.85
BizRate.com	293.4	349.3	-16.01
Cendant Corp.	293.4	313.8	-6.50
Shop.com	284.7	265.3	7.30
Toseeka.com	249.9	270.2	-7.51
Scottrade, Inc.	240.0	238.5	0.63
Shopzilla International	239.6	260.6	-8.04
Microsoft Corp.	234.7	306.3	-23.38
Higher Education Loan Providers	213.8	38.4	457.19
Time Warner	198.9	220.3	-9.70
Spicy Mint	187.3	27.0	592.79
TheUseful	177.7	33.8	425.74
Pickamortgage	175.1	264.2	-33.71
Flycell	162.7	41.6	291.24
Interchange Corp.	162.2	244.7	-33.74
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, 2006

 

Top 25 Companies by Top Three Search Terms, May 2006
Company	Search Term 1	Search Term 2	Search Term 3
eBay	ebay	myspace	dictionary
NexTag.com	ipod	dell	airlines
GUS Plc.	free+credit+report	ipod	credit+report
Amazon.com	books	abner+doubleday	toys+r+us
InterActiveCorp	airline+tickets	expedia	priceline
Buongiorno Vitaminic SpA	tracfone	music	rbd
NextStudent	student+loans	student+loan+ consolidation	college+grants
Target Corp.	games	paintball+guns	pictures
Vonage Holdings Corp.	verizon+dsl	skype	google
Orbitz	orbitz	airline+tickets	american+airlines
Yahoo Inc.	free+music	underground+ economy	yahoo+personals
BizRate.com	cheap+airline+ tickets	cheap+tickets	airline+tickets
Cendant Corp.	car+rentals	car+rental	american+airlines
Shop.com	weather	baby+names	the+hun
Toseeka.com	at&t	www.+comcast+ cable.com	adult
Scottrade, Inc.	scottrade	nyse	www.+scottrade
Shopzilla International	tracfone	louis+vuitton	cheap+airline+ tickets
Microsoft Corp.	hotmail	hotmail.com	earth
Higher Education Loan Providers	consolidate+ student+loans	student+loans	consolidate+loans
Time Warner Inc.	mapquest	barbaro	baby+names
Spicy Mint	horses	indy+500	final+fantasy+7
TheUseful	american+idol	wood+splitters	playstation+3
Pickamortgage	refinance+fixed+ rate+cash+out	dhimortgage+homes	home+appraisal+ refinance+high
Flycell	free+ringtones	ringtones	ring+tones
Interchange Corp.	weather	snakes	hair+styles
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, 2006

View: Advertising Placements by Industry and Top Sponsored Links, April 2006

INTERNET ADVERTISING REVENUES CLOSE TO $4 BILLION FOR Q1 2006

New York, NY (May 30, 2006) – The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IA and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) today announced that Internet advertising revenues reached a new record of $3.9 billion for the first quarter of 2006. The 2006 first quarter revenues represent a 38 percent increase over Q1 2005 at $2.8 billion and a 6 percent increase over Q4 2005 total at $3.6 billion. “The steady growth of online advertising is a clear indication that marketers continue to believe in the opportunities and effectiveness that this medium delivers in reaching and engaging their consumers,” said Greg Stuart, CEO, Interactive Advertising Bureau. “The Interactive Advertising industry remains committed to the creation of a world class medium with best-of-breed standards, measurement guidelines, research and ad products for marketers and agencies.” “The Internet continues to shape the media landscape as more advertising dollars are going online,” said Peter Petrusky, Director, Advisory Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers. “It is abundantly clear that marketers are seeing a compelling opportunity to leverage the Internet as a powerful medium that drives both branding and sales results.” “Consumer habits are continuing to change and mature,” adds David Silverman, partner, Assurance, PricewaterhouseCoopers. “Companies are effectively learning to devote more of their advertising budget to this fast-growing advertising platform in order to reach the right audience at the right time.” Source: PwC/IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report (www.iab.net) Conducted by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers, the "Advertising Revenue Report" was started by the IAB in 1996, and represents data from all companies that report meaningful online advertising revenues. The results are considered the most accurate measurement of interactive advertising revenues because the data is compiled directly from information supplied by companies selling advertising on the Internet. The survey includes data concerning online advertising revenues from Web sites, commercial online services, free e-mail providers, and all other companies selling online advertising. First and third quarter revenue reports are estimates, with the actual figures being released along with second and fourth quarter data respectively. PwC does not audit the information and provides no opinion or other form of assurance with respect to the information. The IAB sponsors the Internet Advertising Revenue Report, which is conducted independently by the New Media Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The full report is issued twice yearly for full and half-year data, and top-line quarterly estimates are issued for the first and third quarters. About PricewaterhouseCoopers: PricewaterhouseCoopers (www.pwc.com) provides industry-focused assurance, tax and advisory services to build public trust and enhance value for its clients and their stakeholders. More than 130,000 people in 148 countries work collaboratively using connected thinking to develop fresh perspectives and practical advice. “PricewaterhouseCoopers” refers to the network of member firms of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity. About the IAB: Founded in 1996, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (www.iab.net) represents over 250 leading interactive companies that actively engage in, and support the sale of interactive advertising. IAB members are responsible for selling over 86% of online advertising in the United States. On behalf of its members, the IAB evaluates and recommends standards and practices; fields interactive effectiveness research, and educates the advertising industry about interactive advertising. IAB Media Contact: Lynn Trono 212 380 4707 lynn@iab.net PricewaterhouseCoopers Contact: Suzanne Dawson 212 329 1420 sdawson@lakpr.com