Friday, September 30, 2011

Capabilities of Multichannel Analytics

One of the greatest challenges in the past has been effectively tracking traditional marketing methods like billboards, direct mail pieces, and print advertisements alongside internet marketing efforts.  This is much more attainable nowadays via Multichannel Analytics.  DMG's Web Analyst Brandon Wensing describes some of the benefits of using this method to yield imperative insights into your high level marketing efforts:

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Effectiveness of Email Marketing

If you’re looking for an increased return on investment regarding your marketing efforts look no further. When it boils down to it, the most effective marketing channel is still Email Marketing, as indicated in the chart below. The best thing about email marketing is that it gets better as you use it. Once you have the basics, consistent branding, list building, message crafting, and email delivery, you’ll be able to increase the effectiveness. According to a JupiterResearch report, using Web analytics to target email campaigns can produce nine times the revenues and eighteen times the profits of broadcast mailings. With all that being said, implementing sophisticated analytics and tactics such as segmentation, targeting, multichannel integration, A/B testing and social sharing is the best place to start. Nonetheless, it’s almost a no brainer when it comes to using email marketing. Whether you are doing it in-house, just using the basics, or whether you outsource it to an internet marketing agency, for sophisticated analytics and tactics, Email Marketing is an opportunity you can’t pass up.


Thursday, September 22, 2011

PPC Management - Microsoft adCenter Desktop


The Microsoft Desktop is an excellent tool to monitor, manage, and update all your PPC campaigns in adCenter. First, you have the three main screens – browser, manager, dashboard. The Browser pane keeps your Campaigns organized and lets you know what level (Ad Group, or Campaign) you are viewing. The Dashboard screen display customizable visuals, tables, and important metrics.


The final screen is the manager, which is the most useful for updating and maintaining your campaigns. Within the Manager screen use the Home, Manage, and Research tabs. The Home tab gives options to sync changes between the desktop and your account, as well as import and export files. To create new campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and ads use the Manage tab. Finally, the last tab is the research tab, which allows you to learn about the demographics, estimated monthly traffic and more keyword information.

Overall, this is a great tool to use to help monitor and manage your PPC Campaigns on adCenter. It is a one-stop shop for everything you need to do to maintain a well performing PPC campaign. I am sure that once you get comfortable with the navigation, Microsoft adCenter Desktop will help you save time managing your PPC efforts.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Five Reasons to Monitor Your Internet Marketing Efforts

Over the past several years, the greatest challenge facing internet marketers and web analysts has been convincing superiors and clients of the value of monitoring all of their web-based efforts. All-too-often, they will fire back with something along the lines of “Oh, we know how many visits we’re getting to the site.” This statement usually comes from an organization that has their overworked IT department “monitoring” their site’s activity. Little do these organizations know that the visits metric means little-to-nothing in the grand scheme of things, especially if you are not using it in unison with the countless other metrics that are available.

So perhaps you’ll be making a pitch to the higher-ups in your company about implementing a web analytics strategy, or maybe you are one of the higher-ups and are curious to see whether or not it’s worth it. Well, here are 5 great reasons to use web analytics to track your website and internet marketing efforts:

  1. Visits Don’t Mean Anything! As mentioned before, simply knowing how many visits your website received in a month does not mean you know how your website is performing. There are so many more metrics that should be considered that can be combined to yield more detailed and useful statistics about the website. You can have all the visits in the world, but if they’re not converting, then they’re practically worthless.

  2. Discover Where Marketing Efforts Should Be Focused. Not only can Web Analytics solutions uncover where your visitors are coming from, but it can also shine light on where your organization should be focusing its marketing and internet efforts.

  3. Know What Your Visitors Are and Are NOT Looking For. Paying attention to what pages and content your visitors are viewing most often can uncover what your consumers are actually looking for. Just the same, it can also show what visitors are less interested in, so you can save your company’s time and efforts in pushing the wrong products, services, or information.

  4. Monitor Traditional Marketing Effectiveness. Web Analytics isn’t just limited to seeing how well your website is doing or where your visitors are coming from. When implemented by web analytics ninjas, you can also see how effective your more traditional marketing methods are at driving traffic, and more importantly, conversions, to your website.

  5. Hone in on Your Target Market. Using methods like advanced segmentation and conversion tracking, you can identify who is spending the most quality time on your site and who is most likely to spend money. In doing this, a much clearer picture is painted of who your organization should be reaching out to the most.

There you have it- Five great reasons to seriously consider Web Analytics for your organization. In an economic climate like today’s, your organization cannot afford to turn its nose up to this, as monitoring your internet marketing strategies and efforts yields crucial insights into increasing conversions and sales.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Mix Online Marketing Strategies for Optimal Results

To reach the greatest number of customers, it is important to utilize a mix of online marketing strategies. These strategies include: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC), Local Listings, Social Media Marketing (SMM), and Email Marketing. A brief description of each of these strategies follows.

The goal of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is to improve the ranking of a website’s position in search engine results pages. This strategy enables your website to be seen by your target audience before the competitions’ websites.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC) provides more control over placement of your ads and website on search engine results pages. Businesses may control when, where, and how often their ads show up when related searches occur on search engines.

Local Listings are especially useful for companies providing a product or service in a specific location. They are displayed in search results and may include information such as a phone number, address, map, hours of operation, and specials. This is a great way to connect with the local community.

With the rapid rise in the use of social media, the importance of Social Media Marketing (SMM) has never been more important. SMM offers a way to keep in constant touch and get feedback from your target audience.

Email Marketing is best used to encourage current customers to return to your business. This may be achieved by promoting specials, informing of upcoming events, and thanking customers for their business.

Each company should take the opportunity to customize their online marketing mix to best suit their needs.