I’m taking a quick poll. Here are the questions:
How many social networks are you in?
How many do you actually participate in or use?
Which one’s are they?
Do they meet what you might be looking for in a social network or are you still looking?
Category Archives: Marketing
The Convergence of Mobile Marketing
Lets face it, the cell phone is an extension of who you are. Back in the day, it used to be that your car was how we determined your social status. The bigger and flashier the car, the “more important” you seemed to be. To that end, the bigger and badder your cell phone is, the bigger and badder you are, right? Wrong.
To the mobile marketer, all cell phones are created equal. The space that they are most interested in, is the 2×2 real estate above your key pad. More importantly is your demographic, not the type of phone you have, but where do you as a ptential customer reside. Because, to the mobile marketer, your 2×2 real estate is the beach head to marketing nirvana. You and your phone, which are inseperable, are what they want.
eMarketer projects that the global budget devoted to mobile brand advertising will rise to $3.5 billion in 2011, up from $123 million in 2006. Thats less than 4 years from now. Are you as a marketer prepared for this? As a consumer are you prepared for the onslaught of potential mobile marketing intrusions?
According to eMarketer’s forecast:
- During the forecast period, mobile direct marketing is projected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2006 to $16 billion.
- In 2007, mobile brand marketing spend – $277 million – is expected to constitute just 10 percent of total mobile ad spending, which is projected to reach nearly $2.8 billion.
- By the end of the forecast period, mobile brand ad spend – nearly $3.6 billion – is expected to make up 22 percent of total mobile ad spend.
- Total mobile ad spending is projected to grow from nearly $2.8 billion in 2007 to nearly $5.0 billion in 2008 (79 percent year-over-year [YOY] growth) and $7.5 billion in 2009 (51 percent YOY growth).
Factors driving the growth:
- Mobile text messaging has become more or less a mass-market service worldwide
- Mobile music is climbing the rungs of the mass-market ladder
- There are mobile-centric tribes of users in both advanced and developing economies, where the mobile screen is the first place where marketers can reach them, according to eMarketer.
But mobile marketing campaigns need to be relevant and hiccup-free so that they don’t turn off consumers sensitive to ad exposure, Nearly two-thirds of respondents to a Maritz Research survey of Gen Y consumers said they were unlikely or definitely unlikely to subscribe to text retail offers sent to their handsets. Moreover, a full 84 percent of mobile users in an Ingenio survey conducted by Harris Interactive said text messages sent by companies would be unacceptable:
So that means, that although the numbers are certainly going to spike and escalate over the next 4 years, marketers are still unsure as to what means will work in marketing to people via their mobile device. The technology is virtually in place, but users need to trust the ad and marketer. They need to trust the brand.
To that end, there is potential in the industry, provided marketers don’t drive the consumer away before they have even begun. What do you think should happen? What do you think might happen? How can marketers utilize social networks to better achieve their mobile marketing goals?
The 10 things I thought when I dropped my Treo.
I dropped my Treo the other day, cracked the screen, and someone called me immediately after. I couldn’t hear them or see who the caller was. At that moment a couple of things flashed through my mind:
1. Oh Shit. I’m screwed. I’m totally screwed.
2. Sweet I get to get a new phone, what should I get? The iphone is cool.
3. What if I lose all of my contacts? I’m screwed some more.
4. I really don’t feel like forking over 3 hunge even if they give me a $200 rebate, it’s all bullshit anyway.
5. What If I get the call and I can’t talk??? That’s so professional. Hello? Hello? I said hello!
6. Maybe if I just take the battery out and blow on it, It’ll be cool.
7. If they can’t fix it, I’ll just get a free flip phone. I’ll simplify my life.
8. What do I really need in a phone anyways, I just need to talk right? Besides, email and web access are so overrated.
9. Blackberry’s are cool
10. I am so dreading going in the phone store. It’s like being in a freightcar of techno idiots.
Well, ultimately I did have to go in and the tech took my phone away. I was hoping they would just give me a new one, no questions asked. He even said, “let me see if we have a replacement”. Nope, he comes back 10 minutes later and says, “Good news, our tech guy was able to fix it, It’s not perfect but we saved you some money.”
I was pissed. I wanted a new phone. Even a new old one would have been cool, now I just have an old, new one. It looks like it’s been gnawed on by my neighbors dog. I admit, the emotions are raw. All of those thoughts and yet in the end, I’m still stuck with this cruddy piece o’ crap Treo. I’m complaining because my Treo seems so “old and antiquated”. I loved it once, now it’s like a set of worn out tires. They work, but they look like hell.
What has all of that flashy marketing done to me? What has marketing done to all of us? It’s a phone. How do you feel or how would you feel should something happen to your phone?
7 great tips you need to know when marketing to Moms.
Did you know that there are more than 80 million mothers in the United States and 51 percent of all US Internet users are women? In addition, did you know that mothers of children under the age of 18 are “significantly more likely to go online than the rest of adult Americans?” This, according to the Pew Internet Project.
The translation then is that ” Moms” will tend to disproportionately influence household purchase behavior. So how, as a marketer do you reach them?
1) They are savvy buyers/shoppers. More and More of them are using the internet to influence future and current buying decisions with the possible exception being electronics.
2) Working women ages of 24-54 — of whom the U.S. has some 55 million — have emerged as a potent force in the marketplace. If you’re product is not aimed at them, you are mssing the boat. These women are not only balancing work, but chances are, also a family.
3) Women make more than 80% of the buying decisions in all homes. And women shop differently from the way men do: Females research more extensively and are less likely to be influenced by ads. Men buy, women shop. and Mom’s compare. They make buying “decisions”. Even in the online world, when selling a product, it’s imperative that you have features and benefits as well as savings.
4) According to data compiled by AdAge, there are more than 30 million moms who read up to five blogs on a daily basis. Within these blogs can be the basis for buying decisions. More importantly, women talk, they are social, so if something is worthy in regards to a purchase, they will tell others. Viral marketing is an untapped resource in marketing to Moms.
5) The average household income of these moms is $70,000. They are computer savvy. They are educated. If they cannot find their info through traditional search, they will find it in blogs, If not a blog, then chances are, a social network or a forum will provide the answers and or information they are seeking.
6) Early in 2006 a company called Lucid Marketing, which specializes in targeting moms, issued data that reflected just over 20 percent of stay-at-home moms and another 19 percent of moms who work part time visit “message boards” or “chat rooms” on a daily basis. A great place to market, but also an area where marketers need to be sensitive and not pushy sales peple.
7) Women’s decision-making authority has grown in part because more households are headed by women — 27% at last count, a fourfold increase since 1950-according to Businessweek. What does this mean? As online marketers, if you don’t realize that you need to segment your online marketing efforts into distinct niches, then you’ll be sure to see a reduction in overall conversion numbers.
So given the purchasing power of Women and or Moms. If you underestimate, ignore them, and don’t bother to find out what they want. Then chances are they will ignore you and not bother to find out what you have to sell. It’s as simple as that.
What do you think women want online marketers to know about the way they buy and shop online? Do women use social networks for the purpose of making buying decisions?
5 Ways to Market to Baby Boomers.
With the crush of all things social these days. I want you to look at this Facebook stat.
– 3 million age 25-34
– 380,000 age 35-44
– 310,000 age 45-63
– 100,000 users age 64+
I know, it’s tough to ignore the 24-34 demo. but more importantly are the “other” almost 800,000 Facebook users. Even more so are the Boomers who use Fcaebook. these are technologically “hip” users who have adopted quite nicely to social networking. But that’s not the point here. The point is that because of the fracturing of all things related to advertising, marketing and how it now translates to the internet, grabbing eyeballs has become more about marketing to niche’s.
Which leads us to a very wealthy niche. The Boomers. Anyone born from 1946 to 1964. This is a very materialistic group that spends a lot of money and thus a group that you need to market to. So below are 5 ways to market or sell your product to them:
1) First off they have the cash and they are going online to find out how best to spend that money. More importantly, they are looking for ways to invest that money. Using the internet as a vehicle to educate, inform and advise the growing boomer nation is a great way to market to them Niche #1: The internet. Niche suggestion: Retirement and Real Estate web sites.
2) The Second way is to don’t assume that #1 is true. Boomers are cocky, they still think they can do the things that they did in their 20’s and 30’s. Because they have the money, they will do or try things like new hobbies, new toys, new families. new gadgets. Niche #2 is to advertise products that speak to the fountain of youth. using the internet, print and television and cell phones. Don’t forget the power of mobile marketing.
3) With nothing better to do, Boomers will want to start-up a new business, invest in a new business, start a new career or go back to school to learn a new trade or craft. Niche #3 Education. Investing in New Businesses, and Starting a new company. Higher Ed schools have not tapped this to its fullest potential.
4) Social Networks. You have 800,000 people on social networks that are boomers, what are they doing? What are they talking about? Is it where the next party is? No that would be the 18-25 demo. The folks are talking about the first 3 niches. They are talking about new ideas, new ventures, and wondering where to turn. They are at their most viral. If they find a site or source or resource that gives them a warm and fuzzy, you’ve got them all.
5) Health Care and Insurance and Travel. These are some of the most talked about topics with boomers. Pick a niche and they will finid you. But make sure you tailor and cater to the fact that your audience is not the 25-33 demo. You cannot speak to them the same way. Do some homework.
If you can wrap your arms around this group, then the sales will start flying. the key is to understand that you have to drill down to the niche. Think long tail key word…It’s a term we use in internet marketing and SEO but it really applies here in that you don’t want to market just to baby boomers. You wan to pick a niche, and then a niche of the niche.
What do you think it will take to get them to part with about a trillion in spending power?
Social Networks meet Mobile Networks
As mobile networks and devices continue to evolve and converge into all things digitally possible, doesn’t it make sense that the next big thing should be a social network that is solely dedicated to a mobile network?
It was a matter of time before social networks were destined to leave the confines of the pc. But with the advent of powerful new mobile devices, the ability to to send round-the-clock updates about what you’re eating, who you’re talking to, and what you just bought seemed inevitable. And of course, why not? These things are important in the fabric of our every day lives. We need to know these things.
Jaiku is one of the many sites that is now geared towards mobile social networks. What might make Jaiku formidable is that it is owned by Google. So it probably has a better than average chance at success.
Jaiku’s main goal is to bring people closer together by enabling them to share their activity streams. An activity stream is a log of everyday things as they happen: your status messages, recommendations, events you’re attending, photos you’ve taken – anything you post directly to Jaiku or add using Web feeds. Perhaps one of the most popular right now is Twitter, which allows users to let people broadcast short text messages from their phones and computers to those of friends and strangers. The gist of these networks is to offer a way to connect with the people you care about by sharing your activities with them via the Web, IM, and SMS – as well as through a slew of cool third-party applications built by other developers using propriatary API’s.
Another one that seems more geared towards a younger demo is Kyte. the difference is Kyte allows anybody to create their own interactive TV channel on their website, blog, social network or mobile phone
With kyte, you create your own live TV shows and broadcast them on your own interactive channel, on your website, blog, social network or mobile phone. You can share your kyte channel with your friends and collaborate with them so that they can also be a part of your shows, by adding their own content, by voting and by chatting live with other viewers. With kyte, you can share your experiences live with the world and be the star, director and producer of your own live TV channel, wherever you are and however you want.
At this point we need to coin a new phrase, “digital voyeuristic exhibitionism”. Where do you think we are headed as social networks converge with all things electronic and media related? Is any aspect of our personal lives off limits now with the broad acceptance of reality based programming? Where do we go from here?
We can learn from Porn, Or If you build it, will they come?
Let’s look at the numbers first. The monthly search volume for the word, “porn” last month was over 13 million. That’s the number coming from Google, Yahoo and MSN combined. The term sex? Almost 22 million times last month. What does this tell you? Let’s put into perspective real quick. So you know that there is a major housing/mortgage crisis going on right now. It’s been in the news a lot lately. Well, the term mortgage had been searched on a mere 7 million times as of last month. The Iraq war you ask? 189,000 times. I know, how about Britney? She has been in the news too much and the numbers don’t lie. Try 14 million times last month, now that’s more like it.
Ok so the point is this, in the porn industry, the ultra competitive nature drives internet marketers to be on their game. The reason why is for the simple fact that tastes and technology change quicker than the bath water. Think about it, leaving out the fact that porn marketers are shameless and unethical, with over 30 million searches combined for the terms sex and porn, there is money to be made. Lots of it. They know this. They also are accutely aware that they either can change quickly, either with the content or the technology, or be eaten alive. Good porn marketers are better than your average internet marketer because they push the technology as far as they can, and then find new ways after that. They take chances because they have to.
Because attracting eyeballs online is the name of the game internet marketers have to use every tactic and trick to get you there and keep you there. That’s why porn marketers are willing to try any and every new technology to achieve that. They are months ahead in some respects to what some traditional marketers might employ for user attraction and retention.
Starting with the user experience, porn marketers realize that content is king but too much “free” content will make them a pauper, thus the usage of creating crumb trails to the main paid content is the objective. In fact, porn price points for entry are almost nil, but, the usage of a recurring billing model and and the ability to accept any and all forms of payment in any and all currencies make it an ideal business model. Customer service doesn’t really exist in the porn game, except to the extent that they make it difficult to cancel an order, so to dwell on that aspect is a moot point.
Another reason good porn marketers are better, is because they study the competetiton. They recreate what works best, and when that doesn’t work, they test something else, when that quits working they move on. I can point to some normal sites that haven’t changed their GUI in 3 years and still pull a 9% conversion rate. But it always begs the question, what would a new look and feel pull? Guess they’ll never know. Good porn marketers will have days, weeks, months and years of data for you.
Another thing that traditional marketers could learn is that porn is as niche based as it has ever been. The more niche based, the better the audience retention is. We will avoid naming for you specific niche examples, but I’m sure you can use your imagination. The bottom line is that the recurring revenue model in this situation is perfect as long as content is updated regularly but still retains the integrity of the niche. If you change the niche, they are gone.
At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Wow this person certainly knows the porn business well.” Actually, I will leave that comment as is. As someone who studies any and all online business models, I would be remiss if I did not look at why the porn business model is so successful. The majority of that success of course will always stem from peoples’ utter facination with sex and the search numbers that support that. But one caveat would be assuming the, “If you build it, they will come…” (no pun intended although it seems very appropo), model. That business model would not last long in the hyper-speed nature of porn business models. At the advent of the internet, it probably worked very well. Now though, you need top programmers and savvy business people who understand the online marketplace backwards and forwards to be successful.
So if you think porn marketers operate in a vacuum and have no clue what they are doing. Rest assured, they are doing things from a technology standpoint, that the rest of the online marketing world would love to learn. Why? What do you think the PPC model might look like in the porn universe? If porn marketers relied on ppc, they would shoot their wad in one day(again excuse the pun) and be out of the business in a week. Instead they have to use not only traditional methods of internet marketing coupled with SEO best practices but they also have to test, test and test and then act at a moments notice.
Although I don’t expect you to rush out and go “study” porn sites, from an internet marketers standpoint. If you should uh.. stumble upon one, do take the time to study the structure and the messaging and the content… and then read the articles.
Search Engines Suck
Suck.. what you ask? or How? or Why? My first thought was, How ’bout all of your cash if your trying to attract business and you have no clue what you’re doing in PPC land? Or how about just search results in general? Or what about search engine algorithms? Why do they all have to keep changing them? I think that sucks. When they change them, the ripple effect is felt everywhere. Or better yet, whatever happened to finding exactly what you were looking for without bumping into 10 advertisers that were ranked right in front of the result your were looking for? I’d say that would be pretty sucky and a big waste of time!
Or how about how easy it is to find images that are not suitable for children? Why do we need an image search? Why does that need to be a part of a search engines capabilities. I think it sucks that I have to explain that to a child. I’m a big champion of what a child should and should not see or find online, but filters, notwithstanding, The search engines are obligated to do a better job.
I also think it sucks that internet marketers are so tethered to the results of search engines. So much so, that it can make or break a deal, a company, a product and an industry.
You know what else sucks about search engines? I need them. But they need me. They need us. We are the engine, not them. What would happen if we boycotted the search engines? We could have a national boycott the SE’s day. Would work cease? Would time stop? Would we have to revert back to fax machines and yellow legal pads? No, No, No and NO.
Think about it. What we would all do is type in the URL of whatever it was we were looking for and thus the importance of keywords in the title of the domain would skyrocket and supurfulous named sites would either be ingrained forever in our minds and thus we would continue to visit them; and others, alas would disappear. So cars.com, shoes.com, planes.com, these would all have more signifigance. In fact now that I think of it, these all could be Niche-y search engines about that specific item!!!
Wait a minute, I just said Seach Engines suck. Ok, forget about it. I’ve changed my mind. Is niche-y a word? Lastly, speaking of Niche-y. I heard this the other day, “Nietzsche is Peachy but Sartre is Smarter”!
So tell me, what do you think of search engines are they the big brother of the 21st century?
DRM, The music business has to change, again.
I have a friend who has a site called Howzitsound. He wants to change the way we listen to music. But he wants to be unlike all of the others… Where have we heard that before? If you must know, I’m still in favor of changing the way we listen to, access, and share music, as it stands today. But by no means do I think the current model works. The system is still flawed. In fact there is a great blog post about it right here by Ian Rogers, who seems to understand that, we as listeners and purveyors of music are tired of being played<—pun intended.
What my friend wants to do is open up Howzitsound to the best and the brightest, to build the model that works best for them. He wants Howzitsound to contribute something positive to the music industry. Something sustainable. His problem is, he just doesn’t know what it is. What that ideal model is. I got news for him, neither does anyone else. Think things are ok? tell that to the woman who just lost a court case against the RIAA to the tune of<—pun intended, $200,000! Thats right she was made the poster child for anyone who has downloaded music illegally. Oh and she has 2 children too. I’m thinking the 10-20-life law might apply here, what do you think? What message did they send by doing that? Was it necessary?
So back to what would a viable web 2.0 music model look like? What would it need to have in regards to having a large scale buy in<—-pun intended, from all of the labels as well as the current keepers of the keys to the kingdom?
What do users want? What I do know is that what they want, is to play their music on any device, access the music from any site, and have it be compatible with anything; Car, house, device, you name it. They don’t want to have to jump through hoops time and time again, and they want access to the largest catalogue possible. I hear you led Zep and Radiohead fans!
Now I’m getting excited, look how it’s now we and not they… 🙂 We want widgets, we want contextual apps, so that we can listen to similar music, we want to be able to share our playlists and we want it to be affordable. The only problem with that limited wish list is, that like Ian Rogers said, we’ll have to wait, roughly 8 years for even the smallest of miracles in regards to headway.
Tell me what we need to do!!! Lets help my friend at Howzitsound. Someone turn him on to someone else…and lets change the music business again, lets let the users decide for a change!
It’s not about Google, It’s Yahoo… Sorry MySpace..
Raise your hand if you use or access all three of the aformentioned. Ok, I know we all use Google for something, and we all probably have a Yahoo mail account for some reason, and well MySpace… It’s something all together different, But I bet you have vistied a couple of MySpace pages. Hell, you might even have a MySpace page! If so…My bad..
You see the first 2 sites have a specific purpose whereas MySpace is more “me-time” oriented. The simple fact that we talk about MySpace in the same breath as a Yahoo mail or Google, is in and of itself an amazing phenomenon. Given it’s realtively short history.
As a social network app., MySpace doesn’t appeal to me that much. The technology that surrounds it does, but thats because I’m sorta “tech-y-geeky”. But we need to look at the demographic for MySpace to fully understand the impact of it. It’s geared towards 18-24 year olds, but it extends in either direction as well. i.e. 50 year olds use it and so do 15 year olds. But what it tells you, is that people are starved for self expression. Starved to meet someone or with the hopes that someone wants to meet them. They should call MySpace a Viral network thats connected by social norms. MyViralSpace.
I heard a comment last night on 60 minutes, that the internet is a direct reflection of society. I always knew it, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it is so true. We want to meet other people, we want to be with those people and we want to be rich and we are motivated by things that will pleasure us and we dont want to work for our money, we want to slack off and and we want to have fun. All of the motivators of our off line world transposed online. As if our lives our now 2-D. the online life and the offline. See–>Second Life.
So Yahoo seems to cover it best. Just compare the Google interface with Yahoo. Yahoo is a portal, Google is not. Google is search, Yahoo is more like the place you stop to get your coffee, grab the paper, talk to someone real quick, read your mail, pay a bill, check a score and find out who is sleeping with who before you head to work or start work. Google is for checking for George Clooney’s house pics in Italy, seeing if your old college roomate is in jail, and researching for jobs in a bigger city than the one your currently in. Google is a tool. Yahoo is a resource and MySpace is a nightclub. MySpace is where people go to cruise for others and share their sense of wannabe coolness.
Can all three exist? You betcha, but where they all will stumble is when they think they can do something that the other is doing, and do it better. Google as a portal? Maybe. Google as a social network, no chance in hell. Yahoo as search, holding their own, Yahoo Mash? The jury is still out. MySpace as a search tool, uhhhhh no. MySpace as a portal, well it sorta is, but not in the literal sense.
Ultimately, as they say content is king and thus Yahoo has prevailed up to this point because the content changes daily, hourly etc. MySpace may have some value in it’s ability to mine the data, but as a destination location, not gonna happen. And Google, well Google is as Google was. The bottom line, they all serve an audience that wont’ be going away anytime soon. At least for the next 12 months
Direct Marketing Observations 