Digital Lifescapes

eMarketer posed the question, what's the best way to generate sales online? While the answer may vary depending on the size of your budget, a Forbes study says marketers of all sizes should start with search. Forty-eight percent of marketers overall said that search engine optimization (SEO) was the "best method" for generating conversions online. More than one-half of marketers with budgets over $1 million agreed. The next most effective conversion tactic for smaller marketers was e-mail and e-newsletters, followed by pay-per-click and search ads, behavioral targeting and page sponsorships. For larger marketers, the list of effective online tactics was nearly the same, except search and e-mail were flipped. Pay-per-impression ads were also more effective for larger marketers. To build, maintain or change brand perceptions required different tactics, however. For both small- and large-budget marketers, site or page sponsorship and SEO were considered the most effective wa...

Marketers of technology products and services have good reason to explore social media marketing techniques. Now eMarketer reports that corporations are finding that blogs can be instrumental tools for building solid relationships and gaining meaningful influence with their customers. Clearly, blogs are increasingly popular with both online consumers and people involved in business related procurement. According to an August 2008 study by BuzzLogic and JupiterResearch, there has been 300 percent growth rate in monthly blog readership over the past four years. In fact, nearly one-half of the online population reported reading blogs. The study also found that blogs have more impact on purchasing decisions than social networks. One-quarter of readers said they trust ads on a blog, as opposed to 19 percent who trust advertising on social networks. In addition, 40 percent of blog readers -- and 50 percent of frequent blog readers -- have proactively taken an action after viewing an ad mess...

Have you seen a movie trailer online lately? Seems like they're surfacing more frequently in all types of rich media Ads. Online film marketing is truly expanding -- in both the scope and sophistication. In 2007, studios in the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and their subsidiaries, spent $754 million advertising films online. By 2012 that figure will increase to $2.4 billion. According to eMarketer projections, last year online channels represented approximately 5 percent of all film advertising, but by 2012 the figure will climb to 13.2 percent. "Not only is online film advertising spending on a fast growth curve, the marketing channels used by studios are also expanding," says Paul Verna, senior analyst at eMarketer. "Today, virtually every film marketing campaign leverages traditional and new media channels, with applications such as social network profiles, widgets and recommendation engines becoming an integral part of the mix." Films are rar...

Social networking has become an integral part of the Internet experience, however, after 13 years of applications in the U.S. market, revenue generation is not what it was once predicted to be, according to a recent market study by In-Stat. The solution is to find different models -- innovative business methods -- to capitalize on the wealth of data social networking sites collect, the high-tech market research firm says. Affiliate advertising, the selling of virtual goods, micro-payments, social network site merchandising, and data mining are all viable alternatives to traditional revenue generation models. "Development of niche social networking sites is an essential piece of the monetization puzzle," says Jill Meyers, In-Stat analyst. "The more specific a social networking site is to a select group of users, the more targeted the advertising can become; the more loyal the membership will be because it caters to specific interests; and the more opportunities the site w...

According to a recent assessment by Current Analysis, 3UK has demonstrated once again that a forward-looking mobile phone service provider can dare to be different -- they can champion an open business model and encourage thought-leader collaboration. 3UK launched a mobile Internet application and services microsite, entitled neXt . The site is designed to act as a free, community-built guide to mobile resources on the Internet, open to both 3UK customers -- and those of other mobile networks. The 3neXt Web site catalogs independently-developed applications and mobile-optimized sites for mobile Internet-capable devices, and allows users to review and rate them in a blog-like environment. Current Analysis says they're positive on the 3neXt upside, as this community-centric site will allow 3UK to monitor Mobile Internet discovery in action -- warts and all. Getting end-users to rate, review and recommend new mobile-enabled sites, software and applications will allow the operator to i...

The traditional role of corporate and agency public relations (PR) has reached an important juncture, as the growing body of informed citizen journalists gain market momentum and a multitude of social media platforms enable the potential for self-publication. Being relevant, and newsworthy, can be an ongoing struggle. Historically, the distinction between advertising and PR was that the latter is meant to be inherently newsworthy. That said, most people on the receiving end of today's typical technology sector "professionally produced" press release would argue that this objective is not being met, most of the time. Regardless, the vast majority of the current investment in PR is centered on this 20th Century activity-oriented marketing communications (Marcom) busy work. But the people who pay the bill for this activity are now demanding a measurable ROI, and this has forced PR professionals into a mode of creative exploration and experimentation. Some PR folk talk of the...

As you may recall, Cisco recently created a microsite to feature their new campaign that re-positions the traditional networking equipment company as they expand and evolve their business model. The website already includes some interesting content, and I hope that they continue what they have started. The site's introduction says "When we're all connected, great things happen. Join us and see how life on the network is changing life as we know it." However, most of the content on the site is highly polished storytelling which applies the predictable voice of professionally edited marketing communications. I believe that it's ironic, because this campaign strategy is really a legacy marketing approach that's used to describe a unique and unconventional phenomenon -- ordinary people using communications and digital media composition tools without the intervention of professional journalists, videographers or PR spin-doctors. The idea behind the site has the po...

In a Forbes editorial, Clayton Christensen remarked "Struggling film giant Eastman Kodak announced a bold new offering that just might shake up the $50 billion printer industry. Kodak is introducing a $150 to $300 consumer inkjet printer that uses ink cartridges priced more than 50 percent lower than those of incumbents. Kodak's approach has many of the hallmarks of disruptive innovation, giving it a great chance of creating a much-needed winning product." On that backdrop, what was Kodak's chief marketing officer thinking when he approved the launch of the Ink Is It promotional microsite? The two characters, Nathan and Max, featured in videos on the site may be funny to some people. However, instead of laughing with them, I found myself groaning at yet another misguided attempt to jump on the internet video bandwagon with a poorly conceived idea. I actually admire most attempts to try something creative and clever, but the current tone of the content on this website...

Dell has been featured prominently within the press lately, mostly regarding ongoing changes in their executive leadership, as the company continues its quest to regain lost momentum. Meanwhile, there's another more thought-provoking story that's unfolding. While many high-tech corporations talk of their passion to engage their customers in an open dialog -- to better understand their collective needs -- few have been as bold or adventurous as Dell in its exploration of raising the bar for superior customer care. Dell's direct-marketing and sales model made them a pioneer of building world-class call centers. They created the Dell Community Forums platform to enable customer interaction, and ultimately knowledge transfer. Then they introduced Dell on Call to provide additional fee-based technical support, and eventually launched the Direct2Dell corporate blog. Following the announcement of their Dell 2.0 initiative last year, they recently ventured into the world of broad...

Across the tech vendor community, approximately 50 percent of marketing investment is allocated to demand generation and about one-third of that investment is ear-marked to directly support the sales force. New research from IDC shows that, for most vendors, this complex and expensive intersection of marketing and sales remains very much a 'work in process.' However, IDC observes pockets of excellence that are emerging as executives are starting to come to grips with the escalating costs of selling and marketing in today's tech industry. According to IDC's Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Advisory Practice -- which undertook a study evaluating which IT vendors have demonstrated best practices in lead management process development and execution -- marketing's lead management process at a majority of tech vendors fails to provide even the most basic need of establishing a consistent global definition of a lead. Other failure points include data collection, lead qualific...