If you are looking for an easy and effective way to create buzz, read on. One of the most intriguing forms of content about companies comes from their employees, and the experiences they have every day. The challenge marketers face is how to best communicate that content to new and existing customers which will help build the brand. Here is a way that uses devices many employees already have – their cell phones.

Qik is one site that allows users to stream video using their cell phone. That content can then be viewed several ways including your corporate site or blog. When you record using your cell phone, the clip is ready to be viewed with the embed link provided by Qik.

So if your company is at a trade show, why not announce it on your home page with a short video clip directly from the floor courtesy of the employee that is there. Or someone from product development could speak from the testing lab about upcoming advances.

Quick, easy, and effective ways to connect with your customers – it's one-to-one marketing made easy.

It's typical to judge the performance of an e-mail list by looking at the open, click-through, click-to-open, and other rates. These important measurements give you a look at how effective your e-marketing efforts are and form the basis to compare campaigns. They do not, however, measure how effective your list building efforts are or if your mailing frequency is optimal for maximum reach.

We have adopted a measurement technique we call the Ovation Razor. When applied to your list frequency and building efforts, this performance measurement tool will give insights into your list's potential for engagement and its ability to keep the long-time users as active as their initial engagement. Your list's loyalty factor is found by dividing the CTR by the CTR of the 1^st e-mail.

You can use your loyalty factor to determine if your frequency is appropriate and your content is consistently engaging. A loyalty factor between 50% and 65% indicates a balanced program as represented by client 3 and client 4. Client 2's frequency could be increased as their user's engagement is very high. Client 1's factor is 27%, which indicates the e-mail is not engaging or the frequency is too high.

One key to keeping your list active and growing is to understand and match your subscriber's frequency preferences with their desired delivery rate. And using the loyalty factor as another measurement tool will help you deliver your one-to-one message for the best chance of long-term engagement.

We carefully analyze click and sales results for all of our client's e-mail campaigns. So when we hear about an e-mail test like the one by the Email Experience Council, we are happy to take the challenge. Their challenge is to analyze the efficiency of a top navigation bar if it is included as part of the e-mail.

What we have found is, it depends. It depends on the nature and audience of the e-mail. For example, a product heavy e-mail's top navigation is a useful guide to the rest of the site and should be included, while a lifestyle or offer-based e-mail will get little benefit from including the top navigation.

Using analytics to help guide the creative message will allow marketers to stay connected with their audiences. It's these types of customer behavior insights which will help with effective, one-to-one database marketing.

Is your data working as hard as it can? Today, marketers seeking to boost their ROI, mine information beyond the traditional basics of recency, frequency, and dollars. Programs such as our own Data121 help marketers examine their database from every angle to provide a 360-degree opportunity analysis, sales and marketing contact overview, and insights into long-term customer development. For example:

Opportunity analysis determines the quality of your lists, potential contained in your existing data for lead conversion, and possible need to supplement data from internal or third-party sources.

Sales and marketing contact overview provides an insight into the completeness of the information including customer information, segmentation, and demographic information that will allow materials to be targeted and personalized.

Insights into long-term customer development are derived through analysis to determine the database's ability to support the achievement of business objectives and improve marketing ROI.

One key to supporting a one-to-one, multichannel marketing program is a market-savvy database that's equipped to engage your customers wherever and whenever they want.

Are you looking for a better way to connect sales results with what generated the results? If so, you are like our clients who have benefited from using TrackIt Catalog.

TrackIt Catalog is our proprietary catalog performance reporting application. You can access TrackIt Catalog securely through ClientNet using your Web browser. Multiple people can have simultaneous access and are able to view results 24/7 from anywhere they have an Internet connection. Your catalog sales results are displayed in real time, by the product on the catalog page that generated the sales. This method of reporting sales integrated with the creative permits you to quickly see overall page sales as well as specific product performance, allowing you to understand customer purchase behavior for future merchandising decisions. Reporting preferences can be added to filter results based on day, month, or catalog cycle.

Keeping track of how your marketing efforts are working, in real time, will give you insights and understanding to generate optimal performance and profitability. And when those results are tied directly to the creative that produces them, better insights are gained by everyone on the team.

Here are three tips that will increase the number of leads you can obtain.

1. Offer an obvious way for your prospects to give you their name. On every webpage, make it very clear what to click or fill in so your prospective customer can leave their name for you to respond with more information. And offer ways for immediate response should they need to contact you right away such as call me now, or a phone number.
2. Put the signup link on all communications in a visible spot. Every prospecting or product sell sheet communication could be the start of the relationship. Take advantage of every chance to obtain more information, while letting the person leave their contact information should they be interested.
3. Explain what the person will receive should they sign up. Is your signup page working hard at selling the future benefit to the recipient? We have found that when examples of past issues or samples of topics to choose from are offered, response rates increase. And this lift in response will translate into an increase in the number of leads your efforts will produce.

Keep it easy, make it simple. It's how we apply one-to-one to successful lead generation programs.

Mintel Comperemedia recently reported that direct mail usage increased by 17% when comparing 2006 to 2007. Oxbridge Communications reported that the total number of catalogs listed in the 2008 National Directory of Catalogs increased by 15% from 2004 to 2008. So why are companies increasing the use of print in this electronic age?

Print typically has a better response rate than e-mail and a longer shelf life. And it's this better response potential, when paired with a marketing database, which will make for a successful program.

Rather than thinking of one vs. the other, they will both work in tandem when executed through a multichannel program. Our experience has shown that, businesses will realize a significant lifetime value increase for customers who use multiple channels to connect with a brand.

List churn is what happens to your list between campaigns. You may be monitoring the total number of e-mails sent, number of people that open and click, or the unsubscribe rate, but do you know the "health" of your list? And more importantly, how to project where your list will be next year?

If you dig into your e-mail analytics, you can determine the number of new addresses added since the last mailing. You can also calculate the number of new addresses added by taking the number delivered this time plus the number of failed addresses (hard bounces) this time, plus the number of unsubscribed addresses, minus the number delivered last time. Doing this type of calculation over time will show if the number of new addresses gained is more or less than the number of addresses lost.

When we combined our clients' rates together, we found typical losses of 25% to 30% of the e-mail database each year. Most of the losses come from addresses going bad, while a smaller percentage is typically due to user unsubscribes. If you have not been factoring in the lost address rate, you may be in for a surprise. If your goal is to grow your list by 10% next year, you will need to plan on increasing your list size by 40% to accommodate the natural list attrition.

E-mail is a very effective way to reach your audience; however, developing list growth strategies you can put into action will help keep your list healthy so you will achieve your desired performance.

You and I send and receive E-Mail every day. We have reviewed thousands of messages in our in-box. But what makes an E-Mail catch our interest, or cause us to continue to the underlying website? These 4 tips will help you achieve that result.

1. Choose popular topics. This may sound obvious, but how do you know your readers will be interested in what you consider popular? Check website usage, or other marketing efforts response rates to determine if your content is suitable, or needs to be updated.
2. Echo the brand message. There should not be a brand disconnect between the E-Mail message, and the underlying website. Once your reader is engaged, the continuing brand experience must be consistent on every page.
3. Communicate using images and video when appropriate. Depending on what you are communicating, charts, graphs, or photography will reinforce your message and create reader interest. A trend we have noticed for all our clients is when a video clip is featured, the click rate increases.
4. Be brief and offer more. Rather than including the entire article in the E-Mail, just send the first few sentences. This way you can offer more articles quicker which will allow the reader to judge overall interest, and then get the detail that applies to their need.

Producing and sending effective E-Mail communication is one aspect of an effective multi-channel program. And we have found it to be an effective one to one communication tool.

We often get asked, "What percentage of search volume does Google, Yahoo!, or Microsoft have?" According to Search Engine Land, Google's share of search volume for April 2008 was 62%, dwarfing every other search option.

When comparing this same ranking to July 2006 you can see that Google has increased its share by 26% while only Microsoft has managed to hold steady.

So what does this mean to your search strategy? Should you be single focused on Google and abandon any work that could attract high rankings on the other engines?

We have found through using analysis of our client’s business coupled with real time website reporting, appropriate attention can be placed while we can measure its effectiveness. Also, it may be a combination of search and social exposure that will work hardest to attract your next set of customers. Customer by customer, one to one, your online efforts can work for you in a relevant and effective way.

"Going Dark" is a term often used in traditional media. It describes the times when your ad is not running, or your spot is off the air. The other day, we heard that expression used to describe a strategy for search marketing. Going Dark may make sense for traditional media, however, with search it does not make sense. Rather than turning off your search advertising you can let your customers determine when they want to click your advertised message.

Your business may experience seasonal fluctuations, and so will your search phrases. Using tools like Google Trends you can track the seasonal popularity of your phrases. Keeping a watchful eye on the budgets and ROI during these fluctuations will allow you to maximize the results during each cycle.

Rather than thinking of search marketing as Going Dark, think of it as "Staying lit." And let this one-to-one marketing tool achieve the best results throughout your sales cycle.

As a child, I was fascinated by the globe my uncle Herm gave me for my 7^th birthday. I would spend hours "exploring" every country, city, and ocean, wondering what it would be like to visit those distant lands. More recently, I would imagine being able to browse restaurants within two miles of my hotel. Or I would wonder what hotels were within five miles of my destination. Now by using Google Earth, I can explore, browse, and determine my choices by entering a search phrase and browsing on a virtual globe.

If you are unfamiliar with Google Earth, you can explore all of its features at Earth Center. Google has incorporated the power of its search and mapping functions into a virtual globe. Within a few clicks, you can explore virtually every inch of our planet. And by turning on layers, you can also browse restaurants, hotels, service stations, and many other destinations.

By linking it's powerful search engine to the globe interface, Google has enabled businesses to offer rich content attached to the map. So, for instance, not only can you see what hotel choices are close to your destination, you can browse the hotel's amenities, pricing, and availability depending on how each business is indexed.

So how do you take advantage of this program to ensure that your customers will see your business and all it has to offer? The first step is to make sure your search program is working, and your site is being indexed. Add social media optimization to increase your exposure. The result is graphical one-to-one marketing to your customers as they are virutally walking by.

Increasing Web site traffic is top-of-mind for all Internet marketers. Increasing visits from people that do not directly know about your site often results in new customers. But how can a company make its site visible to people who are unaware of the site or what it has to offer? One answer can be found using social media technology.

Social media sites such as Face Book and YouTube have recently emerged as leaders in the social media space. It's safe to say that people's desire to create and maintain social networks is popular, but how can you let your users make connections using your site?

Social bookmarking services such as del.icio.us, blinklist, or ma.gnolia.com allow users to tag news stories, videos, blogs, or any other page on your site. Once your site starts to get tagged through these services, other users will be exposed to your site by the category that has been tagged. Check out the popular tags page on del.icio.us to get an idea of what a user would see, and how your site could be represented through this type of sharing service.

Another way to connect your site to the social networks is to offer a news aggregation link on your news pages. Digg and Reddit are examples of networks that allow your users to connect a page from your site to their network. Offering a Digg link makes it easy for your users to connect to interesting content that will be seen and clicked-through in this type of social networking.

These are a few of several techniques to connect your site to one or several social networks. Once people start recoginizing and voting on the value your site brings, the virual nature of the social network will cause your traffic to increase.

New advancements in video and mobile technology enable advertisers to place their messages in front of customers while they are out of their homes. If you have seen a TV screen appear at the grocery store, mall, or gas pump, you are not alone. According to eMarketer, US Outdoor Video Advertising Spending is expected to total $2.3 billion in 2011.

Imagine on your morning train ride watching a video ad showing great destination vacations, or being able to learn about new cars while you fill up. Video can also enhance retail shopping experiences. Seeing a product demonstration, or watching the setup of a "some assembly required" product can reduce your customer's objections and make the sale.

Finding new ways to connect with your customers will allow you to take advantage of opportunities that may easily be missed. And in situation video is a great way to deliver a rich experience for your customers.

In a recent survey, the majority of all Web users reported using online videos at least one a week. It’s not surprising that online video usage is viewed this often due to its powerful means of communicating the message. Using video, web sites come to life in ways not possible using text and imagery.

“Sometimes I just want to be read to” was a comment we heard recently when presenting video enhancements for the company’s website. This ability to sit back and watch and listen may be overlooked as a benefit offered through targeted, online video clips.

If you have not enabled video on your website, you should start planning today. Sites that offer compelling content, including video, will be positioned to better serve their visitors and keep them coming back often.

Google, known for its search marketing expertise, is now offering its advertisers the opportunity to enhance a search marketing plan using newspaper advertising. Google Print Ads can be placed through 200 major US newspapers with a combined circulation of over 30 million readers. This will allow advertisers to buy space in as many or as few newspapers that would make sense for the campaign. The process for determining ad cost is similar to the bid process in place for keywords. Either bid on the space, or establish a budget for the campaign.

Google print ads are a great way to supplement your one-to-one campaign through print using the bid model for placement that is currently in place for keywords.

How much time do you spend each day using Email? And do you access your email using a mobile device? AOL's recent study indicates that our mobile devices are making it easier to stay connected when ever and where ever we are. Here are a few highlights:

• Email activity on portable devices increased nearly 50% from 2004 to 2006
• Average email user checks mail about five times each day
• 59% of mobile device users check email every time a new message arrives

"Email is becoming more and more accessible, and people continue to take advantage of that," said Regina Lewis, AOL Online Consumer Advisor. "As the survey data shows, portable devices – like email itself – are becoming more prevalent and easier to use. Because you can access email services like AOL from virtually anywhere and on almost any wireless device, it is easier to stay connected to work, home, family and friends through email -- and instant messaging as well -- than any other form of communication."

On the Hitwise US – Top 20 Websites report for July, six of the top 20 websites are Email services, accounting for over 11% of US Internet usage, giving further evidence of the daily consumption of Email.

So what does this mean for Email marketers? Email in-boxes are becoming overloaded so messaging needs to be more targeted and to the point. Formats of Email must be easy to understand, and clear mobile links must be present at the top of the email so the mobile user can get the message and easily respond. It's the right message, right place, right time methodology that will allow successful Emarketers to connect with their customers.

We feel that making product available on the home page, with a price and quick way to "ad to your cart" is an important element of a successful retail website. This may sound basic, but the results we found may surprise you.

We are in the middle of conducting an in-depth study of several major retail web sites with the intention of understanding what marketing principles these best in class companies have put in place. One of the marketing principles we are studying is the position and importance of product on the website.

We found that 67% of the websites we studied have product ready to buy on the home page. When you consider the total number of clicks an online customer should take to select a product, instigate an order and know that the order has been completed, it makes sense to offer product as soon as the shopper gets to the home page. Giving the customer what they want, in as easy and quick a format as possible, is part of effective one to one marketing.

One of the best forms of advertising comes from satisfied customers. But how easy is it for your customers to leave their comments, or send comments about a product or service to their friends? Here are three easy steps that will help you build word of mouth.

First: It must be simple. Extra questions, several pages, and complex steps will not only make it difficult to pass along their recommendations, most people will stop after the second question and your excellent reference is lost.

Second: The comment must appear trustworthy. If the message is sent as an email, make sure it does not appear to be sent from a bulk system, or the title is cryptic. The recipient may not recognize the value of the message, or worse yet, it may end up in the junk folder. If the comment is left on the website, offer spell checking and have a method to review all comments as they are entered.

Third: Capture enough information to make it relevant for you and your customer(s). Which pages generate the most brags? Has the person bought before they make a recommendation, or do most people browse and then comment? What is the likely hood of a person receiving or reviewing a recommendation to purchase? Also, looking at the content of the recommendations will give you a sense of what the "street talk" is about some of your products. And perhaps learn how products could be used or improved.

Making it easy for your customers to brag about something you sell will improve the likely hood of future sales as well as allow you to capture valuable information leading up to and after the recommendation. Letting your customers advertise for you in a relevant one to one fashion can only lead to increased revenue and return customers.

Did you ever ponder the question: How much information should we capture from a customer who is signing up to our email list? Or, how many pages or clicks will the customer endure to get added to your list?

As I was shopping the other day on columbia.com I noticed that they do several things great so I will use that example to show that you can get all the information you need to email and postal mail the interested customer while adding value to the shopper's future experiences.

Click 1: Notice that the "Sign up for the E-Newsletter" is prominently placed on the home page. It's as easy as entering your email address without an additional click to a single page to enter your address.

Click 2: Clicking submit next to my email address takes me to this page. I don't have to enter information that has already been entered, and am directed to complete a few more questions, which could be expanded to include postal mailing information should you offer a catalog and they clicked to receive a catalog.

Click 3: The final page of the process directs my path on the site by showing me product by category which will allow me to shop for items that I am interested in.

Is it possible to capture email and postal address information, as well as some product preferences in 3 pages? Yes it is by taking this site as an example of making good use of your customer's time while asking for enough information to keep them connected with your brand.

Getting good information every time your customer is willing to raise their hand and ask to be contacted is critical to effective one to one database marketing. And having a strong marketing database will allow you to keep your customer's informed to the level they have indicated.

Most websites have a method for customers and potential customers to enter information. Often these web pages have various looks and ask several questions. Clients will tell us they have collected "x" number of contacts in their databases, and they are ready to start marketing to these customers. When we examine the databases we could be more effective with our marketing efforts if a few considerations were made during the initial setup.

Tip 1: Email Address Verification

On your web form, have an additional field setup for the person to retype their email address. When the form is submitted, alert the customer if the fields are different and allow the correction to be made while you have the customer sill available.

Tip 2: Offer Drop Down Lists for States

Rather than letting the customer type their state, have all states available on a drop down with an "other" choice for international addresses. Also offer a country field if you commonly get international addresses.

Tip 3: Make sure your data is email and postal mail friendly

Where ever possible, make sure you are collecting enough data to contact your customers by phone, mail, or email. Appending missing data later in the data collection cycle is time consuming, costly, and often does not produce complete results

Tip 4: Establish "base" fields to use on all your web pages that collect data

Decide if you collect first name and last name separately or in a single field. Will you need address line 2 or 3, phone and fax? Then make sure all areas of your website that collect data follow the same set of rules if they are not all posting to the same database. Combining databases later on will be much easier when all fields are the same.

Tip 5: Make good use of your database

Have a regular contact plan established for your list. Regular mailings will keep the list clean and also provide value to the people that took the time to enter their information into your website.

One to one mailings will further establish your commitment to service for your customers and produce great results for your company. By using these few simple tips you will produce clean database that will be easy to use for your future marketing efforts.

I was just reviewing one of our client's Google ad campaigns and saw a perfect example of the long tail in action. Follow this link to learn more about the long tail http://www.thelongtail.com/about.html or visit the Wikipedia to read the definition of the long tail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail. You can also click here to read my blog about the book.

Here is what we observed for this client. For the past few months we noticed our impressions for the overall campaign were high and we were receiving conversions, however, not to the level that we felt we could. Looking into the detail we found that the keyword phrases describing the products in general had a very high number of impressions, but the conversions were very low or nil. The keyword phrases that included the brand of the product with the general description generated a modest to low number of impressions but the conversions were high and the cost per conversion was well below average.

We set up our optimization strategy to increase the number of keywords that were converting and reduced the number of general keywords that had higher traffic but were not converting. Our optimization efforts, based on the long tail strategy, have paid off as our conversion numbers have increased by 124% for the month of June.

As we go forward we will continue to add words that have lower impressions, but describe our clients products in greater detail. Watching the long tail in action is fun and will create more one to one selling opportunities.

Does gender affect your one to one marketing efforts? Recently I attended a conference where the book “Why Gender Matters” written by Dr. Leonard Sax was presented. Dr Sax is not a marketing expert, but the insights he identifies in his book will help astute marketers craft messages that can have more impact.

Here are a few highlights:

Brains develop differently. In girls, the language areas of the brain develop before the areas used for spatial relations and for geometry. In boys, it's the other way around.

Brains are wired differently. In girls, emotion is processed in the same area of the brain that processes language. In boys, the brain regions involved in talking are separate from the regions involved in feeling.

Girls have better hearing. The typical teenage girl has a sense of hearing seven times more acute than a teenage boy. That's why daughters so often complain that their fathers are shouting at them. Dad doesn't think he's shouting, but Dad doesn't hear his voice the way his daughter does.

Girls and boys respond to stress differently - not just in our species, but in every mammal scientists have studied. Stress enhances learning in males. The same stress impairs learning in females.

Using this learning can help marketers develop messaging and campaigns that will appeal to both genders by using the strengths of each. One to one marketing that will appeal to each gender in a meaningful and relevant way. It’s a great read.

BusinessWeek recently ran an article on how blogging is being encouraged and enabled by major retailers. Here is a direct quote “Customer feedback is opening the eyes of the industry, changing the way they market, manufacture, and merchandise.” We totally agree as listening and watching the customer is the basis for our one to one marketing.

Beside receiving direct comments from our customers, another marketing benefit often overlooked is a companies ability to “soft sell” it’s products through expert blog entries which describe how needed features and benefits are achieved through various products. This type of dialog will naturally encourage comments from readers, and thus deliver more understanding to the marketer.

Listening to the customer and doing your best to serve their needs is the basis for successful one to one marketing.

Take the quiz to test your understanding of the elements presented through a website from a global perspective. Here are some of the highlights: Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world while 35% of the online population is English speaking.

As far as color and design, not all cultures interpret color the same way and some cultures even have different understandings of the color spectrum ROYGBIV.

Even though the US has a 24% share of the online population, when expressing dates. less than 5% of the world’s population writes the date in the format: month-day-year as is commonplace in the US.

These are just a few examples of how a “one size fits all” approach to globalizing your website is not a good strategy. Careful understand and approach is a must to deliver your brand message in a culturally correct way.

Online spending in the business to business category is expected to rise 23.7% over 2006 levels to reach $2.4 billion, as reported by Veronis Schler Stevenson Forecasts. $2.4 billion may sound like a lot, and it is, however, the advertising spending allocated to print is reported at nearly four times the online portion, indicating a lack of enthusiasm for B2B marketers to use online means for reaching their new customers.

We know that more often than not B2B purchase research is done using the Internet so we can only presume that online spending will soon out pace print. What better way can you reach your customers on a one to one level than to connect your marketing database through your online advertising? This is the power of one to one.

trendwatching.com recently coined the phrase “Transumers” to describe “…consumers driven by experiences instead of the ‘fixed’, by entertainment, by discovery, by fighting boredom, who increasingly live a transient lifestyle, freeing themselves from the hassles of permanent ownership and possessions”  They go on to describe ways this group of consumers approach obtaining use certain products and services.

So how can you reach this sector which is constantly looking for new experiences and has the money to spend to get what they want? By constantly watching where they are and their purchase behavior. You also need to make sure that your messaging supports a one to one delivery as this will directly appeal to their need to be unique.

Field sales forces have been undergoing major changes for the past several years thanks to technological advances. For the most part, these investments have helped improve customer service, and drive more sales. So how can we improve on what we have?

First, equip your sales force with an on-demand personalization capability to allow your sales person to speak more one to one with their customers. Rather than sending sales brochures that have been pre-printed, enable your sales force to create literature that not only has complete sales contact information, but has your customer’s name prominently printed as well.

Second, improve the measurement performance of your web site and e-marketing campaigns to identify user activity that represent leading indicators of future sales. If you analyze visit and click activity over time you will notice that customers you have today, were website visitors or responders to an electronic communications last month. Giving your sales force this “short list” of future customers will allow them to focus their efforts on prospects that have the best chance to purchase.

Most likely you have segmented your E-Mail address database using key indicators for your business. It could be by state, size of company, industry, past purchase history, or some other relevant data to help you speak one-to-one through all your communication. But have you split your list into people that click, and those that do not?

The first idea is to segment your list by looking at the open and click activity for the recent past; for example 6 – 12 months. If someone has either clicked or opened at least one email during that time, tag them in the database as active. The rest of your names tag as inactive.

The next idea involves creating a more aggressive contact strategy by analyzing your inactive names. Look at them by time they have been on the list, industry they are in, are they current customers and what is their sales level. This information will help you understand the likelihood for any potential in these names.

Finally analyze the response your have achieved with your inactive names. Some may click or open given the more targeted and aggressive nature of your communication. If they do not click, and you feel the potential is low, mark their names as inactive and stop mailing to them.

Keeping your list clean and up to date will improve the reliability of your future open and click rates so you can spend more time identifying your active people’s behavior and habits before they go inactive.

Ever wonder how productive your E-Mail database is? You may be surprised to find when looking at your campaigns for the past 6 - 12 months, half of your database has not opened or clicked through even one of your offers. The old cliché “Half of my advertising is working – I don’t know which half” when applied to E-Mail marketing is only partially true.

By looking at the performance of your list through database analysis, you can segment your list based on response. A good one-to-one marketer will not miss the opportunity to target more closely each message. And using past response as a guide will elevate your brand in the mind of your customers.

Why is it that some sites engage you while others stop at the home page? The ability to keep your users involved will lead to more satisfied informed visitors and will result in a sticker site. Wikipedia describes sticky content’s purpose is to get a user to return to that particular website.

Before you can determine what element will make your site more sticky, you need to understand what feature will cause your users to view your site as a resource or aid worth returning to. Here are five categories with example sites that have high average usage days per visitor and are classified as very sticky.

1) Portals – These are sites that combine a variety of useful tools and informative links which can serve as a starting place to get something done. Yahoo! is an example of a portal site which is sticky.

2) Entertainment – For this example stickyness is created through content. Time Warner, for example, features current releases, and entertainment news to keep its users well informed and current. If your brand has ever changing content or there are frequent product introductions you may be able to achieve stickyness through well positioned content.

3) Community – Does your service or product have a strong following or is your brand closely related to a particular social community? If so, you may be able to increase the number of times your visitors return by offering some type of community building tactic such as a blog, wiki, or other content sharing. MYSPACE.COM is an example of a social network with several electronic community building features that has a very high usage per visitor. 

4) News/Information –  Microsoft.com is a site containing computer news and information that has a high return rate due to the ever changing nature of technology. Also, Microsoft.com provides troubleshooting help to further add value to its users and create the expert value that a good information site provides.

5) Search/Navigation – Internet search is it’s own category due to the vast nature of sites, and the often confusing results one receives when searching. Google.com is the stickiest search site due to high quality results and the attention to displaying the results in a very useful and organized way.

Looking for ways to make your site more sticky will most likely involve applying one of these five tactics to some degree as a value add to the people that are visiting your site. Knowing what your users would benefit from, and delivering that feature through your site will help you achieve greater user satisfaction and thus more engaged users.

When was the last time you checked your web analytics? If you have a commerce web site, or if your website is a strategic part of your business, you should answer at least monthly. It is surprising to find that many companies we talk to do not include reviewing their web analytics as part of their monthly business results.

Your website provides significant insight into your future sales activity. Simply by trending the number of visitors, impressions of particular product pages or product demonstration pages for new introductions, and average visitor time spent you will get valuable insights into the future success of your sales efforts.

If you don’t have web analytics as part of your “dashboard” of critical business metrics to watch, please consider adding this valuable insight into what your future customers are viewing and will ultimately be buying from your company.

According to a recent study by The Media Audit, 94.3 percent of affluent working women (having total family income of $75,000 or more) access the Internet during the course of an average month. The study also notes a change in online habits. Women in this group are making more purchases and shifting their time to spend more of their day using the Internet.

Not surprising that advertisers are successfully reaching this market with targeted, relevant, benefit oriented campaigns such as Nestle and the verybestbaking.com. When done correctly, this type of electronic brand building and bonding will serve the customer and build loyalty for the brand.

JupiterResearch’s study of online ad spending reports that search spending will outpace display spending and classified spending for the next 5 years. Not surprising, search advertising is leading the way due to the one to one nature of reaching customers.

“Search is incredibly effective,” said Emily Riley, author of the report and advertising analyst at JupiterResearch. “As advertisers test search and understand how search can drive sales, they are driving more money into search.” And what better way measure the success of your campaign then by using search.

If you are looking to reach your customers, when they are searching for your product, search marketing will lead to great one to one relationship building and ultimately increased sales.

Ever wonder what people are searching for? Or pondered what is popular today?

AOL gives the top ten, with links to other terms by category http://hotsearches.aol.com/search/hotsearch.jsp

Google will reveal popularity, source location and other statistics for each word entered http://google.com/trends This is helpful to determine popularity of your existing or proposed keyword list.

Yahoo provides a list of top searches by category with a “Leaders” column and a “Movers” column. http://buzz.yahoo.com/overall/ By using these sites, you can keep your eye on popular search phrases on the major search engines which relate to your business.

As you monitor your keyword plan, keeping your eye fixed on your customer is critical to knowing when to adjust your plan, or let it soak in. Often your current customers will let you know how your plan is working in a variety of ways. Reaching new customers, however, may be a more difficult challenge.

Internet Buzz is another way you can “listen” to a segment of your target audience and pick up on popular phrases, and emerging search topics.

Chris Anderson, in his book The Long Tail, describes a current phenomenon emerging as a result of increased availability of choices via the Internet, and consumers ever changing way of getting to information. Follow this link to learn more about the author and his thinking http:// www.thelongtail.com/about.html or visit the Wikipedia to read the definition of the long tail http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tail

So does this long tail effect your advertising, and if so, how?

As more channels become available, we have more opportunities to advertise and each new channel presents another possibility to make a one to one connection with each new customer. Also, creating several of these niche one to one relationships will allow you to diversify your sales which can strengthen your brand while providing stable income.

Advertising to the end of the long tail does require the advertiser to get to know their customer, and make sure their database is relevant and current. Applying solid one to one strategies to all your direct channels will consistently position your brand to take advantage of what has been called the democratization of advertising.

In case you are not familiar with the term "Web 2.0" here is a quick review. In the fall of 2001, the fast and furious dot-com explosion crashed leaving several people crying that the web was overhyped and will have no future for business use. As we know now, that line of thinking was wrong. The fact that the dot-com bubble collapsed indicated that something was wrong, and a shakeout was necessary for surviving "the honeymoon effect" of the start of this change to our business model. This is where the concept of Web 2.0 first began.

Tim O’Reilly states in his article that the concept of "Web 2.0" began with a conference brainstorming session between O'Reilly and MediaLive International. Dale Dougherty, web pioneer and O'Reilly VP, noted that far from having "crashed", the web was more important than ever, with exciting new applications and sites popping up with surprising regularity. And that was the seed for Web 2.0.

So now you must look at your Internet presence with renewed enthusiasm. You will turn your eye to embracing what Web 2.0 can do for you and your customers. Here are a few questions to consider.

First, does your customer contact strategy allow your customers to explore, engage, contribute and feel they are a part of your products, services, or company before they have made personal contact with anyone at your organization? Finding ways to get and keep your customers connected is key to establishing and maintaining lasting relationships.

Second, can your systems and processes support the increased business intelligence required to accomplish this increased level of database activity? Designing business systems that make the electronic to personal handoff effortless will position your company as a leader because of your ability to offer great and meaningful customer service while giving confidence to your customers and your employees that satisfaction will result from every contact.

Third, will your customer contact strategy last into the future, or will your customer’s demands outpace your ability to deliver what they expect? Marketing and the ability to deliver great customer service above expectations is often cited as a formula for growth and longevity.

The list can go on. If you have some implementations please let us know.

Web 2.0 defines how technology is emerging to give marketers more capabilities through Internet presence. Web 2.0 also defines how customer expectations and behavior are evolving through community development and intelligence sharing. Smart marketers will keep focused on their customers while leading them to embrace what Web 2.0 has to offer.

For the past several years, we have been working with successful B-to-B marketers. During that time, we have noticed 3 basic traits successful companies have in common. You can use this guide as a starting point to revitalize your marketing approach to your prospects and customers while building on your current efforts.

First, ask yourself, are you becoming customer centric rather than product centric. Look at your promotional material and website from your customers’ perspective. Often times you’ll find that the promotional materials lack meaning benefits to the customer, and are a laundry list of hard to understand technical services. Is your website constructed to make the customers experience as user friendly and productive as possible? Navigation must be obvious and information forthcoming as your new users are information hungry early in their research.

Second, how passionately do you anticipate future customer behavior and how will these trends impact your future growth? One of the most recent trends we have noticed is that busy people seldom keep printed sales literature because they are so accustomed to looking it up on the web. We know that when a prospective business is considering doing business with your company, often they will make their initial research by visiting your website as well as a list of your competitors. As a result, if your website does not correctly represent your company’s credibility your future sales efforts will be negatively impacted before the formal sales efforts begin.

Third, have you resolved to constantly monitor your marketing materials’ success? Here we can understand what your customers respond to and what they don’t. Every visit and movement through your website as well as other media placements should be analyzed to learn how your customers have been served, and what each visitor was able to accomplish. Direct contact should also be tracked to learn what is effective and what needs to be rethought.

Marketers who are able to achieve these three things will present themselves as one to one resources to their customers, and their customers will also feel the personal service necessary to gain and maintain B-to-B business.

If you feel you have increased your Internet searching lately, you are not alone. Nielsen NetRatings Research announced that searches in the U.S. increased by 55% year-over-year in December 2005. There were over 5 billion searches performed in December 2005 leading us to understand that Internet search is being relied on more and more as part of normal Internet usage.

Google’s December 2005 search share was 48.8% while Yahoo! Search was 21.4% and MSN obtained only 10.9% of total searches. The other 18.9% of searches were spread across 60 other “minor” search engines.

What is the reaction to this news? Smart Internet marketers are taking full advantage of this trend by optimizing their site for search engine placement, as well as purchasing keywords that are relevant to the brand but for the time being have very low natural rankings.

So one more question. How often will your customers find what they need from your site by using Internet search? Let us know.

We encourage you to try this using your website.

Step 1: Go to any search engine. For our example we will be using Google. At the main search page, type your site’s full URL into the search box. Google will present you with some options. Click on the link that says "Find web pages from the site." This is a listing of every page Google, or what ever search engine you choose, has in their index. The number of pages found in the index will give you a general idea of how well that particular search engine knows your site. More is usually better here.

Step 2: Review all the links, or for a larger site at least the first several pages. Check for wording and accuracy of information presented. If your site contains PDF files, cryptic names may be present if the PDF file was not properly formed for web usage. Click the links and make sure they work. Don’t be surprised to find information that you thought was eliminated from your site, old navigation from a previous version of your site, or old links that return no information or page not found errors.

Let us know what you find. If you are like most people that try this you will have an interesting story to share.

Last week Friday, internet retailer reported “Some retailers over-relying on Internet search” The article went on to report Aaron Kessler, senior research analyst who follows e-retailers for investment research firm Piper Jaffray & Co. that retailers “need to rely less on search engine marketing and develop a more comprehensive, multi-channel strategy."

We couldn’t agree with you more!

Search engine marketing, being exciting, leading edge, and able to drive quick response, needs to be balanced with the complete strategy. Your customer’s long term view of your company will be shaped, or misshaped based on your ability to communicate your brand and resulting value proposition via every channel that is meaningful to them.

Looking for a way to be found by your customers during your next advertising campaign? Don’t forget to include search.

You may have seen national TV ads with website references, radio ads for a new product with a unique name you would search for, or public relation or other news related topics triggering searches. Maximizing search coverage during these times of heightened customer interest will catch your user’s attention, and give your site more visibility. This extra coverage will make sure your customer connects with your site, rather than your competitor’s site.

Having a well balanced advertising plan should include appropriate amounts of print, broadcast, and Internet. And your ability to capture your customers behaviors and language will help tailor future advertising efforts.

This past weekend we received an unsolicited postcard with an offer to visit our "personal" website full of relevant information from the sending advertiser. The inkjeted URL we were instructed to visit included my name, along with the domain of the advertiser, which gave me the feeling that they really knew me and are offering me something worth my time.

On the other hand, my wife's comment was "how did they get all this information?" and she was reluctant to visit the link that the advertiser so carefully constructed to include my name. Her reluctance included a concern of "what else will they send" should we visit the site.

Knowing the limits and expectations of your customer will go a long way toward preventing your well intentioned personalization efforts from being viewed as some type of invasion of privacy. And a smart advertiser would know their customer's limits and deliver creative respectful of that position.

What is your opinion of an advertiser using a personalized URL including your name? Let us know!

How quick have you made your last decision? It may be quicker than you realize according to a recent article published in the March-April 2006 issue of Behaviour and Information Technology. According to the study most people will correctly form an opinion about web page visual appeal within 50 ms, about the time it takes to blink your eye. What does that mean to your website’s appearance? Better take another look, but don’t look too long.

Visual appeal is just one element to effectively reaching your audience, and first impressions will encourage your customer to start to associate with your brand.

We have all experienced this situation at least once when internet shopping. We're looking for a particular item, can't find it by browsing, go to the site search only to find a dead end, then leave. If you have done this, you are not alone. Jupiter Media reports that 80% of visitors will leave your site if the search does not work for them.

So the next question must be, how much effort are we placing on our site search and is site search a strategic part of our site strategy?

If you are selling anything, your answers must be "a lot" and "yes." And if you want to take a look at one of the leaders to see how site search can be used as a strategic tool for your web site, just visit Apple.com. Apple uses keywords to "personalize" their search results page. For example, if you type in iPod you will be presented with an easy way to purchase your iPod, as well a links to product guides, support, developer, or the Apple Store. Type in "why should I purchase a Macintosh" and your search results page will have an entirely different format, with user testimonials presented first while still maintaining links to purchase if that was the users intent.

When you view your site search as an extension of your customer service department, the ability of the search results page to satisfy your customer's needs will either answer their question and position your company as an expert, or will fall victim to your customers comments such as "I've tried.....and now I'm gone"

If you answered "search," you are like most companies we recently polled. As a matter of fact, Google reports that site search is expected by 80% of your site visitors. So how can we connect better with our customers through our site search?

First, our site search must work. Displaying too much information or information not intensely relevant to the user's search phrase discredits our website and leaves our customer feeling under served.

Second, the site search must be easy to maintain - with every piece of information indexed regardless of its format or location. As long as the information may be relevant to our customer's search, it must be indexed and available to process.

Third, we must have reports of what words and phrases were used to search. Knowing what topics are interesting to our site visitors will help us better understand what our customers are looking for, thus leading us to better serve their needs through possible modifications to our site architecture or design.

Effective marketers will not miss the opportunity to "completely serve" their customers by offering quick, relevant, and reliable site search. After all, this opportunity to serve may not come again if the customer leaves because they can't find what they were looking for.

A quick and easy way to get content on your web site is to simply create PDF files using your typical desktop productivity software. The result is a perfectly constructed file that will reproduce in its original intent for most every user. Often you will see sites offering PDFs of white papers, industry studies, or current marketing communications such as catalogs and other print pieces. As far as search engines are concerned, all copy from this content will be completely indexed and ranked according to the relevance of the keywords contained. So PDFs in general are a good thing.

One often overlooked file attribute that can make your brand look silly when your PDF is displayed in a search result is the document properties. Here you can indicate the Title – ­ which if left to default will be the name of the file the PDF was created from and not make much sense to the searcher – the Author, Subject, and Keywords. A smart web marketer will take full advantage of these properties, including adding their site keywords to every PDF on their site.

Believe it or not, this was an actual response one of our account planners received during an in-depth B2B research call. And many other businesses are making the same statement by neglecting the Internet as another way to position themselves, and ultimately connect with their customers.

From what we have found, local "home town" businesses are losing out not only to national chains, but also losing out to national E-marketers. The Online Publishers Association found that 90% of Americans 18-53 turn to the Internet first for product information. And as services such as digital television and Internet-rich portable devices become available, local web content will be expected, and your business will not be listed unless you have enabled your selling process for the Internet. Leveraging the trust that most local businesses have with the power of the Internet will now allow customers to do business with local people they trust, through the medium they love.

"We don’t believe in the Internet!" may as well say "We don’t believe in staying in business!"

Recently we conducted a study to understand how consumers use cell phones when shopping. We found that 50% of shoppers regularly take their cell phone when shopping, and women are nearly twice as likely to carry a cell phone as their male counterparts. We also found that a call home for purchase advice is currently the main use of the cell phone, while using a stores automated assistance line got very few responses.

But what if marketers took a more proactive approach? Imagine the possibilities of connecting with your customers through their cell phone. The old "Blue Light Special" can now extend outside the walls of your store, drawing in customers shopping in neighboring stores by prompting them on their cell phone. Or "Register to Win" drawings will take on a new meaning when all shoppers are waiting in the store for their cell phone to ring indicating they won the prize.

Building and maintaining good customers means knowing how their habits and preferences are changing, and then responding to these changes in a way that strengthens their impression of your store, and ultimately your bottom line.

Mobile technology is making waiting more fun and productive. Rather than just staring out the window on your commuter ride home, or reading yesterday’s news while you wait for an appointment, you can use your Internet-connected portable device to check your email, put the final touches on a spreadsheet to present at tomorrow’s budget meeting, or finalize a trade before the bell.

Effective marketers see mobile technology as another chance to get their brand in front of their customers, when their customers are paying close attention. Now with EV-DO cellular service available in most major markets, rich media will be available directly to the portable device. Using interactive rich media, advertisers will allow their customers to personalize and customize their experience as they engage, explore, assess and buy. And with every click, they create a deeper connection with the brand.

We spend an enormous amount of corporate time, energy, and money to make sure every time our customers come in contact with our brand, the message is targeted, clear and representing our brand. So what does our brand look like through the eyes of a search engine - and more importantly can we control what is being displayed by the search engine?

If you are using paid placement, make sure the copy of the ad speaks to the relevance of what was being searched for and the destination page clearly represents the brand. For organic search, your results will depend on how your pages are constructed, keeping in mind your future customer will need to make a brand connection through what the search engine displays.

Bonding, selling, building relationships, connecting with the brand; it all needs to happen in a few seconds with what may be your only chance through an Internet search result.

With all this talk about webcrawlers, metacrawlers, web spiders, robots.txt files, did you ever wonder just what these automated processes "see" on your web page?

Strap on your propeller hat and step back in time to about 1964 because we need to view the web using a text only browser such as Lynx. Using the text only browser, you can now see the web - and in particular your web site - just as a typical spider does. Now you can check the order of your content, see if content is showing up, and quickly evaluate your chances of content ranking.

Making sure your page copy is working for you and your search marketing efforts is just one step to getting your site top placement for your keywords.

When creating Internet marketing strategies, it is important to understand our audience. We must know their habits, preferences, and behavior. To reach our next customers on the Internet, we must know how each web page from our site ranks for each of our target keywords. A good search marketing strategy will include regular keyword rankings for specific keywords, on specific search engines.

A great source of keywords lies in your web logs. Check the search phrases for keywords your customers are using to find your site today.

Are these words on your list, and are the related words and phrases currently being promoted?

Regular and consistent analysis of the performance of our keywords will help us understand the effectiveness of our search engine marketing strategy.