A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

A recently completed study by Silverpop, an email service provider, confirmed some widely held beliefs and also provided new insights into effective email marketing.

The study, "Email Creative That Works", revealed the following:

• Branding in the subject line improves open rates 32 to 60%
• Too many links (6 to 10) actually decreases click rates
• Lifestyle photography increases click rates in B2C emails
• Lifestyle photography decreases click rates in B2B emails
• B2C email marketing that uses a "dollars off" promotion generates more clicks than a "percentage off" promotion
• "Newsletter" style email formats generate higher click rates than the popular "postcard design

An article by Mark Wachen in the September '06 issue of Multichannel Merchant got my attention when he stated that "many companies lose 90% of their customers on credit card pages alone…"

That's a lot of lost sales!

Things like showcasing a guarantee on a product page can reduce a buyers anxiety. Time Life increased their sales 8% by doing it.

By reassuring the buyer throughout the checkout process that there's a light at the end of the tunnel can keep those with short attention spans from baling out before the sale is final.

Also make sure that all the form fields you want the buyer to fill out are absolutely necessary. Too many things to fill out can scare away a would-be buyer.

Wachen goes on to say that other benefits to tweaking these pages deep in the bowels of your e-commerce site include needing fewer creative resources to update and not as many updates needed as a landing page, therefore making it a cost effective improvement to your bottom line.

BuildDirect, a wholesaler of building products, increased it's overall website conversion rate 10.6% by testing and upgrading its billing page.

Now, that's a lot of sales!

Banner Blindness – Where the reader focuses on the web content and ignores the advertisements.

It happens to me everyday. I’ll find an article I’m interested in and out of the corner of my eye is this flashing, screaming banner ad. Unlike the person who lives near railroad tracks I can’t block it out. I usually end up re-sizing the window to avoid the offending ad. It certainly got my attention…but I’ll never read it and most certainly will never click on it.

A recent usability study conducted by The Nielson Norman Group says that I am not alone in my aversion to loud banner ads. The study took 230 people and tracked their eye movements by camera as they surfed the web. Participants in the study were told to surf the web to their unique destinations. The group was also given like tasks, such as researching getting a mortgage. The results of the study showed the following:

• Avoid bright, flashing ads
• Make sure your ad is relevant to the content on the website
• Simple “quick reads” will get looked at before a complex ad or branding message
• Ads that appear in the middle of a page are considered obstacles and are annoying
• People scan web pages in an “F” pattern, spending more time at the top of a page

Kara Pernice Coyne, Nielson Norman Group Director of Research said, “I hate to sound boring, but [it is best] if you can make sure your ad is something simple, text or a recognized logo, and it needs to be relevant to the page”.

If you don’t think your current banner advertisement is doing its job, test it against an ad that incorporates these new findings. It could be an eye-opening experience!

With the top 3 media expected to report a combined 9% drop in revenue this year, internet ad spending is expected to increase 39% and supplant national newspaper ad spending as #3.

By the end of 2007 internet ad spending is expected to top regional newspapers as the #2 media for ad spending.

Paid search advertising appearing on search sites, such as Google, account for approximately half of all web advertising. Continued growth is expected.

So, who’s #1?

Television.

With commercial television having it’s worst year since 2001 and ad spending expected to be flat for 2007, television’s days at #1 appear to be numbered.

In an attempt to remain viable as other media outlets gain popularity, several newspapers have begun carrying high-quality blog content from outside sources on their websites.

Newspapers, like the Washington Post and Houston Chronicle are using BlogBurst, the industry’s first blog syndication service to provide their websites and their readers access to over 1,000 available blogs.

This mutually beneficial pairing provides newspaper websites fresh content from a large talent pool for their readers while bloggers gain popularity and exposure to an audience they might not normally reach.

BlogBurst charges primarily according to traffic and ad sales the blogs help generate. For now, bloggers are simply rewarded by increased exposure and reader traffic to their blogsites. The newspaper’s that currently subscribe to BlogBurst generate 15 million unique visits a month.

That’s some serious exposure.

Last week the team of Google and Earthlink were selected to provide wireless internet to the 49 square mile area and 760,000 residents that make up the city of San Francisco.

Google is to provide a free option that connects to the internet at 300kilobits/second and will carry various types of on-screen advertising. Earthlink will provide a faster option (up to 4 times faster than the Google option) with no advertising for approximately $20/month.

Chris Vein, San Francisco’s Executive Director of Telecommunications and Information Services, said the project’s mission is to provide wireless service to residents who wouldn’t normally have the service available to them. He believes some residents as well as small businesses will opt for the $20/month ad-free connection.

Google has been the center of controversy recently with it’s expansion into China and the censorship issues that have arisen. In the U.S., Google has been expanding their business beyond the search engine realm, into print and local and real estate advertising.

Controversy is brewing in San Francisco, this time with privacy rights activists, due to the technology Google could use for it’s advertising.

With the technology available to them, Google could track the location of the wireless internet user and target the on-screen ads, based on their location. This type of advertising could really payoff, as Google could charge a premium price for such highly targeted ads. You didn’t think Google was providing free wireless internet access as a goodwill gesture?

The specifics of the deal are to be determined in the next month or so, but with the right to privacy concerns being raised, you can bet the residents of San Francisco will keep a close eye on the negotiations.

I saw a news article the other day that grabbed my attention. It's a great example of how traditional and not-so-traditional media working together could be mutually beneficial.

The Dallas Morning News, in an effort to appeal to a younger, more consumer-driven demographic, has agreed to distribute the Hollywood Previews I-Magazine CD-ROM in it's Sunday paper, on a monthly basis beginning April, 30.

This co-branded, interactive CD-ROM will contain interviews, movie trailers, segments about TV shows, features on the latest video games, new music videos and more. Consumers will be able to purchase the products and services from the CD-ROM, via the internet.

This co-branded effort allows the newspaper to direct it's more "tech-savvy" constituency to their website, as well as their advertiser's websites, to view promotions and special offers.

The big question is: Does The Dallas Morning News have enough of the younger, consumer-driven demographic in it's customer base to make this insert work?
If they don't, they'll need to create enough of a buzz prior to April 30 to make this issue a hot commodity. Otherwise, these two media world's could miss their intended target altogether.

Broadcast radio’s popularity has been waning. People have slowly been tuning out the commercial-laden airwaves in favor of MP3 players, internet radio and satellite radio. More choices, less or no commercials.

Count broadcast radio down, but not out. Radio stations are in the process of upgrading their technology and with that come changes to the industry.

HD Radio is on the horizon.

AM and FM station reception quality will rival that of the CD. FM broadcasters will be able to offer additional “niche” channels within the frequency occupied by the traditional analog channel. Niche formats and more programming choices should appeal to a narrower market segment. For advertisers, a more targeted message could boost sales.

But what about all those commercials?

John Hogan, President and CEO of Clear Channel Radio, realizes there’s a need to do it differently to be competitive. “Radio is reinventing itself by taking advantage of and embracing new technologies”.

Some of the new advertising methods on HD Radio could include: text streaming on the radio’s display, a push-to-buy button on the receiver and sponsorships for blocks of programming.

In addition to less intrusive advertising, HD Radio offers something MP3’s, satellite and Internet radio can't—local programming and news.

Radio stations are currently in the process of retrofitting to HD Radio and HD receivers cost the consumer about $500. Right now HD Radio is in its' infancy. Once more stations have the technology and the price of the receiver goes down, popularity should soar. By the end of the year HD receiver prices are expected to be down around $199.

If your radio ad budget has been shrinking over the years, now might be a good time to reallocate your ad dollars.

An oxymoron? Perhaps. In this case, I think you'll find these statistics truly are interesting.

DoubleClick recently concluded its sixth annual consumer e-mail study. Survey says:

* There's an overall decline in concern regarding spam
* There's an overall increase in anxiety regarding viruses and fraud
* 57% view work e-mail at work occasionally
* 55% check work e-mails at home (evenings)
* 54% check work e-mails at home (weekends)
* 48% check personal e-mails at least occasionally from work
* 74% will most likely respond to an e-mail from a company or brand they know and trust
* 78% have made purchases as a result of an e-mail
* 59% have redeemed an e-mail coupon in a store
* 33% have clicked on an e-mail and made an immediate purchase
* 33% have clicked on an e-mail for information and returned later to make a purchase
* Nearly 50% have at least three e-mail accounts
* 95% consider one e-mail account to be their primary one
* 72% use only their primary account for purchases
* On average consumers maintain an e-mail address for four to six years

If you're still not sure whether this e-mail marketing thing is here to stay, consider this: The global online advertising market is projected to grow at a 25% rate to $65 billion by the year 2010. Current online ad spending makes up 4.7% of all ad dollars spent. By 2010, online projected ad dollars spent will make up 11.1% of total ad dollars spent. Happy Holidays!

By now most people have heard that NBA Commissioner David Stern recently instituted a league-wide dress code in hopes of improving the NBA's somewhat tarnished image.

The new dress code states that players will be expected to wear business casual attire whenever they participate in team or league activities, including arriving at games, leaving games, conducting interviews and making promotional or other appearances.

A by-product of this new dress code could be a boon for some of the more savvy clothing retailers out there. Yes, what was once territory mainly tread by the likes of Nike, Adidas and Reebok, is now being tested by the likes of Valentino, Joseph Abboud and Dockers.

A trailblazer in the fashion clothing industry, Joseph Abboud has been supplying Stephon Marbury of the New York Knicks with suits well before the league-wide dress code was introduced. Their list of NBA stars promoting their styles is sure to grow.

Although clothes don't make the man, it's my hope that at least the league's image improves with this change. If it does improve, these clothing retailers could really benefit from the exposure.

In the meantime, keep an eye out for NBA players sporting the latest threads on TV and in print ads and decide for yourself whether this new marketing avenue is paved with gold or just a dead-end street.

U.S. automakers threw a wild party for car buyers last summer in the form of "Employee Pricing" discounts. Word out today, it's the automakers who are dealing with the hangover.

In a blog article from August 2, 2005, "The Insider's Deal" http://www.ovationblog.com/2005/08/02/The_Insider's_Deal.htm , I wrote how after implementing "Employee Pricing" June '05 sales for General Motors soared 41% above sales numbers from the previous year.

Today's report show GM's sales for the month of October are down nearly 26%.

Some industry experts predicted this employee pricing hangover, but recent high gas prices could be a contributing factor to the decline. SUV and truck sales were hardest hit.

Regardless, GM has developed a new strategy they hope will cure their hangover.

Instead of rebates and incentives, vehicle sticker prices will be closer to actual selling prices. This new strategy is no quick fix, but given time, could retrain buyers who might normally wait for the hard to pass up rebates and incentives.

But will this new strategy last? Kevin Tynan, an analyst with Argus Research, thinks GM may be tempted to abandon this strategy come December. In the car biz, December is traditionally a month of year-end discounts and blow-out prices.

Two cures for the hangover. Be patient and suffer short term, or take a little of the hair of the dog that bit you. A difficult choice.

Yes, it's possible. Not only will the Littleton, MA, police and fire departments be there to protect, their vehicles could be there to serve as advertising for businesses wanting to sponsor the vehicle.

A November 8th town meeting vote will decide whether this plan will come to fruition.

The proposal is to help fund essential department vehicles the town doesn't have a budget for.

The proposal has plans outlined for three levels of sponsorship. Full sponsorships are $12,000 per year. Other levels are $8,000 and $4,000 per year. Sponsorships are for three year terms. Advertising will be limited to rear trunk and rear fender areas of the selected vehicles.

Seems like a win/win proposal for all parties involved. The police and fire departments get the vehicles they need to protect their citizens, and the sponsors get a little advertising and good will in the community.

We'll keep you posted on the results of the town meeting vote.

The full story
http://www2.townonline.com/littleton/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=344007

Maybe I'm the last person on earth to learn this…Google doesn't advertise to promote the Google brand or its services.

Yet their name is everywhere.

According to the New York Times (web address), Google is buying full-page ad space in specialized publications like PC Magazine and Maximum PC and selling blocks of that space to different companies that do business with them at Google.com. The tagline at the bottom of the page…"Ads by Google".

I'm beginning to see the parallels between what Google does online with what they're trying to do in print publications:

Magazine is like the Web
Magazine Ad Page is like the Google Search Site
Search Results on Google.com are like Ads on the Google Magazine Ad Page

Same strategy, different media.

One advertiser on the Google magazine ad "jumped" at Google's offer to be on the ad page. "It's almost like Coca-Cola calling and saying they want to put you on the back of the bottle."

The advertiser was also able to place an ad in the magazine for less and at a size the magazine usually doesn't accommodate.

Hmm. An economical way to get your brand out to the masses and also attach it to a name with tremendous brand recognition.

Although Google claims this new strategy is just in the "test" phase, Google executives see their business expanding to other media.

Now, when I see the Google logo everywhere in print, I'll know why.

Imagine walking by a billboard--seconds later your cell phone starts ringing. It's a text message asking if you'd like to watch a video-clip ad touting the very same product shown on the billboard you just passed.

Strange coincidence or clever advertising strategy? Well, it's certainly not a strange coincidence.

It's happening in England to Bluetooth-equipped cell phone users.

A London billboard company and a firm specializing in transmitter technology are working together to make this happen.Transmitters are attached to select billboards and can send signals to cell phones within 100 yards.

Reaction to this type of advertising is mixed, although during a recent two-week test, the billboard/transmitter combo text messaged 87,000 phones and 13,000 people agreed to download the ad clip. That's a 15% response rate. Pretty heady numbers by advertising standards.

With cell phones increasing in popularity with the younger set, advertisers are able to reach out to an age demographic that is difficult to reach by more traditional advertising means.

Time will tell if this advertising makes it across the pond. In the meantime, if you happen to be at Heathrow Airport walking by a Range Rover billboard, don't be surprised if your cell phone starts ringing.

I grew up in a GM town. That's General Motors. I knew of the great pay, great retirement, great health benefits…the list went on and on.

As friends graduated from college and got their first jobs, the first thing most did was buy a new car. That's when I became aware of another great benefit. The "Insider's Deal". Friends whose parent(s) worked at GM used their GM Employee Discount to get a deal on their first car.

I, on the other hand, always felt like I was paying too much for a car.

Well, not anymore.

General Motors and now Ford and Chrysler have rolled out versions of Employee Discount Pricing.

Every year car manufacturers offer deals and incentives to clear the lots of current models to make room for next years models.

This year's no different. However, with GM's Employee Discount Pricing, June '05 sales have increased 41% over June '04 according to recent reports. Those numbers alone tell me that Employee Discount Pricing is a great marketing concept.

I'll take the "Insider's Deal".

Product placement in television and the movies is nothing new. Off the top of my head I can remember Reeses Pieces getting a big boost from their big screen debut on E.T. The Extraterrestrial in 1982. The mention of Snapple and numerous other products on Seinfeld also comes to mind.

Well, hold on to your hat, because product placement has finally made it…to Broadway.

In an article by the New York Times columinsit Stuart Elliott, On Broadway, Ads Now Get to Play Cameo Roles, he talks of how in the revival of Neil Simon's 1966 Broadway musical "Sweet Charity" the line "A double scotch, again, sir?" is replaced with the line, "Gran Centenaro, the tequila?"

And it goes beyond just the mention of Gran Centenaro, the tequila.

Two drinks created to help promote the show are available in the lobby of the theater and in bars nearby as well as sponsorship of cast parties. Crates with the Gran Centenaro logo are also used as props in the play.

Admittedly, the product placement/plug on this Broadway musical is narrowly targeted, but so is advertising on video games, mobile phones, the web and podcasting. If it reaches the intended audience, it's worth it.

And if Neil Simon's OK with it, all the better.

What are the most important amenities you look for when staying overnight at a hotel?

On-premise fitness facilities? Yes.
Decent restaurant nearby? Yes.
Swimming Pool? Ok.
A good night's rest? Absolutely.

Nothing can be worse than getting to your hotel, dead tired, only to find your bed is rock-hard or lumpy. You toss and turn all night checking the clock every 1/2 hour or 45 minutes desperately hoping the next time you check the clock it's 5 hours later.

Some hotels have addressed this issue in the past. Westin Hotels, for example, has been promoting what they call their "Heavenly Beds" for a few years now. Other hotel chains such as Hilton and Marriot are beginning to upgrade their beds too.

Radisson Hotels has just announced a 20 million dollar media campaign that promotes the placement of Select Comfort "Sleep Number" beds into all of its North American and Caribbean hotels. Radisson's largest ever ad campaign will include television and print advertising. Radisson will also promote the Sleep Number beds to its loyalty program members, at the hotels on key card packets and will also include a discount coupon on the future purchase of a Sleep Number bed. An interesting twist on the "try-it-before-you-buy-it" concept.

Select Comfort is publicizing this new venture with print and electronic communications to its 3.5 million bed owners further establishing loyalty.

Looks like a win/win scenario for both of these companies.

Now, instead of waking up every 45 minutes, you'll have to figure out how to set the alarm on those cheap clock radios.>

So, you thought listening to a flight attendant go on and on about using the seat cushion as a flotation device on a flight from Minneapolis to St. Louis was bad enough, we now get to listen to them pitch products.

According to a report in the Washington Post, during a recent Alaska Airlines flight, passengers were told to remain buckled and seated for the last 30 minutes before landing at Reagan National Airport. After all, it's a standard security measure for flights heading into restricted airspace over Washington.

It also turned a planeful of passengers into captive customers who were then pitched a Bank of America Visa card -- with little chance of tuning it out. Over the intercom, a flight attendant encouraged passengers to sign up for the Bank of America credit card. Then other flight attendants went down the aisle handing out applications."

Well, maybe you can drown out that sales pitch by eating your complimentary bag of pretzels. Think again.

OK, I admit it. I'm hooked on the show "The Apprentice." From the hair, to the catchphrase, to watching the contestants and their ideas crash and burn, I find it all quite fascinating.

Seeing which companies are going to hitch their wagons to "The Donald" and whether their product, marketing plan and execution is going to succeed is equally fascinating.

Pontiac not only hit a homerun with a stunningly beautiful new addition to their product lineup, the Solstice, but it appears the kickoff of their marketing campaign during the Apprentice was a masterstroke as well.

1,000 specially badged "Apprentice" edition Pontiac Solstices sold out via the Pontiac website within 41 minutes of airing the 60-second commercial. Another 4,000 customers have been put on a waiting list for one of these exclusive roadsters.

Other "spiffs" included in the Apprentice Edition Solstice for the lucky 1,000 are:

Special VIN sequencing from 1 to 1,000
Exclusive IP trim badge
Certificate of authenticity
Solstice 1:18 scale model die-cast car

With a beautifully conceived roadster, a well executed ad campaign and an innovative way to close the sale (no salesmen!)...everybody's a winner.

Oh, except Net Worth Corp - their poorly conceived Solstice brochure crashed and burned.

Last week's "The Apprentice" unwittingly showcased two different ways you can get your product/brand to the masses.

First you have Domino's, who chose to go the spendy route with a whole show based around their brand and Trump's apprentices creating and selling a meatball pizza. Domino's also hired Donald Trump to do a 30- second spot to air during the program to promote their new "American Classic Cheeseburger Pizza."

Then you have Papa John's, who no doubt spent less with a guerrilla campaign that very well may have outdone Domino's efforts. The people at Papa John's noticed, a week prior to "The Apprentice" airing, a press release from Domino's announcing its participation in the show. They quickly crafted a new product launch commercial with an "Apprentice" theme and purchased airtime in 64 local markets to air during "The Apprentice." The new product launch…a meatball pizza!

The folks at Papa John's admit they were shocked the show happened to be based around a pizza similar to the one they had been developing for some time.

You have to admire Papa John's for thinking and executing their plan quickly. They were also very fortunate their product tied in perfectly with the show. The way the whole thing played out, it made Domino's look like an apprentice and Papa John's the real winner.

Customers of a German supermarket chain will soon be able to pay for their shopping by placing their finger on a scanner at the check-out, saving up to 40 seconds spent scrabbling for coins or cards, bosses say.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7180309/