blog.endai.com

Marketing Briefs: Why Search for B2B Companies?

2012-05-14T15:53:00Z

If you're not on the first page of Google for the keywords that customers are using to find you, you're losing 90% of searchers. Plain and simple. According to data released by online advertising network Chitika, 34% of searchers click the first result. That's almost four times the total of every result from page two and beyond.

But even being at the top spot in Google isn't enough: converting website traffic to opportunities and nurturing opportunities into sales closes the loop and increases revenue and profitability. Are your keywords searched by people early or late into the buying cycle? Are you targeting terms that appeal to decision makers or low-level researchers? Is there enough interest in a particular keyword to make ranking worthwhile? The answers to these questions are integral in getting the most out of your search marketing efforts.

Marketing Briefs: The Value of Google Positioning

2012-05-04T18:36:00Z

Everyone's talking about search, but how much is that top spot really worth to your business? According to a McKinsey and Co. study, it's worth quite a bit. In fact, they found that most B2B companies get an ROI of 7:1 - and larger companies fare even better with a 17:1 ROI when they're invested in search technology across the enterprise. Does your sales team get numbers that good?

ROI from search doesn't stop there, though. Capitalizing on search traffic requires more than just climbing to the top of Google. It's about converting website traffic into sales opportunities, and then nurturing those opportunities to increase the probability of a sale.

Marketing Briefs: B2B Buyers Use Search

2012-04-27T18:10:18Z

Why is search so important? 70% of all B2B buyers start their buying process with search. And 80% of B2B buyers reported that they initiated the sales process- with many of them entering the sales funnel through search.

More importantly, companies need to have a scalable, low cost process for moving prospective buyers from their website into a high probability sales cycle. So not only is it more cost-effective to focus on inbound sales channels, more and more it's simply becoming more effective, period.

Increase Engagement Effectively with Rich Ads in Search

2012-04-06T14:00:08Z

Leverage your brand name with Yahoo's Rich Ads in Search (RAIS) served on both Search.Yahoo.com and Bing.com. Currently, RAIS are only available using exact match, exclusively for brand terms. These ads appear in the first position only at the top of the SERP above organic search results so you can take full advantage of the available real estate. Rich ads displace the standard text ads on the right, meaning, since the rich ad is the only ad displaying in mainline position, all other ads that would normally show up in mainline position would move to right rail placement. What's more, Google currently does not have a similar offering to own the space above organic search.

Rich ad campaigns are also managed in AdCenter with the rest of your paid search campaigns. They offer a variety of features including additional links, images, videos, icons, form fields and product information, all which can be used to further enhance your ad and increase engagement with your brand. Additionally, multiple ad formats are available, including links and image, form and image (useful to submit a zip code to target by geographic location), links and video, form and video, and even a unique pharmaceutical format in which there is no image option. Another benefit to using the form field is the ability to create customized landing pages targeted to specific locations, such as a store or location in that area, based on a specified data field entered by a user, and the ability to collect data about users.

So far, rich ads in search average a click-through-rate (CTR) of 30-35%, which is 40-50% higher when compared to a standard text ad. If the ad is compelling enough, the cost-per-click (CPC) may actually be cheaper than the text ad. Ultimately, the CPC is based on the marketplace and the quality of the ad. It is also important to remember that text ads and rich ads in search are bid on separately.

Below are two case studies that exemplify the possibilities of RAIS and the success they have had for Rosetta Stone and GNC.

Case Studies
- Rosetta Stone experienced a 400% CTR improvement over the company's previous best-performing campaign. This was a higher return than any other channel the company used.
- GNC successfully achieved a 700% increase in CTR for the brand, as CTR soared to 40%.

Rich Ads in Search with video thumbnail:

Rich Ads in Search when a video is clicked:

The Benefits of Using Cross-Domain Tracking in Google Analytics

2012-04-03T17:29:21Z

One of the strengths of Google Analytics, besides its intuitiveness and powerful reporting, is the ability to deploy and go right out of the box for most applications. Unfortunately, the important qualifier there is most, and in some specific circumstances the code needs to be modified in order to fit a particular implementation or the reporting needs of an organization.

One such circumstance is cross-domain tracking, and while the actual implementation is not technically complicated, knowing that a need for it exists can evade many organizations with a standard Google Analytics setup.

First, though, it's important to understand what cross-domain tracking is and why it's important.

Because of the nature of the internet, a typical analytics implementation can only track one top-level domain at a time. Largely, this is due to a number of fail-safes built into the framework of the internet, as well as Google's own fail-safes, and is meant to prevent code on your domain from interfering with the functioning of another person's or company's' domain.

However, with cross-domain tracking and some slight modifications to the way your properties interact, it's possible to count visitors across all domains from a single dashboard, as well as preserve continuity in visitors who might hop from domain to domain.

Who should use cross-domain tracking?

Companies With Multiple Branded Pages: A strong candidate for CDT would be a company that operated multiple brands but wanted a unified analytics reporting solution. Tracking visits to multiple brands in one place can reap large savings for some organizations simply by combining analytics duties across brands and eliminating redundancies. More interestingly, though, companies can more easily and effectively compare domain performance and the impact of things like pricing, design, and navigation. These kinds of insights are incredibly valuable to companies.

With e-commerce sales set to grow 10% annually over the next 5 years, the ability to use cross-domain information to raise conversions by even a few percentage points can result in large dividends. Just the ability to quickly and easily compare inbound organic keywords to prevent brands from unintentionally competing and stealing traffic from each other, or vice versa to make sure multiple brands are able to crowd competitors out of search results, can be worth millions to a company.

Third-Party Shopping Carts: Another commonly-presented example are e-commerce sites that use third-party shopping carts. Without a good cross domain tracking implementation, there would be no unification of data and visits to the cart would be counted as entirely separate from visits to the store itself.

Information collected in the shopping cart domain, for instance, would not contain the keywords and traffic sources for visitors who completed a transaction, but would instead be reported as being referral traffic from your store page. Likewise, it would be difficult or impossible to track variables like time spent on site, or which sections of your website led to higher conversions and goal completions.

Separating Site Sections: Another incredibly powerful, but underutilized, use for CDT is the ability to create sub-sections, or zones, on your website that can be tracked as separate entities from one report. A great example of this is an e-commerce fashion site with multiple clothing lines. By treating each catalog as a separate unit, they can more effectively see how users are interacting with their products, and by using CDT, they can do it for every clothing line from one place.

Whichever case fits your situation, the more granularly you can track customer movement across your various domains, the more you can learn about their behaviors, their motivation, and the opportunities they present for your business to grow.

Client Spotlight: Midmark

2012-04-03T17:17:41Z

Many times it can be difficult to estimate the benefits of using search, analytics, and email for B2B businesses. Surely high ticket items that range into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and have long sales cycles don't have a process that begins online. Or do they?

Many B2B companies are surprised at the amount of search volume that comes in each month, stemming from the research that prospective buyers are initiating online. Search doesn't have a price cut-off, and the opportunities that result from these search queries can make a huge impact on a company's bottom line.

Just ask Midmark. The healthcare manufacturing company saw such an opportunity in early 2011 when they hired Endai to help generate and nurture leads through Endai's proprietary methodology, Playbook, which utilizes search, analytics, and email to find and guide prospects seamlessly through the buying cycle.

Midmark is a well-known brand with a strong brand identity, but they saw online as a way to connect with their customers in a more meaningful way, all the while generating new leads for the company and leading them into the beginning of the sales funnel in a way that was both cost effective and time efficient. In addition, they wanted to make it easier for potential customers to browse through product lines and receive helpful information on product lines that can be more complex than most.

While on the surface, it would seem that many B2B buyers making large purchasing decisions would want to speak with a sales rep one-on-one, the massive change in the way customers initiate the purchasing process has turned that method of thinking on its head. Even B2B customers who plan on making large, strategic purchases begin their research on search engines.

Email provided the most ideal way for Midmark to engage with potential customers by giving them specific product information while encouraging them to set up a meeting with their designated sales rep to move the sale into the next phase of the funnel. This move allowed Midmark to automate the initial steps of their sales funnel (which can be time consuming) and allowed their sales team to focus their time and energy on highly qualified leads, closing deals and generating revenue.

According to eMarketing Manager, Kevin Hallum, the biggest benefit they've seen is having hard data to base decisions on, rather than guessing or using self-reported data. "Now that we have visibility from search to closed revenue in the pipeline, we can make more informed decisions on where to invest marketing dollars."

"In the first year, we were very surprised. We have a huge market share and we needed to know that a) customers were finding us online, and b) that we took the right steps to build a relationship with them. The folks at Endai have really provided a focus on tying the effort to strategic business goals, rather than trying to randomly optimize things and that's been the key for us, is terms of seeing value out of it."

Email Segmentation: Increasing Conversions Through Highly Targeted Messaging

2012-04-03T17:11:16Z

Un-targeted email campaigns end up costing more than 3.6 times the cost of a well-segmented and targeted campaign. This 2010 study by The Relevancy Group stated what Endai has known for a long time - highly segmented email campaigns produce significantly better results on a consistent basis than campaigns that lack proper segmentation and targeting.

No two subscribers are created equal

Email list subscribers fall into different categories when their behavior is analyzed. A prospect who is ready to buy doesn't need the same information as a lead who wants to learn more about your product. You wouldn't give the qualified and ready prospect more information about your product in a sales call, so why should you send them the same email content?

Segmentation is the process of sorting your email list into groups dictated by previous subscriber behaviors. A person who was repeatedly opened emails and clicked on links needs to be approached differently than someone who has never opened an email. Segmentation allows you to tailor your subject lines and content for each segment, so that your outreach is relevant to each subscriber's interests.

It's the difference between standing on a corner and waving to everyone you see and greeting people by name.

Why does Segmentation Matter?

In a time when an email inbox is a prime piece of real estate and people are increasingly bombarded with emails, it's never been more important to stand out from the noise and provide subscribers with information that's helpful and - most importantly - wanted. Without the use of segmentation, emails become another piece of generic content that may or may not be of use to the subscriber. And once content ceases to be useful, it's no longer an effective sales tool.

More telling, a 2009 Marketing Sherpa study found that segmented email campaigns got 30% more opens and 50% higher click through rates than their counterparts that had undifferentiated messaging.

Getting Started

For a company that hasn't made the foray into segmentation, getting started can seem like a monumental task. However, there are a few easy tips that can help any organization take the first steps in creating a more effective and higher producing email campaign.

Analyze Past Campaign Data. An easy place to start segmenting is to look at past campaign data to find out which subscribers have historically opened emails and clicked on links. Moving individual subscribers into three defined segments (those who don't engage; those who open, but don't click; and those who click on links) can help companies better target their communications.

Utilize Click Behavior. Sending out a test email with very specific links can help companies determine where a subscriber stands in the buying cycle. For instance, a subscriber who clicks a "buy now" link is further along in the process than someone who clicks on a link to learn more about a product.

Offer Opt-Ins to Segmented Lists. A simple way to segment subscribers is to offer them the opportunity to opt-in to already segmented lists. Someone who gets general company information may want to be on an email list for a specific product line. Send out an email with links to opt-in pages for specific lists and let subscribers choose the information that they want to receive.

A properly segmented email list can improve conversions, drive customer retention, and increase bottom line revenues.

Optimizing Your Landing Pages

2012-04-02T15:52:23Z

Landing pages are a visitor's 'first impression', much like a handshake, so, make it a good one. Offer value and be engaging. However, consumer expectations change. Consequently, it's important your landing pages meet their expectations and evolve according to what they expect. For example, you may consider landing pages to offer a different experience for visitors that are coming to your site for the second or third time, and offer 'mobile-ready' functionality. With the advent of mobile, QR codes may be a good option to bridge the gap between on and offline. These create a great opportunity for 'on-the-go' visitors allowing them to take action at a later time; plus, you can track and optimize them, and they're easy to use. This is also a good way to catch some mobile traffic when you don't already have a lot of mobile traffic coming to your page.

Here are just a few top considerations to include in your landing page optimization plan:

Relevance
Simply put, the more relevance the higher the probability of visitors converting. This can be optimized by location--make a localized version based on geo-location or even browser language. Localized content is a great way to connect with visitors. The more your landing pages speak to users' keywords, the more targeted and relevant the information. This increases specificity and potentially conversions.

Provide a Customized Experience
Landing pages must be relevant. One way this can be achieved is by creating a simple multi-step form in which the screen your visitor sees next varies on their answer to the multi-step form they just completed. With this, the copy and applicable pictures on your site are tailored to each specific visitor's information they input, tailored to their data. At this point, the visitor sees their relevant information, increasing the odds of conversion as relevancy has just increased.

Create a Path to Conversion
Forms are a great way to collect data, but don't make it a hassle for visitors to the point where your bounce rate is through the roof. Break up the form into multiple pages so the hurdle is low, enabling visitors to quickly take action by completing 1 to 2 fields. If visitors proceed and are lead to a second page of the form, you can include more fields as the visitor has shown interest and each progressive step is more relevant. This prevents users from feeling overwhelmed, and multi-page forms are very effective. If you are a business with various locations, have the second form page be customized to each specific branch location.

Social Media Integration
There is a lot of power in social--use it. The first step is to add social elements to your page including share, 'like' and '+1' buttons, among others. Fans and videos provide social proof--provide visitors several outlets to interact with you in many ways. Create landing pages for your social pages. Take this a step further and ask someone to share after they convert. The one pitfall is if everything is not talking to each other. It's important to integrate across everything you're doing, including your keyword landing pages, email landing pages, Linkedin landing pages, etc.--not just your PPC landing pages.

Results Driven Data
Data leads to actionable insights. You want to know the total number of visitors to your landing pages, bounce rates, flow of traffic and who/how many visitors converted. Dig deeper to find out the who, the what and the how. What are your visitors doing? Does a certain page have a high bounce rate? Were conversions higher last month? Tagging must be done in order to find out this information and track visitors' engagement on your site. For example, if you see a certain page on your site has a high bounce rate, then the conversion rate must be low--dig deeper to see how this can be improved.

Google Analytics: Updates to Interface

2012-02-28T22:59:26Z

Over the past few days, you may have noticed that the Google Analytics interface looks slightly different. This past week, the team at Google made two rounds of updates. Below is a quick summary of those updates.

Speeding Up Reporting

Since the switch to the new version of GA, some of you may have noticed that reports were taking longer to load than in the old interface. They've made some updates to correct this:

1) Report Loading Progress

2) Sampling Adjustments

Improved Navigation

1) Icons in left navigation

2) Report Refresh Link

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, Endai specializes in configuring, managing and analyzing the data you need to get the most out of your website. If you have any Google Analytics issues that need solving, please contact us using the form on the right.

Search Meets Social

2012-02-25T05:28:07Z

Next time you're logged into Facebook or Google+, do a search and see if you notice anything different. Your friends may be recommending great restaurants to eat at, commenting on an interesting article, or even sharing YouTube videos of your favorite song. If you really want to know what your friends are sharing on Google+, log into your Google+ account, do a search, and if any of your friends have shared or +1'ed a related search result, you can search within just your friends' recommendations by clicking on "personal results..." at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Social recommendations are having a huge impact on SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Social visibility is having an even greater impact. Engagement, sharing, likes and comments are showing on the SERP. The greater the visibility, the more potential followers, which leads to more potential engagement and SEO value. Now, your ranking on the SERP is partially dependent on your social media impact and influence, and currently makes up one of more than 200 factors of Google's algorithm (including Google+, Facebook and Twitter). In an increasingly technologically dependent world, this is one way personalization is making a comeback--through personalized search results. So the question is, what are some tactics to improve your social media influence to improve your SEO?

Facebook

Be sure to complete all your profile information and use keywords anywhere it makes sense, which will layer in SEO value. It's also important to include links back to the site on your Facebook profile.
Claim your brand name as part of your Facebook URL. This will uniquely tie together your Facebook brand with your profile leading to greater visibility, brand consistency and will also raise your search engine ranking.
Always include 'Like' and share buttons on your site to encourage responses, engagement and to seek participation. You want to encourage engagement across your entire site, not just the homepage.

Twitter

Remember, it's not about the number of Followers or number you're Following--it's about engaging in conversation with your followers
It's important to follow leaders and influencers of your brand, as these are the mavens, those that talk about your brand and spread the good word
Again, social media is a two-way street--re-Tweet valuable content. You need to give to get. Your followers will appreciate this as well. Show them you're listening.

Google+

Protect your brand name by making sure you've claimed it so you can own what's happening as a result
Images and videos are getting more real estate in search--emphasize sharing these in addition to keyword-rich posts
Bring value to the conversation--most Google+ users are seeking information and use this social media tool differently than Facebook. Give users what they want
Include the Google+ button on every page throughout your site to connect to customers, increase awareness and get viral growth--tap into the 90 million users that are currently using Google+. The Google+ buttons should be as ubiquitous as the 'Like' and 'Follow' buttons.

When it comes to social media and SEO, it's about meaningful and relevant content, and sharing this content across your audiences. Leverage social visibility to boost SEO through social insights and viral techniques. Regardless of which social media platform you choose to use, always shoot for quality first. The more they're engaged with you the more you are on top of mind. Link your content between Google+, Facebook and Twitter--promote interaction across channels and engagement will soar and so will your search ranking. However, be mindful of linking things appropriately and customizing messages across the various social media platforms for your audience because each platform has different audiences.

Here's a quick summary:

Drive follower growth
Segment with Google+ circles & Facebook Lists
Understand your audience
Differentiate content
Drive engagement

10 Tips to a Better Email List

2012-02-21T08:24:08Z

Commercial email beats out the next closest online marketing competitor by 100%. According to a report from the Direct Marketing Association, email boasts a return of $40.65 for every dollar spent, leaving it as the highest ROI form of marketing communication available to business.

In order to reap returns that high, companies need to have a strong and engaged subscriber list, with a proven record of being receptive to your message. After over a decade in email marketing, Endai has narrowed down the secrets of list-building to 10 points.

1. Always Opt-In: Never subscribe people without prior permission. Even giving a clear opt-out mechanism will not save you from spam reports, unsubscribes.

2. Allow Customers to Connect: Tie email subscriptions in with other conversion points to allow customers who already like your products to connect via email. For example, offer email subscription as part of the checkout process.

3. Don't Make Subscribing an Afterthought on Your Website: We notice a lot of companies ignoring their mailing list sign-up on their websites. Don't throw it in as an afterthought. Plan your subscription funnel with the same rigor that you plan your sales funnel.

4. Cross-reference Email Content with Other Channels: If you have a popular blog, Facebook page, or Twitter stream, mention content found in your newsletter and link to it with an invitation to subscribe. A simple link and invitation can introduce a large and untapped audience to your mailing list.

5. Give Something to Get Something: An email address is inherently valuable, and your customers recognize this fact. Bartering something of value to your customers is a great incentive for them to volunteer their contact information.

6. Don't Give Too Much: You want every person signed up to your list to be engaged with your company, not simply with a promotion you're running. If the only reason they signed up was to receive a gift, they probably won't stick around. Your gift should be just valuable enough to counteract the cost of subscription; not act as a primary motive.

7. Actively Monitor Your Mailing List: A subscription should not be the last step in your email marketing plan. Monitor the way your list behaves, and use that data to modify your content strategy.

8. Analyze, Test, Modify: Your email strategy should be a constant cycle of analysis based on past behaviors, testing multiple options, and modifying future emails based on results.

9. Segment on Behavior, not Self-Reported Demographics: Segmenting your list is critical. Make sure that you are segmenting customers based on their interaction with your content, not on preconceived notions of how demographics should behave.

10. Be Clear and Consistent: Make sure that every single subscriber on your list is aware of when and how often you send emails, and make the purpose of each email clear. A lack of consistency in timing or messaging can serve to scare away subscribers and drastically increase your spam report rate.

A good email list can be an incredible asset to a company, while a poor one can be useless at best and a liability at worst. By following our ten simple points, you can watch the effectiveness and ROI of your email list grow dramatically, along with your bottom line.

B2B Conversion Optimization: Small Steps to Big Growth

2012-02-21T07:58:03Z

Hundreds of millions of dollars in sales are lost every year due to poor website usability. According to eConsultancy, companies estimate that they lose 24% of their annual online revenue due to a bad website experience. Further, they state that companies have very little understanding of what is happening at the bottom of the sales funnel, near the point of conversion.

Given that 70% of B2B purchases start with search, these companies have even more reason to make sure that website visitor flow is simple and creates no barriers to conversion.

What is B2B Website Conversion Optimization?

B2B website conversion optimization is the process of using data to understand how visitors interact with a website, and then creating marketing experiments to drive more visitors to take actions of economic value.

Using Data to Find Actionable Insights for Improvement

Endai uses a process of analysis, experimentation, and measurement to optimize websites for better conversions. The first part of this process can be summed up in one word: data. Without strong analytics to parse for a broad picture of where visitors are falling off your website, it's impossible to create changes for improvement.

Step one in understanding where problems lie is pinpointing bottlenecks in your current conversion process. This is done by analyzing data from Google Analytics and drawing conclusions from past visitor data. Endai processes thousands of visits to get an understanding for where the roadblocks to goal completion occur.

The second step in website conversion optimization is to take the conclusions drawn and design experiments based on the conversion barriers uncovered in step one.

For instance, healthcare manufacturing giant Midmark grew online form submissions by 600% after Endai identified a roadblock in their visitor flow. The small change of moving the location of the online submission form, and subsequently removing two steps in the conversion funnel, drastically increased the effectiveness of their process without having to undertake a large website redesign.

Similarly, after identifying that a submission form was too lengthy for our client STERIS Isomedix, Endai modified the form and increased submissions by 17%. This small change is expected to bring an additional $77,000 in revenue within the first year.

The final step in optimizing for conversions is to measure the effectiveness of the changes made. Endai continues to monitor user behavior and quantifies any improvements seen as a result of our experimentation.

The conversion optimization process isn't a one-time step - it's a constant process that seeks to incrementally increase the usability and effectiveness of your online presence. As soon as we're done with step three, we go right back up to step one in order to identify any new issues that have arisen, or to find other areas for improvement. By taking incremental steps based on actual data, we eliminate much of the uncertainty and economic risk of investing in unproven strategies, and provide a clear return at every step of the process.

Put simply, Endai's B2B website conversion optimization process is a more cost-effective, bottom-line friendly way to make sure that your website is working as hard as your sales team at growing revenue.

Measuring Customer and Prospect Intent Before You Invest in Time and Resources

2012-02-19T18:33:18Z

80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers - a rule that should be familiar to any B2B executive. While its importance isn't in dispute by anyone, finding the 20% and optimizing your sales funnel to focus on them can be difficult. Especially when trying to identify which of your prospects might join that 20% in the future.

Identifying Big Purchasers Before the Purchase
Oftentimes it is critical to identify prospects who may turn into large buyers before they have purchased a single item or service. So the question becomes: how do you find and target the 20%?

Endai's solution is the Email Engement Score. The Email Engagement Score is a method to quantitatively track and prioritize sales efforts to target the most engaged and receptive prospects, allowing you to segment your list by behavior instead of less predictive methods like demographics and self-reported data.

How Does The Email Engagement Score Work?
The Email Engagement Score is generated by aggregating user actions and assigning a value to certain behaviors. For example, opening an email is an action that represents interest in your company or product. Clicking on a link within the email is an even stronger signal of interest, or engagement.

By assigning meaningful values to actions and analyzing individual behaviors and responses to your email marketing campaigns, your sales team can get a significantly better understanding of where to focus further outreach. You can also segment your mailing list by behavior instead of metrics with traditionally poor predictive rates such as company size, job title, or annual revenues.

Why Segment Lists By Behavior?
The Relevancy Group, in a report published October 2010, points out that untargeted or poorly targeted email campaigns cost as much as 3.6 times more than similar well-targeted and highly focused campaigns. Since few predictive mechanisms are nearly as accurate at gauging subscriber interest or commercial intent as well as behavioral analytics, incorporating the Email Engagement Score into your sales process and segmentation strategy is an invaluable way to bring down costs and boost the ROI of your outbound marketing efforts.

Besides direct ROI gains, a less often mentioned benefit of proper segmentation by user behavior is the strong competitive advantage this can confer to your marketing team. According to that same report, less than 40% of marketing teams currently employ behavior segmentation, giving those B2B companies that do a clear opportunity to reach leads with much more relevant and engaging information and content, and outmaneuvering competitors' efforts.

The Key Takeaways
As more companies jump completely on the outbound email marketing bandwagon, ROIs are naturally going to decrease. An influx of mail has consistently been shown to decrease open and click rates, as prospects become inundated with messages.

The solution to this loss of customer attention is to continue to build more and more focused email campaigns that place the right sales message in front of the right customer at the right time.

One of the strongest advantages of email marketing is it's ability to record and track recipient behavior, in order to identify what that right message is, who it should go to, and when. By paying attention to the Email Engagement Score, your marketing and sales team can 1) identify which customers represent the biggest potential revenue streams for your organization, the 20%, and 2) identify what kind of messaging those customers are most receptive to.

This allows you to cut through the daily email clutter and reduce your marketing overhead, boost your ROI from email, and ultimately grow revenue in an intelligent way based on quantitative, hard data instead of hunches.

The First Step to Social Media--Start Measuring!

2012-02-11T16:05:13Z

Social media refers to environments where people are interacting, communicating, sharing information and creating profiles. These may include, and are not limited to, social networks, blogs, social games and consumer commenting sites (reviewing and rating products).

Social Media measurement is increasingly important. First, marketers have high hopes for social media. Another reason is because measurement and budgeting for social media go hand in hand. ROI matters because proof of higher returns means continuing social media efforts. This way, marketers can have proof that what they are doing actually works--they want reassurance. The social aspect of social media is what makes it very rewarding, but with it comes risk. By tapping into information through customers, it can be difficult to keep tabs on a brand's health and reputation when it's constantly being talked about. You can only control and regulate social media to a certain point. According to a study by Forbes Insights and Weber Shandwick, 54% of a brand's reputation is attributed to online sociability today, and is expected to grow to 65% in the next 3 years.

Today, social media measurement is not widely utilized. We as marketers are still too reliant on metrics such as the number of Facebook 'Likes' or Twitter 'Followers'. Meanwhile, ROI questions still go unanswered. Sixty percent of marketers today use fan count as a success measurement in social media, and only 13% of US marketers found themselves to be 'very effective' at measuring social media campaigns, according to Chief Marketer. The key point is that we must move beyond the basics and look at metrics that focus on business value in order to move away from the stage of infancy.

The first steps involve the actual process of starting to measure. You can't assume it's impossible. Surprisingly, many marketers don't measure because they think it's far too complicated and they don't know where to start, including 39% of worldwide retailers that don't measure social media currently (Economist intelligence Unit). However, there is no silver bullet--there is no one, single metric that will provide you with a benchmark of success. The metrics that will matter the most are the ones that pertain to your specific company. These will vary among different industries and companies. Set clear goals and KPIs (key performance indicators) and begin measuring accordingly.

Here are a few steps you can take that will provide you with a solid starting point to being your journey of measuring social media:

Our brand has 38,072 Facebook 'Likes' and 42,689 Twitter Followers.

It's not the number of fans, it's what you do with them and what they do for you. Social media is reciprocal--it's a two-way street, a conversation. Therefore, it's important to know and understand who your brand followers are, including their demographics, what they say and how they help your brand. More importantly, it's crucial to find the influencers, the mavens--those who post often and write about your brand or company and have social impact. The more you understand your fans and brand followers, the more ways you can tap into them. From here, the next step involves increasing the number of contributors--those who write on your wall and talk about you. This is key in getting your name out there in a positive way.

A great example of how this was done well in the past is the case of the Ford Fiesta movement. In 2009, Ford wanted to roll-out the Fiesta. By giving out 100 of these cars to the most influential people they found, they were able to create online buzz and a strong online presence. What Ford wanted to answer was, 1) can buzz generate leads and 2) can online buzz help save them money. They took the time to do their research and found the influencers. Through these influencers, they built a community months before the vehicle even went on sale. Normally, they would have gone to a car show, spent a lot of money on media and would have sat back to watch sales rather than use social media as heavily as they did. This was a completely different approach--they went after the people rather than sitting back and waiting for results.

Go beyond brand metrics.

The more marketers can work towards understanding how social media impacts your business, the better. Don't just count the number of Facebook fans or the number of contributors--track them to the point of sale. Integrate and measure factors that are specifically important to your brand such as the number of leads, sales and revenue. Awareness and engagement are easy to measure, but social media can measure so much more. More online buzz correlated to incremental sales for Lay's brand according to a study; an ad campaign triggered online buzz which in turn caused a sales surge for Skinny Cow ice cream brand, according to a study conducted by Symphony IRI Group and Visible.

Integrate social analytics with marketing analytics.

Once you understand how online buzz relates to your overall marketing performance through social media analytics, you can effectively bridge the gap between measurement and budget. From here, determining your ROI is the next step and can lead to building future business.

Stay tuned for a forthcoming blog post on Search Meets Social.

Online Gift Card Sales: Operational and Marketing Considerations

2012-01-31T17:07:59Z

Online Gift card sales is expected grow at a rate of 29% annually to reach $5.8 billion* by 2014. While many business to consumer Brands offer Gift Cards, there are specific, and potentially profitable considerations to think about regarding online marketing.

It is important for retailers to have a gift card system that leverages the best practices for tracking, promotion and marketing functionality.

When developing a gift card site, we suggest the following:

Saving a Source ID with the order will enable you to analyze data at the order level.

For Example: Assigning a different Source ID to your Paid Search and Email campaigns will allow you to quantify the results of both programs separately. This will enable you to calculate Orders, Life Time Value, Average Order size, etc. by marketing channel.

Tracking search terms from Paid and Organic Search with each order enables you to optimize search based on sales (especially valuable for SEO generated sales).

For Example: Before you start an SEO program, you can see which search terms are generating orders and the size of those orders. Now, when you start your SEO program, you have a set of search terms that you know drive some level of results.

The site should be able to fire individual conversion pixels which will enable you to run an affiliate sales program with accurate performance metrics.

For Example: With individual conversion pixels you can run on multiple affiliate networks while ensuring that you are accurately tracking each.

Shipping confirmation emails should also include the Shippers Tracking URL. This reduces the call volume/expense associated with Customer Service.

Customers should be able to ship multiple Gift Cards to multiple addresses within one order.

Ensure that you have proper Fraud Protection from the Payment Gateway Provider.

The website should be able to accommodate multiple offers at the same time so that you can quickly test/optimize multiple offers. Don't plan on testing offers? Please read this first, or this.

To accommodate split tests, the site should automatically direct incoming traffic to the appropriate landing pages. This will allow you to ensure testing integrity on your marketing experiments.

When a visitor sees an expired offer, they should be redirected to a current offer. This improves the customer experience and provides an opportunity sell to this customer.

Abandoned orders should automatically be put into a "win back" email communication stream to increase sales. Read more about SitePreserver, a Shopping Cart Abandonment solution.

Having a gift card platform with these features and functionality will ensure that you are optimizing the experience for your customers and maximizing the yield on your investment.