JunctionGen

Internet Marketing Blog Conference

Wanted to give a plug for this blog conference as their email marketing design was great! So they deserve a cyber high five from someone like me who appreciates thoughtful creative design. The conference is being held to connect bloggers with advertisers. Also, check out this great blog story by one of the presenters at this conference. Too bad there is not a live stream available of this conference as I would be there. The site design for the conference is also fun. Great job guys!

Internet Marketing and Direct Response

Check out the Response magazine article I wrote on internet marketing and direct response - explains why the nature of internet advertising can work hand in glove with other direct response media types like TV, direct mail and others.

Vista's Dear Mr. Walling

Had to share this Seattle PI article. If you need a good laugh, this will do you just fine. Poor MS, as a Seattle native you have my loyal sympathies. Making the news for the lack of basic test plans is a sad story.

Email Marketing's Deliverability Mystery

So a good Agatha Christie mystery novel includes your basic story line, some simple mystery solving tools like an old fashioned typewriter and a magnifying glass. Not so with many of online marketing's evolving mysteries. Is email marketing deliverability going the way of the search engine marketing mystery? Are the deliverability rules the new mystery of online marketing?

Similiar to the Google algorhythms PPC managers struggle with, seems ISP email deliverability rules are becoming somewhat nebulous and hidden. There are the trusty guidelines on image vs text balance, meeting CANSPAM requirements, etc, yet ISP post masters are becoming a thing of the past to dig into the deeper questions, with email managers often find their way through campaign optimizing by the numbers alone. Your messages are hitting a spam folder based on the ISP's rules but the rules are mysterious. Sound familiar SEM? There are the tried and true email marketing best practices - stick to them with a twist and add some standards to your ISP vendor management. Here's more.

 

Mystery Solved:
Manage the deliverability you pay for very closely. Demand accurate matrixes of the actions being taken monthly on your behalf to monitor and proactively improve your deliverabilty. If clients demand this of their ISP's hopefully the AOLs and Hotmails of the world will eventually realize how crucial it is to publicize clearly what they are calling spam. If we send a consistent message of "we need quality and consistent disclosure", they may eventually listen. Are we not the same people paying the advertising dollars on their portals?

Images
The other continual struggle for email's growth is the ever increasing and aggressive email client trend towards images being turned off - now even as a default upon registration, by many free email services like Gmail and others. If you don't design for this you completely miss the attention of your audience as your email is a box of X's until they choose to view images. Makes sense, who wants to provide a free service and then pay to store millions of fancy HTML messages for consumers. Nevertheless this practice hurts the email marketer's efforts.

Mystery Solved:
Designing with no images in mind is a bender for designers. Writing with no image to play off of is a bender for writers. But you have to do this. You have to design with the images off and on in mind.  Make sure your tests include looking at the messages in both modes images on and off - it's awkward at first to "design" to the no image view, but you can't avoid this - your results are the reward of transitioning to this approach.

Opened or Not?
Open rates are fading as a true measurement of consumer due to many email client's auto open functionality. (preview pane sound familiar?) When emails are auto opened by email clients the open rate is no longer a true measurement of consumer interest.What's a marketer to do?

Mystery Solved:
Refocus your analysis on clicks, form field patterns and the appearance of that beloved Thank You page. Nail down those measurements with any solid web metrics tool - know what the openers are doing once on the email page and your form. Where are the drop outs? Where is the content that no one is reading or responding to? When it comes to content optimizing, don't be too attached to your online brand as you know it today. Be willing to bend towards consumer response and your true market demand for the information then need to make the decision to buy your great product.

With some fresh strategy and consistent approach to these issues, the core mysteries will continue to surface and will become increasingly visible to the industry partners we need at the table - like Microsoft, AOL, Earthlink and others. In the mean time, solving these mysteries this keeps us all out of trouble - busy pioneering this great new media type called the internet. Agatha would be so proud.

Ad Sales Down, Internet Up

Thanks to all you junctiongen blog readers who stayed faithful to the cause during my hiatus. Typical business owner here trying to stay on top of multiple priorities while the social media world explodes without me, or so it seems. I believe in this stuff, it's scary when your own blog falls behind. Anyway, I'm back, nice to see you again.

Here is an online media set of stats that is fascinating to me. TNS Media published that ad spending in general is down for 2 quarters in a row, 1st time since 2001, yet internet "display" advertising is growing more then ever. I think this is a typo and what is really happening is Internet in general is growing, encompassing all media types especially Google's favorite - search engine pay per click marketing. Does this strike anyone else as a little funny? Surely display is not getting all the growth...and why? From a results standpoint it pales in comparison to PPC, SEO work and the newly growing email marketing. Talk to me people.

Share of Advertising Spending by Media: First Half 2007 vs. First Half 2006

MEDIA TYPE Jan-June 2007 Jan-June 2006 NATIONAL TV 32.8% 33.1% MAGAZINES 20.0% 19.1% NEWSPAPERS 17.8% 18.8% LOCAL TV 10.8% 11.4% INTERNET 7.6% 6.4% RADIO 7.1% 7.3% ALL OTHER 3.9% 3.8% TOTAL 100.0% 100.0%

Source: TNS Media Intelligence Note: The sum of the individual media may differ from total due to rounding

Making Friends with Your Email List

 

Came across some excellent information in regards on consumer response to email marketing. This report, created by IPSOS, a reputable research firm, indicated consumer opinion and typical actions taken in regards to email they don't want to receive. More indication of how important it is to build long term happiness and loyalty with your consumer in a number of ways, so they see you as an expert in your industry and welcome your email whenever it arrives.

6 Quick Fixes to Optimize Site Load Time

Buried in the FAQ section on the Google Adsense site is information pretty key to businesses that depend on their site's organic rankings. Just when you think you have cracked the code for abundant Google site referrals, you haven't. I am late to this party, but glad to have arrived at any rate - just google "google and load time"to see what I mean.

Bill Gates had his moments

Could not resist posting this oldie but goodie by Bill-ie. Enjoy. I withhold my comments to ensure I don't influence your enjoyment in anyway.

Co-registration - Top 5 Survival Tips

Have you ever registered on a site and been offered "special offers" as a thank you? Then co-registration ads are something you are familiar with. A simple yet powerful "piggybacking" sort of ad effort co-registration when placed strategically and priced proportionate to the cost of processing and return, can be a powerful new addition to your online media plan. Posts on Co-registration pop up all over the web with varying points of view. Mostly "be cautious, watch lead brokering and hide from agencies that just don't seem trustworthy". Here are my top 5 tips on getting the most return from your co-registration ads. 

Coffee for Techies

Okay, don't read about Meatball Sundaes and then rush right into this post. Everyone knows coffee and meatballs are also a terrible combination. Pause. Okay, now read on.

Okay, this is not so technical, but this is great coffee and I know you late night techies drink coffee. So you owe it to yourself to buy a bag of this stuff and see what you think. We need to support the "little guys" right? Well, this is a great little coffee business delivering the goods. "Fresh" to these guys is withing hours, not days. I know, hard to believe but it ain't hard to swallow, trust me.  I have never tasted smoother more delicious decaf like the decaf Brown serves up - try decaf Columbia and you will agree! And of course the leaded selections are divine as well. I can also vouch for Guatemala after weeks of enjoyment. Give it a try!

Meatball Sundaes

Seth Godin has done it again. There was The Purple Cow (be very different), Small is the New Big (flexibility and growth power of small and nimble entities) and now, Meatball Sundae? If the man has any gifts at all, he has the keen ability to create word pictures that leave you saying "eeeeeewww". If that is a word. You get the picture.