Optimize Your Web Advertising Strategy

Web Advertising Tips for Google Adsense Take-Away #1:
Placement is design priority number one in your web advertising strategy
Joel Comm, author of The AdSense Code claims that the most popular ad unit is the leaderboard. At 728 x 90, it stretches across the screen and while it can be placed anywhere, it's mostly used at the top of the page, above the main text. We'll show you the different sizes and shapes of ad units and how popular/effective they are.

Web Advertising Tips for Google Adsense Take-Away #2:
Relevant ads are fundamental to your web advertising strategy
Using its proprietary software, Google automatically matches advertiser-supplied text ads to the publisher's page content and instantaneously places relevant ads on the page. It's easy. It's risk-free. And everyone benefits—more or less.

Web Advertising Tips for Google Adsense Take-Away #3:
Following the rules is not an option for your web advertising strategy
If you are a publisher using Google AdSense, you may or may not know how easy it is to tick off the Google gods. We'd all like to think we're honest business people, and we'd never click on our own ads, but you might be unaware of some of the lesser known rules laid out by Google. We'll tell you what they are.

Web Advertising Tips for Google Adsense Take-Away #4:
Google wants you to be successful with your web advertising strategy
Google wants to get paid just like you do. They are always publishing useful tips and studies on Google Adsense best practics. For example, when it comes to Google Adsense, wider almost always outperforms thinner ads. If you're looking at a skyscraper ad, always pick the "wide skyscraper" sized 160x600 over the lesser performing 120x600. Many sites claim that 300x250 are their best performing ads.

This article is courtesy of Mequoda

Email best practices? High CTR with low conversion or lower CTR with a high conversion rate?

Got a question today and thought I would blog about it.

Question from LinkedIn:

What value can the customer be offered for email marketing of a luxurious
brand?
One of my clients, who is a luxurious brand retailer wants to pursue
email marketing, as they have a nicely developed e-mail database (however no
demographic data like gender or age has been collected). The KPI set by client
is 80% click-though rate. What value can we offer to the customers to make them
excited and interested about the EDM? Is there much of field to move around
considering there is no budget for any sort of contest or freebies, nor any
exclusive information available?

My email marketing answer:
Wow.... sorry to say but I don't think it's going to happen. 80% CTR! Wow! lol! What you could do is to offer to give away their luxury products and make it really sweet and lucrative that people receiving the email offer would be stupid not to click on it. :)

There has to be some sort of offer or will not work. I am working on this for a massive real estate company and they don’t have any incentives to give away either but what other information can we give away that will ensure a high CTR?

Think of it this way.
Would you rather show the client a high CTR with low conversion or lower CTR with a high conversion rate?

80% CTR but you only sold 10 products ($50 ea) = $500
30% CTR but you sold 50 products ($50 ea) = $2,500

That is one way you could communicate with the client so they understand that it is not just about CTR – it’s about conversion. Plus a multiple more tactics to make email work smarter. :)

Hope that helps!

Cheers
Chris
http://www.reallyhotideas.com/

Service your clients when they need it the most.

Hours of Operation = more business.

I have recently moved to Perth in Australia. If you are from Perth and reading this – please take no offense. I’m trying to help. :)

I find it very remarkable that everything closes very early during the week plus everything is closed on Sundays. That means I can’t spend money when I am available to spend money. So I don't spend money because I simply can't. I have found that people rush to the supermarket between 5:30pm and 6pm to be able to buy groceries. Go to a supermarket on a Saturday and it is a sea of people – all doing the same thing – grocery shopping for the rest of the week. The full week. Some families have 2 shopping carts full of food. It's pretty funny to watch really. Perth has a few quirky regulations like grocery stores can’t be open late. Malls too for that matter. Ok, rules are rules. But what about other companies not in the food business?

How to improve your sales and leverage the online marketing world.
Perth! Wake up and use smarter web marketing ideas!

I thru out my back on the weekend and guess what? Hard to find a chiropractor that is open. Weekend is tough as people want some down time but I have been calling around and going from one web site to the other only to realize they don’t take patients after 5:30pm on weekdays. How am I supposed to get there because I have a job?

At home in Canada chiropractors are open around people’s busy schedules. They serve people so they have found out by staying open during afterhours they cater to another business segment – people like me – who work a lot.

So the tip for today is to look at what your competition is doing, their service offerings and hours of operations. Use that intelligence to your advantage. If you want to be open late on Wednesdays then start your day later and take the morning off or open early. Close in the afternoon and open again.

Be smart. Be creative. Be a winner.

Internet Marketing Trends

Expect a lot of marketing messaging related to the recession. Don’t be surprised to see lots of offers that “save you money” throughout the rest of 2009. With fewer purchasing dollars available, how will your marketing message be distinctive and stand out? Now is the time to start thinking smarter. SEO is the number 1 traffic generator if done correctly.

Here are 20 trends to keep an eye on for thes rest of 2009:

Trend #1: Recession Marketing

Trend #2: Internet Marketing-palooza

Trend #3: The Customer Voice

Trend #4: Video Marketing

Trend #5: Blogging

Trend #6: Social Marketing

Trend #7: Mobile Marketing

Trend #8: Behavioral Targeting

Trend #9: Behavioral Analytics

Trend #10: Widget Marketing

Trend #11: Innovation

Trend #12: Back-to-Basics Marketing

Trend #13: Relationship Marketing

Trend #14: Verticalization

Trend #15: Personalization

Trend #16: Multicultural Marketing

Trend #17: Mixing Display Ads & Search Marketing

Trend #18: The Long Long Long Tail

Trend #19: There’s No Place Like Home

Trend #20: Speed

A Short-Term Marketing Focus

I foudn this article and it had some great tips that I couldn't resist not to share. Enjoy.

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007127

Hope springs eternal.
Everyone wants to be ahead of the curve, but no one knows where the curve is.
According to a study by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and ‘mktg’, due to lack of visibility, over the past six months two-thirds of US marketers downshifted to more short-term strategies.

Bob Liodice, CEO of the ANA, said in a slight understatement, “The landscape for building brands was jolted by the severity of the economic downturn.”
The ANA found that most marketing budgets, one-half of production budgets and 46% of sponsorship and event budgets had been reduced.

Not all marketing activities are being cut, however.
Most likely to be maintained throughout the recession were research and development, public relations, promotions and new initiatives.

Activities that marketers said were most likely to be increased as the economy starts to turn the corner included pricing deals, online social networking and word-of-mouth activities, and pubic relations.

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of the marketers hoped to increase marketing activities three to six months before the recession ends. The intent is to get the message out early so that when people have money to spend, they buy.

Once the recession ends, budget increases are expected for general media (68% of marketers), social networking (41%) and testing and innovation (40%).
“It is encouraging to see that marketers are preparing for the rebound with plans for increased media spending, strategically sound brand building investments and logical, expansive use of social media,” said Mr. Liodice.

In May, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said it expects the economy to pick up in the second half of the year, meaning that hard times may be close to over.
But the signs are far from clear. The CBO also expects that unemployment will hover around 10% until sometime in 2010.

The road ahead is still bumpy, and very few marketers are ready to shift into high gear yet.