Given that I am a Canadian myself, I found the daily
eMarketer newsletter somewhat interesting. Some of their most current research shows that Canadians have different trends in their online usage and goals. Furthermore, with a population only a fraction of that of the United States, Canadians enjoy far more connectivity and experience online. One quote I found particularly interesting was:
What can marketers take from this? Microsoft’s 2007 survey concluded that Web users’ receptivity to advertising could vary significantly with the time of day, their purpose in being online, access location and other factors. The 2009 data make the same point in more detail. When Canadians use the Web, they have clear aims in mind. Advertisers should be aware of consumers’ typical focus on tasks and goals, and use their knowledge of these behavior patterns to deliver their messages in appropriate contexts.
Nevertheless, despite all these changes one thing remains the same: search. No matter what the end goal, search marketing is still a hugely important aspect of reaching any audience. Whether for communication, entertainment, surfing etc. finding what you're looking for will still ultimately take place at the very basic search engine level.
For additional information about Compendium Blogware, check this out.
This morning's eMarketer newsletter caught my eye (article
here) as it discussed the trend towards more online marketing spending for consumer packaged goods companies. In the past and even today, CPG firms have largely focused on traditional media and avoided mediums that are more difficult to measure (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, other social networks).
Nevertheless, given the trend, corporate blogging for SEO should be an important strategy to consider. By carefully monitoring and measuring traffic, conversion etc. and tying strategies back to actual product sales, CPG firms could benefit immensely.
A colleague of mine forwarded an interesting excerpt from an article today that struck a chord with me regarding large enterprise marketing efforts:
To most huge corporations, search engine optimization is often a very small piece of an enormous puzzle - and it is a piece they have been doing without for years. The necessary steps required to fully embrace the channel are often enough to stop any well-intentioned initiative in its tracks. As most search engine optimization experts will tell you, some of the most egregious search engine mistakes are consistently made by household name companies - leaving their smaller, leaner competitors the opportunity to take full advantage. Source
here.
In any case, good for for thought as companies are ramping up their 2010 marketing plans. I would also highly recommend an interesting read today from eMarketer about Digital Out-of-Home spending (article
here).
Recently, Netflix
announced on their corporate blog that they will be bringing their streaming service to the PS3. I think this is a great move forward, especially given the fact that in order to utilize their streaming service on the Xbox 360, you had to buy a Gold Membership to Xbox Live.
Greg Peters, VP of product development at Netflix, here. We’ve got good news for PS3 owners! Soon you will be able to instantly watch movies and TV episodes on your TV via your PS3. Today we announced that the PS3 is about to join the ever growing list of Netflix ready devices that allow streaming of movies and TV episodes whenever you want, as much as you want, all included in your unlimited Netflix subscription. The PS3 is a terrific Blu-ray and gaming platform that will get even better in November when we start streaming...
As the service continues to span platforms, perhaps we will see some additional titles being added and implementation of their instant queue to really make the streaming + mail service work together. Hopefully their search marketing efforts and overall media push make this readily apparent to really ramp up competition in the field.
I know I've written about them before but I thought I would throw out a compliment for the Redbox customer service department. I believe my previous post revolved around their corporate blog for movie reviews and customer feedback and although their business blog has value, their service department is also doing well in my book.
The other night I wanted to reserve a movie online and while checking out, I encountered an error three times in a row with their booking system. It said that the movie had only been reserved once but upon my arrival at the actual Redbox (and getting the delayed confirmation emails), I was granted three copies of the same movie. Naturally I did not want to pay for the same movie three times so I sent over a quick email that night and to my surprise, the charges were reversed the next morning and I was given a free movie coupon.
Nice to see that automated systems are being backed by real service!
In the last part of
a four part series by Business Week, Matt Cutts continues his discussion on how Google deals with web spam. I would definitely recommend reading the entire article but one section on "hacked" websites caught my eye:
Q: What do you mean by hacked in this context?
A: Spammers hack sites like Al Gore’s and other high-traffic sites and build links out to spam sites, and then they’ll monetize 10 cents per user or whatever. I was literally talking to someone who had written his own blogging software and he got hacked, and he was checking out what had happened and this guy had come and deliberately targeted him and found an exploit in this one guy’s piece of code.
So the scary trend is that as PCs are getting better, people aren’t keeping Web server software such as Wordpress and Drupal, up to date and so they get hacked a lot. So we have to deal with innocent people who have gotten their site hacked and then they’re selling Viagra.
More and more, we're hearing about personal and corporate blogs developed internally or pieced together with plugins being taken over via vulnerabilities with their code.
If you're looking for some alternatives, check out a demo of Compendium's hosted solution.
Yesterday, Condé Nast announced that they would be closing down three of their print publications (
WSJ article here)
Condé Nast Publications Inc. will close Gourmet and three other publications as the magazine giant seeks to position the company for a slow advertising recovery.
In addition to Gourmet, the publisher will shut Cookie, Modern Bride and Elegant Bride and lay-off about 180 people, Condé Nast Chief Executive Chuck Townsend said in an interview Monday.
It is no surprise that we continue to see more and more print publications either close down, or go entirely online. With that, blogging for search and using unique tools to create some sort of differentiation between publications is going to become more and more important for online marketers.
If you have a minute, I would highly recommend looking at some of the data released by Gartner about the 2009 Hype Cycle to get a feel for trends and opportunities to market effectively.
Regulations aside, the ability for the pharmaceutical industry to speak directly to their customers is something to be desired, especially when there are large issues at hand. For instance, today Pfizer agreed to pay a $2.3B settlement for illegal promotion of Bextra, a painkiller that was removed from the market in 2005 (
WSJ article here).
Naturally, with this type of record setting settlement involving criminal charges, there is going to be an outpouring of consumer opinion. Having a corporate blog available or some portal open for direct customer feedback, rather than traditional Press contacts, might be an interesting idea if regulations could be followed appropriately. Given that others in the marketplace will be talking about it anyways, having a corporate blogging strategy in place could serve as a great means to keep a pulse on what is being said if compliance and regulatory guidelines are met.
With the recent release of
Duke University's CMO Survey, some interesting trends continue to show up in marketing spends projected for the next year. According to the survey, CMOs are forecasting that online marketing spending will increase 9.5% over the next 12 months. Along those same lines, the study shows that CMOs expect traditional media and advertising spends to decrease by 7.9%. Naturally these results are not earth shattering but it is interesting to see various sets of data surrounding a lot of the same questions.
I'd recommend browsing through the study if you have a few spare minutes -- the sections on revenue increases and social media overall are also pretty interesting.
For those of you that keep up with the gaming industry, last weekend was
Blizzcon (a conference hosted by the gaming company Blizzard that showcases their new developments). Having played many classic Blizzard games in the past, I tend to keep up with their new announcements just given the fact that they command such a great deal of respect in the industry. I'd highly recommend checking out their HD videos on
YouTube for the new game announcements.
In terms of their online marketing, Blizzard does an excellent job of targeting their core demographics through a variety focused avenues. Even if gaming is of no interest, their marketing efforts are definitely worth checking out. Now if they just had an
easily found corporate blog...
I recently stumbled upon an
interesting article noting that Sony is starting a Daddy blogger type program.
Sony Electronics is launching DigiDads, in which dads will test out new Sony products in dedicated online media projects and then write about their experiences. Afterward, the bloggers will return the products to Sony
Given the Mommy blogger campaigns that we've seen with large consumer products companies, I'll be curious to see how this is received. On a related note, it certainly is nice to see Sony and other large retailers taking advantage of blog marketing to promote their products and generate interest!
For those of you golf fanatics out there I am sure you're aware that this weekend (starting today) is the 2009 Open Championship. This tournament is being held at the famed Ailsa Course at Turnberry, Scotland.
Naturally I always tune in to the big championships and when Tiger is playing, it seems that everyone else does as well. In any case, how does this relate to search marketing you ask? Well, given the role of product placements and sponsorships, I always like to find out how the major golf companies are pushing their products online post-tournament.
Usually when I am interested in a new product or see that Phil Mickelson has changed drivers, I like to check out the new products and read reviews. Having a
product development blog that is easily found gives me, the consumer, the opportunity to get the information I want. Many of these companies already have blogs, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages so hopefully more and more will continue to take advantage of
these online marketing tools and really open up their product promotions.
Prior to renting a movie the other night I decided to do some of the usual research on length, reviews, etc. just so I had some idea of what to expect. Aside from the usual spots to check out movie reviews (IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes...) I was pleased to find that Redbox, where I rent most of my movies, had their corporate blog talking all about the movies they rent.
Not only did they have some relevant content, but they had some decent content about older movies and current debates in the space (
best movie title?). Given that Rexbox is already blogging, maybe they should considering
blogging for SEO with Compendium and really making that great content a part of their search strategy (and dominate what remains of Blockbuster in the space).
I came across an interesting article yesterday over on
TechNewsWorld about the ability of Twitter to keep their users over time. Apparently,
The Twitter micro-blogging service only retains about 40 percent of users month-over-month, Nielsen Online Research Vice President David Martin claims in a company blog post.
Even more, the article dives a bit deeper into the fact that retention is obviously a huge part of growth.
A high retention rate is necessary to reach a large audience, although it does not guarantee that reach, Martin said. Twitter's relative newness -- it was founded in May 2007 -- is not a factor because Facebook and MySpace, when they were new, had double the retention rate of Twitter. In any case, I won't spend too much time expressing my opinion about Twitter but customer engagement and acquisition is what
corporate blogging is all about so head over and check us out!
Given that the golf season is basically here I thought I would
check out the latest and greatest gear for this year. In checking out the usual suspects like Titleist, Taylor Made, Callaway etc. I really wanted to learn more about their R&D efforts outside of a whitepaper and this seemed like a great place for a corporate blog.
Although most of the companies had whitepapers and detailed technical specifications available, having a blog or section where their engineers discuss R&D would be pretty interesting. With that, it seems like that would be a great venue for their sponsored golfers to provide some feedback directly tied to those R&D efforts. If I can hear about Phil Mickelson's new lefty Callaway driver that he is testing, I'd probably be more likely to buy once the product is released. More on testing new clubs and golf adventures to come...
This may seem somewhat random but the other night I was sucked into another rerun of Office Space (for some reason I cannot not watch it when it's on) and a thought occured me. What if Initech had a corporate blog both internally and externally?
With lots of people working weekends, cutbacks in various departments, TPS reports and "glitches" in payroll, there clearly was some employee concern. However, there was no real outlet for this concern and that led to Milton setting the building on fire at the end of the movie.
Now, if Initech had an internal business blog for employees, they might have been able to deal with some of these issues. Further, if they had an external business blog facing customers, there may have been less issues with Y2K bugs and their image would have improved, leaving Tom with less work as the "people" person. Just a thought...
Discussing taxes and the intricacies of laws that will change five times in the next five days is certainly not my idea of an action packed evening. However, I did come across an interesting article (
here) about a new transaction tax blog that Avalara recently launched. Granted, they are a tax services company but their goals for launching this blog seem genuine. For instance, they are using their business blog,
...to create an online space in which people could freely discuss their interests, concerns, ideas, and even their frustrations on all things transaction tax," said Scott McFarlane, co-founder, president, and chief executive officer, Avalara.
Further, they mention that the purpose of their corporate blog is not to sell their services or push a viewpoint but rather, as the quote says, encourage healthy discussion. If successful, this type of transparency will certainly help their business in the long run and hopefully spur continued development in this space.
The day before last I walked down to Starbucks to get a half-caf coffee (trying to cut back on caffeine, at least a little). To my surprise, I was told they were no longer brewing decaf after 12p.m. Given that it was a new policy they offered to make a half-caf Americano for the same price which was a great overall experience for me anyways. (Side note: they will still brew decaf if there is normal demand or per the manager's discretion)
In line with that, Starbucks posted that day on their corporate blog about the change and solicited feedback from consumers. They promoted a very open discussion and used their actual business blog to facilitate the interaction between their brand and their customers. I think they have been great at trying to meet needs wherever they can (e.g. customer suggestion box) and despite their financial issues and store closings, will continue their consumer-centric brand marketing.
Last week I wrote a small post about the impending Chrysler/Fiat deal and the need for Chrysler to user their corporate blog for true discussion purposes and not polished PR. Well, along those lines, I came across
this article discussing a major PR mishap by Chrysler.
Chrysler took out a very large print ad in several major newspapers thanking America for their investment in the automaker (read: Bailout). Naturally, they posted this ad to their corporate blog which was then inundated with negative comments about gross fiscal mismanagement. Commenters suggested that instead of spending six figures on print ads, Chrysler could have posted on their blog, submitted to news services (e.g. Digg) and spread the word responsibly.
"To make things worse, Chrysler recently pulled the blog post in an effort to get rid of such negative comments. While, the ads were obviously a PR disaster for Chrysler, censoring its corporate blogs could turn into a whole new mess. Rather than issuing a carefully worded response it tried to sweep it under the rug and pretend it never happened, and in doing so tried to silence the voices of its customers. However, as Chrysler discovered, such attempts rarely work in the internet world and now it has a new embarrassment to contend with. Thus far Chrysler has not issued a statement on the ads or its censorship of its blog comments."
Once again, they could have used their corporate blog for good but instead took the less favorable path and are now in far worse shape.
I was just about to write a new post about some fairly interesting financial blog findings but I got sidetracked and found that Microsoft recently launched their corporate blog on legal and policy issues. It is gradually going to be opened up to a variety of employees in the legal affairs and regulatory departments but I think it's a great stride forward in showing their involvement in policy-making and leglislation.
Technology has become a huge factor in almost everything that is done, especially on large legislative intiatives, and by having a blog service specifically targetted towards this information Microsoft should become more transparent.
They have also been active in other blog avenues but this one struck me as more interesting than most because I often do not think of Microsoft as a key player in say, health solutions, even though they are quite active in the space. Rather, I pay attention to their more consumer driven announcements and often get caught up in the battle between PC and Mac when in fact there is a great deal more going on that will help their brand.
