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My fellow Americans, these are troubled times. Actually in the world of search, these aren’t troubled times. We hear that phrase so often it seemed natural to start off this way. Seriously, things are looking up! Marc Engelsman, VP of Client Services for Digital Brand Expressions, talked about the SEMPO results from their annual survey called State of Search Market Survey. In the latest issue of SES magazine, he talks about the “10 notable trends from the 2010 SEMPO report” (pg. 28). I know, you’re saying to yourself “oh great, another survey.” This particular one is often used in the industry as a baseline for how to plan your marketing budget , staff the right way and know what to expect in the way of internet marketing trends. The point that usually catches my attention is about ROI.
ROI! It’s always a topic of conversation. Rather than thinking about ROI as a threat to the marketing department’s stability, think of ROI as thrilling and fun. Thrilling and fun like a roller coaster? You rode the marketing campaign roller coaster ride, and it was fun, but you may not want to do it again. No silly! By thrilling and fun I mean something that 1) you can quickly and easily prove and 2) an opportunity to impress the boss. Don’t be afraid to try new things because you’ll be able to show that it is working with call tracking. If you use a lead management tool, your job is even easier. Our clients are getting their CRM to incorporate CI’s call tracking into the lead management tool, which ties everything together into a package with a bow on top. This allows the management of leads, calls and reports all in one system.
Incidentally, I read another article in the same magazine about “3 simple steps to boost your PPC ROI”. You see, it always goes back to ROI. In this very helpful article (p.33), Acquisio’s Noran El-Shinnawy talks about how she approaches getting PPC to perform at it’s best. It all makes sense! She says to 1) Target properly, 2) Recognize value and 3) Satisfy visitors. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. Stay ahead of the competition. Apply what you have learned, produce a positive ROI for your clients and you’ll be making profits hand over fist.
A guru is someone that you trust and that you think can provide sound advice on a particular subject. It’s quite possible that they have years of experience and have conducted an extensive amount of research, making them the all-wise and knowing expert. Shawna Fennell, who started 1Choice 4 Your Store, has helped Yahoo store owners get started and is considered a guru in the industry. Her background is inspiring as she learned the business from the ground up and is now running a successful business and helping others do the same. Shawna’s weekly radio show, eCom Experts, that plays on WebmasterRadio.fm gives listeners tips and best practices from the experts. She has welcomed well-respected gurus such as Avinash Kaushik, Rob Snell and John Lawson to her show. Check out their interviews on her website. You’ll also see my interview with Shawna from June 15th. It was an honor to be a guest on her show and to answer live questions from the chat room. Talk about immediate feedback!
Jennifer guest-posted a great article on DealerRefresh, Four Superhero Powers for Dealer Website Tracking.
Call tracking helps merchants capture prospective customers at the point of interest, when they show intent, rather than prompting a form to generate a call later. Data (and intuition) shows this leads to higher conversion rates and happier customers.
However, as businesses devote more of their marketing budget to digital platforms, we notice they often devote their energy to tracking online responses only. If your main focus is electronic shopping carts and forms-fills to service customers, that’s great, but you may be neglecting the prospects that require human interaction to make a purchase.
This presents a dilemma for online marketers: How do you optimize your website to present the right calls to action, including addressing those who want to have a question answered and make a purchase all in the same sitting?
Until now, measuring phone responses has been hit or miss (think: So how'd you hear about us?). That, plus the need to have a friendly, patient sales agent live and ready provides reason for many online marketers to de-emphasize phone calls as a lead source to be optimized.
We can now see the sunshine through the clouds, however, providing marketers the ability to quantify the offline impact of their online presence at a keyword and campaign level. By showcasing a clearly displayed telephone number on your website, prospects can simply call for information to help finish the sale. Otherwise, the alternatives almost always end badly – either the session times out or the customer goes elsewhere to make the purchase.
This measurement revolution is made possible because of the great strides in call tracking innovation over the years. Call tracking has historically consisted of telling the merchant how many callers came from a particular media type (i.e. billboard, yellow pages etc).
Today, sophisticated call tracking solutions provide a hitlist of actionable data that shows the full picture of responses from every sort of digital campaign (PPC, organic, email, display) that drives a phone call. This means marketers can now quantify the offline impact of their online presence at a campaign level by identifying which keywords are generating phone calls.
“I’m in sales”… here come the groans. So many times at events, I get that “ok, so what’s your pitch” look. And yes, I love my company, our product, but most of all our culture. The take it or leave it approach. Tell me what you want and I’ll tell you what I got: Wholesale call tracking without all the glossy material. Wholesale web analytics without all the elaborate pricing. Wholesale service without all the convoluted contracts. Did I mention we were wholesale?
Let me ask you a question… when you walk into Costco or Sam's does it bother you to see your favorite goods on crates in a warehouse? Tires next to diamonds, books next to lawn furniture, and vacuums next to bread… you get the point. You go wholesale for the value and quality goods. They sell your beloved Pantene, giant jars of Heinz and an endless array of cheeses. Well, not to compare CI to Costco… but why don’t we? Its wholesale right?
We have the same, nay better products than any retail Call Measurement provider with variety and fan favorites. Be it web tracking, outbound call tracking or the ketchup of it all, plain ol call measurement… in a plywood crate, so to speak. Our developers, sales, accounting, support all sit in the same room err warehouse, and our partners reap the benefits of having one vendor that provides it all. Cheap. So yeah, I’m trying to sell you. And save you… money. And you don’t even need a club card.
Have you heard this phrase before? As a Texan, this message is completely engrained in my head. When the campaign launched 25 years ago, the idea was to reduce litter across Texas. We are very proud of our state, why would we litter? Hmmm. The tone of the message is very accurate of the attitudes that Texans take, like “I’m tough. Don’t mess with me.” There is even a website where you can report a litterer! This is what you call a message that sticks. Brothers Chip Heath and Dan Heath so eloquently talk about this topic in their book, Made to Stick. It’s important to make the message stick so that when the time comes when you need a hamburger, a plumber, a SEM or a low-cost airline, you know where to turn.
Making your brand identity sticky also makes it viral. If your message makes sense, fits your product or service and captures the attention of the audience you are trying to reach, then more than likely it will go viral. Easier said than done. The Heath brothers talk about thinking of other ways to make a message go viral. In their Fast Company magazine column, they say “start thinking about emotion, public service and triggers.” I think Don’t Mess with Texas hits all three of these points. However a message takes off (Betty White hosting SNL), it could help your business tremendously. You can then take this sticky message and use it in your direct response campaigns. Use call tracking to monitor your results. Now, go out and create a message that sticks! Just as a reminder-- keep our state clean, don’t litter and Don’t Mess with Texas.
In what has largely molded into a “value” driven economy, it seems only natural and fair that businesses of all sizes seek out the most bang for their buck. After all, this mentality is influencing end customer decision making as well (See: Wendy’s $2.99 value meal). The days of bloated budgets and carefree spending across the board appear to be long gone. Marketing departments are slimmer, employees efforts are being stretched across multiple departments, and for many businesses, the lure of free resources is all too enticing.
In a recent Podcast conversation between Douglas Karr of DK Marketing and Barbara Jones of Stellar Thoughts blog, Douglas explores the idea of free analytics packages compared to paid analytics packages. Can you guess which free analytics package is the elephant in the room? I’ll give you a hint: Every man, woman, and small child in the online marketing industry now knows the capital of Kansas.
The Podcast is about 16 minutes in length and chock-full of good information, but for those with attention spans more inclined to skim Twitter for 8 seconds and move on, Douglas is kind enough to provide Marketing Tech Blog readers 3 key points he came away with after speaking with Barbara. First, the support and training from paid analytics providers far outweighs the self-help nature of free analytics packages.
Second, free analytics packages are often slow in capturing data and even have limitations on how much information is obtained.
Third, those offering paid analytics have the resources and a selfish desire to continually improve their products.
Not to brag folks, but we at Century Interactive are proud to say we comfortably fall on the “better” side of Douglas’ three points. Our training and support start from day one with demos, training manuals, and a fast acting support team who are happy to help (Trouble tickets? No thanks, not our style…) Our analytics are real time, fast, and include off-line conversions giving you the ability to act quickly and make the best possible business decisions. Lastly, our development team is constantly pushing us ahead of the curve with updates, integration, and a slew of other technical terms my brain wasn’t made to comprehend.
Douglas sums it up best at the end of his article: “Free comes at a cost.” Is our analytics package free? No. Is our analytics package a very inexpensive tool that helps improve the acquisition of customer leads and execute better business decisions? Yes…Yes it is.
Check out Douglas Karr’s article and listen to the Podcast