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August 15, 2005
Events: American Marketing Association Ecommerce SIG Moderation
This week Mike Moran and I are co-moderating the AMA's Ecommerce Discussion list. This is a very active e-mail-based Listserv designed to foster commuinication with your peers.
This weeks topis is "All Things Search" with a focus on helping you inplement a program within your company. There have been a number of posts already and we are just getitng started.
If you're a member of the AMA simply subscribe to the E-Commerce listserv. If you're not a member, you can join. For more Information please visit http://www.marketingpower.com/content.php?Item_ID=1036
Posted by whunt at 02:55 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 13, 2005
Stats: Google still the dominant search engine
According to the July Search Engine usage report issued by Hitwise, Google is still the dominant search engine by a wide margin.
Collectively the top three search engines — Google, Yahoo! and MSN account for 93.5% of all U.S. searches in July.
Google 59.2%
Yahoo 28.8%
MSN 5.5%
Posted by whunt at 11:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 06, 2005
WordTracker Keyword Research Guide
Wordtracker is offering a free ebook on their site to help people develop a better understanding of effective keyword research.
The book is written for someone new to keyword research but I have to say there are a few nuggets of within that are gentle reminders for things we often forget when trying to create that master list of keywords.
The ebook uses a realistic situation where a business owner is looking to search to increase their sales. The book presents the information in a series of letters back to the company owner. These letters are a collection of tips and opinions from experts (not sure why Mike or I were not asked) but they are some of the top people in the industry. Each of the "letters" went into details of how each of these experts uses Wordtracker to perform their keyword research and writing for search engines.
Some of the nuggets I found were:
Nick Usborne author of Net Words offers a basic yet often overlooked reminder... "Search Engine will never buy a product from your site. Only people will buy" Nick goes on to remind us that while we must consider the factors of the search engine, "the primary purpose of the text on the page is to help, engage and sell to your visitors.
Along the same lines, Bryan Eisenberg of Future Now and author of "Call to Action" reminds the readers to think like your prospect. As Mike and I mention in the book, the better you can understand the searchers "intent" the more you can align that "intent" with highly relevant and action oriented copy which results in conversions.
Overall the ebook is a good read for those starting their project.
Posted by whunt at 06:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Role of Digital Marketers
In the August issue of OMMA Magazine they have a chart titled "How North American Marketers See the Role of Digial Marketing" that points out some interesting numbers
| Role | B2B | B2C |
| New Customer Lead Generation | 86.6% | 70.2% |
| Brand Awareness & Recognition | 70.5% | 70.2% |
| Improved Customer Relationships | 64.2% | 74.5% |
| Web Site Traffic Generation | 58.7% | 45.8% |
| Cross-Sell and Up-Sell Existing Customers | 56.3% | 63.8% |
Source: OMMA Magazine,CMO Council, B2B Magazine and USA Today January 2004.
These stats are important since they help demonstrate the importance of Chapter 5 and understanding your web sites goals and objectives. All too often when I work with a company or a business unit these are unclear. It is also interesting that most SEM companies push the "increase traffic" card and that is not one of the top objectives of most digital marketing programs.
Clearly the #1 objective is to generate leads with 87% of the B@B Marketers indicating that was their objective. This is understandable the B2B sector since many of these companies close business offline but are very successful at prospecting online. This takes us to Chapter 11 where we strongly suggest allocating your keywords to the various steps of the buy cycle. During this phase it is critical that you understand what keyword phrases people are using during the "learn" phase of the buying cycle for your specific product or service. The better you can understand that model the more successful you will be matching searcher needs and intent with your compelling copy. This perfect match will result in an exponential increase in leads generated.
Posted by whunt at 01:48 AM | Comments (0)
August 04, 2005
56% find Web sites via Search Engines
According to a recent Burst Media poll of 13,000 web users, 56% of those responding indicated they primarily rely on search engines to get them to Web sites.
Trailing search, 28% of respondents indicated they will type in the URL or click a bookmark. Clicking links was a distant third with 16% indicating they click links from other sites or advertisements.
Those who use search engines to locate sites varied by age group:
18-24 -- 46%
25-54 -- 61%
55-64 -- 61%
Over 65 -- 49%
More information can be found on the
Burst Media site.
Posted by whunt at 02:32 PM | Comments (0)