Ran across a great article from e.Marketer this morning regarding the growth of online ad spending within the realm of online marketing.  Nothing fancy here, just a couple of charts demonstrating the shift advertisers are making in their business marketing strategies.







Jeff Meuzelaar
Click Rain | Sioux Falls Marketing

It's everywhere.  From adolescent teenagers to retired grandparents, Facebook has become one of the most recognizable terms in the internet culture.  With nearly 29 million users worldwide, Facebook presents an internet marketing opportunity too large to overlook.  In November of 2007, Facebook opened their doors to the online marketing world with the introduction of their ad system.

Target your Internet Marketing
Did you know that there are 843,500 Coldplay fans, 100,000 nursing graduates, and 137,320 sushi lovers on Facebook?.  What's the significance?  Organizations embracing Facebook have the ability to micro-target messaging to a very specific audience.  Ultimiately, advertisers should begin to see a more qualified leads through this micro-targeting technique. So next time you're promoting a concert for Coldplay, hiring nurses, or starting a Japanese restaurant - you know where to start your campaign.

Jeff Meuzelaar
Click Rain | Online Marketing
Sioux Falls, SD

In the broad spectrum of internet marketing, paid search has become a fundamental element of a well balanced campaign.  Nearly every Jo Schmo business out there can utilize paid search as it is one of the most accessible forms of small business online marketing that exists.

However, what many of these users don't realize is that there are ways to optimize your ad ranking (i.e. position in the sponsored listings).  Google Adwords, for example uses what they call a "quality score" that plays a very significant role in where the ad is displayed.  Long story short...optimizing your paid search ads will ultimately lead to higher rankings, more leads, and a lower cost per click.  So next time you're thinking about increasing your bid amounts, consider improving your quality score instead and keep that money in your pocket.

If you peruse the web these days, I'm sure you'll notice how interactive websites and even advertisements have become.  As the world wide web continues to shape our society, it is critical that businesses develop internet marketing strategies to boot.  Quite a few social media applications exist to help develop your online business presence.  Whether you're a large or small company, utilizing these widgets will definitely add an interactive element to your online marketing presence.  Not to mention, they're super fun to use.

Check out some of our favorites.

Sproutbuilder
Makes flash ad and even website design accessible to anyone with internet access.  Easy to embed and share with others.

Twitter
Some say it's a waste of time, but we contend that it can be used to strategically market certain aspects of your service offerings. Similar to updating your status on facebook which actually has its own twitter application.

del.icio.us
A great way to share online bookmarks with friends and complete strangers.  Easy to organize and manage.

ChaCha
Ask a question via a text message from your cell or on the internet...get a response delivered to your phone or e-mail mailbox minutes later.  Maybe not the most relevant application for small business online marketing, but its such a neat application we had to share it with you.

Blogging for business is a topic that I am hearing more and more about in the online media realm.  In addition, blogging transparency (being who you say you are) in blogs, forums, etc. seems to go hand-in-glove with the topic.  I have had the opportunity to get several blogs off the ground recently for clients in a variety of industries, all of whom see blogging as a critical partner of crafting their brand personality as well as boosting SEO efforts.

If blogging is not part of your business marketing strategy, we should talk.  Look for more on this topic to come shortly. 

Your online marketing partner,
Paul

I recently read a great report put out by Forrester on social networking, who's doing it, why they are doing it, where it is headed, and all kinds of other data goodness.  Below is a very interesting chart from the report.  For a small business online marketing strategy, social networks can plan a very cost effective role. More good news?  The household income of social network users is quite appealing, making them a great target for online marketing efforts.  Bombs away.

The recent Yahoo acquisition of IndexTools is not unlike the Google / Urchin partnership that happened several years ago.  And the cat is out of the bag that Yahoo will be offering IndexTools free to clients:

Yahoo! currently intends to provide the IndexTools Web Analytics service FREE of charge to clients and partners who accept the standard Yahoo! agreement.

Search giant buys analytics company, search engine offers analytics free to clients as a value add, search engine hopes free analytics lead to use of more paid services (i.e. search).  Not a new story.

Google has to be a bit sweaty over this one.  I have had the chance to use both and must say that the real-time, enterprise level features of IndexTools are quite snazzy.  Whether or not all these features will remain gratis remains to be seen.  However, this does put an interesting wrinkle in the Google world domination plan given the extreme importance that a robust analytics package plays in an online marketing program.  Yahoo ain't dead yet, folks. Let's watch this one unfold.

Craigslist was recently valuated at a cool $5 billion.  That's $5 billion for a site that looks like this.  Silicon Alley Insider covers puts their spin on the recent valuation here and does a good job at applying some science to the numbers. 

2007 Est. Revenue: $55 million
2008 Est Revenue: $81 million
Monthly Pageviews: 9 billion
Monthly Job Listings: 2 million   
Monthly Ad Listings: 30 million
Employees: 25

You may recall that YouTube sold for $1.7 billion to Google not long ago.  Is Craigslist worth three times that?  Debatable.  Their old-school classified engine format is still working, but for how long? If I was Craig Newmark, I don't know how long I could keep looking at those valuation numbers and not open things up to the highest bidder. There's got to be another online marketing challenge he can tackle with that much startup cash.

If you are not a fan of Facebook, you will love this article. Sean X Cummings takes off the gloves and points out everything that he feels is wrong with the social networking giant.  Some points he makes are more valid than others (i.e. "Stop throwing sheep at me, and for Pete's sake stop poking me!") but the truth of the matter is that what makes Facebook great is that it is run by the people!  A true online marketing democracy. 

While I agree that Facebook has some issues, spamming me with useless widgets is something I will gladly put up with in order to stay connected to people that five years ago, I had no clue how to contact.  Now if you will excuse me, I have a free piece of flair that I need to decline.

Ask most businesses owners who their ideal clientele is, and chances are somewhere in their response will be a reference to deep pockets (for obvious reasons).  While many businesses want to get in the minds/wallets of those with high levels of discretionary income, targeting this demographic is an entirely different story.  The affluent are a sharp and savvy group who have been accustomed to being marketed to on a nearly constant basis (you need this Lexus....your TV is only 57"?.....take this trip to Ireland and wash your cares away with a pint of Guinness).  The increasing pressure (self-inflicted?) in our society for "more stuff" is an entirely different topic, so I'll try to stay to the point at hand. 

Online trends show that the best methods for reaching the affluent have shifted in recent years, which makes sense considering the growing number of affluent Internet users.

This demographic segment – defined as people with annual household income of $100,000 or above -- represents a large and growing percentage of the US Internet population. In 2007, an estimated 25% of US Internet users were affluent, up significantly from 16% in 2001. eMarketer projects that this percentage will increase to 27% in 2011. - eMarketer

Social media is not just for the afluent kids.  It's for their parents too.  Savvy marketers need to seriously look at shifting their online marketing efforts to the social media scene if they hope to get into the pocketbook of Mr. Drummond.

You can read the entire article on this subject from eMarketer here.

Make sure your online marketing efforts are focused...laser focused.  If people aren't seeing/hearing/understanding what you intended, you need to step back and focus on "your bear".


Via Seth Godin

A new email marketing term I recently ran across is bacn (actually, an ex-colleague of mine at Sanford Health turned me on to the term).  While everyone is familar with "spam" as it relates to e-mail, bacn refers to messages you have opted in to receive, but for a variety of reason you rarely (if ever) open.  I am guilty as charged....my inbox floods quickly with e-mails that I have signed up to receive, but during a busy day, I quickly send them to the deleted folder.  I guess it makes me feel like I am getting something done.  Bacn is apparently "better than spam, but not as good as a personal e-mail". As in real life, I will take bacn over spam any day.  Is it just me, or does online marketing make a person hungry?

This past weekend was the men's NCAA Big 10 Tournament in Indianapolis, IN.  As a die-hard Gopher fan, let me tell you that the tournament did not disappoint.  We had the opportunity to witness one of the best basketball finishes in Golden Gopher history. 

If you missed it, the biggest flop of the weekend was undoubtedly the slam poetry.  Yes, slam poetry at a basketball game.  In years past, rowdy fans have had the opportunity to get in front of a camera in the concourse and sing their school rouser/fight song.  The Big 10 then plays these clips on the Jumbotron between games, during time outs, etc.  This always goes over huge and is one of the best parts of the tournament.  This year, however, they decided to have fans read slam poetry on camera instead.  If you don't know what slam poetry is, don't feel bad.  Most basketball fans don't either....and don't want to.  Here is an example of slam poetry at its best (worst?)

I have never heard so many boos as I did when the fan slam poetry clips played on the Jumbotron.  The Big 10 took what was historically the best part of the tournament and turned it into a poetry reading.  The point here?  Know matter what your biz - online marketing, selling cars, flipping burgers - know your demographic, know what they like, and give it to them.  Your customers will be happy, they'll tell ten people about it, and will keep coming back for more.  Don't try and turn some meathead basketball fans into poetry reading intellectuals.  Just give me the fight songs, man.

It seems like one of the first things an organization looks to cut during a soft economy is marketing. With probably one of the hardest ROIs to measure, the target on the back of marketing never really goes away...it just gets bigger and smaller depending on other economic/market conditions.

iMedia Connection, has a good article today on how to manage your search and internet marketing efforts during a recession (if, in fact, we are in a recession.  Warren Buffett says we are so who am I to argue?).  The great thing about search is that more than TV, print, radio, direct mail, and most other marketing mediums, the ROI measurements on online marketing are extremely scientific. Analytics and various tracking tools allow an organization to directly determine if their online marketing efforts are having a bottom line impact.  The CFO is happy.  The marketer is happy.

So if the CFO has got you in trim mode, go ahead and cut your mass media budget, throttle back your direct mail volumes, and skip the Vegas tradeshow. But cutting out your search marketing and overall online marketing efforts? Think long and hard about that one.

I had a friend ask me today about a site (competitor) that seemed to be popping up organically on a lot of searches - some searches which were related to their business and some which were unrelated.  In looking at the site a bit deeper, not only was there some mad keyword stuffing going on, but they had embedded a small frame on their site which contained a boatload of copy - probably 2000+ words.  Are they benefiting from this in search right now?  Yes.  Will the Google cops eventually bust them?  Probably.  Just as in all walks of business, their are ethical and unethical ways to run your online marketing show.  If you are looking for blackhat seo (define) to cheat your way to the top, don't contact us.  If you want to earn it (through blogging for business, ethical seo, and online business development), we've got the Red Bull ready.   

The video clip below has nothing to do with online business development, business blogging, online marketing, or any of the other stuff we post about here.  It's a video that I saw last year and recently stumbled across it again.  Take three minutes to watch this, smile, and I can almost guarantee that you will never forget this story.

Internet penetration is something I get asked about all the time - specifically as it relates to South Dakota (many people are under the impression that SD just got electricity a few years back, thus, the "world wide internet" is something we only see in picture shows). 

Before diving into an online marketing campaign, good marketers want to know what their reach and frequency will be using the web as a communication vehicle.  eMarketer's daily goodness today was in regards to internet penetration by state in the US.  I've always had difficulty finding good data on this, but the National Telecommunications and Information Administration has a tight little report here that summarizes broadband penetration by state.  The report puts good ole' South Dakota above the likes of Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, and Iowa in terms of broadband penetration. Yee haw, little doggies!  A business marketing strategy must include a web component, and understanding the technical capabilities of your audience is important to any internet marketing plan.

Here are the highs and lows...props to eMarketer for the charts.

The Sioux Falls marketing landscape - as well as on the national scene - has been shifting in recent years, with traditional agency models (being all things to all people) giving way to specialized shops (we do this, only this, and do it very well). There is a great WSJ article here from 2007 on this very topic that is worth the read. 

While claiming to be leaders in all mediums is bold, fulfilling on that promise is nearly impossible. Social media is a perfect example. AdWeek had a great article recently on online marketing / social media and how the traditional agency model of "placing ads = placement dollars" does not jive with social media concepts.  Social media and traditional media are very, very different and trying to apply blanket principles to both can potentially do more harm than good.  Heck, faking a social media profile can get you jail time in Morocco.

At Click Rain, we have our niche, and it's online marketing. Not branding. Not print. Not broadcast media.  We know online marketing and how it relates to a business marketing strategy. If you want something outside of our core competencies, we'll be the first to tell you it's not a fit. In the meantime, we'll keep sharpeing our axe on what we do best. 

We all know that kids are getting pretty sharp when it comes to the web. Point in case, I can hardly do any work from home anymore without my 2-year old daughter begging (whining) to watch Dora the Explorer on my laptop.  She even understands that "stuff happens" when you click the mouse.  And Nickelodeon is no dummy, either.  Sprinkled throughout the site and in between the online videos is a smattering of self promotion for their programs, getting kids even further hooked on the shows and subsequentially, driving offline sales of pajamas, DVDs, and sippy cups.

eMarketer's article today on the savviness of kids on the web is not a huge shock, but it still is quite interesting.  Depending on your vertical, business marketing strategy now needs to include an online element for reaching the tween and pre-tween demographic.  There is a new generation out there that online marketers need to target, and they watch Sponge Bob. 

Have you ever used a search engine from your mobile phone?  Asking that question four, three, even two years ago would have gotten you a resounding number of no’s.   However, we are now in the days of the Treo, i760, Pearl, BlackJack, BlackBerry, iPhone….mobile search as component of an online marketing strategy is taking flight.  I recently read a great article over at eMarketer on mobile search and the advertising spending that is being realized on this growing medium.  A quote from the article:

 

eMarketer forecasts that mobile search spending in the US will grow from $34 million in 2007 to over $1.4 billion by 2012

 

That is some mad growth. Search marketing no longer means targeting the people sitting at a PC ready to make an online purchase or perform product research.  It now means getting in front of users looking for a restaurant while riding the subway, researching florists while pounding the elliptical, or making household purchase decisions while riding shotgun on the way to Target. The opportunity to cash in on mobile search as part of an overall business marketing strategy is there, and several are diving into the game here, here, here…..it will be interesting to see who grabs the brass ring.  You gotta love internet marketing.