Putting Social Media on the Map

March 10th, 2010

Evidently, frequent updates of what other users are merely doing at all times no longer enough, so social media outlets are integrating mapping software to allow users to attach their locations to their posts as well. All of the biggest players are unveiling new geolocation features and some businesses are incorporating this into their customer service strategies as well.

Twitter’s geolocation feature went live through its application programming interface (API) last November, yet there wasn’t been any sign of integration into the main twitter.com site until now. The screenshot (above) from TechCrunch shows that tweets with the location tag will have a placemarker next to the source. When the user hovers over the icon it turns blue, and clicking on it brings up a miniature Google map showing the location the tweet was sent from. The user can view these maps as overlays both on other user’s Twitter pages and on tweets in the main stream.

Next, according to several people briefed on the project, Facebook plans to unveil their new location-based feature in late April at the company’s yearly developer conference, f8. These sources were not authorized to discuss unannounced services, so they spoke only under the condition of anonymity.

Last November, Facebook updated its privacy policy in preparation for this new feature. Now, the policy states: “When you share your location with others or add a location to something you post, we treat that like any other content you post.”  Essentially, like all other Facebook user content, when a user posts a location they should consider the fact that this is now fairly public information.

Finally, Foursquare is a service that allows users to share their location with a group of friends as they check in to a restaurant, business or any other supporting venue upon arrival. Foursquare encourages the businesses to recognize users’ loyalty in some fashion, such as rewarding the most frequent customers with complimentary items.

With this tool, businesses will be able to see a range of real-time data about Foursquare usage, including who has “checked in” to their clients’ business locations, what time they arrived, the male-to-female customer ratio and which times of day are more active for certain customers. This research will allow business owners to offer instant promotions to engage new customers and retain current ones, similar to the loyalty cards that many retailers typically offer.

“If a restaurant can see one of its loyal customers has dropped off the map and is no longer checking in, the owner could offer them incentives to come back,” said Tristan Walker, director of business development at Foursquare.

Posted in Online Marketing, Social Media by Alex W. | | 0 Comments

Facebook Officially Graduates to Marketing Channel Status

March 3rd, 2010

On Wednesday March 3^rd, Facebook and Omniture announced a new platform for businesses utilizing Facebook as a promotional medium.  By joining forces, the two companies can provide marketers using the increasingly prevalent advertising and social medium with the ability to analyze its impact. The two companies will begin by automating the media buying process and then allow companies to better analyze their viewership with a handful metrics. Ultimately, Omniture will help companies utilizing Facebook to reach specific users based on segments.

By utilizing Omniture tools such as SearchCenter Plus, interested companies can buy ads similar to those found in a more traditional SEM function.  Also, other tools in the Facebook/Omniture arsenal will allow marketers to identify and reward their loyal customers from a comprehensive dashboard.

The prominence of Facebook as a marketing channel shouldn’t be surprising since it is now the second most utilized online service below Google with 133 million users.  By achieving the number two spot, advertisers are typically confident of the ROI they can expect by investing money into Facebook as a marketing channel.  Now, with the improved analytics, it might be easier to extract incremental marketing dollars from the C-Suite by flashing some strong preliminary numbers.

Posted in Online Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media by Alex W. | | 0 Comments

Dress your data in its Sunday best

February 25th, 2010

Certainly one of the most difficult parts of communicating the findings of a handful of data is finding the best way to represent it.  Certainly, the right type of graph will make the insights leap out to the reader, while the wrong representation will smother the findings in complexity.  Our team picked up a bunch of great tips from Juice Analytics to help the presenter display their findings in the best light.

To start, you must determine exactly what metrics you are showing and where the emphasis should be (relationships, values, change over time, etc.).  Next, you need to assess your options and determine which one is most effective at emphasizing your chosen data.

For example, represent data over time with a simple line graph, and display comparisons of two different results on related values using variations of the traditional bar graph. Lay out unrelated values in a simple table, and the distribution of an aggregate amount (sales for example) looks clearest in the universally-understood pie chart.

These rules aren’t in stone, of course, and a certain level of judgment must be exercised in different situations.  However, use a chart like the one below (we did mention there are a lot of styles to choose from) from www.extremepresentation.com as a good jumping off point to wade through the many options for graphical choices.  Also, visit Juice Analytics’ breakdown of this difficult topic for more tips on selecting the ideal graph.

Posted in Creative Development by Alex W. | | 0 Comments

Managing Director of affilinet UK Preaches a Holistic Approach

February 11th, 2010

Since NETexponent began managing both search and affiliate programs, we have always preached a holistic approach to marketing programs.  Much to our surprise, this appeared to be a novel idea in the industry. Of course, this general lack of industry oversight has benefited NETexponent as other players have taken time to wrap their strategies around a truly integrated strategy.  Sure it sounds simple, but truly integrating all channels requires strong communication skills and attentive managers at each channel who understand the overall strategy. Ultimately, the difficult coordination pays off with a stronger brand, higher sales and increased efficiency.

Well, it appears the word is out! Peter Rowe, the Managing Director of affilinet UK, wrote an article for Retail Digital urging Marketing executives to invest in innovation in the face of the recession.  His article exhorts the reader to view this recession as a time to pull ahead through innovative strategies and increased investment.  In this case, he was describing a “new” perspective of affiliate marketing in which all online channels are viewed as complementary to form one fluid strategy.

Specifically, Mr. Rowe talked about transparency, which has been key to NETexponent’s holistic strategy.  While advertisers must coordinate campaigns across multiple channels and media, it is equally important for this to be clearly communicated with plenty of advanced notice to affiliates.  This way, affiliates’ own promotional, SEM and SEO efforts can work with the advertiser’s and boost sales higher than either channel would be able to independently. But equally important is discretionary discounting across all channels. Discounting widely and without tight restriction diminishes brand value; therefore, only select affiliates should be targeted to offer impressive discounts that will boost sales in the short run and still preserve the brand in the long term.

To read Peter Rowe’s article in its entirety, please visit Retail Digital.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Alex W. | | 0 Comments

Internet Marketing from the Real Experts

February 10th, 2010

Recently, the leading experts in the Internet Marketing field, “the Gang of 88″, collaborated on an in-depth guide to internet marketing.  This guide will provide three minute lessons on Affiliate Marketing, Email Marketing, SEO, SEM, etc…essentially, all areas of the online marketing landscape.  Of these contributions, editors Shawn Collins and Missy Ward included an article Peter Figueredo wrote giving his expert reflections on “Ad Networks, Vertical Ad Networks, and Affiliate Networks”.

This article touched on the various networks available to publishers, both novice and veteran, and why these opportunities should not be considered overwhelming.  Instead, publishers need to understand how to sift through the clutter and decide which type of network (or combination thereof) is most suitable for their affiliate site. Additionally, advertisers will begin to understand how to build strategies to effectively utilize an optimal mix of these marketing channels.

All of these three minute lessons are derived from insights only years of experience in a dynamic industry can produce.  The other expert contributions are broken down into easy to absorb bites that are suitable for readers of any experience level.  Ultimately, these insider tips are gems that have been mined from countless industry triumphs and missteps; most specifically, these contributors will save the readers the time it took them to reach this level of understanding  on the most vital practices of online marketing.

Follow Peter Figueredo on Twitter- @Figueredo.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing by Alex W. | | 0 Comments

Retail Rebounds- Fourth Quarter SEM Spend Recap

February 9th, 2010

Performance marketing agency Efficient Frontier released a research report outlining the overall performance of the search marketing space in the fourth quarter of 2009. These results have specific implications in terms of the strength of the economic rebound and the health of industries that favor certain engines over others.

The indicator of fourth quarter performance is always retail, due to holiday shopping. In 2009, retail search marketing spend grew 17% year over year and 46% quarter over quarter. Cost per click gains were strong sequentially (quarter over quarter), however year over year they remained down about 9%.  This suppressed potential growth in spend for the quarter. Year over year click-through rates have dropped over 40%, but many surmise this is due to Google and other engines simplifying the comparative shopping process within the search engine results page. Conversions per click year over year remained flat.

Outside of the retail sector, the consumer base is still leery about the economic recovery and how freely they should be spending their money. Spend on travel has dropped 20% year over year and 25% compared to Q3. Also, the impact of Cash for Clunkers wasn’t lasting, but did raise CPC 7% year over year encouraging a 2% raise in spend by the auto industry.

In Q4, Google’s share of clicks rose to 74.4% while Yahoo! lost 3.4% dropping their share to 21% and Bing held steady at 4.6%.  In terms of spend, Google’s share rose to 74.5%, Yahoo! lost .5% (a strengthening CPC at Yahoo! offset the loss of clicks) and Bing dropped slightly .2% to 5.1%.  For the retail segment alone, Google was the overwhelming favorite with 82.7% of spend; however, in the finance segment, Google only claimed a 60.1% share due to Yahoo!’s market leading finance software.

In the upcoming year, Efficient Frontier predicts 30% growth for Bing, which would give the engine 6-7% share of clicks.  The performance marketing firm also predicts 15-20% growth in SEM spend for 2010.  This growth is to be driven by further economic recovery in addition to incremental increases in online marketing budgets.

Posted in Search Marketing by Alex W. | | 0 Comments

Catch the NETexponent team at SMX in Santa Clara, California March 2nd- 4th

January 29th, 2010

Before forming a client relationship with the Search Marketing Expo, we at NETexponent had been attendees of the leading search conference for years.  This convention, produced by Third Door Media, always attracts highly distinguished speakers, and SMX West-Santa Clara will not disappoint.  This year’s keynote speaker, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, will bring his jovial personality and exceptional brand of technology leadership to set the stage for a highly educational and network-enriching three day experience.

In addition to Mr. Ballmer, team members from Google, Yahoo!, and Youtube (amongst others) will speak on behalf of the most knowledgeable leaders in the industry.  Fear not, however, sessions are clearly labeled and expertly tailored to fit any experience level so that all visitors leave feeling educated and inspired, not bored or overwhelmed.

The NETexponent team has always found that SMX offers sessions to match any interest and an exhibition hall to generate quality leads- not just visitors looking for free stuff (although you won’t leave empty handed).  Meet us at the preshow meet-and-greet or during one of the more structured networking events.

All in all, we would love to catch up with you there, so take advantage of the early bird pricing to save up to $350.  To get more conference details and information about signing up for an attendance pass, visit http://tiny.cc/Meet_NETex_at_SMX.

And if you are as passionate about SMX as we are, click here to join the affiliate program.

See you in Santa Clara!

Posted in Meet Us, NETexponent Clients, Search Marketing by Alex W. | | 0 Comments

Best Kept Secrets of Affiliate Marketing Success

January 16th, 2010

I recently wrote an article for iMediaConnection and I thought I would share some of the insights with our blog readers.

Feel free to read the full article at iMediaConnection.

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Meet Us by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments

Affiliate Summit West Here We Come

January 16th, 2010

The NETexponent crew is off to Las Vegas for Affiliate Summit West. In fact I am typing this from my Virgin Atlantic flight (gotta love wifi on planes).

Are you going to be at Affiliate Summit West? Want to connect with our team? Here is how you find us.

1. Visit us at the Total Gym Direct meet market table. Our staff will be representing one of our great affiliate marketing clients, TotalGymDirect.com, and would love to see you.

2. Stop by the PMA members meeting.

Or just wander around and you are sure to see one of our friendly crew.

Who will be there?

Sal Conca, Erica Myones, Valerie Russo, Noelle Huter, Chris Kramer, and Me (Peter Figueredo)

see you in Vegas!

Posted in Affiliate Marketing, Events, Meet Us by Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments

A Year in Review

January 6th, 2010

We’re proud to say that 2009 was an exceptional year for NETexponent. We grew as a team and also in our list of clients. Not to mention, NETexponent was recognized with a few awards and several write-ups on notable industry blogs and online forums. This year, we even expanded the list of services that we offer in order to better serve the needs of our new clients.

New Clients
To start, we’ve signed quite a few new clients this year, and some of these relationships grew even further after their initial inception. Early this year, we began working with Total Gym Direct by managing their relatively mature affiliate program. After several successful months, we extended our partnership into managing their search engine marketing efforts, as well.

Shortly after beginning our relationship with Total Gym Direct, we began working with Pingo, a pre-paid calling card service of iBasis, which is a leading carrier of international and long distance phone calls. With this new partnership, NETexponent was able to improve Pingo’s SEM program and enhance their online sales presence. Also early in 2009, we began managing SMX’s affiliate program; having attended the bi-annual search conference in the past, our team had a comfortable understanding of the events and the improvements we could make to the program.

In the fall, we greatly increased the size and diversity of our list of clients, and subsequently our team grew as well! Simultaneously, our affiliate program management grew to include Hot Topic and its subsidiaries Torrid and Shockhound. NETexponent took on managing Automotive Concepts’ (an online auto parts retailer) and Yola’s (website building tools) affiliate programs, too.

SEO Service

Recently, after bringing an industry executive onto our team, we launched our SEO services. These are quickly gaining prominence in our portfolio of search marketing services alongside our long-established paid search programs. We are implementing these services for one of our newest clients, American Listed, a free online classified listings website.

New team members

As mentioned, with the growth of our client roster, we have been excited to expand our team with a number of new positions filled by professionals with impressive, diverse backgrounds. We welcomed the following individuals to the team during 2009:

Wei Zhang- IT Analyst Valerie Russo - Affiliate Media Coordinator
Alex Watson- Marketing Coordinator

Estefanie Duque- Office Manager Nir Shemesh- Senior Search Media Manager Lindsey Murphy- Search Media Coordinator

Noelle Huter- Affiliate Media Manager Julianne Bohl- Search Media Manager Jessica Baier- Account Coordinator

Under the tutelage of our experienced staff, these folks hit the ground running and have become integral parts of our award-winning team.

Awards

Topseos publishes monthly rankings of the top companies in various online marketing fields. In October, topseos ranked NETexponent the 5th best Affiliate Marketing Agency, and we have since stayed in the top five. To see the most recently published list, visit topseos.

In early September, NETexponent was featured on Inc. Magazine’s 500│5000 list of the 5000 fastest growing independent companies.  We are extremely proud of our fast-paced growth and for the recognition by Inc. Magazine. Because our revenue is primarily performance-based, we issued a press release heralding this acknowledgment as a recognition of our clients’ success over the past four years.

Speaking engagements

This year, many NETexponent team members demonstrated our industry expertise by speaking at a number of leading conferences in search and affiliate marketing.

First, at the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Exposition, Peter Figueredo joined a panel of industry experts for a session called ‘Dealing With Affiliates: A Roadmap to Success.’  Here, Peter shared with the audience the ‘Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ of affiliate marketing. He described some of the ways affiliate marketing can be successfully married with search engine marketing practices for a synergistic effect on sales for the client.  However, Peter also outlined some of the negative ways that affiliate marketers can abuse SEM and create added competition for advertiser’s search campaigns.

In August, Senior Affiliate Media Manager Sal Conca spoke at Affiliate Summit East during a session discussing affiliate websites’ dynamic shopping features.  This panel covered all subjects including website creative, optimization, merchant relationships and analytics/reporting.

At Commission Junction University (CJU), during the “Affiliate Marketing: The Whole Truth” workshop, Peter presented some results from the AffiliateBenchmarks report. These teaser facts gave a broad overview of some of the recently analyzed data points to spark interest in the report that was due to be completed and released shortly after.

On November 10^th, at PubCon Las Vegas, Chris Kramer presented data from the newly completed 2009 AffiliateBenchmarks report.  This data supported the theme of the session which addressed the varying quality of available market research.  Chris cited research applicable to both search and affiliate marketing, and the whole event was promoted in a press release sent out a week before the session.

2009 AffiliateBenchmarks Report

In November, we began a hard release process of the 2009 AffiliateBenchmarks report, following a soft release period in which we sent out the completed report to everyone who filled out the survey in its entirety back in July.  Each wave of promotion garnered attention from industry publications and leaders, which we expedited by working with an external agency to assist in the promotion.

In the end, the report and slices of its data were featured on EasyAffiliateMarketing.biz, TJantunen.com, the Performance Marketing Alliance, Website Magazine, digiday: DAILY, Internet Vibes, Visibility Magazine, Biz Report, Marketing Charts, Marketing Vox, Market Scan, MediaTrust. These forums, organizations and blogs all took interest in the report because of its previously unheard of sample size of 3,500 respondent and the depth of its analysis.

Posted in Awards and Honors, Meet Us, NETexponent Clients, NETexponent Fun by Alex W. | | 0 Comments