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 Peter Figueredo | | 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 Peter Figueredo | | 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 Peter Figueredo | | 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 Peter Figueredo | | 0 Comments
