Biznology Blog: September 2005

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September 29, 2005

What Are the Secrets to Internet Marketing?

I was honored to take part in a panel discussion at the Online Media, Marketing and Advertising (OMMA East) Conference in New York City and I am pleased to see how mainstream search marketing has become. Not only was it the topic of my panel, but it was a big part of the keynote address to the entire conference. But the biggest message is one that is even more important than whether search marketing is the latest effective tactic. If you can measure the impact of what you do, and keep trying things, you will eventually succeed at search marketing and any other kind of marketing.

Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer kicked off OMMA East with a warning to Chief Marketing Officers—you're in danger. The average tenure of a CMO is less than two years. Geoff says the reason is that most CMOs can't measure the impact of marketing spending in terms that CEOs can understand.

Geoff related a typical CEO rant: "What happens if I cut 10% of your marketing budget? Don't know? OK, then I'll cut 20%!" He emphasized to the audience that measurements are the key factor in changing the way we do marketing and that Internet marketing (including search marketing) can be measured and its impact can be shown.

He went on to say that the new way of marketing depends on measurements to show you what you are doing wrong so you can make course corrections, even quoting my approach of "Do it wrong quickly—and then fix it." I agree with Geoff's bottom line: "If you aren't failing, then you aren't working."

All of which was a great introduction to the next speaker, Cammie Dunaway, the CMO of Yahoo!, who provided the audience with excellent insights of what to try first, based on her Yahoo! experience. Cammie emphasized that no matter what you try in online marketing, you are playing excellent odds, because the Internet makes up only 6% of media spending but is 15% of consumer media usage.

And Cammie was refreshingly honest about how her background before coming to Yahoo! did not prepare her for the Internet. She admitted that "My instincts are not well-honed here" and that she is constantly being told by her experts that an ad that she hates is working well and is a good message online. That's why measuring what you do is so important—metrics are what the experts use to determine that a particular campiagn is working.

She was insistent that her blind spots are far from unique, and challenged the audience: "People need to know that tacky pop-up ads are not the state-of-the-art in Internet marketing." She went on to list some best practices in Internet marketing and showed excellent examples of how Yahoo! follows them:

• Match your creative to your target. She showed a great example from Yahoo! Personals on gender targeting. Women want to see a picture of a couple with a relationship message ("Find your one"), whereas men want to see an attractive woman with a different message ("See who's out there").


• Connect emotionally. Yahoo! Sports hawks its fantasy leagues with their "Rekindle the rivalries" slogan because guys love to set up their football team each year and compete again.


• Communicate a clear benefit. It takes more than just emotional appeal—find the single most important thing and make sure it comes through. For Yahoo!'s desktop search offering, "we radically shortened the process for finding files," says Cammie, so that was the basis for the pitch.


• Use meaningful activity. Engage your customer—let them search for jobs right from the ad page. Get people involved. Yahoo! is even allowing search from within the ad—customers can enter zip codes to see where to buy in their area.


• Integrate the customer experience. As we emphasized in our book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., you should use the same graphic on the ad, the landing page, and even on the product page itself. Cammie showed how the latest campaign for Yahoo! PhotoMail does just that.
  

But Cammie's biggest message is about metrics. The only way she knows that these are best practices is because Yahoo! measures everything they do, so they can do more of what works. Cammie suggested several metrics that may help you, ranging from surveys that measure impact on brand awareness and brand perception to the length of time spend on an ad. As I have pointed out in the past, you can use search marketing to measure brand awareness, but you can also measure impressions, clicks, and most importantly, conversions and revenue—all of these were on Cammie's list also.

Are you measuring your marketing effectiveness? If not, take a page from Cammie Dunaway and Geoff Ramsey and learn how to do it.

Posted by mikemoran at 9:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 22, 2005

The Liberation of Not Being Perfect

Why is it that so many of us get stuck wringing every last error out of every project we do? What does that cost? How long does it take? Instead of expensive perfectionism, we can do something just good enough, as long as we agree to keep on improving it and correcting it. September's Biznology newsletter explains why sometimes it's best to Do It Wrong Quickly.

Posted by mikemoran at 12:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 21, 2005

Upcoming Appearances

Just to keep you up to date on where I am appearing, the Enterprise Search Symposium, originally scheduled for October 13, is being rescheduled for second quarter next year—I hope to speak there when it is finally held. Fortunately, I have three new appearances to announce:

• OMMA East in New York City on September 28


• Computer Outlook Radio on October 5


• Netmarketing Breakfast in New York City on November 2

See my speeches page for more details on each.

Posted by mikemoran at 2:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 14, 2005

How Do You Measure Web Marketing Performance?

Last week, I summarized the case for measuring the performance of Web marketing. Today, I want to explain how. All of this information comes from a great conference that I presented at, MPM Forum in New York, focusing on Marketing Performance Metrics. The folks at the CMO Council put together a strong panel of experts that explained how to put performance metrics into action.

For some of you, measuring marketing performance is old hat—you've grown up in direct marketing and you don't know how to do anything else. But for the rest of us traditional marketers, we have grown used to being divorced from sales, which is where the intensive metrics action is.

As you might expect, the strongest advice admonishes us to break down the walls between marketing and sales. Matt Preschern, IBM's Vice President of Marketing for On Demand Business, puts it bluntly when he says, "Your best friend is someone in sales." Because the only metrics that matter are the ones that show business impact for the company (not for the sales department or the marketing department), Matt urges us to "collaborate before you measure." So, as important as the metrics are, choosing the right metrics—the ones based on value to the whole company—comes first.

But how do you pick those metrics? Some might be tempted to measure everything possible to make sure that nothing is missed. Don't do it, Pete Krainik, Vice President of Marketing at Avaya, tells us. "Have fewer metrics if you have to, but make sure they are agreed on." He cautions against overworking people to collect every number possible, and counsels that the meaning of each metric must be agreed to by all parties. Otherwise, "you spend your time arguing about what the numbers mean, instead of the implications they have."

While many of the important measurements are traditional order and revenue numbers, softer marketing effectiveness counts, too. IBM's Preschern discussed how IBM measures not just sales, but brand awareness, so that they can see how people progress from being unaware to being customers. Barabara Pellow, Chief Marketing Officer of Eastman Kodak Communications Group, measures brand awareness from the public relations campaigns. Preschern said that he still struggles with answering the critical question from the Sales General Manager: "Great, but how does that translate to higher sales?" That's the holy grail of MPM and all of the panelists admitted that they are not there yet.

Preschern said that he was once greeted by the sales people with, "Here comes Matt from the ivory tower," but that's beginning to change. Avaya's Krainik agreed that his reception with sales is improving as well—"We've had better conversations in the last six weeks than ever before." Krainik admonishes those that would treat metrics as a new fad program that will fade away. "When you see everyone in the planning meeting showing measurements to the CEO, you know you are winning."

CEOs are increasingly demanding that marketing prove its return on investment, just like everything else. Jarvis Cromwell, Thomson Financial's Managing Director of Marketing, summed up why metrics are so crucial for marketing: "It's hard to get organic growth and marketing is a fundamental tool to do that." If CEOs and CFOs can see the payback of marketing investment, maybe marketing will get the funding needed to move the business. MPM seems like the best chance of persuading them.

Posted by mikemoran at 10:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 13, 2005

Appearance on Webmaster Radio

Just wanted to let you know that I will be interviewed live by Sarah MacKay from Webmaster Radio at 4 pm ET tomorrow. Sarah will be discussing our book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., and other search marketing subjects.

Posted by mikemoran at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 10, 2005

Why Measure Web Marketing Performance?

I was honored to be asked to speak at this weeks MPM Forum in New York, focusing on Marketing Performance Metrics, one of the hottest ideas in marketing today. Regular readers of this blog know how important I find metrics in measuring search marketing (or any other kind of marketing), but I want to pass along what others are saying. It's clear that the time for marketing measurement has come.

If you tend to look askance at marketers because they are rarely accountable for what they do, you've never met these marketers. I was surrounded by 100 of the top CMOs in the business, brought together by the CMO Council. Some of them have the popular new Chief Marketing Officer title, while others are still calling themselves the VP of Marketing, but they are all searching for new ways to measure the impact of what they do. Some, as you might expect, cut their teeth in direct marketing, where metrics are the lifeblood of the business. But many have grown up in Web marketing, co-opting the response rate and A/B testing mentality of their direct marketing forebears.

Geoff Ramsey, the CEO of eMarketer, explained why. While most forecasts for traditional mass media spending are up slightly or even flat, online marketing spending is projected to rise by a third in 2005. BtoB Magazine says that 68% of B2B firms plan to increase online ad spending. In short, online is where the growth is.

Ramsey theorizes that the rise in online spending reflects consumer weariness with traditional one-size-fits-all mass market advertising—consumers say that 59% of ads have no relevance to them. As consumer skepticism rises, marketers are scrambling to find an alternative—almost 50% of CMOs want an alternative to mass media. Many are turning to the Web, and not just for advertising. Marketers want to get customers "involved"—Benjamin Moore's Personal Color Viewer allows consumers to "paint" virtual rooms that look like their room at home, while choosing the exact tint of Benjamin Moore's paints. Other marketers are increasing leads from their Web sites with elaborate video and other streaming media presentations. Clearly, some companies are experimenting with cutting-edge techniques.

And it's not just consumers that are skeptical. Increasingly, CEOs and CFOs are asking hard questions about the level of marketing spending. Jim Lenskold, President of Lenskold Group, spoke of a rising "credibility gap" for marketers who can't show the business value of what they do. So how do you convince a doubting CEO to invest in newfangled ideas such as Benjamin Moore's Web site? These CMOs said you need metrics. Compelling numbers that show the payback on the investment.

But those numbers are rarely available, says a survey from Lenskold Group and MarketingProfs.com: 80% said marketing metrics are not where they should be, and they felt that a stunning 10-25% profit improvement awaited those who could get the proper measurements in place. According to CMO Magazine, one-quarter of CMOs can't measure marketing impact at all because no MPM systems are in place.

So, it's clear that marketers think metrics are critical to driving budget increases from doubting CEOs and CFOs, but are they right? Ramsey quoted a Blackfriars Communications study that showed that marketers practicing MPM got 27% increases in their budgets while those who did not received paltry 3% boosts.

OK, so if you're convinced that it works, how exactly do you pull it off? We'll tackle that in a future blog.

Posted by mikemoran at 10:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 6, 2005

Interview on Computer Outlook Radio Show

John Iasiuolo has invited my co-author, Bill Hunt, and me to join him tomorrow night at 8 pm US Eastern Time on a live broadcast from Computer Outlook. We'll be answering John's in-depth questions on our new book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc. The show is aired on 90 radio stations, including the flagship KLAV 1230 AM in Las Vegas, and is also streamed from www.computeroutlook.com. You can also call in with questions or ask them over a live chat facility, so fire away. John promised that the audio will be recorded and available from the site within a few days if you miss it.

Posted by mikemoran at 5:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 4, 2005

Meet Me at New York's MPM Forum on Wednesday

For those of you not familiar with Marketing Performance Measurement (MPM), you have a great opportunity to learn this Wednesday at the MPM Forum in New York City. I'll be part of the MPM in Action Panel at 11:30 am, where I will explain how IBM came to measure our search marketing success. If you've read our book, Search Engine Marketing, Inc., you know that we are nuts about measuring success, so this will be a fun story to tell. Thanks to the CMO Council for giving me this opportunity.

Posted by mikemoran at 8:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack