Posts Tagged ‘Advertising’
What is Behavioral Targeting?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing, Social Media on July 26th, 2011
The Internet is getting more and more like “Big Brother”… Google guesses what you’re thinking, Facebook serves ads that seem to always correspond with your interests… but what exactly is behavioral targeting and how is it used to advertise?
Targeting companies are hired to place a piece of code on a website. Then, when a user is surfing the web, the site will put a cookie on your browser, which populates as you surf.
Now that your browser has a cookie, the targeting begins. A profile is formed as you click your way from site to site. This cookie takes note of what you buy, what you read and what you search for. The more time goes on, the more data is collected, gauging your interests and preferences.
With systems tracking your moves, keeping tabs on your browsing history, the Internet can get to know you better — and be smarter than ever. This is marketing gold, as more relevant content can lead to more engagement.
Consumers are starting to expect that their Internet experience be all about them.
Meanwhile behavioral targeters are testing demographics and creating algorithms to determine consumer interests and speak to a person’s depth to give them an element of choice. Companies like ContextWeb target based on content. Instead of interpreting CNN as a news site, it breaks it down into retirement, personal finance, education — it’s no longer a one-dimensional perception of the site. And that precision helps to refine the algorithm.
To some, behavioral targeting seems like an invasion of privacy, but this seems to be less of a priority among millennials, who tend to be more accepting of behavioral targeting than their Boomer counterparts. They’re used to living their lives out loud. Behavioral targeters can take advantage of the wealth of consumer information broadcast over social media, learning tweet by tweet about the audience it’s trying to reach.
Where is it inaccurate? What if a family of four shares a desktop computer? How does the targeter know the difference between the family members and their widely varied interests? Well, BT isn’t perfect. It relies on laptops, and soon iPhones, Androids, and iPads for the crux of its data. Give it time – soon we won’t even have to type search criteria into Google!
What do you think? Is behavioral targeting an invasion of privacy? Is it creepy, or smart marketing? What has your personal experience been, as a consumer or marketing company? Share your thoughts by commenting below, or posting on our Facebook page!
Optimizing a Website for Mobile
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing on June 8th, 2011
Many people browse the web with a mobile device. How should you prepare your website for mobile users?
Mobile browsers are growing rapidly. I don’t know about you, but when I attempt to view a website on my smartphone and it won’t load because it’s not optimized for mobile, I lose interest in that company or service very rapidly!
We are in a now society, and if you can’t get answers where you are exactly when you need them (who is going to remember to go home and “look it up later”?) the desire to use that product or service goes out the window as fast as it came.
So how do you optimize your website for this society of new users? Here are some general rules to get you started:
How will you allow mobile users to access your page?
There are several options ranging from automatic generation of mobile pages under the same URL’s to having dedicated mobile pages or special subdomains for mobile devices. The way you want to deal with these pages impacts the way you design them.
Using the same URL for both the mobile and desktop version has great benefits, such as the URL does not matter: people might enter a URL by hand or from a link from another website. Basically all you have to do is simplify your content based on the clients’ capabilities. Can you do this with an extremely complex site, however? This option may leave you limited.
One of the most important things to remember is that the information needs of mobile users is generally very different. A desktop user many times is casually browsing for information, while a mobile user is more likely need context specific answers (requiring them to act immediately).
Adding a subdomain (mobile.yourcompany.com) is another way of opening your website for mobile users. This works if you want to deliver specific content to mobile users only.
Mobile Content
When planning content for your mobile pages, remember that most people are in transit or busy with other activities while browsing your site. You should steer clear of all categories that are not important for people that are mobile. If it is not solving a pressing problem it should not be on your mobile site.
Skip: technical details of a product
Leave: basic features, amount in stock, and price
Skip: company history and adherence to guidelines
Leave: what services your company provides
Skip: your mission statement and stock information
Leave: time-sensitive information (when is the next showing?)
You can always direct people to go to the desktop version of your site if they need more information.
What features do you look for in a mobile website? How has your company approached the solution? Tell us by commenting below or on our Facebook page – we’d love to hear your ideas!
Is Traditional Media Still Relevant?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing on June 7th, 2011
Your brand requires lead generation and a sound marketing strategy behind it. It’s vital to remember that defining your message and communicating it to your target audience is the number one best practice.
Too many times I see agencies jumping on the bandwagon of the latest social craze and abandoning the foundation of the advertising world. Article submission, viral videos, and a ton of tweets are nothing without a strong message behind them.
Online marketing is a great tool AFTER the demand for your product or service is generated. An ad or billboard may convince your buyers that they need something; online search marketing will help them find you (the solution).
Social Media is perfect for establishing your brand and reputation through expertise and content sharing. Using traditional, persuasive advertising messages over Social Media channels are definitely not advised!
Consider the behavior of your clients’ target audience: are they on Twitter? What media channels do they use? How do they receive information?
The best strategies are typically integrated ones, combining the impact of traditional, with the one-to-one channels of search, social, and mobile. Every plan should be created with a specific strategy to reach your clients’ goals. At Idea Associates, we haven’t forgotten that.
Is Outdoor Really Dead?
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Demographics, Marketing on March 21st, 2011
Outdoor advertising may still be around… but it has a lot of catching up to do.
When billboards first appeared they were made of poster paper and hung where passersby couldn’t help but notice them—and today, that’s largely unchanged. The messages may have evolved but advertisers are still just hanging posters outside—static message and all—hoping their ads will resonate.
In today’s ADHD society where every idle minute we have (like waiting in line at the bank or the grocery store) is spent updating our Twitter status or playing games on our smart phone, no one is paying attention to large broadcast signs above our heads telling us what to do.
Like Social Media shifted the paradigm from call to action to joining the conversation, outdoor advertising must encourage and facilitate consumer participation.
How can you expect people to interact through a largely impersonal medium, the outdoor ad?
In 2008, the San Francisco Zoo nailed it. The organization was suffering extremely low attendance at the time and launched an outdoor campaign called “Critter Quest.” The ads, posted on bus shelters across the city, displayed posters of oversized butterfly wings, moose ears, and peacock feathers, and when someone took a picture in front of the ad, they’d end up looking like that animal.
The ad asked people to post their pictures at OurSFZoo.com, and the most creative photos would be chosen for the zoo’s next round of print advertisements.
The campaign was a wild success (pun intended), helping the zoo exceed its attendance goals by about 25 percent.
Creating interaction with the brand gets people excited.
Previously, the only option for an outdoor ad was to direct consumers to a phone number or web address and hope they remembered it when they got home. New technology, like text codes and bar codes, is making it easier to offer immediate rewards for interacting on the spot.
For example, New Yorkers who walked past a billboard for the Broadway musical “In the Heights” could text the word “heights” to a five-digit number and receive a video message from the musical’s main star. The campaign, which ran last year, achieved a 24-to-1 return on investment, according to Targeted Marketing magazine.
Some brands are starting to integrate outdoor campaigns with social media, the ultimate place for consumer interaction.
Surprisingly, digital billboards are still being neglected in the outdoor world. Right now, only 0.4 percent of the nation’s 450,000 billboards are digital, which allows a message to change every four to 10 seconds.
They’re not bringing the results clients want because many advertisers use the same copy and visuals from their static ads. Instead, they should be taking advantage of their ability to change this message on the fly.
Outdoor advertising is still behind the times but not dead. The technology to interact is there, let Idea Associates help you use it to grow your business effectively.
Have you seen any interactive outdoor advertising? What really stood out to you and created a memorable experience? Share your comments below, we’d love to hear!
A Hypothetical Situation:
A prospective buyer visits your real estate property looking for a home to purchase. A leasing agent or even property manager greets him or her with a less than chipper or helpful attitude. As the prospect is shown the property and informed of its hopefully many benefits, your leasing agent continues their lackluster sales performance. At the end of the showing, your once potential prospect might be turned off from your property simply because of a horrible interaction with your leaser.
What does this mean? Did you lose a potential renter or buyer? Probably, but it also means so much more.
This is where real-time reviews can either be your best friend or your worst enemy.
Using their cell phone, the unsatisfied prospect could be posting a negative review of your property on multiple platforms in only the time it takes for them to walk to their car. (Twitter, Facebook, Blog, etc….)
Scary right? Now all of their friends know of the terrible sales experience. It gets worse. With the recent addition of social search to Google, people searching for your property on the Internet could possibly stumble upon their Twitter or Facebook update. Now the bad review goes beyond just their friend group.
So what can we do about this?
The answer seems simple. You outperform any consumer expectations. Is this possible? Maybe not, but it is an admirable goal.
What else?
A Trendwatching.com article suggests that companies should be extremely involved with the review process. This would mean monitoring reviews and responding to them, or actually providing a platform for reviews in order to gain insight and participation ease.
The reality is that people are going to say things about your property/brand. Why not take advantage of the good and bad? If you responded to someone’s positive Twitter comment about your property with a thank you, do you think that would help the chances of them buying or renting from you? You better believe it would. What if you apologized for the bad experience and invited them back for a special visit? It would definitely help.
This is something we need to be thinking about for next year. Real-time reviews will become more common as time passes. Are you ready to handle the good and bad? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
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to figure out exactly who you are or what your project has to offer. I think this helps in defining your target audience.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=003e3afe-b085-4a23-b40e-27c9ce2f8225)
The Art of the Testimonial
Posted by Sibet B Freides in Marketing on May 5th, 2011
BUT… the second piece to this paradigm is that good reviews create no value for you if you can’t put them in front of prospective clients.
How do you get great reviews?
Ask for them.
Loyal and satisfied clients are glad to give you a review or testimonial, but they won’t think to do it without prompting. In addition to simply asking, you can also have a feedback form prominently placed on your website. Make it easy for people to share their thoughts with you and you’ll get a lot in return.
Important: Make sure you get permission to use testimonials and positive comments on your website or in your marketing materials. Again, if you simply ask, most people are more than happy to help. It’s also good to ask how they would like their name to appear after the quote; do they want initials only? Full name with title? Company and website?
Anytime you get a positive comment or even thank you email, you can turn around and thank the person and then ask if you can quote them for your website (or where you want to use it). DO NOT IGNORE THIS STEP – it could very well come back to haunt you if you do.
What do you do with your collection of testimonials?
Put them where your potential clients will see them! On your homepage, your sales page, and in your newsletters. Occasionally scatter them in your social media messages. Be creative with them! Just be sure to make them relevant to the message they are sharing space with. If your testimonial is about going above and beyond, don’t pair it with a former client list or price breaks and specials.
Don’t forget the obvious – find positive words about your company on others’ blogs, Twitter, discussion forums, and popular online review sites, such as Kudzu.com, Google, and free websites relating to your niche.
Tags: Advertising, clients, comments, Idea Associates, kudzu, Marketing, reviews, testimonials, Twitter
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