Digital Marketing
SEO On-Page Best Practices
- Assign a primary keyword phrase for your page. - Pages should contain no less than 250 words and no more than 1000. - The primary keyword or keyword phrase should appear in the first and last sentence of the content produced for the page. - Put your keyword phrase in the page title, meta description, meta keywords, H1 and Alt text. - Your primary keyword phrase should be at a saturation rate of 3-7% - Since 80% of internet users are skimmers it is always good to include short bulleted lists. - This is also a very good way to add keywords to your content if you're struggling to add a few. - Bold your primary keyword or keyword phrase one time in your content. - Include at least one image per page and assign alt text with the primary keyword phrase in it. - If you include links that link to an internal page in your content make sure the anchor text is the primary keyword or keyword phrase assigned to that page. - Don't put too many links in your content. It can be distracting. A general rule of thumb: One link per bullet or number if your content has a list, and/or one link per paragraph. - Put the primary keyword phrase in the URL - "www.primarykeywordphrase.com" or "www.yourcompanyname.com/primarykeywordphrase"
Email Signature
- At the bottom of message - Should be short (no longer than 4 lines) - Your name - Company name - Your email address - Link to your site - Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition)
Affiliate Marketing: Contextualized Advertising
- Blogs - placing ads relevant to your content - Deals - providing discount codes or highlighting bargains - Incentivized - passing back rewards to consumers who utilize your links - Other
Email Marketing: Your Database
- Collect more than just the email address (name, zip code, interests, other relevant demographics, info you plan to use in future) - In-house lists typically perform much better than purchased or rented lists
Message Body of Promotional Email Should Contain:
- Compelling offer - Call to action - Privacy statement, disclaimer, & unsubscribe instructions
Reaching Today's Consumer via Email (what to think about)
- Corporate scandals erode trust - Growing market resistance - They receive 100+ emails a day and only 10-20 from people they actually know - They wan t to be treated as people - Spam is in the eye of the beholder (make sure recipients don't misconstrue your message as spam)
Email Marketing: Frequency
- Depends on expectations of target audience - Newsletters tend to be weekly or monthly - Monitor number/variety of contacts to avoid burnout
Message Body of Email Newsletter Should Contain...
- Header - Table of contents - Welcome - Multiple 'departments' - Privacy statement, disclaimer, & unsubscribe instructions
Negative Keywords
- Help prevent ads from showing up in search queries that are unrelated to an advertiser's website content - You can add negative keywords to campaigns, ad groups, or keywords - You can incorporate negative similarly along match types (ex: Keyword: cruise, Negative: tom)
Email Marketing: Length
- In general, keep it short and sweet (use links to other pages if necessary) - Weekly newsletter should be no more than 5 sections with 3 or fewer paragraphs each (monthly newsletter can double or triple that) - Promotional messages should be significantly shorter than a newsletter - Include whole articles or just abstracts with links to the rest
Social Marketing for Business
- It's Social Marketing, not Social Media (don't treat social in a stand a lone silo, it is a critical and integrated element to all of your marketing programs) - Look at social marketing through the lens of the customer journey (social marketing can exist throughout the purchase process, and can have an enormous impact on shaping everything from product development, to trial, to customer loyalty, to customer service and satisfaction, to sales) - Social Marketing is the critical connective tissue between brands, their influencers, customers and prospects (social allows us to unleash the potential of these customers)
Social Marketing Best Practices
- Listen/learn from advocates and detractors - Integrate social into with other marketing initiatives-online/offline - Organizationally, Social must be considered as a long-term commitment - Change the way you think about creative: Social content isn't advertising, people don't share advertising, in general (with few exceptions) - Be transparent. - Social can have scale but also must be tactical (testing and learning in a nascent space) - Utilize multiple platforms and customize URLs to own Search page (Social SEO)
Examples of social games advertising
- McDonalds branded farm on Farmville - Honda Car Town - Cascade Farms Farmville (w/ real Farmer Joe)
Types of email
- Newsletters (regularly scheduled messages with timely and interesting news, tips, and other info) - Promotional messages (inform recipients about special offers) - Everything else
SEO Results can come from:
- Organic SEO - Paid Search - Video Search - Mobile Search - Local Search - Image Search - News Search - Real Time Search - Content Networks - Site Search
Revenue models for mobile apps/games
- Paid app model - Free app, ad-based model (Angry Birds) - Freemium model (Candy Crush)
Email Marketing: How to Improve Your Odds
- Provide numerous opt-in opportunities with low barriers to entry - Make sure the amount of work required to sign up is minimal (ex: only email and all other personal info optional) - Place the email list signup on all forms on your site, including inquiry, order, and feedback forms
Affiliate Marketing: how do advertisers get publishers?
- Purchase - Build - or Register for an affiliate network solution
Email Marketing: How to Distance Yourself from Spammers
- Remind recipients that they gave you permission to contact them - Provide an easy way to unsubscribe - Be sure reply works - Have it signed by a real person - Publish and abide by a strict privacy policy - Be REAL (unique voice, personality, relate to consumer, WIIFM, be honest, avoid chest pounding promotions, be a person) - Attention to detail (no typos, grammar errors, wrong facts, formatting problems, or unintelligible writing <-- reflects poorly on the business)
Social Media Marketing Facts
- Social Media encompasses human behavior (it's everywhere) - There's too much data in the world today so we rely on our friends for information (social media is the small town of the past where you'd get all your information from your family and friends) - People are the medium behind your brand - Engagement is the opposite of disruption - Social Media Marketing is NOT FREE!
Email Marketing: Personalize
- Tailor the offer to the individual (beneficial offers are relevant offers) - Provide customized content specific to recipient location and interests - Greet the recipient by first name - To line should specify the recipient's email address - Let the recipient control the contact frequency - Increases the likelihood of being at the right place at the right time with the right value proposition
Benefits of buying from an ad network:
- Value: networks link advertisers and publishers to reach mutual goals that could not otherwise be met. - Safety: networks offer a safe environment for publishers and advertisers to buy and sell space. - Access: buying from a network gives advertisers access to inventory across these multiple publishers.
Purpose of Keywords
- Which path you want your audience to take to find your site? - Where will your keywords lead them? - When someone types in a query, how well does your content show up?
On-Page Factors (in order of importance)
1) URL 2) Page Title 3) Alt Text 4) Meta Data 5) Header Tags 6) Content
Email Marketing: Define Business Objectives
1. Audience (prospects, customers, advocates, partners) 2. Goals (registrations, signups, sales) 3. Content (newsletter, promotions, reminders, invitations) 4. Metrics (click through, registration, visits, booking/purchase)
Affiliate Marketing (3 steps)
1. Customer visits affiliate's website 2. Affiliate directs customer to their brand/seller partner 3. The brand/seller compensates the affiliate
Key differences between Ad Networks & Ad Exchanges
1. Direct competition: By selling through an auction mechanism, exchanges encourage advertisers to compete with one another for every single impression, driving up the price of ad space. 2. Sell one impression at a time: An ad exchange maximizes the value of each and every impression passed through it, comparing advertisers who might be bidding on very different criteria for that impression, to ensure the publisher gets the best price for their ad space. - This is different from ad networks, who often sell at a lower eCPM in order to close high volume sales, or may not be in a position to quantitatively compare two ad buy offers, e.g. between an advertiser that wants to buy a 1 million impressions of "male audience aged 18-25" with another advertiser who wants to buy 5,000 clicks from "sports fans on the West Coast". 3. Transparency for advertisers: Advertisers typically have visibility on the site, visitor and ad unit which they are bidding on, enabling them to properly value the impression and pay full value for it. - This is different than blind networks where advertisers always pay less, because they do not really know what they are getting. 4. Transparency for publishers: On ad exchanges, publishers get more granular information on which advertisers are buying their inventory and what they are paying. This gives them a better understanding of the drivers of eCPM on their sites and more control over what advertisers and creatives they want to allow / encourage on their sites. - This differs from ad networks where publishers often have limited visibility and only the ability to black-list certain categories of advertisers 5. Sell in real-time: Because advertisers buy ads in real-time, they can dynamically reallocate budget based on the real-time performance of ads. This gives ad buyers greater confidence, which in turn encourages them to pay higher rates for ads bought through exchanges. For example, advertisers setting their bids in realtime on the OpenX Market bid on average 141% higher than those who set their bidding rates / rules in advance. - Because ads are sold in real-time, less operational effort is required to forecast inventory and manage over- and underselling as ads are delivered, reducing friction and administrative costs and leaving publishers with a higher proportion of every ad dollar spent. (OpenX takes a 20% commission on advertising revenue through the OpenX market, as compared to the 30%+ charged by most ad networks) 6. Fewer intermediaries between advertisers & publishers: Because there are fewer intermediaries between advertisers and publishers in the ad exchange model, there are fewer companies in the value chain taking a cut of ad spend, leaving a higher proportion of ad revenue left for publishers. 7. Risk-free: Some ad exchanges (including the OpenX Market) enable publishers to set a "floor price": this means that the exchange will only sell an impression if it can beat the publisher floor. (If not, the publisher can sell the ad to a backup ad network.) This removes the risk of adding an ad exchange to a publisher's revenue strategy, as the net effect on publisher ad revenue can only be positive. - When publishers sell to ad networks by contrast, they cannot specify a minimum floor price.
5 Reasons to use SEO:
1. High Return on Investment - On average SEO carries the highest return on investment of any form of marketing. 2. Minimal Risk - There's no such thing as click fraud in SEO. Pay per click on the other hand is strife with click fraud. 3. Brand Awareness - By being at the top of the search engines your company name will be seen much more frequently. 4. Targeted Traffic - If your website comes up for keyword phrases that are highly relevant to your business, your traffic will be very qualified potential customers. 5. Affordability - Compared to other forms of marketing SEO is cheap. Once the on-page factors are set, the only reoccurring cost is link building.
Holistic Targeting
1. Leverage holistic targeting to reach your target customer: combine online and offline data Online: gender, age, what they read/research/look to buy Offline: credit score, life events, financial profile, other personal info 2. Make sure your targets are accurate by examining the data behind the curtain
How to collect data to tell a data driven story
1. Primary resources (AdSense, Affiliates, Hosting Company, etc.) 2. Secondary resources (Search engines, Traffic scoring, Demographics, etc.) 3. Analyze traffic (Cost vs. Revenue, Traffic sources, Demographic/Geographic data)
CRM
= Customer Relationship Management
DSP
= Demand Side Platform = A cappability/technology/software offered by a company that allows advertising clients to distribute digital media on several different selling systems or exchanges through one interface = a system that allows buyers of digital advertising inventory to manage multiple ad exchange and data exchange accounts through one interface
IAB
= Interactive Advertising Bureau = an advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry
KPI
= Key Performance Indicator = a type of performance measurement to evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity in which it engages For SEM Optimization: CTR, Position, ROI, Click Volume
PII
= Personally Identifiable Information - Any piece of info that can identify a specific individual rather than a general market segment - Once you identify an individual you cannot target them with specific ads because that is harassment/a civil suit)
Request For Proposal
= Request For Proposal ???
SERP
= Search Engine Results Page After entering your query, you will be brought to a page where you see your query/keyword at the top, search ads (in mainline) product & search ads (in rail), shopping search images, organic listings and results from social influence
SSL
= Secure Sockets Layer - The encryption protecting your info - Manages server authentication, client authentication and encrypted communication between servers and clients
VPN
= Virtual Private Network - Extends a private network across a public network, such as the Internet - Allows for the containment of data across a group - Enables a computer or Wi-Fi-enabled device to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if it were directly connected to the private network, while benefiting from the functionality, security and management policies of the private network
Pharming
= a hacker's attempt to redirect traffic from a legitimate website to a completely different internet address. Pharming can be consucted by changing the hosts file on a victim's computer or by exploiting a vulnerability on the DNS server.
Social engineering
= the act of manipulating people into performing actions or divulging confidential information, rather than by breaking in or using technical cracking techniques.
SEO
= the process of improving the visibility of a website or webpage in search engines via the "natural," un-paid, "organic," or "algorithmic" search results
Rich media
A Rich Media ad contains images or video and involves some kind of user interaction. "most engaging and innovative ads in digital"
Drawbacks to Ad Network Daisy Chains
Ad Network Daisy Chain = there are some intermediary ad networks only buying/selling from/to other ad networks and not directly from publishers or advertisers - Many different contracts to manage - Ads take forever to serve - Each network takes a cut, publisher margins suffer - No control over the quality of the ad - Spyware, malware rampant - Click path is convoluted, liable to hijacking
Search policies for Adult Content/Products/Nudity, Alcohol & Tobacco, Brand/Trademark, Pharmeceutical
Adult Content/Products/Nudity: Disallowed on MSFT/Yahoo, Allowed under family safe filter on Google Alcohol: beer, wine and hard alcohol branding allowed on MSFT/Yahoo, beer and wine only on Google Tobacco: Disallowed on MSFT/Yahoo and Google Brand/Trademark: Allowed Pharmeceutical: Pharmacy Checker verification Required
Demand/Buy Side of Online Advertising
Advertiser --> Ad Exchange Advertiser --> Ad Network/Resellers -->DSP --> Ad Exchange Advertiser --> Agency Trading Desk --> DSP --> Ad Exchange **Ad Networks/Resellers & Agency Trading Desk are channel partners** ** DSP is tech partner**
Search Trademark Policies
Advertisers may bid on trademarked keywords so long as their landing pages are relevant, but may not use the trademarked words in the ad copy without permission from the trademark owner. Exceptions: Reseller, Information site, Dictionary terms that are trademarks.
Mobile advertising better than online advertising in _____, _____, and _____.
Aided awareness Unaided awareness Purchase intent
Aided awareness vs. Unaided awareness
Aided awareness = recognition of a specific brand or product from a list of possible names offered as a prompt Unaided awareness = recognition of a specific brand or product without being prompted with possible names
Direct Response
An overall goal for a company to encourage a user to take an immediate action.
Affiliate Advertising: Success Metrics/KPI (Publishers)
$$$
Matching Types
**Example Search Query: "Bahamas travel packages" EXACT = only the exact keywords purchased exist in the search and appear in the exact order specified by the advertiser (ex: Match: Bahamas travel packages, Non-Match: Travel packages to the Bahamas) PHRASE = all keywords exist within the search term and appear in the exact order specified by the advertiser (ex Match: Best deals on Bahamas travel packages, Non-Match: Best deals on travel packages to the Bahamas) BROAD = all keywords exist in the search term and appear in any order (ex: Match: Great travel packages to the Bahamas, Non-Match: Travel to the Bahamas (missing packages))
SEO Off-Page Best Practices
**Link Building** - Produce high quality content that positions you and/or your company as an industry thought leader. Make sure your content is geared towards one of two things or both - solving problems and entertaining. - Do competitive research with SEO Quake. This tool will allow you to look at your competitor's backlinks so that you can duplicate as many as possible. You won't be able to duplicate them all, but you should duplicate the ones you can. - Issue press releases. Press releases tend to get picked up by multiple websites across the internet. Additionally, press release sites tend to have lots of authority. - Guest post on other's blogs. If you post to someone else's blog you have every right to link to supporting content on your blog or website. The more you guest blog the more backlinks you'll develop. - Invite people to post on your blog. If you have a guest post on your blog your guest will help promote the content. This process will introduce new people to your blog and create great natural backlinks. - Make your site easy to bookmark and share. These are backlinks. There are dozens of websites that offer free share buttons for you to customize and drop on a website. Your content has the potential of being in front of many more eyeballs if you do. - Directories - There are thousands of website, blog and local directories that allow you to submit your website or RSS feed. Take advantage of them.
Factors of Paid Ad Position
*The auction works to balance short term revenue and long term relevance (for consumer experience)* Position based on: Relevancy (consumer experience) + Bid Amount (short term revenue) Top mainline position is #1, followed by the other mainline positions and the rail positions from the top down. For each advertiser: MonetizationValue(MV) = CTR(relevancy) * Max Bid The advertiser with the highest MV gets the highest rank Result: relevant advertisers receive higher placement at more effective costs (because actual CPC is < max bid)
Advantages of Ad Exchange (for publishers)
- Allows Publishers to control the amount of transparency they provide to different buyers - Allows Publishers to increase the number of advertisers (amount of demand) being brought to bear against their inventory, despite working with fewer partners - In theory, provides publishers with a higher yield on their inventory
Advantages of Ad Exchange (for third parties)
- Allows third parties to contribute value, and profit from it, by adding additional data to the ecosystem - Creates a ton of room for innovation, which may mean profits for the smartest, bravest, and nimblest
Paid Search Ads
- Appears on the top part (mainline) or the right hand side (rail) of the search results page (SERP) - Ads fit character limits (Title 25 characters, Text 70 characters, URL 35 characters), are editorially approved, and are customized - Position is determined based on how much an advertiser is willing to pay for each click and relevancy - Revenue only generated at the click - Live auction continually changes (optimization needed to maximize ROI) - Search Ads optimized by Advertisers, SEMs, and/or Search Agencies
Spam Filters
- Are built into Outlook, Hotmail, AOL, etc. - Corporate email firewalls - Don't trip the spam filters ("free," "opt-in," "!!!," "forward to a friend," Bcc, To line does not include recipient's email address, scripts, attachments)
Programmatic buying
Buying through automated means; for example by setting up a campaign in an RTB (real-time bidding) exchange or other automated system. This is opposed to more manual buys where you are in contact with a sales team, or other "offline" mechanism.
How do you optimize? (SEO)
CENTRAL IMPORTANCE 1. Asset/Content Optimization (relevance & uniqueness) 2. Site Structure/ IA & Page Theming 3. Link Popularity (indicates authority) 4. Coding Best Practices (site indexability) BUILDING - Develop keyword targets - Build quality in-bound links - Create quality readable content **200+ parameters influence search engines to rank websites for a keyword / phrase**
SEM Optimization Levers
CTR: ad copy changes, match type, negative keyword expansion Position: bid changes, match type ROI: landing page, targeting (demographic, geographic, dayparting) Click Volume: keyword expansion, match type
CPA, CPL, CPC, CPM
Cost Per Acquisition, Action, or Activity <-- paying for a sale Cost Per Lead <-- paying for a sign-up Cost Per Click <-- paying for clicks Cost Per Mil (1000 impressions) <-- paying for impressions
Custom Database Targeting
Create 1:1 conversions online Match customers in database with online audiences from Microsoft/Yahoo/AOL/Google/etc. After the match is complete we can deliver messages based on: - Policy holders who have maintained their policy for > 3 years. - Cardholders who recently bought a new policy for their teen driver. - Customers who are repeat buyers of new policies (life insurance, home insurance, motorcycle insurance). - Any other attribute tracked in your customer databases **Note: These are all anonymously matched to the XID so we target people safely online**
Display Performance Program Options
Drive lower funnel conversions with a variety of programs. The goal: maximize client ROI by growing quality demand in a large-scale, active, and diverse marketplace with intelligent matching Advertiser Demand + Optimal Supply + Intelligent Matching = Client ROI
Social Media Marketing is _____ while Most Other Traditional Media Marketing is _____
ENGAGEMENT: 2-way conversation DISRUPTION: yelling at consumers
Calculating Keyword Saturation Rate
Example keyword phrase = Ford Mustang Tires # of total words on page = 600 # of words in keyword phrase = 3 600 ÷ 3 = 200 # of times key word phrase is in content = 10 10 ÷ 200 = 5% = Keyword Saturation Rate
Examples of mobile geo-check-in and shopping
Foursquare CheckPoints ShopKick iBotta SavingStar ** Enables location-based marketing **
Email Marketing: Permission Marketing
Get recipient's consent in advance (allow them to opt-in and opt-out) Opt-in = recipient volunteered to receive your email ("hand-raisers" more likely to tolerate and respond favorably to your emails) Opt-out = recipient didn't have the opportunity to avoid receiving your first email, only to avoid receiving subsequent ones
Advantages of social game advertising
High engagement, interactive
Social Marketing for Business (Internal and External)
INTERNAL: - Customer service - Corporate communication - R&D EXTERNAL: - Marketing - PR - Media - Email - Promotions - Online
SEO Checklist
Keyword Optimization Website Development Link Structure Backlinks Domain & Hosting http://www.webseoanalytics.com/blog/seo-checklist-60-essential-checks-before-launching-a-website/
Actual CPC is > or < Max Bid?
Less than (<) How? because an advertiser's actual CPC = the MV of the advertiser one brand below them divided by their own CTR
Social Strategy Cycle
Listen (Who are our advocates? Where are they talking about us? How do they discuss the brand?) Inspire (How can we invite brand advocates to participate? How can they inspire others to join?) --> Listen & Measure --> Nurture (How can we nurture meaningful relationships and turn brand participants into brand advocates?) --> Listen & Measure --> Prove It (Did brand participants step into an advocate role? Did advocates activity invite others to the brand experience?)
Advanced ad opportunities for mobile
Mobile Web (display) Rich Media (expandable) In-Application (custom)
More people own _____phones than _____phones
More people own smartphones than feature phones (means mobile marketing opportunities are now very powerful and growing)
Telling the data story
Nobody cares about the numbers --> care about the insights (what you can derive from the data)
Examples of PII and Not PII
PII: - Full name (if not common) - Phone number 100% of the time - email address - Home address (maybe, depends on the property. Ex: if you have the address of the apt building but not the apt # then it is not yet PII, BUT if you have the address of a single family home it is PII) - National ID # - Drivers license - Face, fingerprints, handwriting - Credit card/drivers license number - Birthplace/DOB/genetic info Not PII: - IP address (need more than that to be PII) - Age/gender/race - Hair color - Blood type - Behavioral stats (ex: liking travel) - Country/state/city/school/workplace
Supply/Sell Side of Online Advertising
Publisher --> Ad Exchange Publisher --> Ad Network --> Ad Exchange Publisher --> Yield Optimizer --> Ad Exchange **Yield Optimizer is SSP**
_____ is key for the consumer
RELEVANCY - consumers want mobile advertising based on interests and preferences, are more wiling to view a mobile ad that is informative, and are willing to share location for more relevant advertising
SEO vs. SEM
SEM = Search Engine Marketing: - Paid Search - CPC Model - In context, may include reference to SEO SEO = Search Engine Optimization: - Indexed, Organic, Natural, etc. Search - No direct cost - In context, may include reference to SEM tactics around optimization
Evolution of Search & Consumer Use of Search
Search: Directories --> Keyword -> Rich Semantics & User Experience Consumer use: Browsing --> Queries --> Task Accomplishment & Decision Making **Currently, search does pretty well with basic queries, like navigation, where people within a minute or two can find what they're looking for and are on their way. But, search sessions that involve transactions or research, can be 3x or 4x as long.**
Shoppers + mobile
Shoppers are receptive to mobile advertising (compare prices, view info, many use phones to shop more efficiently like by looking at past reviews)
Warehousing
Storing good sold via E-commerce in large warehouses until they are ordered and need to be shipped.
Affiliate Advertising: who pays the bills?
The advertisers pay both the Affiliate Network and the commissions to the Publishers as a percentage of sales or as a fixed bounty
E-Commerce
Trading in products or services using computer networks like the internet. Reduces your need for overhead (safer). Essentially: I can bill you based on a payment mechanism for something, that $ will go from your account to my account securely, then I can provide you with some good/service You can make money on margin or on volume (either increase price to increase margin profit or increase volume you sell to increase profit)
Email Marketing: Best Time to Send
Tues-Thurs 10am-2pm But it varies depending on your audience
What are you optimizing for?
Web Spider --> Your Website --> Builds a list of words and notes where they are stored on your site --> Builds index based on its own system of weighting --> Encodes the data to save space --> When people enter a query in a search engine, this index in accessed and info is returned
Geo-conquesting
a form of geo-fencing where marketers target competitors' locations with their own aggressive offers
How To Find More High Quality Customers
"Clone" your valued customers with look-alike modeling Track people who convert on the network & create custom look-a-like models for future campaigns
Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing (Advertiser's POV)
*Pros:* - all advertising budgets meet or exceed CPA and ROI goals, inherently - dynamic control of advertising placements regardless of location - new CRM data and info gathered on publishers adds value to the sales process *Cons:* - 80/20 rule applies (80% of the time, 20% of publishers generate 80% of the sales)
Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing (Publisher's POV)
*Pros:* - relatively instant advertising partnerships based on revenue share - credible advertisers' ads placed on your site - easily managed revenue stream *Cons* - minimum payments - time to cultivate relationships and optimize ads - no guarantees of success
Email Marketing: Privacy Policy (Why have one?)
- Builds trust - Address what you'll be doing with the user's info, both now and potentially in the future - Post it in an obvious place on your site - Link to it from your email campaigns - Abide by it, no exceptions - Don't revoke or weaken it once you've published it - It is now a MUST HAVE
Pros of Email Marketing
- Critical Mass (reaches 93% of internet users) - Response Rates (10x greater than direct mail) - Lower Costs (are 1/10 the cost per communication) - Relationship Builder (80% of visitors never return)
Penalties for violating CAN-SPAM
- Each separate email in violation is subject to penalties up to $16,000 - More than one person can be held responsible (both the company whose product is being promoted in the message and the company that originated the message)
Good Email Marketing Campaign
- Emails should be relevant, timely, and beneficial - "Value" can take the form of: newsletters, discounts, contests, event reminders, invitations, prizes, memberships, bonuses, coupons/discounts, exclusive sales, free samples, demos - Surveys (give free report or enter them into a draw) - Go paperless (specs, price lists, statements) *Above all, deliver value*
HTML Emails
- HTLM offers more control over layout (tables, graphics, color, font, forms) - HTML looks more 'polished' (could be good or bad) - HTML emails typically have twice the click-throughs - Some old email clients can't do HTML (ex: Outlook 95) - "Sniff" for HTML open or send multiple versions multi-part
Email Marketing: Consequences of Spamming
- Hate mail - Harassment from spam vigilantes - Badmouthed in discussion forums & social media - Blacklisted (SpamCop, etc.) - Possibly internet privleges revoked by your ISP - Federal charges, fines, etc. via CAN-SPAM
Privacy: Key Threats
- Malware - Spyware - Web bug - Phishing - Pharming - Social engineering - Malicious proxy server (or other "anonymity" services)
Scale Display Ecosystem
- Scale Display = the segment of online display advertising traditionally served by ad networks --> evolved to be served by a broader range of specialized parties (Now the Display Value Chain is overcrowded) (2003) Advertiser --> Publisher Advertiser --> Ad Network --> Publisher Advertiser --> Ad Network --> MNO (Mobile Network Operator) --> Publisher (2010) Advertiser --> DSP --> Ad Network --> Exchange --> SSP --> Publisher
Components of an email
- Subject line (the most important part of the email) - From line - To line - Message body
Email Marketing: Measures of Success/KPI
- Unsubscribe rate - Bounce rate - Unique open rate - Total open rate - CTR (click through rate) - Conversion rate
3 Versions of E-Commerce Transactions
B2B = Business to Business B2C = Business to Consumer (Ex: Amazon) C2C = Consumer to Consumer (Ex: eBay, Craigslist)
Advantages of Ad Exchange (for buyers)
BUYERS = ADVERTISERS - Allows buyers to create infinitely more targeted buys (can purchase very specific audiences) - Allows Buyers to more precisely buy just the impressions they want, at precisely the price that is worth it to them - Allows buyers to increase their reach, despite cutting down on the number of partners they have to work with - In theory, provides advertisers with more bang for their buck
How Ad Exchange works
1. Visitor enters publisher website URL. Publisher sends request to ad exchange for 1 ad of particular spec (ex: a banner) 2. Ad exchange makes available details of visitor, publisher site, and ad unit to participating advertisers/agencies 3. Advertisers respond with different bids based on the value of that impression to themselves and the ad creative 4. Ad exchange selects highest paying advertiser and sends corresponding creative to publisher website 5. Visitor sees creative from highest paying advertiser **Complete process takes only milliseconds**
Behavioral Targeting Solutions + Examples
How does Microsoft find your audience? By blending information from some of the following unique data sources: - Site visits -Microsoft network data - Keyword search - Profile data **Use this data and its recency to segment users** What's New? - Tiered pricing provides more flexible options for cost conscious marketers - Custom segments can be built in < 7 days & now subtract your existing database - Search Remessaging launches in August : target Bing users in market - Blue Kai and other 3rd party data added to segments as valuable
Ad Network Passbacks
If one ad network does not have the appropriate publisher to match with a certain advertiser, they can contact another ad network and purchase a publisher's inventory from them in order to provide the advertiser with it - A passback occurs where an ad network or ad exchange can't reach the agreed floor CPM or when no paid ads are found to deliver. Then, the network will redirect the impression back (called a "pass back") to the publisher ad server so that it can send it to another network or display a house ad. Passbacks are common with site retargeting networks as they only buy the ad impression if it belongs to their cookie pool.
Dot-com bubble
People tried to sell anything online but the business fundamentals were not there (fueled by E-commerce)
Examples of E-Commerce
Pizza Hut online orders, CDNow (1994) Amazon, Internet Radio, eBay, Craigslist (1995) Dot-com bust, Google AdWords & Adsense launch (2000)
Privacy Terms: SSL, PII, VPN, Cookie
Secure Sockets Layer Personally Identifiable Information Virtual Private Network Cookie
UCE
Unsolicited Commercial Email = Spam = bogus sender address, bogus unsubscribe instructions, and bogus offers
Profile Segments from Experian
Target with advanced demographics Audience information beyond standard profile targeting available for any campaign & covering 235 million people in the U.S. Advanced profile segments: - Occupation detail (job title) - Median equivalency score - Education - Life events - new parents (monthly) - Children (presence of children in HH by age range) - Marital status Example scenario: Target households with children. Send messaging to those customers with information about S.C. Johnson's products.
Data Mining
The process of analyzing data from many different dimensions or angles, categorize it, and summarize the relationships identified. Technically, data mining is the process of finding correlations or patterns among dozens of fields in large relational databases. (E-Commerce)
Targeted Ad Network
Let advertisers buy audience segments e.g. demographic (by gender, age), behavioral (by interest e.g. in sports, cars), by context (e.g. websites that in particular subject areas) or by alternatives to CPM (e.g. buy clicks instead of impressions).
How To Get in Front of Your Ideal Customers
Mosaic targeting with Experian Household targeting based on demographic and socioeconomic characteristics (ex.: Military Family Life) Segments based on >300 variables from key data sources including INSOURCE and the US Census Example scenario: Target African American households in the greater Chicago area or other Metropolitan hubs. Send targeted messaging to those customers with promotions for special auto insurance rates or other programs.
2 Types Gaming
1. Traditional/casual 2. Social
3 Ad Network Scenario
3 Ad networks each with different buyers and sellers, exchange among themselves to appropriately allocate ad inventory
Malware
= "malicious software" = software used to cause damage to a single computer, server, or computer network through use of virus, trojan horse, spyware, etc.
Custom Modeling + example
= A solution tailored to your needs = Your custom solution is built with information from leading data providers (Experian or Acxiom) to create an incredibly precise audience from offline data and online insights Using custom modeling, you can target: - The audience of specific TV shows - People who own certain types of businesses (B2B) - Specific industries - People with a credit score of 700+, income $75k+, or an auto loan - Audiences based on MRI or Simmons variables Example: If Nikon has identified their ideal audience for media planning using MRI descriptors we can use these same descriptors for your online campaign. By working with Publishers and Experian, your MRI descriptors can be mapped to similar Simmons segments to create a custom target and find your target audience across the Microsoft network of sites.
How an Ad Network Works
Publishers --buy--> Ad network --sell--> Advertisers 1. Inventory Forecasting: ad network buys inventory from publishers and works out how much inventory they have to sell across all of their publisher sites 2. Inventory Sales: ad network sells inventory to advertisers (in advance of impressions being displayed) 3. Ad Delivery: Ad network delivers the creatives, aiming to satisfy all the different order criteria from all different advertisers
Scale Display Long Term Risk
Risk if scale display consolidates to a dominant player that: - Gains "black box" control over pricing and policies - Accrues comprehensive data and captures its value - Limits value creation and capture for buyers, sellers, and data providers (Ex: if Google became the sole scale display advertiser)
Rep Ad Network
Represents a select group of publishers, often on an exclusive basis. Function as an outsourced sales force for their publishers.
Scale Display
- Automated, programmatic buying, at scale - Buying an audience by setting parameters - like buying search - Doesn't matter where it is placed, you are just buying into a network of several different smaller placements - Very complex ecosystem with rise of new categories including exchanges, SSP/advisors, DSPs, and data vendors - Value-add through targeting and superior use of data and analytics
Brand Display
- Personal, relationship driven - You are buying a singular placement, one-time only and pay a fixed price for the placement and time (very expensive) - buying an audience by buying a property - much like traditional media categories - Simple ecosystem with agencies, marketers, many ad networks, and a few specialist firms - Value-add through media planning, custom solutions, ad ops "hustle"
Plain Text Emails
- Plain text: precede URLs with "http://" and emails with "mailto:" - Plain text: limit the line width to 65 characters - Plain text: headlines only in ALL CAPS or *Bold* (Bold is better because ALL CAPS harder to read)
Affiliate Marketing: how to publishers get advertisers?
- Register for either an affiliate network or individual program
How do affiliate networks earn money?
- Registration/annual fees - Ad serving charges (CPM) - CPA charges (% of sales or commissions) - Co-marketing (varies by placement)
An email can contain 3 different types of information
1. Commercial Content - advertises or promotes a commercial product or service, including content on a website operated for a commercial purpose 2. Transactional or relationship content - facilitates an already agreed-upon transaction or updates a customer about an ongoing transaction 3. Other content - neither commercial nor transactional or relationship *If the message contains only commercial content, its primary purpose is commercial and it must comply with the requirements of CAN-SPAM. If it contains only transactional or relationship content, its primary purpose is transactional or relationship. In that case, it may not contain false or misleading routing information, but is otherwise exempt from most provisions of the CAN-SPAM Act.* *If the message contains BOTH commercial and transactional or relationship content, the primary purpose is the deciding factor (if a recipient reasonably interpreting the subject line or body of the message would likely conclude that the message promotes a commercial product/service, then its primary purpose is commercial and it must comply with the requirements of CAN-SPAM.)*
CAN-SPAM Requirements (7)
1. Don't use false or misleading header information (the "from" "to" "reply-to" and routing info) 2. Don't use deceptive subject lines 3. Identify the message as an ad 4. Tell recipients where you're located (valid physical postal address) 5. Tell recipients how to opt out of receiving future email from you (return email address or another easy internet-based way for them to communicate their choice to you) 6. Honor opt-out requests promptly (must be able to process opt-out requests for at least 30 days after the email is sent, must honor all requests within 10 business days, you can't charge a fee or require any PII beyond the email address, you cannot sell or transfer their email address) 7. Monitor what others are doing on your behalf (both the company whose product is being advertised and the company that actually sends the message can be held legally responsible for violations of the CAN-SPAM Act - you cannot contract away your responsibility to comply with the law even if you hire another company to handle your email marketing) http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus61-can-spam-act-Compliance-Guide-for-Business
Ad Exchange
= An open marketplace/ecosystem/technology platform that facilitates the bidded buying and selling of online advertising from multiple ad networks --> Allows advertisers and publishers to come together to exchange data, set prices, and ultimately serve an ad - Connects the deal between DSP and SSP - Display space that's unsold by either sites or networks is usually collected by an exchange, where it is auctioned off to the highest bidder among advertisers, networks and agencies. It's a very simple way to buy ad space, and for publishers to squeeze value from their unused inventory. ^^ this approach is technology-driven as opposed to the historical approach of negotiating price on media inventory. This represents a field BEYOND AD NETWORKS as defined by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and by advertising trade publications such as Advertising Age. - Provide efficiencies to both buyers (advertisers and agencies) and sellers (online publishers) --> what is being bought/sold is advertising space (Examples: AdECN (owned by Microsoft now called AppNexus), RightMedia (owned by Yahoo!), DoubleClick (a Google subsidiary))
EDI + EFT
= Electronic Data Interchange - an electronic communication system that provides standards for exchanging data via any electronic means. + Electronic Funds Transfer - provides for electronic payments and collection, is safe, secure, efficient, and less expensive than paper check payments and collections. *started E-Commerce in the late 1970s*
ERP
= Enterprise Resource Planning (E-Commerce) = business management software—usually a suite of integrated applications—that a company can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities, including: Product planning, cost. Manufacturing or service delivery. Marketing and sales.
SSL Certificates
= Secure Sockets Layer Certificates = small data files that digitally bind a cryptographic key to an organization's details. An organization needs to install the SSL Certificate onto its web server to initiate secure sessions with browsers. When installed on a web server, it activates the padlock and the https protocol (over port 443) and allows secure connections from a web server to a browser. Typically, SSL is used to secure credit card transactions, data transfer and logins, and more recently is becoming the norm when securing browsing of social media sites. SSL Certificates bind together: - A domain name, server name or hostname. - An organizational identity (i.e. company name) and location.
SSP
= Supply Side Platform = A DSP but from the publisher or content producer's perspective. = a technology platform with the single mission of enabling publishers to manage their advertising impression inventory and maximize revenue from digital media.
USP
= Unique Selling Proposition = your differentiation from other brands/products
Ad Network
= a company that connects advertisers to web sites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is aggregation of ad space supply from publishers and matching it with advertiser demand. (like a broker of advertising inventory) - works with site publishers from all over the web to help monetize any of the publishers' inventory that goes unsold. The networks aggregate this unsold inventory and use technology to effectively package it. ** The fundamental difference between traditional media ad networks and online ad networks is that online ad networks use a central ad server to deliver advertisements to consumers, which enables targeting, tracking and reporting of impressions in ways not possible with analog media alternatives.
Purchase funnel
= a consumer focused marketing model which illustrates the theoretical customer journey towards the purchase of a product or service UPPER - Awareness - the customer is aware of the existence of a product or service - Interest - actively expressing an interest in a product group - Desire - aspiring to a particular brand or product - Action - taking the next step towards purchasing the chosen product LOWER
Cookie
= a small data file that a site stores on your computer's hard drive using your web browser - Indicates something that you have done like pages you looked at, whether you clicked on an ad, items in your shopping cart, log-in name, etc. - Other cookies may be placed in your browser by third-party advertising companies to help deliver the ads you see online. These "third-party cookies" may be used to "remember" parts of your online activities in order to deliver ads tailored to your interests. **Cookies are not spyware or adware, and can't deliver viruses or run programs on your computer.**
Affiliate Marketing
= a symbiotic program that allows web publishers to partner with a brand/seller and advertise the brand/seller's products on their site. This program includes a revenue sharing agreement so that, if a sale is made through the publisher's advertisement, the publisher receives a percentage of the revenue. Ex: Amazon Associates (pay by CPA (cost per action)/CPConversion - when somebody clicks on an affiliate link and it leads to a purchase)
Web bug
= an object embeded into a web page or email, usually invisible to the user/reader. It allows checking to see if a person ahs looked at a particular website or read a specific email message.
Phishing
= criminally fraudulent process of trying to obtain sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card, or bank info. Is an internet crime in which someone masquerades as a trustworthy entity in some form of electronic communication.
Spyware
= piece of software that obtains information from a user's computer without that user's consent.
How Ad Exchanges fixes the problem of the advertising value chain being both complicated and inefficient
Ad exchanges address the above problems, removing complexity and inefficiency from the value chain, by auctioning each impression in "real-time" between multiple advertisers, and selling it to the highest paying advertiser. This simplifies the value chain by: 1. Providing a single point of contact between publishers and ad buyers, so that advertisers can consolidate the number of places they buy across, and publishers the number of places they sell across. 2. Making it easy for advertisers to compare which ad space to buy, by providing impression level data on the visitor and web page to the advertiser, and enabling buyers to modify their buying strategies based on real-time feedback. 3. Ensuring that publishers maximize revenue, by using an auction mechanism to make sure that the highest paying advertiser buys every impression passed through the exchange. 4. Making it easy to for both publishers and advertisers to deliver the campaigns sold, by delivering each impression as soon as it is sold. (Instead of selling in advance based on forecasts and then managing under- or over-selling.)
TRUSTe
Online privacy management services provider assesses, monitors, and certifies websites, mobile apps, cloud, and advertising channels to allow companies "to safely collect and use customer data to power their business"
Affiliate Advertising: Success Metrics/KPI (Advertisers)
ROI = Return on Investment (not same as CPA) ROAS = Return on Ad Spend (not same as ROI) Overhead Costs Production Costs
Vertical Ad Network
Represent a broad group of publishers in the same sector e.g. "fashion" or "healthcare".
The success of email marketing comes down to:
The split second decision to keep or delete the email (dependent on the From and Subject line)