Client Spotlight
Online
Catalog Turns Website Visitors into Customers
Ed Friedhoff, President of
Flex Products in Carlstadt,
New Jersey, says, "Roughly 50% of our
business comes through our website and online catalog from ThomasNet."
To view a video testimonial
from Flex Products click here, or...
Read more...
Expert's Corner
The
Opportunity of
Economic Uncertainty
Susan Orr, Senior Director of
Strategic Marketing for ThomasNet, shares a “unique” perspective
on getting your piece of the pie in today’s industrial marketplace.
Despite the fact that the media has bombarded us with news of economic
uncertainty, the glass, in my view, remains half full.
Why? Now is the perfect time for you to get back to the basics and take
stock of your company’s unique selling proposition (USP). And,
more importantly, how your USP translates into your unique value proposition
(UVP).
Ask yourself:
Are we customer-centric in everything we do?
What are our core competencies as they relate to meeting our
customers’ needs?
What do we offer that is integral
to our customers’
ability to
do business?
How can we deliver added value to our customers?
Can we share information to “educate” our customers
so they can work smarter in meeting their business challenges?
How can we turn our customers’ ideas into reality?
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Are
You Falling Into the 'Last Ad Trap'?
Brian
Makas, Manager of Business Intelligence for ThomasNet, shares his perspective
on measuring marketing return on investment (ROI) and the “last ad trap.”
What is the ‘last ad trap’?
Many
of the tools used to analyze online marketing campaigns focus on the “last
ad” that a user clicked. Often, these tools are blind to activity not
directly leading to, or occurring on, a company’s website.
Measuring
ROI Beyond the Last Ad, a
recent
study by the Atlas Institute states
,
“Although real-time performance metrics for online campaigns
deliver insight at unprecedented levels of granularity, those same reporting
systems fail to capture the complexity of the campaigns. As a result, publishers
are held to reporting standards that ignore all but the last digital marketing
ad or click before a conversion. Known as the ‘last-ad’ reporting
standard, this model gives 100% credit for a conversion to the last ad seen or
clicked on by a consumer.”
This is what we call the “last ad trap.”
John
Wanamaker, the man considered the “father of modern
advertising,” said, “Half the money I spend on advertising
is wasted, and the problem is I do not know which half.”
Today, while online advertising and marketing analytics can
provide a wealth of intelligence not available in any other medium,
Wanamaker’s words may be even more significant.
Are you missing information?
To
demonstrate the type of information we may be missing if we fall into the
“last ad trap,” let me share my own recent experience purchasing a
Blu-Ray player online. Over the last few months:
- I
searched for “Blue Ray” and read up on what it does (discovering
that “Blu-Ray” is spelled without an “e”).
- I
read reviews of different players.
- I
saw an online banner ad from a national electronics retailer promoting a sale.
- I
searched online for the ...
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40%
and 26%
40% of small businesses plan to add customer reviews to their
websites this year; 26% plan to incorporate video.
Source:
The Kelsey Group, as reported in Entrepreneur Magazine
,
January 2009.
News
6
'Non-Salesy Ways' To Ask Your Customers To Promote You
On SocialMedia.com,
Rohit Bhargava asks, “Want to know the #1 reason your customers don't
recommend you to their friends?” He says, “The real reason is either
because you don't ask them to, or you don't make it easy for them to do it.”
Find out how to get your customers to promote you to their family, friends and
social networks.
Read more...
Journalists
Use Web as Major Research Tool
Website usability expert Jakob Nielsen reports
that, working under tight deadlines, journalists "use the Web as a major research tool"
and they are "impatient with bloated sites that don't serve their needs or list
a PR contact," citing three research studies.
Read more...
Manufacturing
Index Offers a 'Glimmer of Hope'
Manufacturing sector activity rose unexpectedly
in February. In a CNNMoney.com report, Sam Bullard, an
economist at Wachovia, said, "Everyone is so pessimistic from first-quarter
reports, so even when we see a modest gain, it's a glimmer of hope."
Read more...
Free
Twitter Guide for Business
John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape
Marketing, offers a Beginner’s Guide to Using
Twitter for Business, which he describes as a "simple, practical
road map to show you how to start using Twitter to reach some of your business
and marketing objectives.”
Read more...
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