A key metric with online advertising efforts is lead generation, or the ability to produce an engaging message for which a potential customer would give their contact information. While generating leads, one really needs to take into account the quality of the leads and how best to utilize them to create a purchase. Quality leads are necessary for success, because having a large quantity of unqualified leads does nothing more than flood a sales department with a pile of contacts…
Four Brand Considerations to Keep in Mind for Acquisitions
With the recent economic slowdown, many companies are turning to a growth strategy that revolves around acquisitions. While there are a number of financial and strategic considerations around acquiring another company, there are also important brand considerations to keep in mind that can help companies make better acquisition decisions. 1. Know where you are and where you want be.Ask yourself what, from a brand standpoint, is driving the acquisition. Is there a specific position in the marketplace that you don’t…
Auto advertising when stocks are plummeting.
As the U.S. auto industry experiences enormous stock decline, shifting advertising strategies may help steer away negative perception on how the auto industry spends money. Just the other day, I saw a full-page back cover ad in the Chicago Tribune for one of the begging for bailout money automakers. Realizing a full page is costly and un-targeted when running outside of the auto section, I questioned how the company justifies buying such an inefficient placement. I know that advertising is…
Nominating a keyword suggestion tool
With the presidential election fresh in our minds, I think it’s only appropriate to discuss nominating the right keyword suggestion tool for your search marketing initiatives. A keyword suggestion tool allows you to type in a keyword and with the click of a button returns the relative number of times that keyword was searched in the search engines for in a given amount of time. In addition to the number of searches for that term, most keyword suggestion tools will…
Does your browser smile?
Unlike the early days of web development there are now standards practiced when building websites. The closer a web browser adheres to these standards the easier it is to develop, update and maintain a website. Browsers such as Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome have all made great strides in becoming standards compliant. Microsoft's browser Internet Explorer (IE), unfortunately, has had a pretty bad track record when it comes to this topic. Ask any web developer which browser has given them…
Top B-to-B Ad Impression Sites Reveals Social Mistakes
A lot of buzz has been flying around about Web 2.0 and Social Media. However, when it comes to where ads are shown statistics released by Nielsen Online AdRelevance for September 2008 reveal that many B to B marketers are not keeping a close eye on where their ads are being shown. Five of the Twenty sites in particular really jump off the list at me and make me wonder what people are thinking? #2 MySpace 153.7 million impressions….
How Brand Essence Made Superhero Movies Good Again
It was a very good summer for comic book superhero movies: Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk and The Dark Knight all garnered solid, if not spectacular, reviews and made a collective $980 million (and counting) at the box office. The Dark Knight will be the #1 grossing movie of 2008, and last year’s leader was Spider Man 3. This wasn’t always the case with movies sourced from popular comic book series. The long line of recent failures includes The Punisher,…
Taking Type for a Spin
Anyone currently working as a creative or designer has at their disposal a remarkable range of software that provide amazing tools for generating graphics. Over time, we’ve seen the Adobe family of products ascend through sequential numbers (e.g. Adobe® Photoshop® 6.0; Adobe Illustrator® 9.0) to finally reach the Suite spot (see CS1, 2, 3 or 4). I’ve used Adobe products for years. I still marvel at the ease, precision and immediacy in which creative tasks are achieved. One such task…
Don’t Get Blogged Down
With the web continuing to be a necessary marketing tool, more and more companies and businesses are jumping on the blog bandwagon to share information and expertise. Being semi-new to the blog practice, I can only speak on what I know so far about what works and what doesn’t. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up in my short time in the blogosphere. 1. Keep things short. Most people crave useful information, but dislike reading. Make your point, and…
Invisible Power
How many times have you been stuck in traffic frustrated and all of sudden a good song comes up on the radio and you forget about the traffic. Or during the holiday season, you walk into a mall and Christmas music is playing. Suddenly, it puts you in that “holiday-season-mood.” Not to mention that it motivates you to SHOP! I am a true believer that music sets the tone for pretty much everything. Music has that “Invisible Power” to control…