Marketing Logic

In speaking to hundreds of people a year about marketing their websites, there always seems to be a theme among them. I’ll get to that, so bear with me. First I have to explain where I am coming from before I say where I’m going on this . . .In reading through the news this morning, everything seems to be either in love with MySpace or bashing it - Yes, I am getting very tired of the MySpace bandwagon. Finally, I see an article that talks about the bottom line results of the investment.

From Internet Outsider:

“Judging from the year over year comparisons in the “Other” category, in which MySpace and the rest of Fox Interactive Media have been unceremoniously dumped, we can assume that the company might have contributed somewhere up to $100 million in revenue in the last quarter ($400 million run-rate), while losing up to about $50 million. Although these revenue numbers are not tiny, they pale in comparison to those of Yahoo, Google, and other Internet leaders. Unlike the revenue at the other Internet leaders, moreover, they appear to come with significant losses, suggesting that the MySpace business model is nowhere near as leverageable as those of its larger brethren. Geocities and Tripod, if memory serves, had a similar problem.”

And this is critical – the business model. MySpace really didn’t start as a business model – that’s one of the reasons that it became so popular. People could go, create a personal page and interact with their friends without the hassle of “business.”

Now that advertisers are literally trying to squeeze something out of the MySpace puzzle, the article ends with one of the most cogent thoughts that I have been preaching for the past few years, but is said very distinctly:

“Perhaps traffic, after all, doesn’t necessarily lead to business value.”

Thank you.

I’m not going to rail against the pre-2000 ways of marketing websites, when traffic was the indicator of value. But I did think that people were beyond that. This has proven me wrong. I guess advertisers are still in love with big numbers . . .
Many businesses ask about ranking #1 for a term that they believe will bring them business. However, after careful analysis, that #1 term brings visitors, but is rarely their best term for sales or conversions. This happens in every case that I’ve seen. Even in other metrics besides ROI, there are other terms that provide a better measure than that #1 desired term. Typically, because the market is so full of additional verticals that a broad approach is better than a singular focus.

Which brings us to the current trend of articles recommending MySpace as an advertiser or Search Optimizer’s best friend – measure your business value – and don’t become singularly focused. Measure and analyze to find those things that ARE working for you, and you may be surprised to find out what they really are.

I’m surprised by the number of people that fire up their analytics programs and blindly expect to be “spoken to” about the status of the site. I’m not sure what people expect, as clicking through endless charts and graphs yield as much information as quickly paging thru that novel you’ve been putting off – neither results in much enjoyment or insight.

Avinash Kaushik has another excellent post about the topic of what makes a good metrics analyst. The mix is a great balance of what I usually called curiosity, intuition, exploration and customer-focus. Avinash creates a Top 10 list with the aspects of what makes a great analyst. I can’t agree more with this list, as my #1 was his was #4. You have to be an “explorer”.

As an aside: It is funny that we have these top 10 lists, when analysts look beyond the “Top 10 lists” in your metrics. Just a humorous observation . . .

There are not enough explorers in the analytics world. Companies would benefit by having a designated explorer that is excited about digging into the analytics to find where the customers are and what they want from the site. Having an interested explorer will yield more insightful information than a pile of charts and graphs on your desk. Of course, a web marketing strategy would help, too.

I find that the best analytics people have more of a personality for it, rather than an education. They seem to have a skill set in search of an activity. Which makes sense, as the third sign in the list was my #2 - be a “smooth talker”. “Great analysts are great communicators, they can present their message in a very compelling easy to understand manner. . . .”

This of course, makes sense, in that information is only as valuable as much as it is understood. It must be uncovered, and then communicated.

In an article at CNet, Piper Jaffray’s Safa Rashtchy, an Internet media analyst, believes the internet revolution is just underway. Social networks are becoming the fastest growing online communities, far surpassing the portals such as MSN and AOL. In specifics, MySpace has grown 119% in the past six months (up to 27.4 billion page views from 12.5 billion). In fact, MySpace now has 48 million monthly visitors, nearly 75% of Yahoo.

The social network is not going away soon. In fact, it is splintering and growing in rapid fashion. As like minded people find each other, they begin their own sub communities and develop again. The Medusa-like growth of these networks is attributed to the ability of a group to form its own identity using the available tools for a social site.

Advertisers - Getting in on the act?
Of course, where the people are, advertising soon follows. As advertisers attempt to gain a foothold in these networks, the people tend to scatter and re-form. However, advertisers and users seem to be hesitantly skeptical of each other, especially in these social networks. Because these are user-directed, content can (and usually does) take on an adult nature. When owners of the sites attempt to “clean up” for advertisers, core users who perceive a change and quelling of their freedoms will tend to leave. NewsCorp finds themselves in this clean-up predicament.

Advertisers seem to be very hesitant as well. Again, using the example of MySpace, Jason Dowdell reported that big brand exec’s were not attracted to the user-created environments.

Something about logging in to MySpace always makes me feel a little dirty; like i’m an old man at a middle school dance. It’s the kind of dirty you can’t wash off and the advertising reps for some of the world’s biggest corporations have taken note.   . . .

“I wouldn’t be caught dead in that kind of environment. You only have to look around for five or 10 minutes to find something offensive.”
-David Cohen, executive vice president for Universal McCann Interactive, with a client roster including Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Lowe’s Home Improvement, Wendy’s International, and Sony Electronics

“We’re being cautious because there’s a blurring between advertising and content, and the content does rub off on your brand.”
-Dawn Hudson, president and CEO of Pepsi-Cola North America

Last month, Weight Watchers pulled advertising because of a porn star promotion being run on MySpace. Strangely enough, Playboy is using MySpace as a “farm league”, further straining relationships with big-name advertisers.

But Wait!  There is Good News. 
After those of you with kids using MySpace have pulled the plug, all in not negative in the world of social networks. In good social media news (not all social networks are outlandishly huge, pornographic or for kids) there is just as much growth.
This weekend, I was amazed to follow one of my favorite social-ecommerce sites, Woot.com. By selling (mostly) electronics a different way than any other site; using forums, an audio blog, RSS, user ratings, comments, and hilarious sales promotions ($1 bag o’ crap), Woot has created a unique animal of ecommerce social networking. A hipster-wanna-be, as some have called it.

This weekend was a Woot-off. Typically, Woot sells one product each day, but in a Woot-off, when one product sells out, another goes up, sometimes for the entire day, this one lasted almost two full days. The fan base was rabid, buying, commenting, keeping records on what was sold, how many units, the price, and the time of the offering. There is a race to “challenge” the sale price by checking the shopping comparison sites and verify the “deal.” Harmless, capitalistic fun.

Market Intelligence 
Sometimes, manufacturers even tune in to field questions when their product is on sale.  As one manufacturer said, “What we got with Woot [in 12 hours] took six to eight weeks with conventional retailers. It’s better than a focus group. It’s such a direct, intimate interaction. Not many companies get to do that.”

From Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch explains the three C’s of a Universal Business Strategy – could this be The Unified Theory?

From the thinking that ultimately, every business is an information business, in that marketing involves information communication. Jantsch’s 3 C’s are: Content, Contact, Community.

Jantsch explains,

• “Content is simply the development of highly valuable content.

• Contact is simply making contact with a audience hungry for this content and finding ways to package and offer this content/information no matter what you really sell or make.

• Community is taking a group that enjoys your content and contact and finding ways to bring them together to make the content and contact better, more useful, bigger for all.”

Amazingly, this seems to fit into a unified theory as website marketing involves these three elements as well. My “classical” approach is developed from my college years in studying the Classical Philosophers, such as Plato and Aristotle, where the 3 elements are; logic, emotion, and credibility. Or, design, content, and persuasion.

Taking Jantsch’s three C’s into the website marketing element, it becomes;

• Content - Making a site architecturally sound, open to the search engines and alternate devices.
• Contact - Persuasively making your case through content, graphics and visual appeal.
• Community – Gathering links from quality, relevant sites to create a network of resources for the user.

The more I am in this business, the more I see the signs of a Unified Theory governing all that we do. Maybe I’ve just become too addicted to watching LOST, but the more I learn, the more I realize is out there to know. I have become fascinated by learning additional marketing theories, but seeing the cohesiveness among them all.

Try taking your marketing strategy and see if it fits these three C’s. Or does your website fit the three methods of persuasion. Are you missing something in your strategy?

With the release of their 6.1 product, ClickTracks has taken a step away from the pack of analytics vendors by providing a tool within the product to find “bad patterns” in paid advertising. Ideally these patterns will help site owners and managers to identify click fraud and other unnatural behavior, but it will also be a useful tool in quickly identifying ads or ad groups that are simply not performing well and costing money.

Hot on the release of the product, ClickTracks made a huge announcement last week when they offered $1,000 of the purchase of the ClickTracks Pro, JDC or Agency edition for Google Class Action Lawsuit Members.

The Class Action lawsuit enables any Google advertiser since January 2002 to go back through their records to find evidence of click fraud. Any recipient of the notice is eligible for the ClickTracks discount.

Having used the click fraud product in ClickTracks, I have to say that it is a powerful tool for anyone who is managing a paid campaign. The beauty of the click fraud algorithm in ClickTracks is that it also allows you to quickly see any abnormalities, inconsistent behavior, and identify poorly-performing ads. The layers of measurements that are applied to the ads, such as IP address (more than usual clicks from China or India), ad group comparison, historical comparison, and time on site comparisons, all of which enable a fast and educated judgment to be made on improvements or fraud claims.

By offering this technology and the purchase credit, ClickTracks has distinguished themselves as more than a simply analytics company, but a company that enables web site owners to take control of their site and their budgets. In addition to this aggressive stance on click fraud, ClickTracks is also offering free classes to help site owners understand their analytics and measure success.

All of this reinforces my choice of ClickTracks as a preferred vendor. I love the interface and the ease of accessing information that can make an immediate impact in the success of a website. I also like the culture of the company, but I especially like philosophy of making and doing things differently. It’s hard to say exactly what it is - maybe more user-centric, I think.

I recently found that one of my favorite web sites, woot.com has expanded into wine. For those of you that may not be familiar with Woot.com, the premise is surprisingly simply – “One day, one product.” It’s like Christmas every morning to see the product for the day. It is usually an electronic type of product, though the range can be from vacuum cleaners to wireless G routers (I got one!).

And now, Woot has expanded into wine. For afficianados, this will be an amazing alternative that destroys the typical wine-of-the-month club drama. The tagline is now “One week, one wine.” Woot features different cellars and wine choices every week throughout the month, along with the expected underhanded-compliment promotional content. If nothing else – go to Woot for the copywriting – it’s always a treat to see how they make products as uninspiring as a wireless keyboard with less than a 5ft. range into a desirable must have for your collection.