Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Interactive Moving Into The Strategic Mainstream

Interactive marketing is now starting to take a lead role in the strategic planning process at many companies. This was confirmed by a recent article from AdWeek magazine. Clearly, the Web has become more than a marketing channel; it has become a strategic hub around which marketing revolves. This is especially true for high involvement products. High involvement products are purchases in which the buyer is willing to spend considerable time and effort before making a purchase.

As the AdWeek article points out, interactive marketing was originally thought of more as a direct-response medium, but it is becoming increasingly evident that Web-related marketing has been transformed into a powerful branding channel that is often able to engage high-involvement buyers more effectively than television or magazine advertising.

Read More

Measure Map vs Google Analytics

Isn’t it strange how things happen sometimes? I’ve been patiently waiting for an invitation to Measure Map beta, and then, one day after posting about Google’s foray into Web analytics, I finally get it? Measure Map is geared towards sites running on popular blog software like WordPress, Blogger, and newcomer, Typo. It tracks traffic at the level of posts and comments, which, I’m sure, is a nice feature for bloggers.

Read More

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Google Analytics is Launched

Recently, Google purchased Urchin and rebranded it as Google Analytics. It launched yesterday, with a new name and a new fee. It’s free now, and if you have an AdWords account you don’t need to worry about the 5 million page view limit they put on the free version (though wouldn’t it be awful to have to worry about such things)?!

You just need a Google account and about five minutes to get set up. After that, you’re able to track as many sites as you’d like. As a bonus, they also offer Conversion Universtity, which has articles on optimizing your site and converting visitors once you have them.

There have been a rash of low-cost analytics services like mint ($30) and Measure Map (free) coming out lately, but Google may just steamroll right over them.

Read More

Monday, November 14, 2005

Ad:Tech…Marketing Needs To Prove Itself, Too

A recent article on ClickZ highlighted the growing demand for marketing to live by the same accountability guidelines that other departments have had to adhere to for years. The story was based on a panel discussion during last week’s Ad:Tech Conference in New York.

Much of the discussion centered around the exemption from hard metrics that marketing and advertising have enjoyed for years. In the past, it was easier for marketing to answer difficult questions regarding effectiveness by using soft data answers such as brand awareness scores or share-of-mind data. No more. Upper management and the board of directors want hard numbers on what type of return marketing is producing.

Read More

Friday, November 11, 2005

Blogs: Four Choices for Companies

Josh Hallett, a business communication expert, has shared what he believes are the four choices companies have in relation to the blogosphere.

Read More