Learn the customer’s language with exact keyword matching
| John W Ellis - Friday, September 28, 2007 0 Comments |
Pay-per-click is much more then paid advertising. Not only is PPC the best return on marketing spend available, but it is, or should be, at the heart of all marketing campaigns.
One example of using pay-per-click to help with other marketing campaigns is through Exact Match keyword targeting.Often advertisers get caught up in internal jargon. Within the industry it may be an acceptable form of communication. However, it is the customer that pays the bills.
To obtain accurate results from pay-per-click, having various match types is essential. By bidding on all variations of keywords advertisers are able to see which keywords customers are typing into a search query. Google, as an example has four different keyword matching options (broad, phrase, exact, negative), each with their own advantages and disadvantages. For example Broad Match, the default setting, includes all variations of the keyword in the query. Broad Match as it stands is full or problems.
However, Exact Match is the most targeted option available. It only shows ads when the exact phrase is used. Exact Match will provide instant feedback into the language of the customer. It is not to say there is not a place for other match types. Ideally, all variations should be tested. In fact, Exact Matching will inevitably bring in fewer visitors than other forms of matching. However, Exact Matching is a great way to gather instant customer analytics.
With pay-per-click, there is very little guess work in marketing. However, the trouble arises when traditional advertisers do not understand or believe in the power of pay-per-click marketing. Many companies still see it as separate advertising model and fail to tie the relationship back to traditional off-line campaigns. By analyzing pay-per-click reports advertisers can pull dramatic customer analytics. With that knowledge all marketing campaigns can benefit, thus eliminating traditional guess work from traditional advertising
** Find more articles from John W Ellis at http://www.johnwellis.com/
Labels: john ellis, marketing, pay-per-click
Image Search Optimization
| Manoj Jasra - 1 Comments |
If you want some basic tips on how to drive more traffic by leveraging images you may want to check out Pat Doyle's post titled: "Get More Traffic By Using Images." Pat's tips include:
- Use Descriptive Files Names for Images
- Use the alt tag attributes
- Use captions and descriptive text near images
- Design unique images to differentiate yourself
Later in her post Pat also provides good examples on how to make images load faster as well as improve the style of your images with CSS.
Below are some other useful resources for optimizing images for search engines:
- Search Engine Guide: 5 Tips for Optimizing Images for Search Engines
- SearchEngineWatch: Optimizing Images for Search Engines
- ProBlogger: How to Optimize Images for Google Image Search
- WebProNews:Optimize for Yahoo Images Search with Flickr
- Marlow Harris: Optimizing Images for Search Engines
- I Need Hits: Optimizing Images for Search Engine Success
- Optimize your images for Search Engine Image searches - SEO
- Creative Bits: Optimize your site for google image search
- Net Business Blog: Optimizing Images for SE Traffic - Is it Worth it?
- Search Engine Land: Six Simple Steps To Image Optimization
- SEOMization: Image Optimization ~ SEO - Search Engine Optimization
- Flickr Image Optimization and the Yahoo Search Update
- Bizresearch: Are You Ready for Image Search Optimization?
- Tutorialized: SEO 101 - Image Optimization
Image File ManagementKeep graphics and pictures in an 'Image' folder on your server in an organized manner, rather than hosted online. This will guarantee that they are always available for display (although the best of us suffer 'technical difficulty' at some stage or another!) and keep your image source code clean. If they are hosted by an online image gallery or sharing site then make sure it is reputable, and won't randomly go offline or have difficulties. - I Need Hits
Have a resource that should be added? Leave a comment and I will review it
Labels: Image Optimization, Universal Search
Google Analytics Videos: Tips and Resources
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
If you're looking for help with Google Analytics then I suggest you check out the Google Analytics videos on YouTube. Last week the Google Analytics Blog posted a handfull of helpful videos regarding best practices, processes, and implementation.
Those of you who want to pick up a few quick tips might be interested in 'Bounce Rate: The Simply Powerful Metric ', 'Non Ecommerce Sites: Beyond Averages...', and ' Context and Actionability in Web Analytics' by Avinash Kaushik, our resident Analytics Evangelist, blogger, and author of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day. We also have the complete sessions, including an introduction to Conversion University by Brett Crosby, Sr. Manager, which provides perspective on the evolution and direction of Google Analytics. Stephanie Hsu covers key reports for the optimal AdWords campaign. Alex Ortiz touches upon a number of advanced techniques such as segmentation through filters. And Tom Leung covered how to enhance your entire user experience using Website Optimizer.
Labels: Google Analytics
Semphonic Web Analytics X Change Recap
| Manoj Jasra - Thursday, September 27, 2007 0 Comments |
Last week I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in Semphonic's first annual Web Analytics X Change in Napa Valley, California. This conference was structured a lot differently than a traditional Internet marketing conference, in that sessions (called huddles at X Change) consisted of 8-13 participants and promoted active conversation from all participants. The setup with the huddles allowed other experts in the room to offer their advice to the discussion as well as newcomers to understand strategies and processes. There was a wide range of experts from Agencies, Consultants and SEM Clients which brought many different perspectives to the table.I actually lead a session called "Blog Promotion: Execution and Measurement" where as a group we tried to answer the following 6 questions:
- What makes your blog different?
- How do I promote my brand?
- What can I do to grow my blog?
- Should I try that next marketing trick?
- How do I engage my visitors?
- What metrics should I be tracking?
I really tried hard to take each point and offer a strategy which participants could take home and apply to their own blogs. Near the end of the session I thought it would be a good idea to throw one of the participants' blogs on the screen in order to offer it some constructive criticism. In the end, the feedback I received was positive and I had a fun time doing it.
I commend Gary Angel and his team at Semphonic for designing a very unique and useful conference experience and hope that they can make it even a bigger success next year. One thing I also have to mention was the spectacular 3 course Taste of Copia Lunch the X Change conference concluded with which included an interactive cooking demo, garden talk and lunch with wine.
Labels: Web Analytics
Stanfords Facebook Application Development Group
| Manoj Jasra - Wednesday, September 26, 2007 2 Comments |
Today I noticed that a couple of my Facebook friends joined the group: Creating New Apps for Facebook (New Stanford Course). I personally think it is a great example of how students are able to learn a cutting edge skill that they will be able to practically apply once they get into the industry. I also wished I had courses liked that when I was in University. Here's a brief overview of the Stanford Facebook Group:Taught by BJ Fogg and Dave McClure, this class will focus on using metrics and feedback to create compelling apps for Facebook (and other social graphs). We invite motivated students from all majors to join this group. The ability to write code is helpful but not required. You will work in teams that bringBelow are some FAQs posted at the group:
together a variety of skill sets.
Q: Do I have to have background in CS to take this class?
A: No. Ideally, the class will be a mix of students with technical background and non-technical backgrounds. However, if you already have a background in Facebook application development, we want you in this class.
Q: Are we going to learn how to actually BUILD Facebook applications?
A: Not directly. The focus of the class will not be on how to actually build Facebook apps, but rather on how to design persuasive and engaging user experiences within FB apps. The Tues lab will be used as a resource for students who need extra help in learning the FB language.
Q: If there are teams of 3-4 students, how will we decide who owns what percentage of the application once the class is over?
A: We will most likely provide a framework for how to split up work and ownership within each team, and we will provide guidance to students who need help structuring their teams. However, an important component of this course will be to give students real-world startup experience, so we hope that teams will work together to come up with diplomatic solutions.
Q: Will I be on a different team for each project?
A: The short answer is that the teams will probably stay the same throughout, in order to promote continued development and improvement of the apps we create. However, we're open to your input. This course is the first of its kind. We have a vision for how the quarter will play out, but we will definitely be learning and improving as we go. Please feel free to reach out if you have ideas on how to make this course as rewarding as possible for everyone involved
Personally I think there are numerous online marketing related courses that Universities should teach and I would love to see Canadian Universities like UBC also participate and be proactive in designing the courses. Here are some of my ideas for potential courses:
- Building and Leveraging Google Gears
- Creating applications with APIs such as Google, MSN, Yahoo, and Technorati
- A Yahoo Pipes related course
- Blog Plugin Development
- Widget Development and Tracking
Labels: Facebook
Which Blogs Should I Read?
| Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, September 25, 2007 0 Comments |
So you just started a new job in the "Insert Category Here" industry and are instantly expected to get up to speed so you can begin helping your team with billable work. You've heard that blogs are a great resource to begin your education, however you discover that there are literally a million blogs you could read, so where do you start??
This situation is one that probably many individuals face and I can understand where they are coming from especially since it's quite difficult to believe which bloggers are actually telling the truth or which bloggers' strategies actually work. Below I have listed some ideas to help shortlist the number of blogs in your feed reader:
- Do some research on the author of the blog by checking out their LinkedIn profile, MySpace Page, FaceBook Group, or other Social Networking profile.
- Find out how long the Blogger has been in the industry and how long they have been blogging for.
- Has the blogger spoken at any industry related conferences?
- Run a site:www.blog.com command to find out how many pages the blog has indexed
- Use Yahoo Site Explorer to find how many back links the blog has.
- From the back links above you should be able to determine the authority of the blogger by figuring it out networks/resources the blogger writes for.
- A couple of simple measurements are looking up the blog's Google PageRank as well its Technorati rank.
- Feed Subscribers are an excellent way to determine how many other people think of the blog as a useful resource.
- Use Blog Influence and Text Link Ads' Blog Juice.
- How many other industry related blogs reference this blog as well as include this blog in their blog roll?
- Create a quality score of your own by adding a blog to your reader and monitoring number of posts, number of strategic posts, number of breaking news posts and number of re-posts of industry news.
- Do a keyword search in Google Blog Search and try reading blogs that Google suggests in its "related blogs" section.
- Find out how many members the blog has in its community at MyBlogLog.
- Is the blogger providing valuable advice that you can apply to your business or is it just old news and outdated tactics?
Labels: Blogging
Appirio - Google Gadget and Salesforce Integration
| Manoj Jasra - Monday, September 24, 2007 0 Comments |
Last week I met up with Appirio founder, Narinder Singh in order to get a look at some of the company's cool integrations between Salesforce and Google Gadgets. Narinder gave me a live demo of the Google/Salesforce integration at Dreamforce, check out the video below:
Based on the success of the early gadgets, Appirio created the Gallery to extend the value of connecting Salesforce.com and Google. To launch the initiative, Appirio has committed to populate the gallery with 100 gadgets in 100 days - dating from the June 5 Google-Salesforce.com announcement, to the beginning of Dreamforce, Salesforce.com’s annual user conference. Jason Maynard, lead software analyst at Credit Suisse, applauded Appirio’s move: "Appirio is a pioneer in integrating enterprise software-as-a-service solutions such as Salesforce.com and Google Apps. The integration they first demonstrated at the Google-Salesforce.com announcement was one of the major highlights of that event. Their new Gadget Gallery will accelerate Salesforce.com user adoption, and will pique the interest of other leading SaaS ISVs looking to bring critical business data to the Google Homepage."
Labels: Google, salesforce
SalesForce Appy Awards 2007
| Manoj Jasra - Sunday, September 23, 2007 0 Comments |
Below is a video of the winners of the Appy awards at Salesforce.com's Dreamforce 2007. [NYSE: CRM]
Appy Award winners represent the salesforce.com customers who are truly driving innovation and unlimited success with the Salesforce on-demand platform. Consisting of 14 award categories, the Appy Awards cover almost every conceivable area of customer success.
Labels: dreamforce, salesforce
Salesforce Update with Kraig Swensrud
| Manoj Jasra - Friday, September 21, 2007 0 Comments |
Kraig Swensrud, Senior Director of Marketing Products stops by to talk about Salesforce's winter 2008 release (including integration with Google), global campaign management, the new platform force.com and Visual Force (customizable interfaces). Kraig also discussed a company called Appirio who has created the ability to develop Google Applications for Salesforce reports.
Labels: dreamforce, salesforce
Catching Up with Gail Ennis, CMO Omniture
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
Earlier this week I caught up with Gail Ennis, CMO at Omniture Inc., and was able to get some great insight on the latest happenings at the company. Gail Ennis spoke about Omniture's purchase of Offermatica, Omniture's recent integration with Salesforce (on demand, closed loop marketing) and the release of Genesis 2.0.
Check out Gail's thoughts below:
Labels: Omniture, Web Analytics
Tagging as the Killer App
| John W Ellis - Thursday, September 20, 2007 0 Comments |
I wanted to pass on a great article by a friend of mine, Chip Gallent. Chip discusses “Tagging: The New Killer App” on his blog ChipGallent.com
Tagging is replacing the way we search for information. 
By tagging articles and posts, it allows editors to alert the public on new information of a specific topic available.
Of course, this process is subject to abuse as well. If web editors start associating unrelated tags to their articles, just to attract users, then tagging becomes useless.
Now that’s not to say I am not a fan. The web will adjust to abuse. It always has and always will. Automatic tags may be down the road. This would not allow editors to decide on the tags. The tags will be automatically generated based on content.
Tagging has become the Killer App as Chip mentions. Users have become more sophisticated and have are starting to skip over irrelevant content. Tagging removes that process; it takes them straight to the data.
As search marketers, we have to be aware of this shift. We can not just assume that content is still king. We have to adjust. By staying aware of the user and their needs, we can adjust to their trends and habits. Social tagging is a part of Search Engine Marketing.
** Find more articles from John W Ellis at http://www.johnwellis.com/
Labels: john ellis, Social Networking, tagging, Technorati
The Next Big Thing - Dreamforce 2007
| Manoj Jasra - Wednesday, September 19, 2007 0 Comments |
Tuesday's keynote session at Dreamforce also talked about the "Next Big Thing" (integration with Salesforce) and included presentations from the following CEOs:
Josh James, Chief Executive Officer, Omniture
Dave Duffield, Chief Executive Officer, Workday
Philip Rosedale, Chief Executive Officer, Linden Lab
Workday integrated with Salesforce to their HR Management product, Omniture released a new integration with Salesforce last week which allowed better management of leads/sales and Linden Lab I was suren't how they were related to Salesforce but showed some great integrations with Second Life. Check out a recap of their session below:
Labels: dreamforce, Omniture, salesforce
George Lucas and Bob Thurman at DreamForce
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
Day 2 of Salesforce DreamForce was kicked off with a conversation between George Lucas and Bob Thurman in which they discussed the importance of global education. George Lucas' Educational Foundation strives to teach kids/teens to learn using innovative methods. Check out Edutopia for more information.
The George Lucas Educational Foundation (GLEF) was founded in 1991 as a nonprofit operating foundation to celebrate and encourage innovation in schools. Since that time, we have been documenting, disseminating, and advocating for exemplary programs in K-12 public schools to help these practices spread nationwide.
Check out a short clip of their conversation below:
Labels: dreamforce, salesforce
Cisco CEO John Chambers - DreamForce Keynote
| Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, September 18, 2007 0 Comments |
This week I am attending my very first Salesforce conference (DreamForce) and must admit it's one of the largest conferences I have ever been to. Apparently there are over 7,000 people attending this conference and the Moscone Conference Center is a perfect venue to accommodate that many attendees.
My flight got in around 12:30ish however I was still able to attend part of Cisco CEO, John Chambers' keynote session (which was ABSOLUTELY packed). John's presentation was primarily surrounding the need for big businesses to begin looking into collaboration using Cisco's architecture. John also showed off some cool integrations between Cisco and Salesforce. Check out part of John's presentation below:
Further to John Chambers' presentation I was amazed to see the hundreds of businesses who are leveraging Salesforce in order to create applications and services of their own (many of which are extremely successful). I was unaware there were so many companies integrating with Salesforce. From Analytics to CMS to Lead Generation, all sorts of companies have a presence at the DreamForce exhibition hall.
My flight got in around 12:30ish however I was still able to attend part of Cisco CEO, John Chambers' keynote session (which was ABSOLUTELY packed). John's presentation was primarily surrounding the need for big businesses to begin looking into collaboration using Cisco's architecture. John also showed off some cool integrations between Cisco and Salesforce. Check out part of John's presentation below:
Further to John Chambers' presentation I was amazed to see the hundreds of businesses who are leveraging Salesforce in order to create applications and services of their own (many of which are extremely successful). I was unaware there were so many companies integrating with Salesforce. From Analytics to CMS to Lead Generation, all sorts of companies have a presence at the DreamForce exhibition hall.
Labels: Cisco, dreamforce, salesforce
Omniture Announces Genesis Version 2.0
| Manoj Jasra - Monday, September 17, 2007 0 Comments |
Omniture, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMTR), today announced Omniture Genesis 2.0 Platform Edition, a new version of Genesis that streamlines the deployment of Omniture for Authorized Platform Partners that deliver Omniture software as part of an industry-specific platform solution.
By using this new version, platform partners have a more automated integration with Omniture Genesis data and can access new features such as auto-tagging of site content information, access to customer segments pre-defined in Omniture SiteCatalyst, and delivery of turnkey packaged report suites. Online business operators benefit from shortened implementation of Omniture’s online business optimization capabilities for their expanding customer bases. Today, more than 1,500 companies across retail, media, high-tech and travel industries use Omniture through an embedded industry platform solution.
The Genesis 2.0 Platform Edition is now used by 17 of the industry’s leading platform partners with authorized implementations including: Acumium, Amazon Enterprise Solutions, ChannelNet, DMinSite, Fry Multimedia, GSI Commerce, LaGarde, Marketbright, MarketLive, Media99, Motricity, Novator, RichFX, Saxotech, TIG Global, Truition and Vcommerce.
By using this new version, platform partners have a more automated integration with Omniture Genesis data and can access new features such as auto-tagging of site content information, access to customer segments pre-defined in Omniture SiteCatalyst, and delivery of turnkey packaged report suites. Online business operators benefit from shortened implementation of Omniture’s online business optimization capabilities for their expanding customer bases. Today, more than 1,500 companies across retail, media, high-tech and travel industries use Omniture through an embedded industry platform solution.
The Genesis 2.0 Platform Edition is now used by 17 of the industry’s leading platform partners with authorized implementations including: Acumium, Amazon Enterprise Solutions, ChannelNet, DMinSite, Fry Multimedia, GSI Commerce, LaGarde, Marketbright, MarketLive, Media99, Motricity, Novator, RichFX, Saxotech, TIG Global, Truition and Vcommerce.
“Omniture Genesis is simplifying how our customers integrate their marketing applications,” said Josh James, CEO and co-founder, Omniture. “With Genesis 2.0 Platform Edition, we are extending the integration ease of use to our platform partners who are implementing and deploying Omniture-based solutions to thousands of companies as part of a Genesis ecosystem of more than 70 partners.”
17 Authorized Platform Partners are already utilizing the Genesis Platform Edition including:
Acumium – Acumium’s Web Content Management System and E-Commerce Solutions help our customers to create an effective, high-performing, customized online presence. Utilizing cutting-edge XML technology, we make managing and updating content easy and merchandising and directing visitors to the right place effective. Acumium has helped over 50 clients across multiple industries grow their businesses online for the past 7 years.
Amazon Enterprise Solutions – At Amazon Enterprise Solutions, we have built our platform to make multi-channel e-commerce a reality. Our offering enables a consistent, branded, and unified shopping, ordering, and fulfilment experience that lets the customers shop any channel (web, store, phone, catalog, and franchises) they choose, select delivery and payment methods across the channels, and allows the retailers to manage their enterprise-wide inventory seamlessly. Through partnership with Omniture, we offer an integrated solution to enable retailers to track their business performance across all channels.
ChannelNet – Including Omniture as an extension of ChannelNet’s SiteBuilder solution gives a real marketing advantage to both our customers and their
retailers. With Omniture SiteCatalyst Web analytics, our customers can measure their website traffic, marketing campaigns as well as the effectiveness of their site.
With SiteBuilder, our customers can then refine marketing programs and
modify their Web site messaging in real-time to improve that performance. And
we even extend Omniture support to our customers’ retailers so individual
dealers can manage their own keywords and regional marketing programs.
DMinSite – DMinSite's Mercury 6.0 software offers multichannel merchants a feature-rich web-selling ecommerce platform. Using Omniture Genesis 2.0, DMinSite can help clients grow their online business. The actionable data provided to clients through Genesis allows them to pinpoint opportunities and support clients more effectively and quickly.
Fry Multimedia – Fry's collaboration with Omniture will enable leading retail, consumer goods and manufacturing clients using Fry's e-commerce solution, Open Commerce Platform(TM), to use the most advanced Web analytics tools available to evaluate and drive their online businesses.
GSI Commerce – Leading e-commerce solutions provider GSI Commerce identifies and implements e-commerce solutions that enable about 80 of the world’s leading retailers, branded manufacturers, entertainment companies and professional sports organizations to operate e-commerce businesses. By integrating Omniture business optimization software into the GSI Commerce platform, GSI partners can more effectively measure their business performance and optimize their online marketing efforts to create a more meaningful, high-quality customer experience.
LaGarde – With more than 10 years in the e-commerce industry and 30,000 Web stores under its belt, LaGarde knows what is needed for online success. LaGarde StoreFront® shopping cart software delivers the efficient and intuitive shopping experience consumers seek while upholding sound e-commerce strategies and operations for growing businesses of all types.
Marketbright – Marketbright’s eMarketing automation solution, integrated with Omniture SiteCatalyst through the Genesis 2.0 platform, provides our customers with greater insight into all aspects of their demand generation, helping them to more efficiently and cost-effectively drive demand for their products and services. Because Omniture’s Web analytics is integrated with Marketbright at a platform level, customers can instantly measure the results of marketing campaigns, messages and offers online.
MarketLive – Omniture is an important extension of the MarketLive E-commerce Platform, giving MarketLive customers real-time performance data about the way people shop. Omniture Genesis will make it even easier to integrate Omniture support into new MarketLive deployments, allowing MarketLive e-commerce customers to respond instantly to trends and events, and boost their profits by identifying their most profitable campaigns, promotions, and customer segments. The combination of MarketLive and Omniture delivers e-commerce intelligence that you can act on immediately to directly impact on your e-commerce sales results.
Media99 – Omniture's tools allow us to provide the essential data our clients need to thoroughly evaluate their floral website's performance, thus giving them an edge over their competition. Simply put, they can be more effective with their marketing efforts and their website overall.
Motricity – Motricity is one of the leading delivery platforms for mobile content with marquee partners including MTV, BET, Turner, AT&T, Alltel, and Bell Mobility. The company's offerings span the content delivery chain, enabling compelling end user experiences and delivering profitable and reliable mobile content offerings for mobile network operators, media and entertainment companies, and mobile specialists. Motricity helps companies leverage the emerging mobile channel, interact with consumers and build brand loyalty through the provision of unified, scalable offerings across multiple key mobile content solution categories, including: storefronts, portals, messaging, content aggregation, marketing campaign management and community solutions.
Novator Systems – By integrating Genesis Platform Release 2.0, we offer more power to our retail clients in their quest to manage and monetize thousands of channels and microsites. The Novator Hyper-Channel e-Commerce platform is one of the most robust offerings available to retailers on the market. The combined Novator and Genesis 2.0 solution will fully optimize Novator clients’ marketing spend, microsite analytics and more.
RichFX – RichFX, an industry leader in rich media solutions, has over 10 years of experience driving conversations by creating spectacular user experiences through innovative product presentations. RichFX leverages Omniture SiteCatalyst as an embedded part of our rich media solution. RichFX is able to provide clients with an unprecedented level of insight into their online customer interactions. Armed with this data, RichFX clients are able to react immediately and dynamically change the user experience to directly drive additional conversions and increase revenue.
SAXOTECH – Large media groups and independent large media groups and independent publishers alike throughout Europe and North America use SAXOTECH’s content management and Web publishing platform to efficiently produce and share news content. A streamlined workflow and collaboration throughout the entire news production process gives media companies the ability to offer a cutting-edge Web presence and rapidly launch new online and print products, all while minimizing operational costs.
TIG Global – TIG Global is a full-service Internet marketing firm that provides turnkey web-presence management for more than 550 clients in the travel and hospitality industries. By leveraging Omniture SiteCatalyst as an embedded part of TIG Global’s Internet services, travel and hospitality clients can gain increased advantages with greater insight and sophisticated analysis of their online customers, ultimately helping TIG Global clients to gain increased conversion rates and higher customer satisfaction.
Truition – Truition’s award-winning on demand eCommerce platform will be further enhanced by Omniture’s Genesis Platform Release 2.0. Truition enables more than 125 customers in 10 countries to effectively outsource core elements of their eCommerce operations and grow online revenues at a lower cost. Through Truition’s relationship with Omniture and its new Genesis Platform, our clients will have access to a market-leading solution that combines best-in-class eCommerce technology with the most advanced analytics and business optimization capabilities.
Vcommerce – Leading retailers select the Vcommerce Enterprise Platform based on the completeness of the solution, flexibility to benefit from best in class third party components such as Omniture SiteCatalyst, and Vcommerce’s deep expertise in enabling high volume eCommerce. Clients can quickly deploy an end-to-end eCommerce solution including online marketing to drive more customers, eCommerce Storefronts to create more orders, order management to create more efficiency, fulfillment & integration to provide more products, and customer service to ensure more loyalty.
Labels: Omniture, Web Analytics
Consumers consistently find that web sites are broken and completing transactions is a major challenge. The fundamental problem: the world’s leading retailers, travel sites, insurance companies and banks are not equipped to service customers after they drive them to their site --- they cannot identify, understand and address the critical problems affecting their customers, resulting in abandonment, defections and overall poor experience.
Today, Harris Interactive, in conjunction with Tealeaf, a customer experience management software provider, released the results of its third annual survey of online consumer behavior and transaction experiences. Here's a sample:
- A staggering 90% of consumers experience problems when conducting online transactions, a number that has not improved even a fraction in three years.
- When faced with transaction problems, almost half of the people (42%) abandon their transactions and in many cases, click to a competitor’s site.
- Of the consumers who call customer service to try and resolve their online issues, the majority find the agent doesn’t understand their own web site let alone their specific online issue, resulting in further defection.
- Over half of consumers surveyed had gone so far as to dispute an online transaction.
Late last week I had the opportunity to discuss the results from the customer satisfaction survey with Tealeaf's Senior Vice President of Marketing, Geoff Galat. Here are some of the questions I posed to Geoff. Listen to the audio version of our conversation below:
powered by ODEO
Can you provide us with some background on the survey, specifically what were your motivations for conducting it?
What was the technology and methods used to collect the data? Also, what were the demographics of the participants who took part in the survey?
90% of Consumers still experience problems with online transactions; you'd think this number would be a lot less - what are your thoughts on this?
What do you believe is the biggest cause for the 42% abandonment rate on transactions?
Can you talk a little bit about the business impacts?
Is there one thing that you can single out as being the area where companies can vastly improve upon? (In regards to the consumers' online shopping experience)?
Labels: Industry News
Webmaster Central Adds Subscriber Stats
| Manoj Jasra - Sunday, September 16, 2007 0 Comments |
Late last Friday, Google's Webmaster Central Blog reported some additional features which included the ability for publishers to see the number of subscribers to their content.
First of all, subscriber stats are now available. Webmaster Tools now show feed publishers the number of aggregated subscribers you have from Google services such as Google Reader, iGoogle, and Orkut. We hope this will make it easier toI wonder how long will it take before subscriber data from FeedBurner will be integrated into Webmaster Central. The inclusion of the Google subscription services is a great first step but there are many other services that should also be accounted for.
track subscriber statistics across multiple feeds, as well as offer an improvement over parsing through server logs for feed information.
Subscribers are an excellent way for publishers to judge the level of engagement and reach of their blog/website and I imagine that Google will eventually begin to include results from subscription services into Universal Search. With FeedBurner stats such as total subscribers, reach, out going links, item use and incoming links, Google should be able to algorithmically decide which sites will receive precedence for which queries.
Webmaster Tools is also availabe in 20 Languages:
...In addition to US English, UK English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Brazilian Portuguese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Russian, Japanese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Polish, Webmaster Tools are now in Turkish and Romanian.
Labels: FeedBurner, Gmail
This Weeks Must Reads in Search Marketing
| Manoj Jasra - Saturday, September 15, 2007 0 Comments |
Another work week coming to an end which means another week full of good articles and posts. Here are this weeks must reads in SEM:
Search Marketing
- Losing Wait: 5 Simple Steps to Reducing Web Page Download Times - SearchEngineGuide
- Google Promoting Mobile Ads!- Unofficial SEO
- A Half Dozen Viral Campaign Launching Tactics to Try When Digg's Homepage Rejects You - SEOMoz
- How Can I Optimize My Videos? - ASK Enquiro
- September 26: MSN Live Search 2.0 Arrives - SE Round Table
- Making Sense of Linking and Site Promotion - Top Rank Blog
Web Analytics
- comScore starts measuring Blog Audiences - will publish Conversational Media Report - Web Metrics Guru
- Data Mining And Predictive Analytics On Web Data Works? Nyet! - Occam's Razor
- Reverting Back to Original "Average Time on Site" Calculation Today - Google Analytics Blog
- Convergence of Web Analytics and Behavioral Targeting - Anil Batra
- Conversion doesn't start where you think - Stephen Hamel
Labels: Industry News, Must Reads
US Elections: Top Candidate Websites by Hitwise
| Manoj Jasra - Thursday, September 13, 2007 0 Comments |
Hitwise today announced the launch of its new Election 2008 Data Center, providing online usage data surrounding the 2008 US presidential election. This new feature to the Hitwise Data Center highlights which candidates are the most visited online and which candidates generate the highest volume of searches. This sample of Hitwise data is publicly available to political enthusiasts, marketers, bloggers, academics, and the media.
Hitwise Election 2008 data is based on the online usage and search behavior of how more than 10 million US Internet users interact with more than 1 million websites across more than 160 industry categories.
| Custom Category of Republican Presidential Candidates - Weekly US Market Share of Visits | |||
| Weekly rankings for the week ending 08/04/2007 | |||
| Rank | Candidate | Domain | Market Share % |
| 1 | Ron Paul | www.ronpaul2008.com | 44.16% |
| 2 | Mitt Romney | www.mittromney.com | 16.13% |
| 3 | Rudy Giuliani | www.joinrudy2008.com | 11.78% |
| 4 | John McCain | www.johnmccain.com | 9.74% |
| 5 | Mike Huckabee | www.mikehuckabee.com | 9.20% |
| 6 | Duncan Hunter | www.gohunter08.com | 3.79% |
| 7 | Sam Brownback | www.brownback.com | 3.49% |
| 8 | Tommy Thompson | www.tommy2008.com | 1.71% |
| Note - the Hitwise data is based on a custom category of Republican websites for only those presidential candidates that have officially announced their candidacy ranked by US market share of visits, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US Internet users. Hitwise ranks more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. | |||
| Source: Hitwise | |||
| Custom Category of Democrat Presidential Candidates Weekly US Market Share of Visits | |||
| Weekly rankings for the week ending 08/04/2007 | |||
| Rank | Candidate | Domain | Market Share % |
| 1 | Barack Obama | www.barackobama.com | 40.64% |
| 2 | Hillary Clinton | www.hillaryclinton.com | 24.20% |
| 3 | John Edwards | www.johnedwards.com | 18.36% |
| 4 | Joe Biden | www.joebiden.com | 4.49% |
| 5 | Chris Dodd | www.chrisdodd.com | 4.11% |
| 6 | Mike Gravel | www.gravel2008.us | 2.90% |
| 7 | Bill Richardson | www.richardsonforpresident.com | 2.74% |
| 8 | Dennis Kucinich | www.dennis4president.com | 2.56% |
| Note - the Hitwise data is based on a custom category of Democratic websites for only those presidential candidates that have officially announced their candidacy ranked by US market share of visits, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or category, from the Hitwise sample of 10 million US Internet users. Hitwise ranks more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorizes websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context. | |||
| Source: Hitwise | |||
Labels: HitWise
Separate Content from Search – An Effective PPC Habit
| John W Ellis - 0 Comments |
Contextual advertising places paid listings on relevant sites that are not search engines. Google, for example, has a network of what they call “high-quality partner sites”. Contextual ads give advertisers a chance to reach potential consumers at a different stage of the buying cycle. It also allows additional ad format other than the typical text ads, such as images and videos.
Google’s content network has come a long way over the past several years. Two years ago, I would not have recommended content advertising. Now, I can definitely say it’s worth checking into.
However, it is still very important to keep content ads separated from search ads. Because the stage of the buying cycle is completely different, the only way to get accurate statistics is to separate content from search.
It’s normal to expect lower clicks and lower conversion rates in content advertising. However, that gap is decreasing.
The separation provides much more insight into what is working, and more importantly what is not working. Plus, it allows marketers to create unique creative for these different websites.
It was a mistake for the search engines to have ever positioned this type of advertising as search. It never was and should not have been bundled with search. However, as mentioned, content advertising has come a long way. I was definitely against it, but now I am a believer.
** Find more articles from John W Ellis at http://www.johnwellis.com/
Labels: adwords, Google, john ellis, pay-per-click, ppc
ClickTracks and Lyris Integration Equals Email Marketing Success
| Manoj Jasra - Wednesday, September 12, 2007 0 Comments |
J.L. Halsey Corporation (OTCBB:JLHY) today announced that it has tightly coupled its ClickTracks Web analytics solution with its popular email marketing platform, Lyris ListManager.
The new integrated solution automatically exchanges information between ListManager and ClickTracks, enabling marketers to track the behavior of email list subscribers from the time they open a company’s email to their activity on that company’s Web site – including any subsequent page views, downloads, purchases, time on site and more. This insight allows marketers to continually hone their email message content, special offers, list segments, Web site content and site design to improve response rates and ROI.“We’re giving marketers valuable intelligence about how subscribers areUsing the data provided by Lyris ListManager, a ClickTracks user can segment out email respondents and provide valuable visitor behavior insight. For example, an email campaign drives 10,000 visitors to a landing page and only 3 percent convert. A marketer can then analyze the behavior of the 97% that didn’t convert and target that segment with a follow up offer.
responding to their emails and what they’re doing after clicking through to
their Web sites,” said Luis Rivera, CEO, J.L. Halsey. “But that data is only
helpful if it’s analyzed and acted upon – which is why we also go a step further
to automate the process of list segmentation and ROI analysis. We’re committed
to providing technology that facilitates rather than frustrates – and we believe
that integrating core applications is the best way to do that.”
Recently I was able to catch up with ClickTracks' Director of Marketing, Dan Robbins and was able to get him to give me the top 5 reasons why someone should take advantage of the ClickTracks + Lyris offering. Listen to the audio below:
powered by ODEO
Labels: Click Tracks, Industry News, Web Analytics
Use Salesforce Offline with Google Gears
| Manoj Jasra - 1 Comments |
Salesforce has written a very useful Google Gears application which allows you to use the SalesForce web application offline. What Google Gears does is provide an extension to your browser. This extension includes a tiny database engine, a cache, and a JavaScript library that lets your Web application make use of the database and cache even when not connected to the Web. You're on the road meeting a client at a coffee shop, flip open your laptop, and notice that there's no internet connection. This doesn't stop you connecting to your Salesforce.com web application and viewing account and contact information though, much to your client's obvious surprise. While your end users have been able to use Salesforce Offline Edition to access CRM data in this disconnected way, now developers can use new offline technologies to make any of their on-demand applications work off-line.
Related Links
SalesForce Developer Network - Detailed Documentation
Google Gears Blog
Labels: Google, salesforce
George Lucas Keynoting DreamForce
| Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, September 11, 2007 0 Comments |
I will be attending SalesForce.com's DreamForce next week and I was excited to learn that one of the keynote speakers will be George Lucas. George will be providing a wide-angle view on global education and the impact of the information age.
Cisco’s Chairman and CEO, John Chambers will also be keynoting and he will share his vision of collaboration and outlines how organizations need to adapt for the future.Dreamforce is the ultimate gathering of the salesforce.com community, bringing
together the diverse and loyal base of Salesforce and AppExchange users spanning
industries, roles, and locations. So powerful is our community of success that
some reporters have compared the intensity of our customer events to that of a
revival meeting.
Combining detailed educational sessions, innovative
partner displays, and outrageous networking events, Dreamforce offers an
unparalleled opportunity to connect with the salesforce.com community and hear
the latest developments in the on-demand space.
The conference is set to take place in San Francisco, California. Visit the DreamForce registration page to find out more about how to attend.
- Regular Registration (Before September 15): $999.00 USD
- On-Site Registration: $1,099.00 USD
Labels: salesforce
Sage Lewis Interviews Enquiros Director of Marketing
| Manoj Jasra - Monday, September 10, 2007 0 Comments |
Last month at SES San Jose, Sage Lewis caught up with Enquiro's Director of Marketing, Andrew Spoeth to discuss Enquiro's industry leading eye tracking research services.
Source: http://www.webmarketingwatch.com/
Source: http://www.webmarketingwatch.com/
Labels: Eye Tracking
Web Analytics Metrics: Travel Sites
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
In this multi-part series we are going to analyze numerous websites across different categories to help our readers better understand what metrics they should be measuring for their own website. Metrics cannot be reported without a proper web analytics implementation therefore it's important to be as thorough as possible because it's better to over collect data than under collect.
Today we are going to be looking at metrics to track for travel websites and for this post we have selected 2 travel sites which we are going to analyze. The first is a travel portal for visitors in British Columbia Canada, BCTravelGuide.ca and the second is a website dedicated to Caribbean vacations, Sandals.com.
BCTravelGuide.ca
Instantly we noticed that BC Travel Guide is categorized by Regions and Activities in British Columbia therefore it is important for this site's owners to be able to understand the popularity of these various categorical segments. Metrics needed to be tracked for each segment include visits to each individual region/activity, the amount of time spent per region/activity and the referring sources.
Measuring these metrics will help this website's owner better understand which sections visitors find most engaging allowing them to capitalize on the popularity with additional offerings or advertising. Furthermore these metrics also help site owners understand the areas visitors find least interesting and are therefore are performing the poorest.
BC Travel Guide also offers 2 calls to actions located on every page which allows visitors to list their BC Travel business for free in BC Travel Guide's directory. A few different metrics can be measured here including a comparison between the 2 calls to actions as to which 
attracts the most clickthroughs. Secondly, it is very important to measure the clicks down to actual conversions (in this case the number of free listings created). I would recommend creating a funnel which measures All Site Visitors >> Clicks to "Free Business Listings" >> Listing Creations.
BC Travel Guide also has an "Advertise" call to action and similar to "Free Listings" this site should measure the number of clicks to this call to action and the number of real requests to advertise (emails, form completions). This site also has a great opportunity to experiment with design and location of their "Advertise" call to action with a simple A/B Test.
Today we are going to be looking at metrics to track for travel websites and for this post we have selected 2 travel sites which we are going to analyze. The first is a travel portal for visitors in British Columbia Canada, BCTravelGuide.ca and the second is a website dedicated to Caribbean vacations, Sandals.com.
BCTravelGuide.ca
Instantly we noticed that BC Travel Guide is categorized by Regions and Activities in British Columbia therefore it is important for this site's owners to be able to understand the popularity of these various categorical segments. Metrics needed to be tracked for each segment include visits to each individual region/activity, the amount of time spent per region/activity and the referring sources.
Measuring these metrics will help this website's owner better understand which sections visitors find most engaging allowing them to capitalize on the popularity with additional offerings or advertising. Furthermore these metrics also help site owners understand the areas visitors find least interesting and are therefore are performing the poorest.
BC Travel Guide also offers 2 calls to actions located on every page which allows visitors to list their BC Travel business for free in BC Travel Guide's directory. A few different metrics can be measured here including a comparison between the 2 calls to actions as to which 
attracts the most clickthroughs. Secondly, it is very important to measure the clicks down to actual conversions (in this case the number of free listings created). I would recommend creating a funnel which measures All Site Visitors >> Clicks to "Free Business Listings" >> Listing Creations.
BC Travel Guide also has an "Advertise" call to action and similar to "Free Listings" this site should measure the number of clicks to this call to action and the number of real requests to advertise (emails, form completions). This site also has a great opportunity to experiment with design and location of their "Advertise" call to action with a simple A/B Test.
Finally we noticed that the last step of this site's navigational process is to land on a listing for a given Region/Activity combination. For end users who have their businesses listed in BC Travel Guide I am sure it is important for them to know how many visitors are actually looking at their listing as well as how many are clicking through to their website.
Sandals.com
From the menu above from Sandals.com you can see that they offer their visitors many different options to book vacations. By implementing the ability to track the performance of each site section Sandals.com will have the ability to comparatively see the popularity of each section. Additionally in their analytics suite they could run a page popularity report for an entire year and quickly pick out seasonality trends for each site section.
Many travel websites allow visitors to check rates and availability for their destinations. Each element of the 'Availability' form on the left is an opportunity for Sandals.com to better understand their visitors. The web analytics should be setup so that users have the ability to segment the reports by all destinations and resorts as well as check in/check out dates. Why is this important? Imagine that through analytics reports analysis that you are able to figure out that visitors enjoy booking Caribbean cruises from May to June. By leveraging this wealth of information Sandals.com could offer more information on cruises or even discounts during this time, making visitors' site experience extremely remarkable.
The next metrics are both related to conversions on Sandals.com. The first is Sandals.com's toll free number. Although phone numbers can be difficult to track using web analytics, the leads that they generate can be captured by a CRM and be imported back into your analytics suite. If your toll free number is unique only to your website, then the number of leads generated by the number can be attributed directly back to the website. The site's second conversion is a "7 days Sweepstakes." Not only should you capture the number of people who actually entered the email address, but the email address themselves for promotional purposes later on.
The last couple of metrics that I'd like to point out for Sandals.com to measure are: the number of log-ins (total and by users), time between log-ins and activity after login. Creating a community is an excellent way to offer targeted content to your visitors as well as remembering their preferences. However if you are noticing a very low number of log-ins then you should consider offering more content outside of the login or more perks for creating an account.
Labels: KPI, Web Analytics, Web Analytics Implementation
Omniture Acquires Offermatica
| Manoj Jasra - Friday, September 07, 2007 0 Comments |
Omniture, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMTR), today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Offermatica, a leading on-demand A/B testing and multivariate testing company. Under the terms of the agreement, Omniture will pay $65 million for all of the outstanding capital stock of Offermatica, including all outstanding options, warrants and any other rights to acquire Offermatica capital stock. At closing, Omniture will deliver $35 million of the consideration in shares of Omniture common stock and $30 million in cash, $8 million of which will be placed in escrow to secure indemnity obligations of the Offermatica stockholders.The acquisition is a key part of Omniture’s strategy to deliver the most comprehensive solution for optimizing online business. Offermatica leverages Omniture’s recent acquisition of Touch Clarity as the two are highly complementary and together address the spectrum from A/B testing and multivariate testing to behavioral targeting. Offermatica enables companies to define and test the structure and elements of their sites, and Omniture TouchClarity™ enables companies to deliver the optimal content to any individual at any time. Previously, if a marketer wanted to test various versions of their site, the process was very manual and cumbersome. Offermatica dramatically changes this by placing easy-to-use testing tools in the hands of front-line marketers, expanding their ability to quickly take action. Once this optimum design is achieved, TouchClarity can apply highly sophisticated algorithms to determine the content that is shown to a specific visitor at a specific time. This combination, with Omniture’s analytics as the underlying foundation, provides the industry’s first and only integrated site optimization suite.
“A year ago it became very clear to us that our customers wanted to leverage
their data through a range of testing and optimization tools. Once we
acquired the leading behavioral targeting technology, our customers continued to
validate our thinking that in addition to behavioral targeting, A/B testing and
multivariate testing were distinct and critical components of their long-term
online strategy. Combining these capabilities into a single, integrated
offering, built on patented behavioral targeting and testing technology, answers
the market need for a complete optimization solution,” - Josh James, CEO and
co-founder of Omniture.
Labels: Industry News, Omniture, Web Analytics
During SES San Jose this past August I was able to sit down and chat with one of the founders of VisiStat Analytics, Tina Bean. During our conversation Tina and I spoke about various aspects of Visistat as well as web analytics in general. Here's how it went:[Manoj]: How did VisiStat originate?
[Tina Bean]: VisiStat originated from the need for an intuitive analytics platform within the small to medium size business marketplace. It was created by Stephen Oachs, who at the time was running a hosting and collocation company called Pixelmation Internet Technologies, http://www.pixelmation.com/. Frustrated by the “off the shelf” analytic packages, he set out to create a web analytics package that “answered more questions then it raised.” Customers loved VisiStat so much that Oachs decided to spin it off into its own company in the summer of 2005. That’s the point at which we joined forces and he and I founded VisiStat.
[Manoj]: What differentiates VisiStat from other web analytics products?
[Tina Bean]: VisiStat is a hosted, on-demand (SaaS) suite of tools created for sales and marketing mindsets. Not meant to be IT centric, our real-time technology and intuitive interface really speaks to those mindsets. You’d be surprised, multiple people within organizations log in to check their VisiStat account multiple times per day—You see it’s because they can monitor the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns in real-time. With VisiStat, you don’t have to be reactive with your marketing approaches. Real-time stats allow you to be proactive. If something is not working, you know immediately and can turn on a dime.
Here’s a peek into one client’s daily log ins… Like I said… multiple people in the organization, multiple times a day.
[Manoj]: Why would someone use VisiStat over something free like Google Analytics?
[Tina Bean]: First and foremost, VisiStat prides itself on its phenomenal customer support. Pick up the phone and call us 408-725-9376. We answer it. Submit a support ticket, you’ll get a response within hours, if not minutes.
Aside from that, you can track all your PPC under one umbrella with VisiStat. We not only chart conversions, but can get as granular as to relate conversions back search terms, IP addresses, ISP look ups, Geo look ups, and entire click paths. Although we are not a cookie based technology, we can tell you if that visitor has been there in the last 90 days.
VisiStat has an “Alerts” feature that will send you an email or text message when a predetermined instance happens on your website (as easy as setting up a rule in Outlook). Did your competitor come? Did your potential customer surf your site? Was that special landing page visited? Did someone “Google” you? Here’s a blog post I wrote on how I win customers with Alerts http://www.visistat.com/fromthedesk/tina-website-alerts.php.
One of our customers recently told us that he uses VisiStat to successfully bridge the gap between the Marketing and Sales department with his use of special landing pages and Alerts. He targets the company CEO through email campaigns. Each CEO gets their own landing page. When one is clicked on, he gets an Alert that says it’s been hit. In the situation he was referencing, he watched it get hit multiple times. Here’s a screenshot of a report that he ran on that one page. It showed how the CEO had forwarded this email to 33 people spanning in 14 different geographic locations (spanning 2 countries) and had seen the page a total of 46 times. What an incredibly hot lead. He told me how it was fantastic feeling to be able to deliver such a hot lead to the Sales department. I guess VisiStat helps him answer the “what have you done for me lately” question. I love that story.
Here’s a screenshot of the report he was able to put on the sales manager’s desk:
[Manoj]: What is VisiStat not meant for (What things will we never see in Visistat)?
[Tina Bean]: Because VisiStat only monitors human activity, you will never see information on crawlers, bots, spiders, or email harvesters.
[Manoj]: How important is it for a company in the analytics space to be aware of what their competitors are offering?
[Tina Bean]: We cannot be an expert in everyone’s technology. We are aware of what’s out there, but stay focused on VisiStat and its vision of being an all inclusive, integrated suite of tools for small businesses.
[Manoj]: You recently introduced reporting for Mobiles, were you noticing a major need for this?
[Tina Bean]: For those VisiStat “addicts,” its perfect. Real-time stats on the road. Plus the interface is beautiful:
[Manoj]: What do you enjoy most about working at Visistat?
[Tina Bean]: The customer enthusiasm towards VisiStat is what undeniably keeps me coming to work happily every day. Like the loyal Mac enthusiasts, we have VisiStat enthusiasts. I love watching their “light bulbs go off” when they see their stats inside our reporting area. Some customers never knew technology like this existed, most have never seen it presented in a format they could actually understand. It’s very satisfying knowing I’m out there helping website and business owners be smarter about managing their businesses.
VisiStat is a very unique product which could potentially be the choice as an analytics solution for many companies. It was a pleasure meeting Tina in person and believe that Visistat has strong leadership guiding the company towards success.
[Tina Bean]: VisiStat originated from the need for an intuitive analytics platform within the small to medium size business marketplace. It was created by Stephen Oachs, who at the time was running a hosting and collocation company called Pixelmation Internet Technologies, http://www.pixelmation.com/. Frustrated by the “off the shelf” analytic packages, he set out to create a web analytics package that “answered more questions then it raised.” Customers loved VisiStat so much that Oachs decided to spin it off into its own company in the summer of 2005. That’s the point at which we joined forces and he and I founded VisiStat.
[Manoj]: What differentiates VisiStat from other web analytics products?
[Tina Bean]: VisiStat is a hosted, on-demand (SaaS) suite of tools created for sales and marketing mindsets. Not meant to be IT centric, our real-time technology and intuitive interface really speaks to those mindsets. You’d be surprised, multiple people within organizations log in to check their VisiStat account multiple times per day—You see it’s because they can monitor the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns in real-time. With VisiStat, you don’t have to be reactive with your marketing approaches. Real-time stats allow you to be proactive. If something is not working, you know immediately and can turn on a dime.
Here’s a peek into one client’s daily log ins… Like I said… multiple people in the organization, multiple times a day.
[Manoj]: Why would someone use VisiStat over something free like Google Analytics?
[Tina Bean]: First and foremost, VisiStat prides itself on its phenomenal customer support. Pick up the phone and call us 408-725-9376. We answer it. Submit a support ticket, you’ll get a response within hours, if not minutes.
Aside from that, you can track all your PPC under one umbrella with VisiStat. We not only chart conversions, but can get as granular as to relate conversions back search terms, IP addresses, ISP look ups, Geo look ups, and entire click paths. Although we are not a cookie based technology, we can tell you if that visitor has been there in the last 90 days.
VisiStat has an “Alerts” feature that will send you an email or text message when a predetermined instance happens on your website (as easy as setting up a rule in Outlook). Did your competitor come? Did your potential customer surf your site? Was that special landing page visited? Did someone “Google” you? Here’s a blog post I wrote on how I win customers with Alerts http://www.visistat.com/fromthedesk/tina-website-alerts.php.
One of our customers recently told us that he uses VisiStat to successfully bridge the gap between the Marketing and Sales department with his use of special landing pages and Alerts. He targets the company CEO through email campaigns. Each CEO gets their own landing page. When one is clicked on, he gets an Alert that says it’s been hit. In the situation he was referencing, he watched it get hit multiple times. Here’s a screenshot of a report that he ran on that one page. It showed how the CEO had forwarded this email to 33 people spanning in 14 different geographic locations (spanning 2 countries) and had seen the page a total of 46 times. What an incredibly hot lead. He told me how it was fantastic feeling to be able to deliver such a hot lead to the Sales department. I guess VisiStat helps him answer the “what have you done for me lately” question. I love that story.
Here’s a screenshot of the report he was able to put on the sales manager’s desk:
[Manoj]: What is VisiStat not meant for (What things will we never see in Visistat)?
[Tina Bean]: Because VisiStat only monitors human activity, you will never see information on crawlers, bots, spiders, or email harvesters.
[Manoj]: How important is it for a company in the analytics space to be aware of what their competitors are offering?
[Tina Bean]: We cannot be an expert in everyone’s technology. We are aware of what’s out there, but stay focused on VisiStat and its vision of being an all inclusive, integrated suite of tools for small businesses.
[Manoj]: You recently introduced reporting for Mobiles, were you noticing a major need for this?
[Tina Bean]: For those VisiStat “addicts,” its perfect. Real-time stats on the road. Plus the interface is beautiful:
[Manoj]: What do you enjoy most about working at Visistat?
[Tina Bean]: The customer enthusiasm towards VisiStat is what undeniably keeps me coming to work happily every day. Like the loyal Mac enthusiasts, we have VisiStat enthusiasts. I love watching their “light bulbs go off” when they see their stats inside our reporting area. Some customers never knew technology like this existed, most have never seen it presented in a format they could actually understand. It’s very satisfying knowing I’m out there helping website and business owners be smarter about managing their businesses.
VisiStat is a very unique product which could potentially be the choice as an analytics solution for many companies. It was a pleasure meeting Tina in person and believe that Visistat has strong leadership guiding the company towards success.
Labels: VisiStat, Web Analytics
What is SEO?
| John W Ellis - Thursday, September 06, 2007 1 Comments |
With a lot of discussion lately if SEO is dead or not, I thought I would step back to see how others define Search Engine Optimization.
Before we can tell if it’s dead, let’s see what it is. Below are definitions from several popular website.MarketingProfs.com - The altering of a Web site, Web pages and links to Web sites and Web pages to improve visibility, rank and relevance in the organic, crawler-based listings of search engines.
WebsiteNova.com - This is the process of making a website 'search-engine-friendly.' Search engine optimization is primarily used to increase rankings in SERPs, and effective SEO can increase the potential of your website and bring in more traffic.
Wikipedia.com - A set of methodologies aimed at improving the visibility of a website in search engine listings.
SEOmoz.org - ... the active practice of optimizing a web site by improving internal and external aspects in order to increase the traffic the site receives from search engines.
Webopedia.com - ... the process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine
All of those are very good definitions from very reputable sites. I use several of them often. These definitions seem to have one thing in common: traffic. SEO brings in traffic.
That is good at a basic level. SEO is definitely not dead, it’s just elementary. Traffic is good, but quality traffic is better. SEO is needed and appreciated, but it’s important not to stop there.
As mentioned before, if you are looking for help: You need a Search Engine Marketer, not an SEO.
** Find more articles from John W Ellis at http://www.johnwellis.com/
Labels: john ellis, Search Marketing In House, SEO, SEO In House
Facebook Public Profile Resources
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
Yesterday's news of the day was the buzz surrounding Facebook making profiles public to the major search engines. We did predict this enhancement by Facebook earlier this summer when Rumors of Google purchasing Facebook were flying around. Here's the official word from Facebook:
Starting today, we are making limited public search listings available to people who are not logged in to Facebook. We're expanding search so that people can see which of their friends are on Facebook more easily. The public search listing contains less information than someone could find right after signing up anyway, so we're not exposing any new information, and you have complete control over your public search listing.
In a few weeks, we will allow these Public Search listings (depending on users' individual privacy settings) to be found by search engines like Google, MSN Live, Yahoo, etc. We think this will help more people connect and find value from Facebook without exposing any actual profile information or data.
There were many, many thought surrounding the new from Facebook all across the web, of which the most thorough one may have been by SearchEngineLand's Danny Sullivan with his post titled: Facebook Opens Profiles To Tap Into Google Traffic, While Google Grabs Facebook's News Feed Idea.
- Information Week: Facebook Exposes Users To Search Engines
- Marketing Vox: Facebook to Expose User Profiles to Search Engines
- Search Engine Watch: Facebook to Expose User Profiles to Search Engines
- Giga Om: Facebook Open To Public Search
- Times Online UK: Facebook opens profiles to all comers
- San Francisco Chronicle: Changes afoot at Facebook
Labels: Facebook
Search Marketers and Self Branding
| Manoj Jasra - Wednesday, September 05, 2007 0 Comments |
Stoney deGeyeter, a fellow SearchEngineGuide Blogger, has written a very interesting 2 part series showing how well (or poorly) some of the Top speakers at Search Engine Strategies San Jose branded themselves for their company and/or blog on Google; Stoney used their names as the search query for his test. His list included Gord Hotchkiss, Danny Sullivan, Rand Fishkin, Matt Bailey, Jennifer Laycock, Greg Jarboe and many more.... Here's a sample of the article using Jennifer Laycock as an example:
Jennifer Laycock, Search Engine GuideA search for "Manoj Jasra" reveals that I brand myself fairly well but do have some work to do because my employer, Enquiro Search Solutions, does not appear until page 3. However, results that do appear in the first page include this blog, my personal website, my Search Engine Guide Profile, my WebProNews Profile, and my LinkedIn profile.
No surprise here. A search for Jennifer Laycock puts her Search Engine Guide bio page front and center. Number three is her Lactivist blog. An interesting number ten entry is a bio page for Wendy Boswell on About.com. Jennifer's name is nowhere on the page. Guess them old links are still providing juice. Just to stir things up I search for Search Guide instead of Search Engine Guide. SEG comes up number two and three. Searching for Search Engine Guide puts the site in the top spot.
How well are you Branded?
Read the entire post here.
Labels: Google, Search Engine Strategies
Google Blogs News using our Yahoo Pipe
| Manoj Jasra - 0 Comments |
Gears Case Study: What we learned from Remember The Milk
Posted by Dion Almaer, Gears team Omar Kilani of Remember The Milk took the time to write up his teams experience in Taking web applications offline with Google Gears . The article moves past an introduction to delve into the design decisions around an offline-capable architecture, and user…
AdWords system maintenance on September 8
On Saturday, September 8th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT due to our regularly scheduled maintenance. While you won't be able to log into your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. AdWords system maintenance…
Inside AdSense launches in Chinese
Today, we're excited to announce the launch of our 11th AdSense blog -- Inside AdSense: AdSense 中文博客 . The new blog is written in Simplified Chinese, and will provide Chinese-speaking publishers with the latest AdSense updates and announcements. Members of the Chinese support team will…
Yahoo Pipe Source: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=8KaiK_ZI3BGs2FBRLe2fWQ
Posted by Dion Almaer, Gears team Omar Kilani of Remember The Milk took the time to write up his teams experience in Taking web applications offline with Google Gears . The article moves past an introduction to delve into the design decisions around an offline-capable architecture, and user…
AdWords system maintenance on September 8
On Saturday, September 8th, the AdWords system will be unavailable from approximately 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. PDT due to our regularly scheduled maintenance. While you won't be able to log into your accounts during this time, your campaigns will continue to run as usual. AdWords system maintenance…
Inside AdSense launches in Chinese
Today, we're excited to announce the launch of our 11th AdSense blog -- Inside AdSense: AdSense 中文博客 . The new blog is written in Simplified Chinese, and will provide Chinese-speaking publishers with the latest AdSense updates and announcements. Members of the Chinese support team will…
Yahoo Pipe Source: http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.info?_id=8KaiK_ZI3BGs2FBRLe2fWQ
Labels: Google
Facebook Groups: How to be Successful
| Manoj Jasra - Tuesday, September 04, 2007 200 Comments |
Facebook is one of the most powerful social networking services currently available. Its interface and framework allow a person to spread news virally as quick as any social bookmarking service. Facebook Groups, communities of friends with similar interests, are also becoming extremely popular. But, why create a Facebook Group??? Well, Organizations and bloggers should create Facebook Groups to further promote brand presence, share news/events with their community and stimulate relevant discussion all in one spot. A prime example of an organization leveraging Facebook Groups is Contiki - through their group they share brochures, the trip/video of the week, contests, and polls to their 37,000+ members.Tips to Grow a Successful Facebook Group:
- The Right Configuration: Make sure you select a title, category and description that is relevant to your brand because this will entice people to join your group. I also suggest that you be as transparent as possible and offer information such as contact information, website, phone number and location. This allows group members to associate the group to an actual person rather than any old computer generated content.
To offer a real community appeal, enable the ability for anyone to post discussions, wall posts, pictures and videos. Initially you should make the group public which allows anyone to join and invite people to the group; remember you do have the ability to remove members if needed. - Leverage existing Facebook Friends: It's important to attract a strong base of members to your Facebook group, so invite existing friends that may find your group valuable and who could become evangelists for your group. This is where the viral part comes into play: your friends' friends will notice that they joined a new group which will spark interest from them to check it out as well.
- Use your email contacts: Don't forget about your friends outside of Facebook because Facebook Groups provides the ability to import and send group invitations to your contacts from Outlook, Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail.
- Press Releases/Blog Posts are other methods which you can use to invite new members to your Facebook Group. Personally, I created a call to action and placed it above the fold which reminds my readers to join my group.
- Keep the Content Fresh: Update your group's Recent News, photos, videos, events and links regularly so that members have a reason to return. Another simple tactic is deploying a welcome message which greets new members and enforces the 'human factor' of the group.
- Create relationships with new members: If you have a group which is open to the general public then you will notice people who are not your 'friends' join your group. These are the types of people are there to get a feel for the quality of the group therefore make it a habit to personally address them.
Tracking Your Group's Success
Here are some metrics and tactics you can use to measure the success of your Facebook Group:
- The number of members you have in your group.
- New members who join per day/week/month.
- Ratio of new members to people who left the group.
- Ratio of members who are your Facebook friends vs. not.
- Engagement: Activity on Wall Posts and Discussion Boards.
- Members who also accepted invitations to join your events.
- Links posted in your group back to your blog/website should have parameters appended to them so that they can be segmented in your analytics separately.
Labels: Facebook
