I’m sure you have heard a difference in opinion about whether an email marketing campaign was a success or not. Funny enough, there may be good reason why these opinions vary. I stumbled on a blog article about measuring response rates on email campaigns. There seems to be a lack of standards when it comes to the way we are measuring email metrics. Also, it seems that many people don’t understand how to measure the email campaign nor are they consistent.  Here is a recent study by JupiterResearch/e-Rewards, Inc. which showed that Marketers were not consistent with the measurement used to gage success.

The stats show that many marketers are confused about email metrics and what standards to use. The conscience is that email marketing is not going away; so I guess we need some industry standards as guidelines so we as marketers can speak the same language.

A recent marketing survey, conducted by Datran Media to online marketing professionals, revealed that 80% of marketers call email the best performing online medium. The survey even has email beating out search! The survey also indicated that 82% of the marketer’s surveyed plan to increase their email marketing spends in 2008 by 82%.

In terms of success, I  have seen that one medium doesn’t necessary outperform the other -  in order to receive optimal results the two mediums need to work together. What is your company’s plan in terms of allocating budget towards email vs. search in ‘08?

Have you found that one medium outperforms  the other?

Online marketing is not just about reaching out to your target or potential customer with emails, search marketing and banner ads, today it is much more.  It’s about making meaningful connections utilizing various platforms such as blogs, forums, social networks and videos and in context with what your target is really interested in.  In Barry Harrigan’s blog, What IT Marketers Can Learn from Guitar Hero, he poses the question, “So what does Guitar Hero III have to do with IT Marketing and lead generation?.”

He states that “While IT Marketers may not be able to market technology with flashy outfits and expensive instruments, we can allow our users to personalize their experiences while they are researching technology on our Websites. If users are given choices - in what they see when they log-in to our sites, in how their personalized pages are designed, and as to the content that appears on their pages, they are going to feel more connected with the Website.

TechTarget has incorporated this contextual approach to help our clients connect with prospects where and when they want to be reached with contextual ROI marketing opportunities such as All-in-One Guides, Supercasts, Topic-Focused Schools, Topical Infocenters and more.

Is your company stepping up marketing efforts to make meaningful connections with prospects by incorporating contextual or new marketing platforms?

At TechTarget, we have spent a lot of time in 2007 gathering data from our ongoing research and developing marketing best practices around the IT buying process.   Recently, evidence surfaced that both the type of content (i.e. webcast, white paper, podcast, trial, etc.) and the topic of the content (analyst review, case study, product comparison, benchmarking study) determines whether the user is in the awareness, consideration, or decision phase of the IT buying process.  

With our recent acquisition of Knowledge Storm (a top-ranked search resource for technology solutions and information), we now have a complete product offering of both targeted, “push” promotion along with “pull” or broad based search strategies.  With that said, when implementing search engine optimization strategies, where do those leads generated fall into the IT buying process? 

In a recent post on www.searchengineland.com, Patricia Hursh highlights research that shows business buyers use search engines in the “awareness, research, and selection phases of the b2b buying cycle”.  At this point, I’m not willing to place leads generated through SEO in any particular part of the IT buying process.  Although I would like an opportunity to review more research, I suspect that search strategies can get more highly target content, such as events and seminars, in front of the right audience.  They aren’t just used for awareness building.  A lot of the success depends in how the content is catalogued and what search terms are used when syndicating the content.

Can you share any experiences or evidence that shows the influence SEO strategies have on all phases of the B2B or IT buying process?