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?

I first heard of Twitter about 3 weeks ago and was immediately intrigued. Twitter is a tool whose original use was a way to keep in touch with contacts en mass and at the same time.  Groups are formed by signing up at http://twitter.com/ and a person is either “followed” or is “following” someone.  If you are followed, any messages you send out will be received by members of the group that are following you. The messages are limited to 140 characters, however this is just enough to keep contacts updated on what is going on at any given moment. In terms of Social Networking, this is an excellent tool to get in touch and stay in touch with a large group at the same time via cell phone, IM or email.

Could this new media format and technology have other uses as well? Companies such as Woot.com, Amazon.com and Dell Outlet think it does. These companies are sending messages about hot deals that require quick response times. This is a way to immediately reach customers FREE of charge with hot deals or fire sales. I signed up for woot.com and Dell Outlet and receive deals via my cell phone. As an example from Woot.com I received “woot: $49.99: SanDisk Sansa e260 4GB Media Player http://www.woot.com/”

Dell uses Twitter not only for sales, but as a PR tool as well. In one particular message they released information about an award they received as well as sending out a link to a survey to find out more information from clients to better serve their needs:
“DellOutlet: Cool! We were honored with an award by http://sncr.org/. Thanks for the support. Pls let us know what you want > of: http://tinyurl.com/25db33”

In this survey Dell Outlet asked questions like “What kind of Tweets do you want to see from Dell Outlet?”

• Twitter-only discounts

• Other Dell Outlet offers & promotions (not Twitter exclusive)

• Dell Outlet new product arrivals

• A way to provide feedback on design/usability of Dell Outlet web site changes

• Other (please write suggestions in comment box below)

This quick delivery of the message and the ability to quickly turn around a response could be a very valuable marketing tool for retailers.

Could this also work with the launch of a new product? In combination with other media outlets, this would be an effective and efficient means to communicate the release of a new product to a large audience all at the same time and very quickly.  Would this be something that could be used in your company? Is Twitter the next big thing? What other uses could it have for e-commerce?

For more information go to: http://twitter.com/ or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter

Yesterday, comScore and the Kelsey Group released a study measuring the effect of online consumer-generated reviews on offline purchases. Findings showed that user-generated content is fast becoming a very influential source for driving purchase decisions. Highlights of the report include:

1. 1 in 4 internet users consulted an online consumer-generated review before making a purchase
2. 75% of users who consulted a review indicated that it had a significant impact on their decision to purchase
3. Majority indicated that consumer-generated reviews had more influence than professionally-generated reviews
4. Not only are users consulting reviews, but they also indicate that they are willing to spend more for a product/service if highly rated by fellow users.

While this report comes from the consumer market, it absolutely has application within the IT market where purchases are made in a group setting and are highly peer-driven. Whether it is reviews, forums, blogs, or wikis, users no longer rely on only vendors and publishers to find all of the information they need. If you have been hesitant to participate or market within this environment, these findings should give you confidence in the opportunity that exists. Now is the time to make the commitment to user-generated content. Your customers are already there.

With the release of Facebook’s new ad format, there is a lot of debate about whether or not this is a step in the right direction for social marketing or whether or not this type of marketing will just fall by the wayside as another more highly sophisticated version of “spam.”

As a Facebook user and a marketer, I can see both sides to this argument but I think the positives outweigh the negatives here.  As a user will I want to join every corporate “group” or sign-up for every application a “friend” sends my way?  Absolutely not.  But will I join a group like “Volkswagen” because I own one of their cars - yes.  In many cases, there are clear benefits for me joining a group that I have a vested interest in; such as special offers, messaging with other Volkswagen owners, etc.  In my opinion, Facebook is taking form as the new word of mouth of our generation. 

However, I do agree with Mark Hopkins that other more aggressive marketing tactics like “beacon” will have negative affects on the Facebook community and could cause increased abandonment.  I think advertisers and more importantly, Facebook, needs to be smart about the way this site is used.  Radically changing the site and intended use could cause a lot of backlash among the community of users.

The debate will go on, but regardless of the outcome, it will help pave the way for more creative ways of thinking about marketing in general. While the approach is novel in the consumer world, is IT ready for an environment such as this? IT buyers consistently rely on word of mouth recommendations from their colleagues, but remain skeptical of “vendor pitches”. B2B trends tend to follow consumer trends, so time will tell. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

A common question I hear from our technology vendor clients is how can they get IT pros to respond to follow-up marketing efforts after they download a content asset such as a white paper, webcast or podcast.  Too often we hear that telemarketing is used as the method of follow-up and the results are less than favorable.  I always advise my clients to use the same method for re-marketing as they did to capture the prospect’s information in the first place.  The audience has already demonstrated a comfort level or preference with that method - why change it? 

This seems like marketing common sense.  So why do so many vendors still use telemarketing when the audience is in the online research phase of the buying process? Last June, Garrett Mann posted on this topic, quoting that IT buyers are twice as likely to give vendors a valid email address than a valid phone number (MarketingSherpa & KnowledgeStorm, Connecting through Content, June 2007). The point was reinforced at the TechTarget Online ROI Summit this past September where many of our panel members (IT professionals) stated that they are not likely to answer or return a marketing call from an IT vendor.  They would rather have the vendor follow up via email with another relevant offer or content piece.  IT professionals receive so many phone calls from vendors each day that they simply can not respond nor are they ready to. 

So how can marketers help move prospects through the buying cycle, past research and on to consideration?  One of our presentations at the Online ROI Summit, Selecting Content to Match the Buying Process, addressed this with some best practices for choosing content type and topic to match the various stages of the purchase cycle.  This presentation addresses:

1. Understanding the various stages of the IT buying cycle and the effectiveness of  different media types and topics at each stage
2. Mapping out a plan to have the appropriate content pieces which will move prospects through the cycle
3. Setting expectations on the number and quality of leads based on the content types and topics you are offering

During the TechTarget Online ROI Summit, I heard a lot of interesting information from the Senior IT Panel, comprised of IT professionals who are actively engaged with the IT buying process.  As I sat in the storage specific breakout session, there were a lot of questions around content and the types of content IT storage pro’s consume during particular stages of the IT buying cycle.  We all know as marketers that “Content is King”.  We are constantly asking each other “in what format” but the question we might also want to ask is “by who?”  And by “who” I mean editorial, analyst or vendor.  To my surprise (and possibly the surprise of many in the room) there was a clear definition from the panel as to when they access these three different types of content.

Hands down, editorial content was considered the “go to” resource for IT Pros when it comes to researching new and emerging products or solutions.  In the opinion of the IT pro, editorial content gives them a good understanding of the product or solution as a whole.  For the IT pro, they are not looking for any vendor spin, they are simply trying to grasp the technology.  Features such as “Learning Guides”, “Schools” and “All in One Guides” were mentioned as a great way for an IT Pro to gain specific knowledge around technology options and implementation.

The conversation around editorial content being used as a resource for IT pros was really no surprise, after all that is the intention.  However, what really surprised me was how they use analyst reports, white papers and studies.  These analyst assets are pulled into the last phase of IT buying process to first ensure no vendor was forgotten in the Research Vendors/Products stage and left off the short list.  The other use for these analyst assets is during the Decision Making stage when vendor recommendations are made to the CIO/Final Decision Maker.  IT pros are using analyst assets as supporting document when presenting the vendor of choice.  Check out this blog from CIO Mind where a CIO discusses how he and his colleagues use analyst information.

These guys made it extremely clear that analyst reports should be part of every technology marketers campaign or you risk being left off that short list of recommendations that goes to the final decision maker.

Video is a “New” Media which has received a lot of attention from online marketers.  In the most recent Q3, 2007 Technology Buying and Media Consumption Survey (the third in a series of quarterly surveys to TechTarget’s IT Panel),  video has emerged as a leader as one of the most effective forms of media.

TechTarget, recently hosted the Online ROI Summit, where we gave a case study of how Sun Microsystems used video to educate developers about Java Business Integration.  The program created editorial interactive video with industry luminaries. Video proved to be a powerful branding tool, and appealed to the developer’s sense of community.

Sun was able to achieve their objective by using video to establish JBI brand in the developer market and to engage the developers in a peer-to-peer communication.  How has your company used video?