Internet Marketing News Flash

Espotting Merges With FindWhat.com

FINDWHAT.COM (NASDAQ: FWHT), a leading developer and provider of performance-based marketing and commerce enabling services, and ESPOTTING MEDIA, INC., a leading paid listings provider in Europe, announced 1st July 2004 the completion of the merger between the two companies.
http://www.espotting.com/info/pressreleases/pressrelease01_07_04.asp

New Google WebSearch Program Pays Publishers For Searches

Google has released two new services allowing site owners to install web search capabilities on their own sites, including one that pays.
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3370331

Overture Launches Local Match Listings Program

Overture launched its new sponsored search product Local Match(TM) which delivers local search listings to consumers searching online for local products and services. Through Local Match, advertisers can precisely target customers interested in a specific neighborhood and present customized offers and business details to them. Overture's Local Match listings appear in the U.S. on Yahoo! and MyCity.com and will be displayed on other popular sites including MSN, ESPN.com.

http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=OVER&script=410&layout=-6&item_id=585653

Google Launches Chinese Search Services

As search engines battle each other for China's market share of Internet users, which is moving towards the second highest in the world, Google has announced the launch of Chinese search services designed to capture a portion of China's web audience.

http://www.webpronews.com/news/ebusinessnews/wpn-45-20040625GoogleLaunchesChineseSearchServices.html

Managing a Search Advertising Budget

You want top search result positions now, and you're willing to pay for them. But is your paid listing launch on hold until you can justify a budget and demonstrate ROI goals?

"A special report from the Search Engine Strategies 2004 Conference, March 1-4, New York."

Perhaps you are already spending money, but without a budgeting strategy in place. How do you know if your campaign is providing sufficient return to justify the amount of ad spend? In the "Setting and Managing Your Ad Budget" session, a panel of experts shared tips on getting the budget you need and making it work more efficiently for you.

Let's start with getting budget approval for paid listings. In-house search engine marketers, or marketing agencies, often find themselves competing for part of the company's marketing budget. Mike Moran, manager of IBM.com site architecture and design, began with a pivotal argument marketers can use in budget negotiations, "If consumers can't find our product, they can't buy it." Moran then recommended that marketers prepare the following data as a persuasive case for budget allocation and increases:

• Show competitors' ads running on your company's keywords
• Explain the missed business opportunity in terms of expected revenue from paid listings
• Quote statistics on search engine advertising effectiveness from well-known resources
• If applicable, show how your company's affiliates are already savvy in this area, or are causing profit loss by bidding against your company for the same keywords

Some marketers don't have budget battles. The company executives have followed the media's stories of search engine marketing success and have already embraced budget allocation for paid listings. Business owners who manage their own campaigns are the decision-makers.

However, Harrison Magun, managing director of eonMedia, asserted that most companies that are spending money are still working with no formal budget -- essentially flying blind. "They're spending until the cows come home," he explained.

Magun strongly recommended that marketers set a budget based on a set of statistical assumptions. According to Magun, it's not about spending money on top positions; it's about setting cost-per-order goals then using realistic click-through rates to determine what you should be spending per click to get a sale. Set a budget based on performance, not positions.

Kevin Lee, CEO of Did-it.com, drilled even further into managing a paid listing budget based on return on investment (ROI) criteria. He reminded marketers to not overlook low-volume keyword phrases. Typically, they yield an impressively-high ROI because they're targeted phrases used by consumers who are in the later stages of the buying cycle. Grouped together, Lee said those low-volume phrases can add an extra 5%-20% lift to a campaign.

Are you managing the paid listing campaigns of a specific division, or business unit, within a company? If so, a company-wide search engine marketing (SEM) strategy is becoming increasingly important to avoid overlap and accidental competition.

"There is now a very high probably for duplication of keyword buys," according to Bill Hunt, SEM strategist for Global Strategies International, which manages IBM.com's global search marketing strategy. Moran discovered that several divisions of IBM were bidding against each other, which of course increased clicks fees.

Hunt worked with Moran to create a keyword management database that all divisions and business units must clear their keywords through. The assigned keyword owners have first right to those keywords in paid search, and if executed, are required to implement an optimization strategy to rank well for those keywords too. Surprise keyword attacks from members of the same corporate team have been eliminated.

The Search Engine Strategies sessions are always entertaining as well as educational. A particularly memorable exchange occurred during the Q&A portion of this session, when an audience member asked about managing paid listing campaigns for politicians:

Question: "How much is a vote worth?"
Answer: "That depends on who the candidate is!"

Fortunately, most companies know the value of what they're marketing. By setting a realistic budget based on initial ROI assumptions, marketers can then modify their paid listing campaign to achieve new profitability goals. The overall budget will then become a supporting piece in the marketing plan, not a primary obstacle.

Article By Catherine Seda

About the Author:
Catherine Seda, owner of the Internet marketing and training company Seda Communication http://www.sedacommunication.com, is author of the new book Search Engine Advertising http://www.searchenginesales.com.

This article originally appeared in Searchenginewatch.com's daily newsletter SearchDay, at the following URL: http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3359901. "Copyright 2004 Jupitermedia Corporation All Rights Reserved."

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Marketing With Email Newsletters

Use Appropriate Email Lists
Use only permission-based, double opt-in email lists for your newsletter. This means all your subscribers have registered to receive your newsletter, and have reaffirmed their subscription desire via a confirmation email or online form. Do not attempt to build your newsletter list by renting email addresses from an outside source.

Practice List Hygiene
Keep your email list database up-to-date in real time. Subscribers should be able to unsubscribe at anytime via an unsubscribe link included with every newsletter, and from a form on your website. Remove email addresses that bounce multiple times.

Use a Reputable Service Bureau
You can accomplish permission-based, double opt-in marketing and real time list hygiene by using a reputable email service bureau. Such services also have relationships with the major ISPs to help "white list" clients against false spam filtering.

Avoid Spam Filter Triggers
Even for legitimate permission-based email newsletters, you can expect your mailings to encounter multiple spam filters. All email is filtered by ISPs, and often a second time at the client computer level. These spam filters use a variety of techniques. Some filters check the content of your Subject heading. As such, you should avoid CAPS, special characters like *, and even marketing terms like "free" or "special offer." More recently, client-based spam filters are checking to see if the sender's From address is listed in the subscriber's address book.

Finally, make sure your email newsletter includes compelling content anticipated by your target audience. This requires that you assign a competent editor to the task who is willing to devote the time and energy necessary to publish your newsletter. Publish on a regular schedule. Include links back to your website, and include links to outside resources of interest to your readers. Use a form in every issue for subscribers to forward your newsletter to a friend. Encourage reader feedback, and respond to comments and inquiries promptly. Quality and consistency in email newsletter marketing will boost website traffic, increase your product sales, and promote the customer lifetime value of your subscribers.

Article by Rich Ottum

About the Author:
Rich Ottum is General Manager of eStrategyOne, an online marketing solutions company in Columbus, Ohio.
http://estrategyone.blogs.com

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