Let’s Talk Conversion

In my vocabulary conversion refers to religion or to exchange rates.  This conversion; which is a complex process, is now added to my list.  Taking a lead to a closing sale, conversion completed.  Unfortunately, there is no single, concise definition of Lead Conversion as there are different definitions as needed by the organizations.  As explained in chapter 10, conversion is not a “one size fits all” concept (Zahay).  “Each company should customize its own definition of a conversion, arriving at one that reflects its goals and processes.”  In addition, “There may be multiple conversion points…..Measurable objectives should be established for each team at each stage of the lead generation and management process” (Zahay, Internet Marketing Third Edition).

In simpler terms, one company’s  conversion  such as,  Facebook may be to convert a social media patron to click on a link and provide further contact information.  City Kidz will convert someone to be a volunteer.   Amazon will convert a customer to make a final purchase.  Each organization has different goals and therefore,  have different meanings for conversion.

None the less, we will be discussing the process down the funicular image, from Qualified Lead to Won Deal!

(Images, Google.com)

Four issues marketers must consider when trying to make the conversion process for B2B or B2C customers on their websites as effective as possible include:

Personas

We know what a target market is.  Now we are going to put flesh, bones and a face to the profile of our target audience.  This way the a) needs, b) fears,  and c) aspirations of the customers can be easily addressed.

Purchasing Scenarios

To understand the purchasing process as the funnel strategy in the depiction above shows.  The second being to understand how the customer will use the website to make a purchase.

Designing and Testing Landing Pages

The ease with which a customer experiences the objectives while navigating from start to final goal on a company website.  This will be further explained by David Scheibler on October 31, 2012.

Conversion Paths

Please view the video for a clearer understanding of conversion paths.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCXcWEq1W_(Tube)

As seen in the graph below, visitors take a variety of different paths or clicks through the website. 

The following graphic shows the sample Purchase Conversion Funnel and describes each part of the

graph.

1.   Shows the flow of visitors into the scenario and at which step they

entered the scenario.

2.   Shows visitors who started their visits at this step.

3.   Shows visitors who entered at Step 2.

4.   Shows visitors who went directly from Step 3 to Step 4.

5.   Shows visitors who abandoned at Step 3.

6.   Shows visitors who abandoned the site at this step.

7.   Shows the detours that led the visitor away from the scenario.

8.   Shows movement from step to step (Webtrends).

Source:  http://product.webtrends.com/WRC/8.7/ResourceCenter/rc/library/pdf/aug/Tracking_Conversion_and_Abandonment_through_Scenario_Analysis.pdf

Conclusion

In conclusion, the marketer must know each step a segment or target audience may take on the website  to reach the final stage, the final purchase.   A further interesting address, “ Learn How to Improve Lead Quality & Increase Conversions” can be found at: 

http://demand.eloqua.com/LP=3296?elqoffer=GGLeadScoring&GoogleCampaign=Lead&sls=PPC_Google_Lead_2012&gclid=COjKrvn0nLMCFe5FMgod5GwAww .        The final question asked is where did the customers go who did not reach the final purchase stage?  This however, will be another topic.

Student Post ,  Let’s Talk Conversion, Developing Internet Marketing Strategies and Programs.

 

Bibliographaphy

n.d. Google Images. 25 Oct 2012. <http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn2.business2community.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/b2b-buying-process-lead-scoring.png&imgrefurl=http://www.business2community.com/b2b-perspective/the-blurry-b2b-buying-process-new-b2b-buyer-2-0293868&h=376&w=>.

Images, Google. Google.com. n.d. 25 Oct 2012. <http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&biw=961&bih=554&tbm=isch&tbnid=69ecxCTf34uNRM:&imgrefurl=http://www.business2community.com/b2b-perspective/the-blurry-b2b-buying-process-new-b2b-buyer-2-0293868&docid=3sHOGhHVdbl1tM&imgurl=http://cdn2.business2com>.

Tube, You. n.d. 25 Oct 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCXcWEq1W_I>.

Webtrends. Webtrands Marketing Lab 2. n.d. 25 Oct 2012. <http://product.webtrends.com/WRC/8.7/ResourceCenter/rc/library/pdf/aug/Tracking_Conversion_and_Abandonment_through_Scenario_Analysis.pdf>.

Zahay, Roberts and. Internet Marketing Third Edition. Mason: South Western, 2013. 274.

Zahay, Roberts and. "Lead Generation and Conversion in B2B Marketing." Zahay, Roberts and. Internet Marketing Third Edition. Mason: South Western, 2013. 283.

 

OnlineAdvertising

 

                 Online advertising is a type of promotion that uses the internet to attract customers to a particular product or service. There is a vast array of online advertising that is available including; paid search, banner ads, social media advertising, blogs, online classified advertising, advertising networks and e-mail marketing.
 

The Advantage:

                 The first advantage of online advertising is its timeliness. Ads can be posted and instantaneously viewed rather than requiring time to be published in a newspaper or aired on television.  Secondly, there is no limit of reach or frequency. Online ads can be view globally, and can be posted far more often than would be with other mediums. Another great advantage is the interactiveness of online advertising. Types of ‘call to action’ such as; click now to save, or play to win a discount etc., are very strong when using this type of media.

 

 

Ethics:

                 Ethics can be a trying issue when it comes to online advertising. Websites may use large numbers of advertisements. Some of which have misleading images about their offerings or may lead the viewer to believe the ad is actually an error message on their screen. Some websites don’t monitor the ads they feature. For this reason some ads may to lead to sites with inappropriate or unsafe content. As a result online ads of this variety have lost a lot of credibility. E-mail advertisements face the same issue when “spam” e-mails are sent out for phishing purposes.

 

Nowhere Where But Up:

 

 

IabCanada :Canadian Online Advertising Revenue Survey

 

 

                    In the five years from 2006 to 2010, revenue from online advertisements has skyrocketed. The revenue from search ads alone has climbed from $343 million to $907 million, which is an increase of $564 million. The revenue from online ads surpasses the revenue generated from news papers, magazines, and radio. It falls second with only television ads which still produce a better ratio of advertisments to sales.

 

 

Janessa Sanderson

 

Ernest, and Young. "Canadian Online Advertising Revenue Survey." IAB Canada. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. <http://www.iabcanada.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/IABCda_2010Act2011Bdg

 

Organic vs Paid search

what is organic search?

      Most search engines offer two types of search results to their customers: paid results (typically at the top or on the side) and organic or natural results. While paid results can get your Web site to rank higher for a specific keyword phrase (because you've paid to be high in the results), most customers consider these results to be little better than advertising, and will often skip over them in favor of the natural or organic search results.

 Advantages:

     The advantage of organic search marketing is that organic listings are more trusted by searchers than paid listings. Most searchers are savvy enough to realize that Google has a say in what shows up in their searches, and that paid listings are more about who has the deeper pocket. Top organic positions also attract 50% more attention than top paid positions.

Disadvantages:

The disadvantage of organic search is that it can be tricky to get top rankings if you don’t know what you are doing. Search engine optimization services base their entire businesses around raising their clients’ rankings. SEO services are highly valued by companies because a top position in Google for a competitive keyword can skyrocket leads and sales. These companies improve their clients’ rankings via proper search engine optimization. Search engine optimization is the act of optimizing a website to be more search engine friendly and increasing its perceived importance in the eyes of a search engine. Google uses complex ranking algorithms to determine which websites will be listed nearest the top of the page. If your website isn’t properly optimized, you could be losing out.

 

 

what is paid search?

 

A type of contextual advertising where Web site owners pay an advertising fee, usually based on click-throughs or ad views to have their Web site search results shown in top placement on  search engine result pages. Some search engines will make it easy for users to determine which search results are natural and which are paid, while others will mix the results making it more difficult for users to determine which are the paid search results. Also called sponsored search.

 

Advantages:

 

The advantage of paying per click is that you have complete control over which terms your website will be listed under– in real time. This is especially useful when you aren’t sure about which keywords yield the highest returns. Using PPC management tools, you can easily determine which keywords are working best for your website

 

Simple chart organic vs paid search

 

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Organic	·         Click through ·         Trust ·         Cost	·         Effort ·         Time ·         Volatility
Paid	·         Immediate ·         Scalable ·         Measurable	·         Temporary ·         Bid wars

so in conclusion

 

The right choice for your website depends on your particular needs and desires. Most websites benefit most from utilizing a combination of these two approaches. Using PPC marketing can help you quickly identify your best performing keywords, while implementing a longer-term SEO strategy will increase your chances of ranking well in the organic listings.

 

And here a video from google-you tube for advertising which is preety much paid search. and its very interesting video too.

 

 



The Power of Data Mining

[i]

[ii]“$100 billion data mining industry.” Yea my eyes are open too.                                                          

                 When I wake up in the morning, get ready for school and leave.  I haven’t given any data to anyone.  When I search for train times on my smart phone I have given someone somewhere information.  What train I take, what time I take it, where I’m going and how I’m going to get there.  When I buy a coffee at Tim’s “they” know when I bought, what I bought and how I paid for it.  The amount of information we give about ourselves in a day is much larger than we notice.  What we do notice is customized offers to us that are directly related to information we produce.  Every time we make a purchase or visit a webpage, information is collected.  This information is analyzed and sold to companies that use it to target us as consumers.

[iii]“Most experts consider data mining to be the description of machine-based discovery of patterns, trends or clusters within large sets of data.”  Identifying these patterns, trends and clusters is vital to our success as marketers.  Information collected and analyzed helps marketers understand what a potential customers purchasing habits are.  If I go to Metro every Monday night to buy lunch meat, buns and other sandwich supplies, as well snacks and drinks.  I pay with debit along with collecting Air Miles on the purchase.  The next month in the mail I receive a set of coupons targeting the things I purchased as well similar things I may like; all offers include bonus air miles.  This is the power of data mining.  Although this is a very small example of how it works.  Data mining can take into account many different little pieces of information to make informed decisions and ultimately define who we are as customers.

This link is Rafal Lukawiecki talking about data mining I would start 2 minutes in: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vs46QZwnEcc

Nick Fasciano

000302116

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[i] http://backtothefuturetrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/data-mining-630x340.png

[ii] http://www.marketplace.org/topics/business/borrowers/data-mining-pushes-marketing-new-level

[iii] http://junctionsolutions.com/blogjuice/bringing-the-power-of-data-mining-to-the-mid-market/

Canada has become one of leading countries in the use of social media. The use of online has been rapidly spreading throughout the country. Age is one of the key aspects for the internet use in Canada. Since the year 2000, using the internet has increased in all ages. Given that children and middle aged users are going to continue using the internet, difference in age are supposed to decline as the year’s progress. Gender use for online in Canada is roughly the same. However, the way males and females use it is different. Males use it more in their leisure time at home and longer hours than women. Women use it for the social aspect to communicate with friends and family. Canadians who were born in Canada use the internet differently as oppose to new Canadians born from other countries. New Canadians mostly use the internet for communicating to their family and friends back at home. Urban areas in Canada participate more in online activities than oppose to the rural areas.

According to Statistics Canada in 2010, 8 out of 10 Canadian Households (79%) had access to the internet. Over one half of connected households used more than one type of device to go online. Also as the two years progressed every province in Canada has increased in the use of the internet. The three provinces that has the highest rates for internet use is British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.

Many Canadians access going online through their mobile devices, this type was mainly through more experienced internet users as well as the majority is under the age of 35 years old. Online activities are another main reason why Canadians use online software. The three online activities most commonly used in Canada are e-mail, shopping or searching for products, and doing banking. 

Here is a link that demonstrates Canadian statistics for social media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uASo7N4jS88

Carla Pitton
000270572

Brand Evaluation - Task #5

Each of the 4 brands you have to choose from could benefit from the use of social media marketing. Investigate if/how your brand is using it to reach their goals. Can you identify what you think their marketing objectives are? Are they using social media effectively? If yes, how so? How could they improve their use of social media marketing? Are they simply communicating or are they engaging, or collaborating with their audience?

This task is worth 10 points.B

Future of the Internet

The Future of the Internet

Last September the Internet turned 40 years old, in the last 40 years I don’t think anything has evolved more then the internet. Now a days people do everything on the internet, we talk, work, bank, meet people, read the news, even watch tv on the internet, we share what we are doing through twitter and Facebook on the internet it has just become a big part of our everyday lives.

What can the Internet possibly do next how can it possibly become better then it already is, well here are some predictions of the Internet in the future, Audio web surfing instead of typing into the search key you will be able to connect your mobile device to the internet though blue tooth and have text to speech, so there will be no more typing people will just have to say what they want to search and the internet will search it by audio.

Some other ideas that the future of the internet will bring are you will be able to access the internet through any device not just a computer or a smart phone device, the internet will be able to be accessed through anything suck as something like a cutting board when chopping your vegetables.

 

By 2012 they predict that the internet will be everything, everything will be done on the internet as we are already geared towards that. People will use the internet for everything banking, business, meeting people, shopping, people with be paid by there employers through the internet, and the list goes on the internet will be faster then every, and liked already stated will be able to be accessed through any device.

They also predict that as we head into the future the internet will be geared towards more app like, so for example have different apps to do and search different topics. 

No one can control the future of the internet but it does look like we have some very interesting technology with the internet on the way!

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing

By Huy Nguyen

Ever since the explosion of social media, it has had a major impact on our society in regards to how we do business, how we interact and communicate. In society today, the top reasons that people use social media are to stay in touch with family and friends as well as to connect with new people. Social media networks have drastically changed how we stay in touch with people. In the past, geography used to limit our social links in life. However, nowadays there is no geographical limit in regards to our social circles. Social media is continuously changing the way we interact and engage, there is now a decrease in reading and discussing personal topics on blogs and forums. Instead, people are turning to social networking pages in order to do this. Because of this, blogs are becoming a resource for expert information or advice.

Social media has transformed the way brand marketers approach the consumer. As marketers, we need to recognize the significant impact that social media has upon consumers. There is a noticeable shift away from company brand websites; however consumers are still interested in interacting with company brands. We now see that most major company brand websites have social media links to direct consumers to their chosen social media platform in order to promote interactivity with consumers.

As companies and businesses incorporate social media into their marketing strategies, consumers are becoming increasingly involved with companies since the inception of social media networking. There is a rise in transparency of companies as consumers are now able to just verbally spread complaints about services and products to a few friends and family; consumers are now able to spread any issues through their social media platform which will likely reach a few hundred people or even a few thousand depending on the number of “friends” or “followers” any given consumer has. Hence, many major companies have their own dedicated social media team to deal with consumer complaints on each major social media platform.

Diagram source: Forbes

There is no doubt that social media has a profound impact on business today. According to survey results that Forbes Magazine obtained, three out of four Chief Marketing Officers say that social media impacts sales. Social media also has a measurable impact on factors such as brand awareness, and loyalty. CMOs use data from social media in order to make decisions not just in marketing but also used to improve product development and to increase the customer experience of the product or service.

Below is a YouTube video by Vitrue Inc., a social media marketing firm which attempts to illustrate the effects of social media in the world of marketing.

Sources: Forbes

Feature Image Source: Business2Community