Week 8
Promoting Our Web Site
Promoting Your Web Site
• General Web promotion options
• Evaluate search engines as web site promotion
• Review search engine use and value as promotion
option
• Evaluate banner advertising as a way to promote
the web site
• Discuss banner advertising pros and cons
• Affiliate Marketing
Web site promotion
Banners
Affiliates Links
Partners
Community
Search
Engines Email
Promotional
Materials Printed Materials
Print Broadcast PR
Advertising
Web Rings
• Web rings link sites with similar content
together.
• There are a couple of dozen major
categories and thousands of subcategories.
• Rings are generally started and maintained
by one person.
Web Rings
• Rings must obtain a minimum of 5 sites
– The average ring has anywhere from 10 –200
sites. There are about 100000 rings in
existence.
• They are free of charge to both visitors and
members.
• Seem to be working well.
Web Rings
• Benefits
– Free
– Most rings have free traffic reports
– Quick and easy to use
– Avoid duplication (Each site is listed once)
– Often more accurate than search engines
• Examples
– www.webring.org
– Looplink.com
» GO TO GOOGLE AND TYPE ―WEB RING‖
Cool Sites
• They are definitely worth submitting to as
they get lots of traffic and exposure
– www.cool.com
– www.coolsiteoftheday.com
– Yahoo.com/picks
Award Sites
• Examples
– www.100hot.com
– www.webbyawards.com
– www.searchenginewatch.com
– #1 authority on search engines.
Online Advertising
• http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/advertis
ing/article.php/3569616
Banners
• Simple Banners
• Animated Banners
• Streaming Banners
• Streaming Audio Banners
• Pop-Ups
• Interstitials
Banners
• Aren’t they dead?
– Banners still make up the majority of online ad
spending
– CTR are lower than low in most consumer
categories.
– Audience reach often improves regardless of
whether the banner was clicked or not.
CP’s
• Cost per Click (CPC)
– # of times your banner is clicked on
• Cost per Sale (CPS or CPT)
– Usually paid as a percentage of a
sales(excluding tax and shipping)
• Cost per Action
– Set fee based on the number of times a game
was played, software downloaded etc.
Before you buy
• What are your goals
– Generate Inquiries
– Generate Sales
– Branding and Awareness
– Driving Traffic
– Research/Surveying
Before you buy
• Do a through analysis of Inventory and your
campaign.
– Which pages will you be on?
– When?
– What is your budget? How does this ad fit in?
– Who else will be advertising at the same time?
– How are you supporting this online? Radio, TV, paper?
– Who is serving your ad?
– How will you be tracking the results?
Plan and Contract
• Plan what you are going to test
• Make sure you have a good contract.
– Outline dates and times
– Costs
How to Choose
• Referring URL’s
• Personal experience
• Good Fit
– Editorial relevance
– Right Market
• Amazing deal
• Because you want to do it.
Banner Tips
• Someone famous said ―Nobody reads ads.
People read what interests them. Sometimes
it is an ad‖
– People don’t click on great copy and design
– They click on something that interests them
– Unless you are a fortune 250 company you cant
afford to be doing banners just to improve
image.
Banner Tips
• Make sure that you drive the traffic from
the banner directly to the page
• Carefully plan the alt text for each banner as
well as the text underneath the banner
Banner Tips
• Develop a campaign not a unit (15 days)
• Using questions can raise CTR by about
15%
• Free works best
– Free Information, free white paper, free
whatever
• Thank you page banners tend to work best.
Banner Tips
• Use 25% of the space for your logo
• Phrases such as ―click here Now ‖ improve
response
Banner Tips
• Negotiating
– Tell them what you want to pay—they will get
to it
– Remember that the 80% of space goes unsold
– Start with 10% what they offer
Banner Tips
• Best times to negotiate
– Timing
• End of Month
• End of quarter
• End of year
– Great deals when you purchase space for an entire year
(this should be your best buy)
• USA Today.com great site to consider
• If we are going to sell sport outfits
– ―We should pay a premium to advertise on a
web site devoted to sports‖
• Is this the right way?
Test
• Testing is Critical
• You should test the following
– Creative
– Offer
– Ad Units
– Sites
– Reach vs. composition
– Targeted content v.s. targeted demographics
• There should be about 20000 impressions behind
each test cell.
Ad Networks
• Ad networks offer one stop ad shopping
– Great for testing
– Save time
– Expertise
– Service
– Carry premium properties
Web Advertising Networks
• Offer single point of access to advertisers that
want to reach millions of consumers quickly and
easily.
• They acquire impressions given to them by their
web site ―affiliates‖ and sell the aggravated
inventory.
• This process simplifies the acts of buying and
selling for both the advertiser and the web
publisher.
Zero Based Media Buying
• Testing using RON (Run of Networks)
• Do, no targeting at all.
• Just throw ads out there and see where you get
responses.
• Within a few days you can figure out where your
responses are coming from.
• Group your responses by category (sport,
business, entertainment or people who respond to
ads about my product.
– You can not do that with any other media
• He (Flycast President) recommends to his
clients that begin with advertising on all
Flycast sites ( close to a thousand) for a
week and compare the response rates.
CASIO
Games 0.4%
Sports 0.4%
Women 0.5%
Technology 0.8%
Health 0.8%
News 0.8%
Automative 0.8%
Average 0.9%
Business 1.1%
Shopping 1.1%
Entertainment 1.1%
Travel 2.4%
0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 2.5% 3.0%
Percentage Responses
It ran a banner ad for a digital camera.
The best category for Casio digital camera ads is travel.
This test can be conducted in a week
sites aimed women, games and sports are definitely not winners for the
product.
Would anyone guessed this without the test? In a week?
Internet Advertising Bureau
• IAB.net
• Are the new banner sizes successful?
– http://www.iab.net
Next-Generation Banners Rich Media
Interactive/Animated Banners
Features-
In-the-banner interactivity
Deliver live content such as news, daily messages
Rich media contains for any bandwidths without plug-ins
such as streaming audio, animations, quizes, and games
Effectiveness-
Increases (CTR) click-through-ratio
Improves brand recognition
http://www.freestyleinteractive.com
http://www.freestyleinteractive.com/clients/ifuse/
Click on the Client Portfolio and see different banners
Next-Generation Advertisements
Downloadable and interactive advertisement
Forwarding Advertisements
Effective and free advertisement that is guaranteed
to reach the targeted audience
Word of mouth or email promotion reaches a
larger number of consumers
Brand name is re-enforced by interacting with the
ads
Banner ad presentation methods
• A. Pay per Click - Pay a web site every time someone clicks on
your banner.
• B. Pay per Lead - Pay a web site every time someone signs up
for a service or free subscription (Sales leads)
• C. Pay per Sale - Pay a web site every time someone actually
buys the product or service.
• D. Pay to View - Pay a web site to show your ad by category or
randomly.
• E. Banner Exchange - Display banner/button on your site in
exchange for displays on others
Where should you place your banner ads?
• In traditional advertising you use media
expert.
– Study demographics
– Figures out which media they pay attention to.
– Places ads based on careful targeting and cost.
– Media targeting has been a science for 30 years
• Should we (modern marketers) use the same
techniques for the web?
4 Steps in making a purchase
• Impression: The customer clicks on a web site that
has banners displayed.
– 5$ to $40 per thousand impressions
• Response:The person clicks on a banner in the
web site, which transports the clicker to your web
site
• Lead: The prospect views your offering and fills
out a form
• Sale: The clicker buys the product
Objectives in Web Advertising
• There are two objectives in web advertising
– Image advertisers are trying to create an image
in the mind of the viewer.
– Response advertisers are trying to get the
viewer to respond.
Year Image&Awareness Response
1 80% 20%
2 60% 40%
3 40% 60%
Creative should always mirror the program
How web advertising differs
• On the web you can change your message every
hour every day
• Expose one customer to many different
approaches.
• Rich media ads utilizing high involvement and
interactive formats, hold the promise of increasing
the impact and overall effectiveness of web
advertising.
• You get immediate feedback on what is working
and what is not.
Ad Performance Evaluation
• Lycos and Yahoo Spreadsheets.
• Please take a look at those sheets.
• We will discuss the dynamics during our
Wednesday chat
• I am using these worksheets with
permission from BMG Direct.
Affiliates
• Partners help drive revenues
Affiliate Marketing
• Affiliate marketing may be the fastest-growing form of
online marketing today. Driving about 13% of the current
online sales market, it's forecast to reach 21% by 2003,
according to a report by Forrester Research Inc.
• Behind that growth is affiliate marketing's ability to
leverage the power of the Web and direct customers to
partners on a pay-for-performance basis, said Robert
Levitan, CEO of Flooz.com, New York, an online gift
currency provider with an extensive affiliate network.
Vocabulary
• Affiliate: An individual who contracts
with a merchant in order to help sell that
merchant’s product.
• Merchant: An individual or business
who has a product and, in this case,
uses affiliate programs to sell this
product.
What type of merchandise can I sell
through affiliate marketing?
• The product may be anything someone
will pay for
– Tangible (such as clothing),
– Virtual (such as electronic books or
– Downloadable software), or
– Information (such as expert advice).
Where do I get the merchandise?
Where do I store it?
• In most cases, the merchant handles
– the merchandise,
– actual purchase,
– packaging, and
– shipping,
– so you usually never see the actual merchandise.
What are my responsibilities as an
affiliate?
1. Represent a product or service
• Represent the merchant’s product or service
on your site through the use of links.
• These links may take the form of
– a banner,
– a text link,
– a search box, or even
– a JAVA applet.
What are my responsibilities as an
affiliate?
2. Drive traffic (get visitors) to your site.
• Establish a steady flow of targeted traffic to your site
in order to increase your potential to earn
commissions. Different merchants specify what
constitutes an action worthy of compensation, and
these can range from a
– Customer just seeing the ad
– Actually purchasing the product.
• How much you get paid will also differ from merchant to
merchant.
What are my responsibilities as an
affiliate?
3. Read the contract
• Information should be stated clearly in a contract. It is
your responsibility to read the contract, even if it is
– long,
– or
– boring.
What are my responsibilities as an
affiliate?
4. Monitor your site and links.
• You must check your site and links regularly to
make sure everything works properly.
What are my responsibilities as an
affiliate?
5. Monitor your statistics.
• The merchant should provide you with statistics.
• You need to monitor your statistics to make sure you
are being credited properly.
– Your statistics reflect the success of your merchandising
plan and allow you to tweak your selling process to increase
your profit.
How Do I Choose a Merchant?
• Stand-Alone Affiliate Program (independent):
– An affiliate program run "in house" by a particular merchant.
This merchant handles the contracting, sale, record keeping,
and payment process.
• Solution Provider:
– A company, such as Commission Junction or BeFree, that
assists merchants in the affiliate marketing process.
– Usually, the solution provider acts as an intermediary
between the merchant and affiliate, and handles most
business matters such as regulating contracts and cutting
checks.
Reasons to use a stand-alone affiliate
program
1. Access to unique items.
• Artists and craftspeople frequently cannot generate
the volume of product to support a large affiliate
program. However, these merchants can benefit from
highly targeted affiliate sales made by a select group
of affiliates.
– If you have a site dedicated to Shaker craftsmanship, for
example, and want to sell hand-made Shaker-style chairs,
then you should consider finding a quality artisan with a
highly selective group of affiliates.
Reasons to use a stand-alone affiliate
program
2. Access to non-traditional items.
• Some items, while mass-produced, do not always
appeal to the majority of Web surfers.
– However, if your highly targeted niche site focuses
on a sub-culture, such as role playing gamers,
then you should work with a merchant who caters
to this community.
Reasons to use a stand-alone affiliate
program
3. Ability to work more closely with a merchant.
• Independent merchants, especially those with
highly selective affiliate programs, work with
fewer affiliates, and are therefore often more
accessible than the large solution providers.
Customer Relationship
Management
CRM Framework
Source : Andersen Consulting
Customer Relationship
Management
Technology Marketing
Warehousing Direct, Interactive
Online data store Dialog, Real time
User tools
Analytics
Business
Customer
Financial
CRM working definition
• CRM is the
– Systematic use of information
– To attract and keep customers
– Through on-going dialogue
– To build long lasting mutually beneficial
relationships
Systematic Use of Information
• Database of customer information
– The customer is the base level of data for
storage,reporting,analysis and measurement
• Analysis of customer data to predict likely future
behavior
– Modeling uses past behavior to predict future behavior
and identifies other predictors as well.
• Identifying and evaluating each relationship
– CR are identified, evaluated reevaluated and
continually managed according to current information
To attract and keep customers
• Cost efficient customer acquisition
– Profiles used to select likely new customers and offers
for specific customer segments
• Retention efforts focused on most profitable and at
risk customers
– Continuous process of solidifying relationship with
profitable customers, converting less profitable
customers to more profitable and attempting to convert
at risk customers before they are lost.
• Shared information across channels for consistent
communications
– Customer receives consistent offers, service and
messages across sales and service channels
With or Without
• Without CRM • CRM in practice
– Customer re-enters information – Customer logs onto the Internet
about music preferences every and finds information on favorite
time at log-in music group, advertisements
– Customer re-identifies CI every featuring specials on new CDs and
time at CS dates with ticket offers to next
– Call center and stores have concerts in local area, plus emails
different pricing from web site telling them about new groups
with a similar style or from the
– Customer must return defective same record company.
CD through the delivery channel-
cannot switch between electronic – Customer reads about CD’s on the
channels and stores. Internet, orders through the
CS,exchanges at a local record
store if CD is defective.
Through on-going dialogue
• Continuous interaction with customers based on analysis
– Interactions,offers and messages are
planned,personalized and delivered according to
analytic insights
• Real time response on the Internet
– Immediate changes in advertising, information,
recommendations, product features and even pricing
based on web or email behavior
• Listening to create a sense of intimacy with the customer
– 1:1 dialogue through appropriate responses delivered
real time
Web Telephony Integration
Email Integration Capability
To build long-lasting mutually
beneficial relationships
• Success measured in customers and customer
value
– Goals, results even incentives measured in terms of
customers and customer value,not transactions
• Continual reevaluation of customer relationships
– On-going measurement to identify profitable, at risk
and underserved customers
• Continual learning about customer needs
– Satisfied customers make good business sense
Customer Strategy should be defined and driven by Customer needs
Repeat
Shopping Buying Using Evangelizing Complaining
Purchasing
Is it easy to Was the offer Did they Do they Can I trust Was my
find what I am just right for follow up? remember them to complaint
looking for? Me? me? provide a satisfied?
Did they use consistent
Do I want to Was it easy to information Did I have to experience? Did they
come back buy? made during answer the same remember
here? the sale to questions that I
make the again? complained
Did I learn What should I after-sale Do they know when I called
anything expect after experience when I have next?
new? this sale? pleasant? Was the made a
information I referral?
Do I trust this Is it safe to gave them Do they care? Did they
Company? buy here? last time used annoy me
Did they add
with integrity? with
value to the
Did it add value? additional
What made If I tell them product with
them information? marketing
about myself after I
different from will they complained?
everyone make their
else? product
better?
At its simplest
• CRM refers to the use of information about
a customer to make decisions about how to
treat the customer.
The Learning Loop
Customer Strategy
Track and Learn Collect and Distribute
CI
Dialogue and Analyze and mine
Personalized CI
Campaign
Making the Business Case
Building the CRM Organization
At it is most complex CRM comprises an
interconnected web of sophisticated, high tech
hardware software, strategies and processes designed
to help business quickly, efficiently and
voluminously determine how to treat each customer
in order to create a valued experience for both the
business and the customer.
Analytics Sales Force
Automation Distribution Operations
Call Campaign Partner
behavior Management
analysis Customer
Monitoring Valuation
Integrated
Quality of Customer View Segmentation
Service And profiling
Analysis
Customer
Risk
Service Behavioral
Analysis
Modeling
Profitability
Web
analysis
Intelligence
Needs
Sales
analysis Call Center
analysis
E-commerce
Web
A data warehouse builds a strong foundation for
CRM infrastructure
What Customers Want
• Treat me as an individual (not a number)
• Demonstrate that you can use information about
me in a way that makes working with you valuable
( don’t abuse my information)
• Show me that you really know me no matter where
I talk to you.
• Care about my needs/try to anticipate them.
Creating the CRM organization
Buzzword Alert
• Politics
– The result of opposing business priorities across
different units that compete for a finite pool of
resources
• Change Management
– Guiding an organization and its members through
significant alterations in organizational direction and
individual responsibilities as quickly and effectively
possible
• Organizational design
– Managing human systems and hierarchies, with
supporting technical and process infrastructure, in order
to most effectively deliver on the mission of the
enterprise
Organizing around the Customer
•Who thinks about the customer?
•Who advocates the customer?
•Who doesn’t think about the customer?
Competing
Distribution
Competing
Products
Competing
Sales Territories
Competing Competing
Business Units Channels
Organizing around the Customer
• Everyone in an organization needs to think
about the customer. To achieve this, an
organization must encourage change by
providing the tools to make the changes
steadily and surely
Changing how an organization thinks Customer centric metrics
Changing organizational processes Pilots,business rules and business case
Changing organizational structure Evolutionary not revolutionary
Changing culture Short term and long term success
Customer Centric Metrics
Volume Metrics Customer Centric Metrics
• Call Duration • Customer Retention
– Encourages TSRs to make – Encourages TSRs to satisfy
calls as short as possible, customers
keep costs low – Creates loyalty
– Creates dissatisfaction
• Sales Volume • Customer Value Impact
– Encourages cannibalization – Increases customer value
– Encourages short term following interaction
product pushes instead of – Includes additional
long term CR information gathered which
is useful for future
campaigns
Evolutionary Not Revolutionary
• Why not just reorganize everyone from
Marketing, IT and other teams contributing
resources to the CRM effort?
– Why the evolutionary small step approach?
– Why not revolution?
• Power may continue to reside in areas without the
data, without the metrics or even without the C
• Focus on bureaucratic issues detracts from C focus
Why Not Revolution
– Gives time to build infrastructure for:
• Centralized data
• Tools that make data easy to access
• Skilled analysts who can mine the data
• Metrics that validate C centric programs
• Training to bring staff up to speed
• Setting senior management expectations and
educating them
• Winning kudos for early successes
• Creating external enthusiasm rather than
resistance.
Changing Structure
• To maintain the momentum of a CRM
initiative:
– Continually demonstrate value to all
stakeholders
– Create a hunger among senior managers for
customer centric and customer value
information
– Use input from anyone thinking about the
customer.
E-channels
• E-channels both complicate and simplify CRM execution:
Complicate Simplify
- Stability - Loyalty
- Maintenance - Information
- Real time - Real time
- Personalization - Cost saving
- Collaborative filtering - Interactive
- Profit driver
- Branding
- Convenience
- E-strategy
- Customer tracking
- Competing channels - Services
- Privacy - Transaction/sales tracking
- Security
Are we there yet?
• You know you have a CRM culture when:
– Everyone in the organization thinks about
the C
– Everyone in the organization listens to the
customer
– Reliable service is delivered to C consistently
across all channels
– Success is measured in terms of C relationships
( Value, duration, acquisition )
Where Are You on the Road to
CRM?
Short term goals Long term goals
• Think like a customer • Listen to the customer
• Be a customer • Track C behavior across all channels
Organizations • Build infrastructure to centralize data • Show consistent reliable service across all channels
Transitioning to • Analyze customer data • Assign value to each customer
CRM culture • Determine C centric program goals and strategies • Create loyalty programs
• Educate senior management and set expectations • Have established C centric incentives
• Identify bottlenecks
• Have owners over customers
• Have centralized customer centric business rules
• Think like a C • Real-time personalized dialogue with customers
• Listen to the C • Anticipate customer needs
Organizations • Provide consistent reliable service across all channels • Measure success of each relationship
With existing • Track C behavior across all channels • Share C information with all areas of the enterprise
CRM culture
• Assign value to each C relationship • Build and maintain long term profitable relationships
• Create loyalty programs with C
• Reduce bottlenecks
• Have owners over customers
Summary
• Organizational change is an evolutionary process, not
a revolution.
• Choose the parts of the organization that can be
changed to focus on first.
• Implementing CRM program also means changing
thinking, processes, structure and engraining a
customer centric culture in an organization.
• Depending on where your organization stands, there
are short and long term steps to take to transition to a
CRM company.
Long Term Planning
• Develop a two year plan for making your
company more customer centric.
• Include measurable deliverables every three to six
months.
• Change from product centric to customer centric
metrics.
• Create cross functional teams to develop and
manage customer strategy.
• Implement tools that allow people from all areas
to access the same CI.
Obstacles
• Getting participation from all areas
• Technical problems centralizing data in a
data warehouse
• Inter-unit conflict (Marketing-IT)
• Managing anxiety and resistance in an
environment change
• Focusing resources on new developments
and existing responsibilities.