Media mogul Rupert Murdoch intends to block Google’s search spiders from indexing his News Corporation’s sites. As has been widely reported, Murdoch believes the time is right for people to begin paying for online content. He also feels that content aggregators have been getting a free ride by “stealing” content and it’s time for this practice to stop.
In this interview with Sky News’ David Spears, Murdoch explains the thinking behind his position.
Several months ago we posted about a new Pizza Hut iPhone app that let people order their pizza and play a pizza delivery inspired game right on their phone. According to a recent article in Mashable, the pizza maker has generated incremental sales of more than $1 million dollars since the app’s introduction. The app’s success has surprised many, including Pizza Hut’s own senior director of digital marketing, Bernard Acoca.
“We always saw a steady level of growth with our mobile business via our WAP site, but to be candid it wasn’t the explosive level of growth we’ve seen with the iPhone app. iPhone applications capture consumers’ imagination in a way that WAP sites simply can’t do, so the decision to expand to the iPhone was as good one for us.”
In addition to bringing in added revenue, the app has also earned one of the highest distinctions available; it’s been featured in an iPhone TV ad.
Click here for the full story.
Oh sure, anyone can implement an effective email marketing campaign that offers great ROI. But what if you’re looking to tank your email campaign? Not so easy, is it? Don’t worry, Andrew Kordek from Deliverability.com has outlined nine basic steps guaranteed to sink your campaign. In a nutshell:
Pearls, indeed.
You’re not really going to use that old vacation photo for your Facebook profile, are you? Estee Lauder has a better proposition. Beginning October 16, the cosmetics company will offer free makeovers and photo shoots at select department store cosmetics counters to produce head shots women can use for their online profiles. The promotion will also include a giveaway of a 10-day supply of foundation.
This event runs counter to the cosmetic industry’s “gift with purchase” promotions, but the executives at Estee Lauder are viewing this as a way to bring a more contemporary image to the brand and perhaps attract a younger buyer as well. And, since the photos will have an Estee Lauder logo in the background, the company can likely expect to increase its brand presence on Facebook and other social sites.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently announced two new requirments that will impact both advertisers and bloggers.
Testimonials
According to Mary Engle, associate director of ad practices at the commission, the FTC is changing its guidelines on endorsement so that advertisers will no longer be able to use statements like “Results may vary” as a way to justify claims that are counter to the norm of a product or services’ expected performance.
David Vladeck, head of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said, “Disclaimers of guidelines are not working. Misuse has been especially prevalent in weight-loss products.
“In the FTC’s review of 300 ads, two-thirds used consumer testimonials. Few showed realistic claims, and disclosures of atypical results were flashed too quickly to read. ‘Results may vary’ does not adequately inform consumers that claims are outliers or extreme cases. They do not disclose results consumers should realistically expect. That is the main problem.”
The changes to the guidelines will take affect this year.
Bloggers
The Associate Press reports that under new guidelines approved the by the FTC, bloggers will now be required to disclose any gifts or payments they receive for reviewing a company’s product. The penaly for noncompliance is a fine of up to $11,000 per violation.
Given today’s economy, it’s no surprise that coupons are being clipped faster than the dialog in a David Mamet play. A quick Google search will tell you that e-coupons are just as prevalent. And while retailers may be chalking up incremental sales due to e-coupons, they may also be giving too much away too easily.
According to Alex Rampell, CEO of TrialPay, an e-commerce solutions company in Mountain View, Calif., many companies are offering e-coupons to prospects who were ready to complete their online transaction without any additional incentive.
Look for smarter ways to link coupons to behavior. Take a company like the Gap — anyone can shop at the Gap online, then do a search for coupons and pay less. Wouldn’t it be better for the Gap to target people who are non-Gap shoppers? Instead of making coupons available to Joe Public on the Internet, it might be better — just as a for instance — to offer Gap coupons to consumers when they sign up for Weight Watchers, or when they buy a baby book at Amazon.
Read more of what he has to say in this interview with Media Post’s Sarah Mahony.
Google’s AdSense contextual targeting service is a great tool. It allows marketers to serve up ads directly to web users who are viewing info that has some type of relevance to that marketer’s product or service. For instance, if you were reading an online article on woodworking, an ad for Home Depot might pop up.
Sometimes, however, the system gets it wrong. Way wrong. How else do you explain this ad falling just below a news article about the Mumbai terrorist attacks last year?
“Terrorism: Pursue a certificate in terrorism 100% online. Enroll today. Ads by Google.”
Although AdSense gets it right more often than not, the mistakes are something to behold. Check out this list of the biggest bloopers from 2009 as compiled by The Business Insider.
In the early days of email marketing, one could simply place a well executed graphic into an email template, deploy and be reasonably certain that what the recipient would see is what was sent. Not so today.
With so many different email programs – each with a different level of graphical support – plus spam filters becoming increasingly more sensitive, there’s a good chance that your images will be blocked.
The problem with images
Most email programs turn images off by default so when recipients first see your message, they will be looking at a bunch of red Xs instead of what you intended them to see. Coding your email with HTML text allows recipients to partially read your message even if images are blocked. For example, let’s say you’re creating an email to promote a sales event and your agency has designed a fantastic logo in support of the event. You want that graphic in your communication because it likely ties into your other marketing materials. No problem, just make sure that in addition to this logo, the name of the event is referenced prominently using HTML text. That way, if the logo is blocked, the recipient will still receive the critical information.
Many spam filters analyze the text-to-image ratio in a message and will block messages that are made up mostly of images. Meaning that the flyer you printed and then repurposed into a single image email to save money, well it may get flagged as spam.
Some web-based email platforms, such as AOL and Hotmail, do not always support image maps. As a result, your recipients may be able to see your email fine, but could be unable to click through to your site, microsite, or wherever else the email links direct them.
Solution: find the right balance between images and HTML text
Given these challenges, you can still design an effective email that looks great and works as it’s intended. Although you don’t want to over do it with imagery for the reasons noted above, you also don’t want to create an email that’s nothing more than text. It will bore the recipient and reflect poorly on your organization.
Avoid using fancy display fonts since they’re not supported on all computers. Instead, stick with standard fonts that come installed on most Windows-based machines and Macs. Some tried and true choices include Helvetica, Arial, Veranda, Times New Roman and Courier.
Finally, make sure to include critical text in the top portion of the email (above the fold). That way, recipients who use the preview pane will see your key points of communication, even if the images are blocked.
The bottom line
A beautiful email isn’t worth the 1s and 0s it was created with if the recipient sees nothing more than red Xs. However, by finding the right balance of HTML text and images, you can ensure that your message gets the point across clearly and effectively.
Image courtesy of Intructables.com
Common sense, right? If one of your email subscribers requests to be removed from your list, and even mentions that they never signed up in the first place, you remove them promptly with no questions asked. Perhaps you even add an apology for any misunderstanding.
You and I know this, but apparently, not all companies do. Read on.
Image courtesy of smoothtransitionslawblog.com
We’re all aware that email marketing is one of the most cost efficient and effective ways to reach your target audience. But if you’re not conducting A/B tests, you could be short changing your open rates, click-through rates and conversions. Creating two different versions (A and B) of your email and sending each to a different half of your database allows you to easily see what resonates with your target and what doesn’t.
Treat it like science
A/B testing provides an objective way of evaluating message effectiveness in what is traditionally an intuitive creative process. As such, it’s important to approach your tests like a true science experiment. First, send out a well executed eblast that will serve as your benchmark, against which you’ll measure the results of your A/B test.
The next step is to optimize/modify two new versions of the eblast to see how the change impacts the results. For example, you may want to experiment with two different subject lines, the placement of a button, the call to action, or simply the background color. What’s important to remember here is that for a true A/B test, you should only test one change at a time. That way you can clearly determine which change is influencing the target’s behavior.
See what pulls
Once you have these two new and different versions, deploy each to one half of your database and see how the results compare to your benchmark figures. Look at how many people opened each email, clicked through and converted across the call to action. This analysis will help you identify fallout points which influence where and what you should focus on for subsequent A/B tests. From there, you can continue to modify the message or design in your quest for even better results. But remember, only one change at a time.
Broader application
A/B testing isn’t just for eblasts. You can apply the same techniques to landing pages, web banners, paid search ads and more.
The bottom line
A/B testing makes sense for a number of reasons. It allows you to prove a point that may not have been supported by empirical data in the past, e.g. this headline will pull better than that one. Plus, it adds a level of accountability to the process which may, eventually, help you build a bigger interactive marketing budget. And who couldn’t use that?