The world according to Chris Bjorklund

Online Marketing Tips for 2010

2010-03-02T21:46:00.000+08:00

1. Digital Moms

Razorfish and CafeMom recently teamed up to publish a two-part article that explores the online behaviors of mothers. Here is what you need to know:

a. Moms are fully embracing Social Media and Web 2.0. They email, text message, chat, Facebook, play games and are active searchers on the web.

b. Tailor your content to help them communicate with you.

c. Understand that a “One-size-fits-all” approach may not work. Each mom has different needs depending on how old their children are.

d. Learn more about the challenges these moms face. Address them. Make it easier for them to get information to help their children.

e. Take part of the chatter. Join in the conversations. Listen. Have the right tools to tune in and target your products to better serve the immediate need.

f. Each mom has different buying behaviour. They are in different places along the purchase cycle. Address each person on a personal level rather than mass-communicate.

2. Virtual Coupons.

Very similar to eCards online and virtual coupon is a gift that is sent online. It is becoming very big in Japan and starting to make its way to North America as well. How it works and what you need to know:

a. Create discount coupons and distribute them thru the right channels.

b. Have different coupons for different customer demo- and psychographics.

c. Have fun with the coupons. Create a coupon that you – yourself would use.

d. Measure and track everything.

e. Target holidays and major events.

f. Don’t be afraid to test various ideas.

g. Give away freebies too.

h. Don’t be too much of a cheesy sales guy. Everything you do online is transparent.

3. Eco communities

a. Use “green” or environmentally friendly products and ingredients – tell people you do

b. Help with social commitments and support a “Green lifestyle”.

c. Create online communities that support your products and help your users and give them value. Tag along other online communities that you think your users will appreciate.

4. Helping rather than selling

a. Become a business that people want to do business with. Give away value. Give away information. Be different and honest.

b. Don’t always look for that immediate sale. Think long term.

c. Do be careful of how much information you give. Be mindful there are always people who will nickel and dime you.

d. Use your website and other networking tools to engage your users. LinkedIn is a great way to help people but don’t be a cheesy sales guy. Remember that transparency is everything online. Help people where you know 100% that your advice is truly helpful.

5. ROI before Branding

a. Ensure your web site is optimized to the fullest extent. Every user you get should get maximum attention to convert them.

b. Use multivariable testing strategies to ensure your site and landing pages are effective

c. Leverage SEM to the latest tactics to drive the right traffic, at the right cost to the right product sales page.

d. Calculate everything to find out the ROI.

e. Hire the right people. Just like you don’t want your customers to nickel and dime your business, you shouldn’t nickel and dime your own business. Hire the right people and you will see great results.

Social Media Marketing 2010 Outlook

2010-01-12T11:34:00.000+08:00

We have all heard of the 4 Ps of marketing but as we saw in 2008 and 2009 the 4Ps of marketing was changed to the 4Cs of marketing. Companies that did not embrace this shift was left behind.

2010 is all about ROI and as our Social Media breakfast series revealed, 2010 is all about integrating Social Marketing into your Marketing Mix.

I saw first hand (for my photo site) in 2003 and especially in 2004-06 that shifting my focus from the 4Ps of marketing to the 4Cs drastically increased our traffic and advertising revenues.

Social Media in 2009 - what happened and what's next for Social media strategies 2010

2010-01-08T13:12:00.001+08:00

In the closing days of 2009 Pepsi decided against hiring Justin Timberlake, Cindy Crawford or even Britney Spears to speak for them during the 2010 Super Bowl. They would instead take the $20 million and use it to speak directly with -- and to listen to -- their consumers through the web. It was the final and perhaps the most significant signpost marking 2009 as a year when emerging social media technologies mandated new strategies for anyone who deals with the public.

No organization seemed unaffected.

Pope Benedict XVI launched his Facebook app in May. In June the US State Department asked Twitter to delay scheduled maintenance because of the role it was playing during civil unrest in Iran.

People I have spoken to indicated that they were eager to develop new strategies and tactics for engaging their markets.

The outlook for 2010 - the best ways to measure ROI, the relationship with the bottom line.

Their response exceeded our expectations by a wide margin on all accounts. You won't find any ironclad rules or spreadsheet formulas but if you read their words with a critical eye it should help you to refine and justify your own social media style.

http://www.whosbloggingwhat.com/collective_wisdom.php

Cheers
Chris

2009 online holiday shopping looks a little better than 2008.

2009-12-01T09:17:00.000+08:00

I saw this email from Chase and thought I'd be one of those people who regurgitates information. But! Only because it's a good post. :)

This Year's Outlook: Better than Last Year's 'Awful'

Larry Chase: ComScore is projecting a 3% increase year-over-year for the November-December holiday season for '09?

Andrew Lipsman: That's right. Starting the first three weeks of the season so far, we've seen about 2% growth. We do anticipate it accelerating slightly to 3% as we go throughout the season.

Last year during the holiday season, the bottom really fell out of consumer spending behavior. The comparisons to a year ago are simply more favorable.

Shoppers Want Sellers to Cover Shipping

LC: I noticed in the dataset that people are actually using coupons a little less than last year.

AL: They're not actually using them less, but they are looking at all the deals available to them.

Free shipping is certainly one that we have highlighted as being particularly important. Consumers have come to expect it. The average consumer wants to feel as if they're getting a deal on most transactions.

It can also work out well for retailers because if they have a specific minimum spending threshold that can get the consumer to spend more, this can help offset any margin attrition.

LC: So, if they get to the end of the shopping-cart process and they find out that they are still going to get dinged for shopping, is that a dealbreaker?

AL: It's definitely a risk, but so many retailers are offering free shipping that if you aren't, consumers will look elsewhere if they don't get the deals they are expecting.

More Shoppers Spending Less

LC: Are more people spending less money over fewer visits this year?

AL: The average spending per buyer is down pretty substantially. There are more people online, but they are going to be more cautious before they make an actual purchase. The underlying trend for ecommerce over the past year is that we are definitely seeing almost 20% growth in new buyers to the channel.

That has helped prop up the growth rate even though we have been marginally negative. Had we not been bringing new buyers into the channel, we'd probably be seeing significant negative growth rate.

LC: Is that at the expense of brick and mortar?

AL: Online as a retail channel has absolutely gained share. Brick-and-mortar stores were seeing pretty significant negative growth rates, maybe an 8% decline, compared with 1% or 2% for online.

We estimate that online now represents about 8% of corresponding retail categories, those where you would purchase online as well as offline. We exclude food, gas and auto because those typically aren't purchased online.

Smackdown: Amazon vs. Wal-Mart

LC: Do you think this slugfest between Wal-Mart and Amazon is going to suck all the oxygen out of the room at the expense of other online retailers?

AL: I think Amazon and Wal-Mart are going to benefit from the perception that they are cost leaders. Not all of their success may come at the expense of other retailers, however. Some retailers have been pushed out of the market in this downturn. The spending that used to occur at those retailers is now consumed by Amazon or Wal-Mart.

Buyers Use Amazon as Shopping Search Engine

LC: Are people using comparison-shopping engines, or are they going directly to their destination sites?

AL: The comparative search engines have been pulling back a bit in their spending on paid search. Comparison sites are relatively flat, which seems counterintuitive. You'd think you'd see significant growth.

What's interesting about Amazon is that it is becoming [consumers'] first search engine when they know they're in the purchase funnel.

LC: So they use Amazon almost like a baseline?

AL: Yes, Amazon is becoming a default option. Consumers know that the experience is good; they're probably going to get a pretty good price, so they may start their shopping process there.

Deal or No Deal?

LC: In your panel of 2 million opt-in participants, do you get the sense that online shoppers are being conditioned to expect deals before they'll pull the trigger on a purchase?

AL: Absolutely.

LC: Is that happening earlier in the holiday shopping season?

AL: We actually have data from our friends at ShopLocal.com that show the number of deals from retailers throughout the season. We are seeing consistently higher rates week by week for the number of deals per retailer.

It gets more and more competitive earlier and earlier in the season. That may even be more pronounced during an economic downturn when there's more competition for those finite dollars.

Invitation-Only Sales Move Online

LC: One tactic that I find fascinating is the exclusive invitation-only luxury site. Is the closed sale, only open to invited guests, a trend you're seeing on your radar screen?

AL: It's something that serves a particular niche, which has disposable income.

I don't know if they'll become as mainstream as other retail sites, but they are dealing with significantly higher-end luxury goods. They're still very expensive but represent a great deal.

Gilt Groupe, ideeli and RueLaLa are three of the luxury goods retailers that are beginning to see traction in this space.

(See resource list at end.)

Smartphone as Credit Card

LC: In your report, it said the iPhone was significantly responsible for boosting m-commerce, correct?

AL: M-commerce is not yet taking hold strongly. The future is really as a payment system. It's not too far off where we can use our mobile devices as credit cards.

LC: Payment system in real space or cyberspace?

AL: I'm thinking of this as being applied in the offline environment.

PayPal Increases Share of Wallet

LC: You're seeing an increase in PayPal transactions. Why?

AL: PayPal offered some unique incentives in the last holiday season. Consumers really respond to deals; so this showed absolutely that if you give them the right incentives, people will change their behavior.

These discounts at several major retail sites made PayPal more attractive. We saw a big jump in PayPal's share of wallet during last year's holiday season. PayPal wasn't able to sustain those huge spikes, but it was able to sustain a pretty high share of wallet afterwards.

Six-Figure Baby Boomers Tighten Up

LC: I also found interesting in your report that the age 45-plus demographic making over $100,000 is spending less because their portfolios are so wounded.

AL: There's been a lot of wealth destroyed in the past year. So, we do see a higher level of savings among older consumers. There's a pretty stark disparity between the under-45 crowd and the 45-and-older crowd in the $100,000-plus segment.

Those who are under 45 and in the high-income bracket are actually spending more and growing spending online, but we are seeing a decline in the older consumer. They are more reserved and restrained.

Resources

Andrew Lipsman is Director of Industry Analysis for comScore.

Websites for the invitation-only sales Andrew mentioned are Gilt Groupe, ideeli and RueLaLa.

This interview was edited and condensed by Sr. Editor Janet Roberts.

7 critical steps to turn your business into a top revenue producer.

2009-11-02T20:13:00.000+08:00

7 critical steps to turn your business into a top revenue producer.
Whether you’ve been in the business 2 years or 20 years your success is contingent on your ability to capitalize on the 7 steps to turning your business into a top producer. As you read the 7 steps you’ll quickly notice how each step directly impacts the challenges you face developing a top producing business.

Identify your ideal target market and lay claim to your niche
Attract qualified prospects
Channel those qualified prospects into your sales funnel
Align the way you sell with the way your potential clients buy
Help your potential prospects make the best decision
Focus on the top 20% of your clients
Earn referrals

1. Identify your ideal target market and lay claim to your niche
When identifying your target market in let us say Vacuum cleaners, many people would say “Everyone who needs a better and high quality vacuum cleaner”.
This is not the best answer because you can’t please everyone. Not everyone will be your customer. So you need to find the right customer who would truly want to buy your vacuum cleaner. Your market has to be large enough to make a living but unique enough for your products or services to stand out. When you are solving a specific problem you become a trusted expert and no one will confuse you of a sales person again.

2. Attract qualified prospects
Have you ever noticed that the more you chase your prospects the faster they run away? It probably has happened to all of us as the mistake we make is to sell them something rather than being a person they can talk to in order to solve their problems. When you chase your prospects you are pushing them away rather than to pull them to you. The secret to attracting people to you and your business is in the offer.

A strategy that I use (which can be applied in any business) is to solve a problem before I call a potential customer. As I am writing this I am working on insurance Web 2.0 marketing problems. I have a solution to several online marketing and lead generation problems that most insurance companies struggle with. When I call the head of marketing I have my guns loaded with information how to solve their problem. I am offering something that they want and need at the right time. Be mindful that some companies are just not interested in the solution and this is ok because they are not the right prospect. Chasing after the prospects that are not interested will drain your resources so move on to the next one. Once you have filled up your lead list focus on the ones that are ready to buy and close that sale.

3. Channel those qualified prospects into your sales funnel
Many of us, myself included, were trained to work with leads in a certain way. Hunt them down, call, and try and close them. This is not really relationship based selling. Many of those prospects that you call might be a customer down the road. Maybe they are interested but this is not the right time or they need more information and you need to earn their trust. To keep qualified prospects interested in you, there must be some value in continued contact with you. Build a stronger relationship. Keep them in the loop. Position yourself as the person they will call upon when they need expert advice.

Now you might be thinking; “I don’t have time to call and email all these potential customers.” “How to I maintain a relationship with all these people”

Here is how: Email service providers can work wonders. Customer management systems can keep track of your prospects. Your goal with maintaining a relationship is to get them thru your sales funnel. Secret tip. When is the last time you sent out a hand written letter thanking them for talking with you? Try it. I send out a personal note to everyone I talk with no matter what the outcome was. You’d be surprised about the response.

Your goal is to make it easy for your prospects to buy from you by giving them valuable information and service so when they are ready to buy you are there to close the sale.

4. Align the way you sell with the way your potential clients buy
Have you walked in another man’s shoes? Does your sales method match how your prospects like to buy? Sometimes we don’t know what it is like to be on the buyers’ side of the table. Especially if it’s a significant amount of money.

Step 1. Understand your buyer’s situation
Step 2. Be an advisor, not a pushy sales person. Don’t apply sales tactics or pressures.
Step 3. Objections are buying signals. Help them thru the objection.
Step 4. Don’t defend yourself thru an objection. Be open and honest.

5. Help your potential prospects make the best decision
Most people think we buy because it is based on a rational decision. People buy based on emotions first. This is somewhat easier with tangible products but it can be just as easy with services. When you are selling stuff that they can’t see, touch or feel you need to take a mental approach. Paint the picture in their mind. Ask them what are the pros and cons of not getting this. Guide them thru the options so they can clearly see it in their minds.

Throughout the sales process it should feel like two people discussing what is best to do. You as the sales person must have his or her interest top of mind. This process with eventually lead to trust and a relationship has been created. Dishonestly is a deal breaker every time.

6. Focus on the top 20% of your clients
Sometime you need to weed out your client list. I call this “Dead weight”. When you have many clients you will get the clients who are responsive and easy to work with. You will also get the clients who constantly drag you down and your profit margins decline.

Look at your top 20% clients and focus on them. These are the guys that you love working with and represent the majority of revenues. Strengthen these relationships.

Help your bottom 20% find new partners or service providers. The remainder of your clients should be put in a separate bucket and use partners or employees to really investigate revenue opportunities for them. Reward business growth and in return these clients might actually become top revenue producers.

7. Earn referrals
Who do you refer to friends and colleagues? 99% of times you refer sales people or companies once you know what they can do. The proof is in the pudding. So start by doing exactly what you said you would and do outstanding work. Exceed expectations and provide more value than they were expecting.

Don’t let your prospects and clients forget about you. Keep in touch. Send an email, post cards and call if you think they would be interested in hearing about a conference or case study or anything that you know they will find useful. Have a system in place that makes it so easy for people to refer you that it is a no brainer.

Cheers!
Chris Bjorklund

ANZ's new logo: $15 million well spent?

2009-10-23T10:06:00.000+08:00

ANZ's new logo: $15 million well spent?

ANZ bank has splashed $15 million on a new logo that it claims reflects its 'human' side.

The new logo, at right, features a 'modernised' font and a central 'human' shape that "represents ANZ’s customers and people" flanked by three shapes that signify the bank's operations in Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific.

The new logo will be launched in an advertising campaign from Sunday and ANZ buildings, websites, stationary and marketing material will be re-branded in the coming year at a cost of $15 million.

What do you think of the new logo?
Is $15 million too much to spend on a logo?
What would make an appropriate logo for ANZ bank?

Have your say by commenting below:

Best beer commercial ever!

2009-10-22T16:33:00.001+08:00

This is probably the best beer commercial I have ever seen. Hilarious! Award winning commercial really.

Enjoy!
Chris

http://www.hiddenvalleygolf.com.au/

How to create the best A/B testing strategy

2009-10-20T22:52:00.002+08:00

I received a great question today about how to best set up A/B testing. I’ll try and shed some light on how I approach A/B testing for both products and services.

The question was: "Does A/B testing cost money and how do I create the best A/B testing strategy?"

My reply:
A/B testing does cost money but the point of A/B testing is to make money from it. When I worked at ACDSee.com we did over 1 million downloads per month and my job was to convert free users into becoming paid users. I grew my channel by 13% year over year. How? A/B testing. I’ll tell you how.

With a team of developers, designers, copy writers etc…same team as you listed on your blog, we were still profitable because we made A/B testing our mantra.

Here is how I managed 6 software products in 12 languages.

Metrics and templates. I had the developers build very sophisticated tracking software that I can’t disclose here. This software was so smart that I knew everything about a user. When they clicked, bought, location even what they had for dinner. (wink wink). I then developed templates that I knew was converting at xx%.

My mission was then to try to beat these templates by not using designers and programmers. I did this by having systems and processes in place where I could manage testing environments myself. That way I had high costs upfront in building, but when the actual test started I managed it myself via the system I built.

I knew that “landing page 1” performed at xx% but LP 3 performed at a higher % so looking at traffic sources, where in the buying cycle they were I could change the messaging on the spot to boost conversion rates.

This is hard to explain but think of my approach as Lego or building blocks. I could easily replace one “bad block” with a “block” that I knew was performing, thus boosting conversion rates.

A/B testing is all how you set it up and track progress. Word of caution though, if you start with good material it will make your AB Tests a lot easier because you don’t have to re-develop designs, programming etc. Do it right the first time and the rest will be easier to manage.

For all of you doing A/B Testing I hope this will help you!

Chris

SEO questions to ask

2009-10-20T14:56:00.000+08:00

I got an overwhelming response to my last post so I thought I would clarify it even more about what questions to ask a client.

SEO questions to ask a client:

How much traffic are they getting today? Please share stats with us.
What have they done to date - SEO wise?
What is their budget for SEO?This is important because it relates to the expectations. For $100 the client can’t get a Rolls Royce. Maybe a used bicycle with a flat tire.
What domain and sub domain names do they own?
Where does the content come from? Who writes it?
What are the most converting pages on their sites?
Paid ads. Adwords. What are they doing and how much? The results from paid ads can impact the SEO program.
Technical: Are there CMS systems powering the site? Can we change the site now?
Final question.
a. How much traffic are they looking to get.
b. Over what time period?
c. From what region? Sydney, Melbourne… etc…
d. What metrics do they have to track traffic and conversions?
e. How will they measure success?

My Top 10 Tips to Surviving Australia:

2009-10-16T15:23:00.000+08:00

Thought I wanted to share with you all “My Top 10 Tips to Surviving Australia”.

Things I have learned in 10 months of being in Australia:

Don't ever put your hand down a hole for any reason WHATSOEVER.
The beer is stronger than you think, regardless of how strong you think it is.
Always carry a stick.
Air-conditioning is imperative.
Do not attempt to use Australian slang, unless you are a trained linguist and extremely good in a fist fight.
Wear thick socks.
Take good maps. Stopping to ask directions only works when there are people nearby.* If you leave the urban areas, carry several litres of water with you at all times, or you will die.
Even in the most embellished stories told by Australians, there is always a core of truth that it is unwise to ignore.
There is no such thing as “shrimps on the baaarbie”.
Do not, under any circumstances, suggest that the beer is imperfect, unless you are comparing it to another kind of Australian beer.
Do not wear a Hawaiian shirt.

Bonus Tips:

Religion and Politics are fairly safe topics of conversation, (Australians don't care too much about either) but Sport is a minefield. You better say you love Footy.

The only correct answer to "So, howdya' like our country, eh?" is "Best (insert your own regional swear word here) country in the world!". It is very likely that, on arriving, some cheerful Australians will 'adopt' you on your first night, and take you to a pub where Australian Beer is served.

Despite the obvious danger, do not refuse. It is a form of initiation rite. You will wake up late the next day with an astonishing hangover, a foul taste in your mouth, and wearing strange clothes.

Your hosts will usually make sure you get home, and waive off any legal difficulties with "It's his first time in Australia, so we took him to the pub", or “He is Canadian not American” to which the policeman will sagely nod and close his notebook. Be sure to tell the story of these events to every other Australian you encounter, adding new embellishments at every stage and noting how strong and tasty the beer was. Thus you will be accepted into this unique culture. Mention footy and you will be idolized.

Most Australians are now urban dwellers, having discovered the primary use of electricity, which is air-conditioning and refrigerators.

Typical Australian sayings:-
* "G'Day!"* "She'll be right mate."

So, hats off to this beautiful part of the world and "She'll be right mate." :)

Chris Bjorklund

Hilarious! How to live a long healthy life according to this guy...

2009-10-07T21:48:00.000+08:00

Dr. Fuk Kew Too MD, Vancouver, BC.

Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Heart only good for so many beats, and that it... Don't waste on exercise. Everything wear out eventually. Speed up heart not make live longer; that like say you can extend life of car by driving faster.

Want live longer? Take nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does cow eat? Hay and corn. What are these? Vegetables. So, steak nothing more than efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef also good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And pork chop can give 100% recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine. That means they take water out of fruity bit; get even more of goodness that way.. Beer also made out of grain. Bottoms up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: If you have body and you have fat, ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?
A: Cannot think of single one, sorry. My philosophy: No Pain...Good!

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU NOT LISTENING!!! .. Foods fried in vegetable oil. How getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A: Definitely not! When you exercise muscle, it get bigger. You should only do sit-ups if want bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: You crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans! Vegetable!!! Cocoa beans best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming good for figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?
A: Hey! 'Round' is shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets. AND......

For those of you who watch what you eat, here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies:

1. The Japanese eat very little fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

3.. The Chinese drink very little red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats
And suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION
Eat and drink what you like. Being American is apparently what kills you. .........

How to get your media buys approved.

2009-09-23T21:47:00.000+08:00

How to get your media buys approved:
Tough times typically call for media and marketing budgets to be cut back. But, these times also create great opportunities.

I've been on both the "buy" side and the "sell" side of Internet Media transactions for 6-8 years. In times like these, you can get so much bang out of your media buck if you know where to look, negotiate and how to get the deals approved internally.

1. Provide intelligence on the media movements of your direct competition:
The results of such studies that you will conduct must be acutely interesting to any level of your organization.

Show a list of keywords your competitors are paying for. How much are they paying? Is the current figure more or less than historical averages?

If they've been buying a set of keywords for an extended period of time, it should mean they have proof enough to keep spending money in that direction. Should you spend money in that direction? Should you chase your competitor or break out in an entirely new direction?

Notice I said they "should" be doing well. You'd be surprised how many advertisers spend money on paid search and really don't know if their efforts are generating conversions that pay back over time. If your competitor is known as a smart operator, then you might assume he's getting payback.

Always show up 100% prepared. Prepare for questions that they might just toss out there to “test” you. The more information you have the better off you are.

2. Demonstrate long-term value to the media budget spent now.
Think recurring traffic. Think the value of your product’s brand. Think about the retail vs online angle.

I used to work for the 4th largest photo software company in the world (ACDSee) and even though our retail channel was losing money it supported our online channel. People saw the box in the store. Remembered it and Googled it. Bang! We captured that sale.

3. The trend is your friend.
If you are responsible for getting upper management to sign off on online media buys rather than traditional media buys, you are in the sweet spot.

According to a Forrester study, 6 of 10 marketers were planning to shift money from traditional channels to online channels such as search, email and social networks. Internet Media spend is now greater than radio and is poised to overtake magazine advertising.

Private-equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson (VSS) has published its Communications Industry Forecast since 1986.

Their August 2009 study shows "alternative advertising is forecast to have a 12.3% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) from 2008-2013, compared to a 3.3% decline for traditional advertising." Convincing upper management that the rest of the world is shifting quickly to online ad spending should be pretty easy now. The VSS Forecast also noted that email marketing is a cheaper alternative to traditional direct mail campaigns.

The hard part is to convince the “old school” guys in upper management. Usually they are too scared... sorry... uneducated about online so they tend to stick with what they are comfortable with. This is where your negotiation skills come in handy.

4. Negotiate. Learn how to negotiate better.
Always negotiate going in. Don’t say “Lets agree on this for now and revise it later”. That will not work in most cases. If you have brought forward an iron clad case, keep your head cool and negotiate while you have the upper hand.

Until next time, stay tuned. Stay hot!
Chris Bjorklund

Ps... here in Perth Australia online marketing and media buying is an emerging market so if you are a media buyer or a digital marketer you might want to stay on top of new trends and how to outsmart your competition. Chances are other people are trying to outsmart you.

Final results: Cash for clunkers program

2009-08-27T12:17:00.000+08:00

The top 10 traded-in vehicles were American brands and 8 of the top 10 purchased vehicles were foreign brands. Here are the full lists:

Top 10 New Vehicles Purchased
1. Toyota Corolla
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Camry
4. Ford Focus
5. Hyundai Elantra
6. Nissan Versa
7. Toyota Prius
8. Honda Accord
9. Honda Fit
10. Ford Escape FWD

Top 10 Trade-in Vehicles
1. Ford Explorer 4WD
2. Ford F150 Pickup 2WD
3. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD
4. Ford Explorer 2WD
5. Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan 2WD
6. Jeep Cherokee 4WD
7. Chevrolet Blazer 4WD
8. Chevrolet C1500 Pickup 2WD
9. Ford F150 Pickup 4WD
10. Ford Windstar FWD Van

For more “cash for clunkers” statistics, see the Transportation Department press release here.

Brand Marketers Embrace Social Media

2009-08-27T11:44:00.000+08:00

I read an article today about how brand marketers embrace social media. You can read the full article here.

What is interesting is what the respondents reported as the common barriers to social media adoption.

Among brand marketers, 37% did not know enough about social media to begin, and another 37% said there was no good way to measure its effectiveness.

Agency marketers reiterated those concerns, and were also likely to say that social media was not proven or tested as a marketing strategy (31%). Funding was also a problem for about one-quarter of brand and agency respondents.

Just 14% of brand marketers and 12% of agency marketers reported not measuring social media efforts at all.

Telstra – a prime example of what NOT to do in Customer Service

2009-08-21T12:43:00.000+08:00

Telstra – a prime example of what NOT to do in Customer Service:

I pay my bills on time. All the time. I paid my last Telstra bill on time too. I owed about 140 bucks. I paid and got a receipt.

A week later I got a message telling me my account is overdue. Weird but I confirmed online and it said it was paid but also outstanding but the total was at zero. Double weird.

Got a new notice in the mail telling me my account will be suspended. Suspended? Wow…never been suspended before. Certainly doesn’t sound good at all. I better call Telstra.

I call Telstra and ask them what’s wrong. The customer service agent tells me nothing is overdue but my next bill is coming and I need to pay it. I ask why my account is still telling me it’s overdue and she says it is not. Clearly she is not listening to me. For you who don’t know me I’m pretty calm and I speak clearly. Anyway I ask again why my account tells me it is overdue because clearly it’s an error and I would like to have this fixed. She tells me it’s not overdue. Again… she is not listening to what I am saying.

I ask again and this time I explain it in detail so even a monkey would understand; but she replies it’s not overdue. But after 5 seconds of silence and I can hear her thinking and she says; “We are currently having technical issues online”.

Ok, fair enough but I have had this issue for about 2 weeks. To this she replies: “Oh yes! We have had this particular issue for exactly 2 weeks.”

I thank her and wish her a good day and hang up. Wow... I told the story to my team mate and he shook his head and laughed.

How to improve the customer experience to blow people's minds!

Is this the best Telstra can offer in terms of customer service? Not only do I have to wait for 17min on the phone and I’m already upset to wait and get to speak with such a smart person that truly understood me?

It’s too bad. I like Telstras mobile service but I dread every time I have a problem. Read this post about how to effectively improve customer service and make it fun and easy for people to call in about their problems. It’s so easy to fix so there is no excuse really.

Until Next Time – Stay hot. Stay Tuned.
Chris Bjorklund

Online ad spend, online statistic and usage for 2009

2009-08-12T17:13:00.000+08:00

Australia Sydney:
Online adspend levels rose by 18.5% in Australia to A$1.8 billion over the year to June, and revenues are set to surpass A$2b over the next 12 months.

California:
Over 80% of the biggest advertisers in the US are now using Facebook as a means to connect with consumers, a sign that the social networking platform may soon be set to capitalise on its substantial user base.

Facebook has now reported that 83 of the top 100 companies by adspend in America, as determined by AdAge, have a presence on its portal, which has around 340 million members worldwide.

Question is; what are YOU doing in the online social media space?

Dead letter office: the future of Australia Post

2009-08-11T16:09:00.000+08:00

Dead letter office: the future of Australia Post - From Crikey.com

Ever noticed the volume of junk mail has increased constantly in recent years? Not your supermarket catalogues and local pizza shop menus, but actual mail, delivered by the postie, that happens to be junk.

In 2002-03, Australia Post realised it was locked into a shrinking market. After strong growth in the 1990s, the volume of letters Australians were sending each other stopped growing. It wasn’t just that people called or emailed instead of writing to each other in fact, as Australia Post points out, "social" letters are only a small fraction of the mail task. 80 per cent of letters in Australia are "transactional mail" -- i.e. bills and cheques etc. And as we began paying bills online or over the phone, and then receiving them online, and companies began charging us to receive a paper document, the volume of mail began growing much more slowly. Each year since 2004, the volume of letters being sent in Australia has never grown at an annual rate faster than 2 per cent.

In fact, it began decreasing except for one type of mail that we’ll get to in a minute.

Australia Post was stuck. It couldn’t grow its market share of letter delivery because it’s a monopoly. Letters for delivery in Australia weighing 250 grams or less or priced at less than four times the basic postage rate are reserved to Post under the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989. It couldn’t charge more, because the Government repeatedly rejected its requests to increase the minimum stamp price. So it did what any intelligent company would do: it grew its market.

The third type of mail apart from transactional and social mail is promotional mail. It was about 15 per cent of all mail in Australia in 2003 when Australia Post established its dedicated Mail Marketing Unit, which was "to encourage the use of direct mail as a marketing communications medium."

Indeed, Australia Post went beyond encouragement. It could offer marketers the most comprehensive address database in Australia, and it supplemented it with a lifestyle database and response data collation. Australia Post not merely has the delivery mechanism for getting marketing information to you, it has lots of information about you. It has a division called FirstDirectSolutions which manages Australia Post customer information for marketing companies. Australia Post helps companies target people who have recently moved, or who have bought by mail order, and it can offer age, gender and financial demographics. All very attractive information for direct marketers.

The response to Australia Post’s promotion of direct mail was immediate. Even as the volume of transactional mail began declining, promotional mail started growing fast, 5 per cent and 6 per cent in 2004 and 2005, then 8 per cent and 9 per cent the following years.

Australia’s political parties helped. The 2004 and 2007 elections were boons for Australia Post, with tens of millions of letters dispatched by our politicians to our letterboxes, and more or less directly to our recycling bins. You footed the bill for most of that, by the way. And the Howard Government, which was particularly fond of filling our letterboxes with fridge magnets and other types of propaganda, also helped out.

An Australia Post spokesman said that the corporation adhered closely to privacy requirements in using personal information, and noted that surveys conducted by the company to supplement its database were on an opt-out basis: it is made clear to participants that participation in Australia Post surveys would lead to additional marketing mail in the areas they nominated, and they could opt out at any time.

So, despite the overall volume of transactional and social mail flat or actually falling, Australia Post has been successful at keeping up its overall level of revenue from delivering letters, thank to Australia’s junk mailers.

But Australia Post has been leveraging itself in other ways, as well. Its monopoly on letters comes with a hefty and demanding Universal Service Obligation. There is no monopoly in parcel delivery, and Australia Post competes with, amongst others, major international players DHL and TNT. They are both former Post Offices since privatised by the German and Dutch Governments respectively although the Dutch company merged with Australia’s TNT.

But Australia Post is able to leverage off its letter delivery infrastructure to provide a highly competitive parcel delivery service. And in contrast to letters, parcel volumes have boomed in recent years. Parcel volumes grew two and three times as fast as letters and, without the constraint of the Basic Postage Rate, revenue went up even faster: a 9.7 per cent increase in 2005, 12 per cent in 2006, 10.4 per cent in 2007, 7.5 per cent last year. During that period, parcel delivery became the biggest contributor to Australia Post’s profits, which have averaged between $500m and $600m a year. Australia Post also joined Qantas in a joint venture to run postal freight companies Star Track and Australian Air Express.

Both companies were delivering profits of around $30m a year, to be split between the venture partners. But that was during the boom. As Australia Post told Senate Estimates in May, the economic downturn has savaged its revenue. Letter volumes have fallen nearly 4 per cent this year. The remorseless growth in parcel volumes has turned into a fall of 1 per cent. Profit is likely to fall by 40 per cent . Earlier this year, Qantas revealed that, while Star Track was faring OK, Australian Air Express had lost $3.6m in the December 2008 half.

Not that Australia Post is alone. DHL and TNT, for whom Australia is only a relatively small contributor, have both suffered massive revenue falls. DHL announced a 30 per cent drop in profit in the second half of 2008. TNT announced a 40per cent drop.

There’s a bigger threat even when the economy recovers. The National Broadband Network, which promises a high-capacity delivery mechanism into 90 per cent of Australian homes, threatens to make most letter traffic redundant, with companies, governments and political parties able to deliver transactional and promotional mail in electronic form far more cheaply. The end of traditional mail has been predicted before, but the NBN will undermine Australia Post’s letter business model while the Commonwealth continues to impose an increasingly outdated universal service obligation on the company.

If the Government’s rollout schedule holds, Australia Post has a decade, tops, before it faces a major threat to its letter delivery role. A competitive, unregulated parcel delivery business will be subsidising the infrastructure needed to deliver to those homes beyond the reach of the NBN, in regional and remote Australia, without the returns available from a monopoly on letter delivery. - Bernard Keane

Optimize your URLs - Best practices for crawling & indexing

2009-08-11T08:48:00.000+08:00

Optimize your URLs - Best practices for crawling & indexing

Search engine marketing best practises
1. Context: Why do you care?
2. Reduce inefficient crawling of your site
3. Avoid maverick coding practices
4. Remove user-specific details from URLs
5. Optimize dynamic URLs
6. Rein in infinite spaces
7. Disallow actions Googlebot can’t perform
8. Get your preferred URLs indexed
9. Resources

The internet world is big. Really big. How does an search engine spider deal with it? How do search engines deal with this?

· Discover unique content
· Prioritize crawling
o Crawl new content
o Refresh old content
o Crawl fewer duplicates
· Keep all the good stuff in the index
· Return relevant search results

Focus on efficiency in these steps

Funnel your crawling “budget” toward your most important content

Avoid maverick coding practices
· Discourage alternative encodings
§ shop.example.com/items/Periods-Styles__end-table_W0QQ_catrefZ1QQ_dmptZAntiquesQ5fFurnitureQQ_flnZ1QQ_npmvZ3QQ_sacatZ100927QQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em282
§ Where [W0 = ?] and [QQ= &]
· Eliminate expand/collapse "parameters"
o www.example.com/ABN/GPC.nsf/MCList?OpenAgent&expand=1,3,15

Remove user-specific details from URLs

· Remove from the URL path
o www.example.com/cancun+hotel+zone-hotels-1-23-a7a14a13a4a23.html
o www.example.com/ikhgqzf20amswbqg1srbrh55/index.aspx?tpr=4&act=ela
o Creates infinite URLs to crawl
o Difficult to understand algorithmically
· Keywords in name/value pairs are just as good as in the path
o www.example.com/skates/riedell/carrera/
o www.example.com/skates.php?brand=riedell&model=carrera

Optimize dynamic URLs
· Dynamic URLs contain name/value pairs
o skates.php?size=6&brand=riedell
· Create patterns for crawlers to understand
o www.example.com/article.php?category=1&article=3&sid=123
o www.example.com/article.php?category=1&article=3&sid=456
o www.example.com/article.php?category=2&article=3&sid=789
· Use cookies to hide user-specific details
o www.example.com/skates.php?query=riedell+she+devil&id=9823576
o www.example.com/skates.php?ref=www.fastgirlskates.com&color=red

Rein in infinite spaces
· Uncover issues in CMS
o www.example.com/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Ipblocklist&limit=250&offset=423780&ip=

Disallow actions Googlebot can’t perform

· Googlebot is too cheap to ‘Add to cart’
o Disallow shopping carts
o http://www.example.com/index.php?page=EComm.AddToCart&Pid=3301674647606&returnTo=L2luZGV4LnBocD9wYWdlPUVDb21tLlByb2QmUGlkPTMzMDE2NzQ2NDc2OTI=
· Googlebot is too shy to ‘Contact us’
o Disallow contact forms, especially if they have unique URLs
o http://www.example.com/bb/posting.zsp?mode=newtopic&f=2&subject=Seeking%20information%20about%20roller%20derby%20training
· Googlebot forgets his password a lot
o Disallow login pages
o https://www.example.com/login.asp?er=43d9257de47d8b08a91069cccb584ab83ff21140bd46e81656dab3507f45d1ab079cd77244231e557d724dc1df1a641

Get your preferred URLs indexed

· Set your preferred domain in Webmaster Tools
o www.example.com vs. example.com
· Put canonical URLs in your Sitemap
· Use the new rel=“canonical” on any duplicate URLs

Webmaster Central
www.google.com/webmasters

· Help Center: Documentation, FAQs, webmaster guidelines
· Blog: Hot topics & best practices
· Help Forum: Ask questions, engage with others

Giant Waterslide Jump

2009-08-09T14:57:00.000+08:00

Since the dawn of time, man has battled the forces of gravity. We've built gliders, wings and contraptions of all sorts. In the end, all it took was a simple giant water slide down the side of a mountain.

http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2009/08/05

Hilarious!

Is Social Media a job or is it like teenage sex?

2009-08-04T14:45:00.000+08:00

I read a fantastic article today and wanted to share this with you. It’s no secret that social media has been blasting off like a kid on candy. Twitter and Facebook only scratch the surface of social media’s growth. Three years ago, the term barely existed.

Today, social media encompasses social networks, mobile platforms, information sharing, online video, and far more. There are now thousands of professionals and companies that are deeply involved in the social media sphere. Some even make a living doing Social Media.

Then we have people like me who use social media to help companies market themselves better and smarter to boost online revenues. If you are web marketer and earning a living online - you need to know what social media is but more importantly you need to know how to use Social Media to boost traffic and revenues for yourself but also for clients. Don't just talk the talk. You need to walk the talk.

How far has social media really grown? Are there enough people and businesses in social media for it to be labeled its own industry?

Today, I ask you a similar question:

Is social media now an industry? Or is it like Teen Sex - Everyone wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it's finally done there is surprise it's not better.

I leave the answer up to you.

Are you frustrating your customers or making them feel special?

2009-07-31T10:11:00.000+08:00

I was on the phone the other day to my insurance company and I got really frustrated about their service. While I was "on hold" I scribbled down these notes to blog about.

This is actually something I have been thinking about for quite some time so this was the drop in the bucket so to skeak. Time to blog about it! :)

If you can save your customer’s time when doing business with you it can be gold worth. In fact, the easier and the more time you save for your customers, the happier they will be. They will go out of their way to do business with you again and again and again. Plus they'll tell their friends how fantastic you are. Your best customers are your best advertisers right?

Question is; are you frustrating your customers or making them feel special?

1) Remember their order
Instead of asking the same question over and over again, save their preferences so that you remember what they wanted last time. Not only does it save time it allows you to be personal and friendly with your customers. Last it gives them an incentive to order from you again.

2) Don't put them on hold
I hate being put on hold. Imagine if you call your insurance company and you are placed on hold for 20 minutes. How does that make you feel? I bet most people say “very frustrated”. So why frustrate your customers when they are already upset if they are calling about a problem? Show respect and offer to call them back when their place in the queue is next. It also gives the customers a chance to cool down before you speak with them.

3) Save their preferences
Make your customers feel special. Go beyond remembering what color, size and quantity they ordered. Remember the small details that makes a person feel special. For example, how they like their coffee? For a hotel you should remember if the guest wanted 1 or 4 pillows. Soft or Extra soft. Keep a spreadsheet or if you can afford, have a CRM tool that allows everyone to know the little details about customers that makes them feel special.

Summary...
By making customers feel fantastic about your service all at the same you make the shopping experience faster and easier will make people want to do business with you. They want to tell their friends about how fantastic you are. This process might take a while to perfect so I recommend you start by making small steps every week and ensuring your staff knows what you are trying to do.

Until Next Time – Stay Hot – Stay Cool – Stay Smart!

Christoffer Bjorklund
Really Hot Marketing Ideas that Actually Work!

10 Blogging Tips for 2009

2009-07-28T12:52:00.000+08:00

With all the new internet marketing methods available, blogging has become a little bit “old hat” in the eyes of many. I mean, it’s not sexy like Facebook; it’s not as easy as Twitter and it certainly is not as glamorous as having a MySpace page. In spite of all of this, blogging remains one of the most effective ways to brand your business online. Following are 10 reminders about blogging to keep in mind .

Blogging in 2009: Going Back to Basics

Blogging Tip #1: Post Regularly. Readers will be more likely to follow your blog if you have a regular posting schedule. Post weekly, post bi-monthly, post monthly — it doesn’t matter what it is (although it should be at least once a week in my opinion) — but stick to a schedule.

Blogging Tip #2: Use Plugins. Plugins like “relevant posts”, “most popular posts” and “recent posts” make your blog more sticky because they encourage readers to hang around longer. The longer a visitor is on your blog, the better chance you have of converting them into a customer. And that, remember, is the goal when you’re in business.

Blogging Tip #3: Post from Experience. I like first-hand information. In fact, many web surfers are looking for this type of info. It’s no coincidence that “how to” information is the number one selling product on the web. Most of it comes from first-hand information.
So use case studies, write in the first person (eg, use “I”), tell your readers how you solved a particular problem, etc. I sell a lot of ebooks by doing just this. It lets readers know that you know what you’re talking about; hence, you become an authority voice in your niche.

Blogging Tip #4: Niche It. Speaking of niche – clearly define who your audience is and speak to them – and only them – directly. You will get ancillary customers/clients/readers as a matter of course. BUT, you should always blog with your core audience in mind.

Blogging Tip #5: Comment on Other Popular Blogs in Your Niche. Make relevant posts on other authority blogs in your niche. The key word here is r-e-l-e-v-a-n-t.

Blogging Tip #6: Write Well. Make your post long, make it short, make it mid-length, but by all means, write well. This cannot be taken for granted. I don’t care how salient your post is, if it’s poorly written, you will not be taken seriously. In fact, you can even damage your online reputation. It’s probably no coincidence that the alphabet and sentence construction are among the first things we learn in school. It’s the foundation of communication — so don’t waste it; use it.

Blogging Tip #7: Market Your Blog. Don’t post it and forget it. This is your chance to use sexy marketing like social networking. Market your posts on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc.
Remember, once you start with social networking though, you have to engage with those communities. So when you start to incorporate social networking into your blog marketing, do it with this in mind.

Blogging Tip #8: Use a Clean Design. A blog doesn’t have to have all the latest gadgets to be effective. A simple, clean design – with good content – will compete with the flashiest design every time. Simplicity rocks!

Blogging Tip #9: Personalize Your Blog. Inject some personality and let YOUR BRAND come through!

Blogging Tip #10: Don’t Give Up. Blogging is tedious, boring, monotonous and downright draining at times. Once you’ve blogged for a while, there will be days when you just want to chuck it in favor of something more exciting. But keep this in mind: in many cases success is not gained by the most talented, the most brilliant, or the most beautiful. All of these things help. But, success comes to those who simply “stick with it!”

Credit goes to: Yuwanda Black from Inkwell Editorial. She writes great stuff! :)

Until Next time - stay hot stay cool!
Christoffer Bjorklund

How to launch your website in one easy step

2009-07-16T08:34:00.000+08:00

Right, so you have a department store that is over 30 years old and you are making your first tentative steps online. How do you go about launching your site? With a bang, of course!

HEMA is a Dutch department store. This is what their site looks like.

The first store opened on November 4, 1966, in Amsterdam. Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands.Take a look at HEMA’s launch campaign.

You can’t order anything and it’s in Dutch, but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens. What a clever way of introducing your catalogue of over a thousand products in nearly 30 categories.

Check it out http://producten.hema.nl/

Notice where it ends – on the play again button, coz you’ll want to, and send to a friend, again coz you’ll want to! Sometimes it really is the simple things that are most effective.

The problem is it gets VERY annoying the 2nd and 3rd and 4th time you visit the site. The 1st time it's awesome but after that it's just annoying. They should have made the flash play only once and if a user wants to see it again, click to play.

I want to say thanks to Justine Paul from Linc in Melbourne who emailed me this. It's awesome! :)

Until next time, stay tuned. Stay hot.
Chris Bjorklund

Why did Ad Age post this article? Are they trying to influence people? Sneaky stuff...

2009-07-13T15:33:00.000+08:00

This is a comment from a news story I read on http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=137840. This is an insanely stupid comment Sarah Palin makes.

.../…You know, sometimes you just need to have the courage and the conviction to look the moose square in the eye, level your shotgun, and say, 'Sorry, fella, but this is what's best for America, and Alaska, and all Americans,' and then ya pull the trigger. And if you end up getting a little messy, if you get a little blood and guts on your Naughty Monkeys, well, so be it."

My response:
Wow... holy smokes....?! That’s real red neck load of bullcrap….wow am I ever glad she is not in the White House.

But hey… the real story is why the heck does Ad Age publish this nonsense on their site? I went there to read some REAL AD NEWS… not political stuff about Palin who really should take up 4x4ing and bush whacking and hopefully stay in the Alaskan wilderness.

But still, why the heck does Ad Age publish this? Politicking or is this because someone in Ad Age’s board of directors has ordered someone to start rumours? Hmmm… I’m not impressed by this Ad Age.

Go Obama!!!