Marketing in an Interactive World

Mobile Paid Search Connects Deeper into Purchase Funnel

One of the top activities on smartphones is search. It is becoming increasingly important for marketers to take a serious look at extending paid search campaigns from the desktop web to the mobile web, especially as improvements in the quality of mobile devices are happening simultaneously with the more affordable access through aggressively priced data plans.

Community Management is Key to Fostering Loyalty

This is probably something most brand marketers don't want to hear, but it needs to be said. A "Like" on Facebook or a "Follow" on Twitter is not "mission accomplished." It is just the beginning of the mission itself. It is essentially "I want to get to know you better," nothing more. Or, if it is a case, for instance, where a Facebook Like was achieved in exchange for a discount or entry into a contest or sweepstakes, all you have done is bought her a drink. The tough part is getting her to go home with you, and then, fall in love with you!

Why Twitter is Considering Facebook-Style Pages

Earlier this month, Marketing Magazine announced that Twitter is considering pages for brands, much like the kind that Facebook has been offering for years.

The non-committal "considering" by Twitter is an obvious attempt at crowd sourcing the reaction to taking such a measure, and gauging the support, or lack thereof in the Twittersphere.  Marketing Magazine reported that Twitter CEO Dick Costolo is leading the charge alongside his right hand man, President of Revenue Adam Bain. So if you are looking for a  more concrete answer as to whether or not this is going to happen, you are best to ask either of these men. But the better question may be "why?"

LinkedIn's Company Pages a Must for B2B Marketers

It seems now that LinkedIn has finally positioned themselves as the primary social network for b2b. It wasn't always this way, in fact up until recently, myself and others considered LinkedIn to be a job bulletin board on steroids. But LinkedIn's new "Company Pages" has helped to change that perception in a hurry.

"Implied Consent" of Canada's New Anti-Spam Law Helps Marketers

 Canada's new anti-spam legislation, referred to as FISA - the Fighting Internet and Wireless Spam Act - was passed in mid-December and is expected to come into law later this year. Most expected new anti-spam laws to require marketers to obtain actual expressed consent before adding any email address to their marketing lists. Pardon me if this sounds confusing, but in some ways FISA requires this, but in some circumstances, it allows for implied consent, which, when read into further, actually seems to create a much more liberal approach. Allow me to explain:

Major Threat to e-Commerce – Compulsory Do-Not-Track Picking Up Speed

From CMA Watching Brief:

The creation of a compulsory, universal do-not-track mechanism that would threaten e-commerce by giving consumers the type of control they gained over marketers with the national do-not-call registry is picking up speed.

Cyber Monday Sales Up Nearly 20% in 2010

Cyber Monday numbers are in from Coremetrics and as expected, the results are even more encouraging than a pretty strong showing on Black Friday.

Cyber Monday 2010 saw nearly a 20% increase in online sales from the same day last year, and the average order was increased by almost $15 per sale, or an 8.3% lift.

Black Friday Sees Big Increase in Online Spending

The initial Black Friday reports are in from Coremetrics. Online shopping saw a huge boost with spending increasing 15.9% from a year ago. The average order was also up 12.1% from $170.19 to $190.80.

SCVNGR Continues to Mark Its Territory

We learned yesterday that SCVNGR, a direct competitor to Foursquare, is being used by Coke to target teens in Simon Malls across the United States on Black Friday.

SCVNGR is a location-based mobile game platform that allows players to collect points, complete challenges, earn badges and broadcast to what they are up to on Facebook and Twitter. By completing challenges, players can unlock badges and earn real free items or discounts.

Twitter To Provide Free Analytics

Twitter is finally going to be releasing Analytics tools which will allow users to learn which Tweets are most influential, which caused people to unfollow, what gained the most @mentions and retweets and a great deal more.