Social Media Is Fleeting - So Be Prepared

I was recently surprised to discover that a social media site I frequently used to ask and answer business-related questions disappeared. One day the site was live, and the next day, the URL was available for purchase.

This caused me to question the lifespan of social media – not just social platforms but the content we post and share. How often have you visited a website for the first time and later returned to discover that the link is no longer live? All of us have encountered those annoying 404 pages, and rarely, companies actually create clever error pages.

But returning to the issue at hand, the lifespan of social media, the lesson is clear. Don't put all your content on any one social platform. Sprinkle the good stuff around so that your followers want more. Also, make sure you back up your content – so that you are prepared if a site goes down or closes up shop without any warning.

Lastly, but most importantly, apply the mantra that those of us in the marketing world yell from the rooftops on a daily basis: develop a strategy and adhere to it. Don’t just post dozens of tweets on Twitter, wall posts on Facebook, updates on LinkedIn, videos on YouTube, pins on Pinterest, etc. – without a social media strategy that aligns with your overall marketing plan. This will guarantee a consistent message and effective branding. While this may be obvious for businesses, individuals must also abide by this mantra.

As Adam Kmiec of the Campbell Soup Company said, “The answer isn't Facebook [or any other social media site.] The answer is your social strategy.”

German-speaking Google Analytics User Conference and Training Day

On October 8^th and 9^th the second German-speaking Google Analytics User Conference (http://www.analytics-konferenz.at) is coming up. The conference will be held at the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. 

The Google Analytics User Conference is a two-day event, featuring a Google Analytics Training Day (12/10/08) for beginners and the Google Analytics Conference (12/10/09).  The Conference will include 24 different sessions in three tracks, which provide a valuable insight into new Google Analytics technologies, efficient strategies, optimization and trends. Here are some highlights from the agenda:

• What´s new and exciting with Google Analytics
• Customer Journey & Multi-Channel Analysis
• Improving ROI and Conversion-Optimization with Google Analytics
• E-Mail/Social Media/Mobile Tracking
• AdWords in Google Analytics & Search Analytics
• Advanced Traffic Attribution
• Tech-Sessions: Implementing Events, Custom Vars, Advanced Google Analytics Tracking Codes etc.

Attendees
The interactive and informative day is designed to help all attendees getting the most out of Google Analytics. It connects people who love and use Google Analytics, Google team members, opinion leaders, industry experts, online-marketers, web-developers and others who are interested in web analytics. Take the opportunity to learn from Google Analytics pros and peers and share your experience and knowledge. Register now and get:

• Tips and tricks from industry insiders to improve the bottom line
• Tactical and practical advice which you can apply rapidly
• Guidance how to manage multiple campaigns across multiple platforms
• Align Google Analytics with overall business goals, etc.

Tickets: 
Attendees can choose one day or the other, or may attend both days at a discounted rate.

List Price: € 390,- each day (Training Day or Conference). Both days cost € 680. Find out more at http://www.analytics-konferenz.at/anmelden.

This is an event not to be missed! We are looking forward to meeting many of you at the conference. See you soon! 

Presenting Partners

The conference is presented by the following Google Analytics Certified Partners and leading agencies in Austria and Germany: e-dialog, elements and webalytics. Furthermore the event is being produced in cooperation with national and international companies, associations and media: Monster Worldwide, Searchmetrics, intelliAd, Digital Analytics Association, DMVOE, Marketing Community Austria, WirtschaftsBlatt, Computerwelt, Horizont, Werbeplanung.at,  ITPress, iBusiness, t3n, WebsiteBoosting, eStrategy and Conversion Boosting.

Posted by the Google Analytics Team

Go Green

Did you know a two-second glimpse of the color green boosts creativity? Place a green plant or poster near your computer and focus on it when you're experiencing a brain drain.

Happy Friday!

Debbi

MarketMatch is a marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the right story that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM and prove the best RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

Google Analytics Mobile App SDK Updates - iOS6 Support And More

Mobile app measurement is critical to the future of marketers, developers and entrepreneurs. Since the Mobile App Analytics beta launch in July, we’ve been receiving great feedback from many app developers and advertisers in the beta testing program. We’ve been using that feedback as well as our own roadmap to improve Mobile App Analytics. This week we’re excited to share new versions of the beta SDKs with a few important updates:

Added armv7s (iOS6) support 

This will enable app tracking within iOS6 apps / compatibility with new Apple devices.

Added support for social interaction tracking

Are there social elements in your apps? Understanding how they are used is critical to improve their performance - especially as the integration of social and mobile grows closer.

Refined Google Play sources reports

This fixes a bug that previously prevented Google Play sources report from accurately reporting campaigns on most devices running Honeycomb or later.

Fixed CoreData issue in iOS SDK and several issues in Android SDK

Our use of coredata on iOS is more compatible with multi-threaded environments; and fixed the issue for Honeycomb and later devices to measure install campaigns for google play properly.

As a reminder, here’s the link to enroll the mobile app analytics beta and start your journey with the new Google Mobile App Analytics.

For users who are using old SDKs (v1), updates are also available for iOS and Android, with the two major updates:

• Added armv7s (iOS6) support
• Added support for 50 custom variables (Premium only)

Please keep the questions and suggestions coming as you try out the updated SDKs.

Posted By JiaJing Wang, Product Manager, Google Analytics Team

Planning and ROI: A Cheat Sheet

Planning and ROI: A Cheat Sheet

As you sharpen your pencil to start 2013 planning and budgeting, there are four important factors to keep in mind:
- Local Economy
- Existing Members
- Competition
- ROI

ROI is simply the best way to brand marketing as much more than "arts & crafts." It's also the most logical way to justify your dream marketing budget.

Introducing The Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers

We’re living in an always-connected culture -- in fact, the average American spends a full 2 months of their waking year online (emarketer, 2011). That’s time spent at work, on the go with mobile phones, and on the couch with tablets. With this wide array of screens, how do you reach your audience, and your performance goals -- at scale and with efficiency? The Google Display Network has the reach and technology to help get your message to the right customer, at the right time, all across the web -- no matter the device or channel. But putting together an optimized performance campaign to reach this fragmented audience can be a real challenge -- so we decided to bring you your very own toolkit --  The Google Display Network Playbook for Performance Marketers.

Over the next few months we’ll highlight specific sections of the playbook. You’ll get more familiar with all the different steps of display that make it excellent for performance -- including targeting, creative, bidding, measurement, and optimization.

We’ll turn our spotlight first on learning more about how display works with your performance goals, with topics such as:

How reach + precision = performance

With 93% reach to US Internet advertisers, and sophisticated technology to find your specific audience, you’re more likely to  reach performance goals at scale.

Performance across all devices and channels

In this always connected, yet fragmented, world, the Google Display Network spans across devices (desktop, mobile and tablet) and channels (social and video) to connect you to your potential customers, wherever they are.

Increasing the holistic value of your campaigns with display

Search and display campaigns complement and reinforce each other. What’s more, tools like remarketing help you re-engage with users that have already shown interest by visiting your site.

Download the playbook today, and stay tuned for even more ways that the Google Display Network can help you drive results in your performance campaigns.

Posted by Mary Shirley, Product Marketing Manager, Google Display Network

Brands Doing it Right: New Header Space on Twitter

In my last post, I shared details with you about the new header space on Twitter.  Today I have a few screengrabs to share with you to get your creative juices flowing if you haven’t taken advantage of the new space yet!

1. Real Simple Magazine
Love the simple header design, and would expect nothing less from this great brand! Lemons are genius, as is using the magazine cover for their profile pic.  I’d normally shy away from this, but it makes a lot of sense in the new design!

2. Mashable
Mashable did something that didn’t occur to most of us – they choose a solid-colored block for their header background.  Of course, it’s no mistake the color is mashable blue.  If your company is known for a signature color, perhaps the header space could be used to reinforce that brand. Or, you could even crop the background from your website to fit this space or go with a simple pattern.

3. National Aquarium
I love how The National Aquarium uses the header space to showcase what they do best with a striking photo. 

 

4. Starbucks
Just as you’d expect from a big brand, Starbucks delivers in the space with a carefully-selected photo.

5. Ryan Seacrest
I’m sharing this example for those that want to be witty enough to allow the header space and profile photo to literally fit together into what appears to be a single image.  We saw a lot of this when the cover photo rolled out on Facebook.  So yeah, you can do that here, too.


6. Charlotte Russe
I love how the composition of this photo works so well in this space.  It was likely cropped with the new header in mind – love that.

Laura is a marketing professional and blogger who has been active in social media since 2005.  If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to this blog via Email or  RSS. Laura can also be found on Twitter (@LauraCatherineO), Facebook, and LinkedIn.

 

Mobile-friendly sites turn visitors into customers

The following post originally appeared on the Google Mobile Ads Blog.

In this world of constant connectivity, consumers expect to find the information that they want, when they want it - especially when they’re on the go. We know that this applies to their web browsing experiences on mobile, so we took a deeper look at users’ expectations and reactions towards their site experiences on mobile. Most interestingly, 61% of people said that they’d quickly move onto another site if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site. The bottom line: Without a mobile-friendly site you’ll be driving users to your competition. In fact, 67% of users are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly site, so if that site’s not yours, you’ll be missing out in a big way. 

Discover these and more findings from, What Users Want Most From Mobile Sites Today, a study from Google (conducted by Sterling Research and SmithGeiger, independent market research firms). The report surveyed 1,088 US adult smartphone Internet users in July 2012.  

The problem (and opportunity) is big...

While nearly 75% of users prefer a mobile-friendly site, 96% of consumers say they’ve encountered sites that were clearly not designed for mobile devices. This is both a big problem and a big opportunity for companies seeking to engage with mobile users.

Mobile-friendly sites turn users into customers

The fastest path to mobile customers is through a mobile-friendly site. If your site offers a great mobile experience, users are more likely to make a purchase. 

• When they visited a mobile-friendly site, 74% of people say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future
• 67% of mobile users say that when they visit a mobile-friendly site, they’re more likely to buy a site’s product or service

Not having a mobile-friendly site helps your competitors  

A great mobile site experience is becoming increasingly important, and users will keep looking for a mobile-friendly site until they find one that works for them. That means your competitors will benefit if your site falls down on the job (and vice versa).

• 61% of users said that if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site, they’d quickly move on to another site
• 79% of people who don’t like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site
• 50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn't mobile-friendly

Non-mobile friendly sites can hurt a company’s reputation

It turns out that you can lose more than the sale with a bad mobile experience. A site that’s not designed for mobile can leave users feeling downright frustrated, and these negative reactions translate directly to the brands themselves. 

• 48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly
• 36% said they felt like they’ve wasted their time by visiting those sites
• 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company
• 48% said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business

Takeaways

While the research confirms what we already suspected -- that mobile users actively seek out and prefer to engage with mobile-friendly sites -- it’s a sobering reminder of just how quickly and deeply users attitudes about companies can be shaped by mobile site experiences. Having a great mobile site is no longer just about making a few more sales. It’s become a critical component of building strong brands, nurturing lasting customer relationships, and making mobile work for you. 

To learn more about our study

• Click here and join our free webinar on September 26 at 1 p.m. EST  / 10 a.m. PST
• Get help on building a mobile-friendly site, visit howtogomo.com.

Posted by: Masha Fisch, Google Mobile Ads Marketing

Unique sitelinks policy will be more proactively enforced

Sitelinks give users a choice of destinations on your website that they can visit directly from your text ads. Hopefully you’ve already been using sitelinks to improve your campaign performance. Maybe you’re now preparing your campaigns to be eligible for enhanced sitelinks, which offer an even bigger boost.

Our existing policy has required each sitelink in a campaign to link to a different landing page. That means a user would have a meaningfully different experience on the landing page from each sitelink. Recently, though, we've noticed an increase in the number of sitelinks created with the same landing page URLs or identical content. So starting today, we are beginning more proactive enforcement of our policy.

How it will work
We’ll initially focus on new sitelinks and any sitelinks that you change. As your ads are being served, our systems will verify that your sitelinks meet the policy standards. Sitelinks that don’t meet the standards will be restricted from appearing.

Impact on format and performance
To increase the chances of having more sitelinks shown with your ads, we recommend loading 6-10 unique sitelinks into your campaigns. Having fewer eligible sitelinks could keep your ad from showing in larger 2-line and 3-line formats, where more eligible sitelinks are required. Remember, larger formats are more visible and have higher average clickthrough rates (CTR). And if you don’t have enough eligible sitelinks in your campaign, then your ads may not display sitelinks at all.

Future enforcement with existing sitelinks
We realize that manually checking and fixing duplicates among your existing sitelinks and landing pages might take some time. So we’re delaying proactive enforcement with existing sitelinks for a few months. But don’t wait until the last minute. And remember, any sitelink that you add or change will be subject to proactive enforcement right away.

Getting started
We suggest doing a basic sweep, starting with campaigns that show sitelinks most often. These are probably your campaigns with branded keywords, like the name of your business and its best-known products and services. Here’s how you can work through this using the AdWords interface.

1. Log into the AdWords interface and click on the “Ad Extensions” tab.
2. Select “Sitelinks Extensions” from the View drop-down menu.
3. Sort your sitelink extensions by impressions or clicks by clicking on the column header.
4. Click on each sitelink in the top campaign and follow it through to its landing page (there’s no charge for these clicks).
5. Fix any duplicates you find by hovering over the extension area and clicking the pencil icon (see image below).

You can then work your way down through each campaign in your account. If you want to be completely thorough, you’ll need cross-check the landing pages on your Ads and Keywords tab with those of your sitelinks for each campaign.

For more details or help with sitelinks, please visit the AdWords Help Center or contact AdWords customer support.

Posted by Mark Martel, Google Ads Team

The Art of War...and Marketing (Part 3)

The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military document attributed to Sun Tzu a high-ranking military general, strategist and tactician.  It is composed of 13 chapters, each devoted to one aspect of warfare. It is commonly known to be the definitive work on military strategy and tactics of its time. 

These writings have helped countless military leaders win land, riches and infamy … and in a wonderful twist of irony, we will focus on how it can help you win your customer’s hearts.

This is Part III in a series of blogs that breaks down each chapter.  The brief chapter summaries are from Wikipedia, but the marketing commentary is all MarketMatch!

To read Part 1, click here.

To read Part 2, click here. 

10. Situational Positioning looks at the general areas of resistance (distance, dangers, and barriers) and the types of ground positions that arise from them.

As you are continually measuring against your objectives, you may find that you are not tracking as well as you’d like.  What are the dangers and barriers to your success?

• Awareness: Are people aware that you exist, what you sell and what you stand for?
• Perception: Are you too small, too big or confusing to the market?  Does your brand align with market wants? 
• Access: Does your target pass several competitors to get to you? We have a client who is literally one block away from heavy traffic and has a hard time generating momentum.  What about your e-access?  If you have it, is it easy to use?  Do your customers know about it?
• Price: You don’t need to be the lowest price, but this is always a discussion criterion to consider and analyze.
• Attrition:Analyze the attrition of key products within each branch.  Are they new or old relationships that are leaving you? 

11. The Nine Situations describes the nine common situations (or stages) in a campaign, and the specific focus needed in order to successfully navigate them.

The 9 stages of a campaign as I see them are:

1. Set measurable objectives: Define what success will look like
2. Determine desired action: Know what you want your target to do.  What product, how quickly and what is the desired entry point?
3. Define target: Who best fits the mold for this product?  Be as specific as possible. Where do they live?  What do they want?  What do they think?
4. Determine how best to reach target: The goal is frequency, not necessarily reach.  How can you reach the best percentage of your target at least 3 times?
5. Create messaging: Be clear, stand out and differentiate.
6. Train staff:The worst thing that can happen is for an employee to hear about a new promotion from a customer.  Be sure that your team is aware of the message, what it promotes, who you’re targeting, what you expect and how they should communicate once the customer comes in or calls.
7. Launch: Make it happen
8. Measure: Don’t wait until the campaign is over to track.  By tracking progress along the way, you’ll know if you need to make any adjustments.
9. Adjust: If needed, tweak your approach.  Is a lower cost tactic pulling better than an expensive one?  Is the target misunderstanding the message?  Is the call to action clear?

12. The Attack by Fire explains the general use of weapons and the specific use of the environment as a weapon.

As a marketer, you have a lot of weapons at your disposal:

• Traditional: Newspaper, radio, TV – these are best used to build awareness with limited segmentation.  Usually your best cost-per-impression.
• Direct:Targeted direct mail, outbound calls, email, text – though more expensive per impression, these allow for a more one-on-one conversation.  By narrowing your target focus, you can speak to specific needs. Expect a higher response rate.
• Web-based: Pay per click SEO, web banners on partner sites, micro sites, QR codes – this category is evolving every day.  This allows for a more interactive experience.  Being electronic, this is typically also highly measurable.
• Guerrilla: This is where you can use the environment as a weapon. Guerrilla marketing hits the target when they are not expecting to be sold.  An example from the MarketMatch files is when we “lost” 100 wallets (in strategic locations) around a market.  In the wallets was a message to return the wallet to a given branch for a $20 reward.  The campaign was successful in driving new foot traffic, awareness and word-of-mouth.

An army of only tanks, though powerful, would not be successful.  For true success you need to control the air, the land and the sea.  Each tactic has it’s own strengths and weaknesses.  The magic is finding the right mix for the given target that fits your budget.

13. The Use of Intelligence focuses on the importance of developing good information sources.

We have talked a lot about the importance of measurement and analysis.  Where you obtain your data is as important as what you measure.  MCIF systems are very useful here, but not vital.  For most in-house data, you’ll want to buddy-up with IT and Finance.  Clearly define what it is that you want to measure and brainstorm with your team on how best to pull it.

Aside from in-house numbers, there are countless online resources and survey techniques to gather what you need.  The emphasis should be more on WHAT to measure than HOW.

Aside from basic growth numbers, you can also consider:branch-by-branch or market-by-market analysis, attrition in key products, accounts per customer/household, debit card usage, awareness/perception, product usage trends, percentage of referrals, web site usage/effectiveness, application-to-loan conversion ratios, profitability, media channel effectiveness, cross-sell per employee, referrals across business units.  The options are limitless and should be tied to completing your key objectives.  (See “What’s the Big R.O.Idea” for more info) 

There you have it ... how The Art of War can help you take over the marketing world.  Remember, with great power comes great responsibility.  I trust that you won’t go all Napoleon on us with this information!


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We bring these marketing philosophies to community banks and credit unions nationwide, and would love to bring them to your institution too.  Contact us to see how.

MarketMatch is also a nationally and internationally requested speaker.  Contact us to bring our marketing ideas to your next conference.

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MarketMatch is a marketing firm, dedicated to the credit union and community banking community.  We utilize knowledge-based strategies to help you FOCUS on the right story that will generate the greatest  MOMENTUM and prove the best RESULTS with our written ROI Guarantee.

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