Malicious Computer Code Found In Online Ads

80% of malicious computer code on the Internet is found in online ads, according to computer security firm Finjan Inc.

As an advertiser, stay away from putting your ads on content sites. This is where most the click fraud occurs. I ran a campaign for a client who sells all over the world. If I do place ads on content sites, I limit my risk by only bidding at most $0.05-$0.10 per click, and you should have seen all the fraud click throughs coming from Korea. This is just one example, but through my experience, click fraud for advertisers occurs on the content partners of Yahoo and Google.

Be safe out there,
j. Bruce Martin (Jeff)
http://www.salesdrivenmarketing.com/
The Internet Advertising Experts.

Online Video Ad Rates for 3Q 2007

Video still doesn't provide the bang for buck that Internet search does, or any CPA ad buy can give you; however, many Fortune 500 companies that don't understand how to truly evaluate their ad buys, are paying:

$40-$50 CPM per short video ad.

Barron's 7/9 Technology Week article states consumers can tolerate maybe 3 video ads in a free hour long video program, which costs advertisers $150 per 1000 viewings ($0.15 in revenue per user).

Take high quality videos out of the equation, many advertisers will pay only $1.00 CPM for ads on user generated content.

j. Bruce Martin (Jeff)
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

Medical Focused Search Engine

MSN's Medstory Story by Mark Simon, Monday, March 5, 2007

LAST WEEK, Microsoft announced plans to buy health search engine Medstory. More than just a buy into a great product, that purchase might be Microsoft's secret weapon into winning the search wars.

As a vertical engine, Medstory's search functionality is fantastic. It's a genius at showing health material and weeding out non-health results -- as a search for an ambiguous term like "wine" will show. When I ran that search, the engine was great at avoiding non-health "wine" results (like results for wine stores or wine recipes); non-health listings only seemed to sneak in around results page 90. (On searches around medical personalities, though, Medstory's filtering looked a lot weaker.)

On top of its excellent relevance, Medstory is also spectacularly effective when it comes to granularity. Along with standard specialty searches like audio and video, Medstory allows searchers to drill down for items like drugs, experts, and even genes that relate to a keyword.
But Medstory's true value only begins with what it offers as a health-search engine. It will undoubtedly make a killer app within MSN Health & Fitness, but that's just the start. It also looks like its technology will be copied across all of the vertical content sections within the MSN portal, like MSN Autos, MSN Music, and MSN Money. Currently, those content areas offer only a site search within the content area itself, and access to run a non-specialized search on Live.com. Visitors to those content sections would gladly welcome -- and use -- a Medstory clone that's geared towards their topic of interest. And that new wave of vertical search traffic would create many more opportunities for highly targeted search advertising.

Medstory, meanwhile, is hardly ignorant of its potential for expanding beyond health alone. As CNet's Carolyn McCarthy points out, "Medstory's Web site hints that health is only the first topic for which it plans to implement its... technology," and that "other 'complex fields' of inquiry may be on the way."

Even vertical search, though, might not be the ultimate goal that's on MSN's mind with Medstory. If there's anything that AdCenter has taught the world, it's that Microsoft is a master at taking the data it already has, and repurposing it into smarter search. A small army of Medstory clones will allow Microsoft to do just that, at a whole new level -- as it will contain a huge inventory of behavioral data on vertically-minded searchers and search queries. MSN can use that data to deliver more relevant organic results, and better ads, within vertically-minded searches on Live.com itself.

Indeed, as CNet's Ina Fried reported Tuesday, Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie has made clear his plans to push Medstory out "within Microsoft's broader Live search engine;" and that, in Fried's words, "vertical search pages are just one of the possibilities." Presumably, Live.com is another one of those "possibilities."

All of this bodes extremely well for Live.com, as MSN pushes to move from search underdog to leader of the pack. More relevant listings -- i.e., better-targeted listings --mean more clicks, as Yahoo's post-Panama clickthrough surge has shown us. And it's not much of a leap from there to saying that more relevant listings generate increased traffic overall, long-term.

And so in buying Medstory, MSN has purchased a great asset within the health market; the next big thing in vertical search overall; and a golden ticket to making more money off of advertising within Live.com. I'd say that isn't bad for the purchase of a tiny search engine.
Am I 100% right about where Microsoft wants to go with the Medstory purchase? I think I am, but we'll have to wait and see. But I can guarantee that, wherever the planned purchase goes, Medstory is just the beginning of the story.

ROI Tracking for Web Marketing Campaigns

A good customer of mine asked how to market his services on ESPN.com w/o this web propoerty offering conversion metrics.

I did some brainstorming and here are some solutions:

1. Look into web analalytic packages that you can integrate into your website. This can be expensive, confusing and time consuming. At the end of the day, you want to simply know how many clicks you received, at what cost, and how much did it cost to drive each sale.

2. Place ads on ESPN with a unique URL, then every month, look at how much you spent with ESPN, and then look at your web logs. For this to work, your ISP's web logs need to be able to tell you the referring URL's for the sales you generated. Then, though a little more manually intensive, you can calculate your cost per sale on sites like ESPN by matching the number of sales from your site with the specific unique URL's. TIP: to start, just ad a "partner code" unique identifier, like ESPN, to every ad you put on ESPN.com.

If you have other solutions not mentioned above, please share them!!

BACKGROUND: My company calculates avg. cost per sale for our clients for free with their campaigns on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN by using the "scripts" placed on all the checkout screens. Just recently, due to pressure from big advertisers, sites like ESPN, and a few other major web properties, stopped using Google's adsense product because advertisers did not know where their ads were showing up -- maybe next to a few innaproprieste sites! As a result, ESPN now uses a different ad display company. Now, any biz can target their ads to appear on ESPN, and still pay on a pay-per-click basis; however, ESPN does not offer the free conversion tracking capabilities like Yahoo and Google offer.

New Ad Platforms to Try In 2007

Give these new ad platforms a try in 2007:

www.Turn.com
www.adify.com
www.admob.com (mobile ad network)
www.spotrunner.com (TV)

Test and learn,

j.Bruce
www.salesdrivenmarketing.com

Google Radio and Competitors

Why Can't Google Sell Premium Radio Ads?
by Erik Sass, Wednesday, Feb 14, 2007 8:30 AM ET

WITH THE DEPARTURE OF DMARC founders Chad and Ryan Steelberg last week, industry observers are buzzing about Google's ongoing attempt to penetrate the radio market with low-cost online ad sales and placement. One of the key issues is the quality of radio inventory Google can offer through dMarc's automated interface. Here, Google finds itself in a Catch-22.
Before it was acquired by Google, dMarc trafficked in remnant inventory--the "leftover" air time that stations sell at low prices at the last minute. To make dMarc's system attractive to advertisers, Google has to demonstrate that it's also effective in selling premium inventory. But they face a couple of major obstacles.

Foremost, Google doesn't allow advertisers to choose specific stations where their ads will run because they're selling remnant inventory. Station managers fear that identifying their station as the source of remnant inventory would undercut the price of their premium inventory. In short, advertisers might just wait until the station is desperate before buying.
According to the marketing materials Google sends to participating stations: "To protect your local [rate] card, we do not allow our advertisers to buy/target specific stations." This, in itself, is sufficient to deter most existing radio advertisers.

Conversely, station managers have their own reasons to be leery about turning over inventory--premium or remnant--to Google. dMarc's digital system begins selling remnant inventory automatically at the end of every business day, with no oversight from station employees. Managers don't know which ads will be broadcast the next morning. Although Google offers the option of reviewing and rejecting ads before they air, the "just-in-time" nature of the service makes this difficult in practice.

In addition, it costs about $75,000 to install dMarc. That's a pricey system, even for big radio stations that sell remnant inventory. Although Google offers a barter deal, installing the system for free in exchange for a certain quantity of remnant inventory, this involves charging a 50% commission on remnant ad sales over a period of several years--effectively removing any near-term incentive for station managers to participate.

Finally, radio stations in desirable markets employ sales teams to move their premium inventory, and station managers chafe at the idea of paying Google's commission on top of salaries (or agency fees). Sales executives also fear that cooperating with Google will undercut their sales teams.

In recent months, Google was reported to be negotiating with CBS Radio to buy more than $1 billion of premium inventory. But to offset the commission costs and the risk of sales "cannibalization," big radio groups like CBS will probably charge top dollar for their premium inventory.

Such an investment would constitute a risky gamble for Google--especially to fuel a system that hasn't yet attracted significant advertiser interest.

Investors have maintained unrelenting pressure on Google to keep share prices up, and they may find the high price tag of a big inventory deal excessive. Plus, Google's inability to offer premium inventory, in turn, means that demand will stay sluggish. Constrained by risk-averse shareholders, it will be difficult for Google to break out of this cycle of low demand and insufficient supply.

Adding to Google's woes, dMarc faces competition from other automated radio sales firms, like SoftWave Media Exchange. SoftWave allows marketers to choose stations and schedule their campaigns well ahead of time, while station managers can set prices and review campaigns before they run.

These capabilities have helped SoftWave build a network of stations in the top 50 markets that reach about 11 million listeners on an average quarter-hour basis, compared to just 947,000 for dMarc. Most importantly, station managers are comfortable selling premium inventory through SoftWave, with about 70% of its traffic falling in this category.

Meanwhile, Bid4Spots, a Los Angeles-based digital clearinghouse, employs a reverse-auction model in which multiple stations compete to sell their remnant inventory to a single buyer during weekly online auctions. Because stations have nothing to lose when unloading unwanted inventory, they drive prices down during the auctions, benefiting the buyers. More than 2,300 stations around the country are participating in the Bid4Spots system.

Second City Stats

State of the Virtual World – Key Metrics, January 2007
Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 5:50 AM PST by: Zee Linden

In December I posted a number of key metrics for the first time. As part of our effort to drive toward complete transparency and openness, Logan Linden and I have upgraded some of our internal systems to create the Excel Workbook posted here. (If you need a viewer, click here, check back later for a PDF). Please consider this a preliminary version of the report. With feedback from the community we will continue to improve the data, the explanations and – most importantly, continue to add more data over time. As you can imagine we have more data to analyze than we have time and people - so thanks for your patience as we roll out more and more of the statistics you are asking for.

The Size of the Virtual World - January was another record month for Second Life in many ways. The size of the world, as measured by the virtual square kilometers of simulation, expanded 23% over December to 361 square kilometers. In fact, continued brisk sales have left us with roughly a two-week backlog for new Island order delivery. (Thanks to everyone for their patience on this.) The backlog has also affected our ability to expand the mainland sufficiently to meet. demand. As a result, the average price for mainland auctions is up higher than I think anyone would like to see it. Over the next several weeks, we hope to rectify both situations with a greater volume of server delivery from our supplier. With a recent release of more than 40 regions of mainland, the addition of a new mainland continent & and doubling of the daily release of new mainland regions I would hope that we will satisfy the seemingly insatiable demand and stabilize the mainland auction market to a more sustainable price.
The Virtual Economy - The virtual economy, as measured by LindeX volume and user to user transactions, grew faster than the land mass in January. User to user transactions in-world increased 37% to 6.1 billion consistent with the 47% increase in user hours from December. On the other hand, Linden Lab sold fewer L$ than we sold in December - primarily driven by January having 25% fewer weekend days than December causing the supply of L$ to increase at a slower rate of 18%.

What is the Linden Dollar? Technically, the L$ is a limited license right to participate in and use certain features of Second Life. The value of the L$, as reflected on the exchange, is based on the demand for a limited supply of L$. “Sources” – such as stipends to premium users and direct L$ sales on the exchange - are the ways in which Linden Lab put L$ into the virtual economy. “Sinks” – such as the L$ fee that we charge to post classified ads or upload images – represent ways that the L$ are taken out of circulation.

How does the LindeX work? The LindeX is the Linden Dollar exchange market. Linden Lab operates the exchange as a peer-to-peer trading platform in which users can buy and sell Linden Dollars from and to other residents. Just like in a real economy, there are consumers (the buyers of L$) and producers (the sellers of L$). The ratio of buyers to sellers is approximately 10 to 1. The number os sellers is consistent with the number of in-world business owners with “Positive Monthly Linden Flow“. In January, buyers and sellers traded just under USD $5 million– up more than 29% from December. That’s an average daily volume of USD $158,000. To be sure, this is still a very tiny economy relative to countries, states, cities or even towns in the real world, but it’s probably not hyperbole to surmise that it’s the fastest growing economy on the planet (up more than 9x in the last 12 months!). A handful of the largest buyers on the exchange are reselling them in local currencies, languages & payments systems - such as the Dutch Exchange here. Third party exchanges agree to use the Exchange Risk API to to identify sellers who’s historical behavior doesn’t match the amount of Linden Dollars they are selling.

How is the exchange rate determined? In the face of this growth, the floating exchange rate continued to hold steady throughout the month as Lawrence Linden has done an amazing job managing the exchange rate by managing the supply of L$ in-world balancing the “sources” and “sinks” of L$ in world. Our strategy is to keep the L$ sinks to Linden Lab high enough such that the only lever we need to balance supply and demand on the LindeX is to expand the supply by selling new L$ - something that we can do in real time in response to the vagaries of the market.
Resident Population vs Unique Users vs Log Ins vs Active Users. With this report, I’ve released some more detailed population information including a comparison of total resident population to unique residents who have logged in - both grew approximately 38% over December. Residents with Premium Accounts increased 16% to more than 57.7 thousand. There has been a lot of controversy regarding the Total Residents number on SecondLife.com (A Resident is a uniquely named avatar with the right to log into Second Life, trade Linden Dollars and visit the Community pages). Unique users represent approximately 63% of Total Residents.

Approximately 10% of unique users have logged in for 40 hours or more. Committed usage at this stage of Second Life’s growth requires a great deal of effort. Mitch Kapor has said that giving away Second Life for free to everyone is comparable to if we were giving out Apple ][+ computers for free to everyone in 1980. Clearly not everyone is going to find relevance, and be able to build on a technology at this early stage. Interestingly, it appears that blogging has a similar ratio of committed users to registrations as indicated by Live Journal.
Usage by country and gender. The top five countries are the US, France, Germany, the UK, and the Netherlands. I’ve also included the percentage breakdown of unique residents by self-reported age and self-reported gender.

Thanks again. That wraps up the update for January. I am committed to continually improving the data that we provide about the metrics within the virtual world and I look forward to reading your critical and constructive feedback and questions each month. I’ll try to incorporate more of them into the metrics and this analysis that I’ll publish each month.

Radio Ads By Google's dMarc

While Google started using dMarc to test radio ad sales last year, the initiative faced some obstacles. First, dMarc is affiliated with only around 700 stations--too few to provide radio ad inventory on the scale needed to achieve high revenue targets. Second, before the Google purchase dMarc mostly trafficked in remaindered ad inventory--unsold air time that is low-value by definition. Google has struggled to ramp up both the quantity and quality of inventory available through dMarc, with limited success. Although Google is rumored to be in talks with CBS Radio to acquire over $1 billion in premium ad inventory, so far nothing has come of the reported discussions.

Despite the rocky year with dMarc, Google remains intent on penetrating the offline or "traditional media" ad business. Over the last two years, it has experimented with selling newspaper and magazine ads--but these have been limited beta forays, and Google is circumspect about their results. Google's Vice President of Ad Sales, Tim Armstrong, has also indicated the company is interested in TV ad sales. Significantly, dMarc's digital ad placement system can also be used in TV.

Days & Times of Day to Advertise

M-F: Most Sales Occur Between (decending order)

11 a.m. - noon.
4 p.m. - 5 p.m.
3. p.m. - 4 p.m.

M-F: Range Most Sales Occur

10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

M-F: Least Sale Occur

Midnight - 8 a.m.

Best Days of Week to Advertise

Monday - Tuesday: each day commands 18% of money spent during a week
Wednesday: 17% of money spent during a week
Thursday: 15% of money spent during a week
Friday: 16% of money spent during a week
Saturday: 9% of money spent during a week
Sunday: 8% of total sales.

Shopping Done at Work

58% of all online shopping is done at work.
Busiest online shopping day is Cyber-Monday (Monday after Thanksgiving).


Source: comScore Networks: Online shopping trends in 2005.

Holiday Season 2007 Media Spend Planning

Tip: Focus retail media spend budgets on the top days people buy online in 2007. j. Bruce www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

Thursday, January 11, 2007E-Commerce Finishes Year Up 25% Over 2005

A report on the wrap-up of E-Commerce spending for 2006 helps to set the stage for the 2007 projections... comScore Networks released a report on consumer online retail spending at U.S. sites during 2006, including the holiday season. For the full year 2006, online retail spending reached $102.1 billion, marking a 24-percent increase versus 2005. Online holiday e-commerce was up 26 percent versus last year.

E-Commerce Retail Spending Summary (2006 vs. 2005 Non-Travel Billion $)
2005 2006 Pct Change
Full Year (Jan. 1 - Dec.31) $82.3 $102.1 24%
Holiday Season (Nov. 1 - Dec. 31) $19.6 $24.6 26%
Source: comScore Networks, January 2007

Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks, said "The online holiday shopping season... played a vital role in the year's success, as spending accelerated during the final two months of the year...") Online retail spending saw several strong individual spending days during 2006, with 12 days during the November/December holiday season surpassing the $600 million mark.

In comparison, just six days in 2005 reached $500 million in online sales, with the top day registering $556 million (Monday, December 12, 2005). Wednesday, December 13 marked the heaviest online spending day of 2006 with $667 million spent, followed by Monday, December 11 and Monday, December 4. Monday, November 27 ("Cyber Monday") was surpassed 11 times during the subsequent weeks of the holiday season.

Top 12 Days of 2006 E-Commerce Non-Travel (Retail) Spending
Rank Date E-Commerce Spending ($ Millions)
1 Wednesday, December 13 $666.9
2 Monday, December 11 $660.8
3 Monday, December 4 $647.5
4 Friday, December 8 $638.2
5 Thursday, December 14 $634.4
6 Wednesday, December 6 $630.6
7 Thursday, December 7 $629.4
8 Friday, December 15 $623.9
9 Tuesday, December 12 $619.8
10 Tuesday, December 5 $612.3
11 Tuesday, November 28 $608.2
12 Monday, November 27 - "Cyber Monday" $607.6
Source: comScore Networks

The flow of online holiday retail spending in 2006, as compared to the previous year, demonstrated that online consumers pushed their buying later than ever. Spending growth during the first third of the season (Weeks 1-3) rose a modest 23 percent above 2005 levels, despite the week before Thanksgiving, which saw robust 30-percent growth versus the corresponding week in 2005.

The middle third of the season (Weeks 4-6), during which the greatest share of holiday e-commerce spending occurred, was consistent with the 26-percent growth demonstrated during the course of the season as a whole.

The final three weeks of the holiday season (Weeks 7-9) saw a major surge in spending as the procrastinators came out in full force, driving a 31-percent increase versus the corresponding weeks in 2005.

The week leading up to Christmas (week ending December 24, 2006) saw the biggest surge with a 45-percent increase versus the corresponding week a year ago, as consumers showed their faith in online retailers' ability to 'deliver the goods' in time for Christmas.

Yahoo's Competitors, Besides Google.

Yahoo offers advertisers more than just search engine advertising. In fact, they are the leader (as of 2006) for advertisers interested in branding.

Advertisers can run ad buys targeting specific users within contextually relevant articles and "centers" on Yahoo's ad network. For instance, you can execute campaigs by placing graphic ads within the Yahoo Finance Center, Yahoo Autos Center, or, in the Yahoo Email login screen (some of their best performing ads based on experience are within Yahoo's email login and viewing screens).

There are, though, competitors to Yahoo (e.g. TACODA, Quigo Technologies) coming into the scene that have enough traffic on their networks to consider testing campaigns on them. The key, though, is pricing, and payment terms. If you can't pay based on clicks or acquisitions -- meaning you only can pay based on impressions - it's very easy to lose money on these types of campaigs when evaluating if your $1 in marketing spend generates at least a $1 in ROI. Therefore, the metrics of success here should not be ROI based, rather it should be brand (or brand message) recall based. To measure your success here, you need to develop surveys, as well as other tactics, to measure if your campaign was successful or not.

Bottom line: don't rule out ad buys on ad networks, but know your metrics of success before doing them.

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

StumbleUpon - Search Engine 2.0

Marketers and product managers need to keep this Search Engine 2.0 on their radar: www.StumbleUpon.com . Wiki's new search engine works similarly to Stumble's, where users offer feedback to help refine the search results to be more relevant.

At the end of 2006, StumbleUpon.com has near 1.5 million users. Is this enough to run campaigns profitably? Or should you focus internal resources and efforts making money on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft? Test a campaign and see if it works! If not, wait and try again after more people are using the Search Engines 2.0.

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

Wikiasari - Search Engine of The Future?

There is a new search engine in the creation called Wikasari. It's creator is the founder of Wikipedia, and is different than Google and Yahoo because it invites real users like you and me to evaluate, and re-arrange, the search results as we see how they should be arranged.

It uses the re-rankings to evaluate the best search results for various terms based around the collective feedback of users.

As marketers, we need to be aware of this new search engine, but it is not yet at a stage where marketers and product managers should make it a high priority. It's still too early to make it a high priority in your marketing initiatives.

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

eRetail Stores Web Traffic Sources

Biggest referral gainer in 2006 is myspace, accounting for 2% of traffic. Here's more detail:

• Social networking sites account for 6% of traffic
• Search engines are the main source, accounting for 26% of a retail stores' online traffic. Google (16%) is the main driver, with Yahoo (5%) in second place, and MSN (2%) in third.
• Email drives 9% of the traffic.
• Web directories, including shopping comparison sites, account for 5.5% of a retail sites traffic.

Lesson for executives and marketers: if you need to grow your traffic, look for the various online means above to fuel your growth if your ratios aren't there today.

Random Musings: according to Hitwise, retail categores benefiting the most from search engine traffic are groceries and alcohol, victoria secret like clothing and accessories, and house and garden products.

Information Sources: article from OnlineMedia, written on 12/7/06, titled "Social Networking Sites Fuel E-Commerce Traffic"

SEO 2007 Fundamentals

Keep your web architecture simple, and don't game the system! Here is a summary moving into 2007 for SEO (a.k.a. FREE search):

• Keep the duplicate content on your site to a minimum. Write original copy.
• Simplify your URL's -- minimize the number of variables in them.
• Don't play the linking "farm" game for both inlinks and outlinks.
• Don't expect buried pages on your site to get picked up by the search engines.
• Add meta descriptions to the pages you want picked up.
• Make sure your title tags and page titles are relevant to each page.
• Add alt tags to all your graphics (descriptions that appear when you scroll over graphics).

Good luck!

j. Bruce / www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

Web Transforms Art Sales

If you sell art online, this is a must read article for you... j. Bruce/ www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

By Ross Fadner, December 21, 2006

Web Transforms Art Sales ReutersFor art dealers, the Internet is becoming just another way to sell their clients' works. Renowned collector Charles Saatchi is launching a Web site specifically to house the works of art students.

As art prices soar, collectors say they have less time to travel to galleries and shows to see new works. Similarly, painters and sculptors are having a hard time being seen in a fragmented and growing environment. So the Web is the best place for many artists to get their works seen. Many also participate in social networks like MySpace, but Saatchi is hoping to attract student art through his new site, called STUART (for student art).

The student-only site has already attracted more than 2,000 art students, and is only accessible as a link from his main gallery address: www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk. The proprietor has promised not to buy any art from the site for a year because he wants it to become independent. For some students, the site is already working. Many report selling work quickly. Collectors and museum curators said the Web is helpful for doing research, though not necessarily for buying online

Email Manager & Social Networking Site for Experts. Any Good?

Two sites worth checking out:

www.illumio.com
Illumio allows you to: 1) establish yourself as an expert in your field so that people can find you with related questions, and 2) lets you quickly find an expert to answer a question you have.

The key is how many people sign up and use it. Without critical mass, I'm not sure if the site will work.

www.BoxBe.com
Allows you to check all your email -- from different email boxes -- in ONE in box, and says it prevents unwanted email from reaching this inbox.


Props to my friend Andy in Silicon Valley for bringing these two sites to my attention!

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

Before Spending Money On Advertising

I see this over and over and over again. Small to mid-size companies, sometimes regional players, that spend a lot of money on offline and online advertising, do not know how to evaluate their advertising expenditures.

Companies must know if their ad campaigns are branding based, or direct response oriented. Sales driven marketing is all about spending marketing dollars only if it breaks even, or generates a profit.

There are basic lead to sale conversion numbers that companies can use to model out if an ad campaign will be effective. If you're advertising on billboards, TV, radio, newspapers, or phone books, make sure you use unique 1-800 number so you can back into exactly how many leads that ad spend gives you, ultimately allowing you to know how many sales that ad provides you. You'll know, or should know, how many people (leads) your sales team needs to talk to in order to meet your monthly sales goals.

The same philosophy applies to online sales. How many visitors does your website need to generate the number of leads (or sales) your sales team requires to meet your monthly sales goals? These are questions that need thought about in order to spend your hard earned marketing dollars wisely. If you sell a high-end, big-ticket item, the website is better used for lead generation activities. People sell better than websites, but people want to research and find you online. Let them, but then give them a reason to get a customized response from a professional sales person.

Any ad agency that doesn't coach you to evaluate your marketing spend this way, is an agency after your buck without being accountable for their performance to you.

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

Website Lead Conversion. Keep it Simple!

I met with a local business and they, like 99% of the companies out there, share the same frustrations and concerns to web marketing.

Here's advice I share a lot with businesses wanting to generate leads from their website. In this case, it is a car dealership. But it could be a builder selling homes, a jeweler selling diamonds, an insurance agent selling insurance, etc. etc.

Good auto websites. Good defined as a site knowing how to convert its traffic into a lead.

http://www.automart.com
http://www.newcarinsider.com/
http://www.whypaysticker.com/
http://www.cars.com/

Notice they get consumers to fill in their information right AWAY. They persuade visitors to fill out the form by saying "buy in 6 easy steps...fill in the form bla bla bla", or "request a quote by filling in the 30-second form". They give reasons to fill in the form.

KEEP IT SIMPLE. Online success is based on:

1. It's monthly traffic, and
2. How well the site converts its traffic.

EVERYTHING on the site should be geared towards generating a lead. Period. Just like a retail store wants to get all the store's foot traffic to the cash register, your site wants to get everyone to the lead form. The sites above do a good job.

My advice, don't benchmark other dealer's websites. And DON'T benchmark the OEM's!!!! Benchmark the sites above. They know how to convert their traffic.

Also, measure your online success by:

1. Knowing your visit to lead ratio. How many people visit the site a month, and what percent convert into leads.

This is your compass. It tells you if a web change generates more or less leads as a percentage of traffic the site gets. Encourage employees to offer up ideas. Test them. If one works, do more of it. If not, cut it. But there's no one way to do it. It's all about testing, evaluating, then repeating.

2. Know what your lead to close rate is per referral source. There's always a trade-off between quantity of leads and quality. Know the source of the lead and it's corresponding lead to close rate. This should then dictate how much you're willing to pay for each kind of lead (e.g. lead from site, lead from 3rd party website aggregator, Internet phone lead).

Cost per lead, and cost per sold unit is what it's all about.

NOTE: Higher quality leads may not generate the most revenue, because they could cost too much. On the flip side, the cheapest leads may not have a high enough conversion ratio. It's a never ending quest to find the sweet spot between optimal mix of lead quality and lead quantity. Learn by doing, keeping track, and doing more of what is working, and cutting what's not.

It's a never ending persuit.

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com

Blog To Engage Customers

You gotta be in touch. Either with your employees, team, clients or customers. If you're not, your products and or leadership with get dated. It's survival of the fittest! Whether you want to believe this or not.

Because there are only 24 hours in the day, how do you remain "in touch", and yet still get your job responsibilities done? Hire an Intern to surf the web, compile a summary, and give it to you on a daily, weekly basis? Assign this task to your R and D Department? No. Information flow here is too slow, ultimately making it worthless.

So what do you do? Each employee needs to be in touch. You can lean on the technology that's out there. Your children, nephews or nieces are using it to keep in touch, gain touch, or influence their social networks. They use blogs, IM's and social networking sites. You, your team and company can too!

Why? To deliver a superior, differentiated product, you need to know what your customers, clients and employees are saying. Understant the market by surfing the blogs and discussion boards that are out there. Spend 5 minutes a day. This is FREE market research. Otherwise, you can spend thousands of dollars to get the same insight with survey and focus groups.

Blogs, Vlogs and discussion boars offer us issues or positives people are saying about you. If it's a potential PR nightmare, hopefully you catch it early and influence it the way you want it before it spirals out of control. Contribute to the blogs when needed. Engage! Learn. Create the dialogue. Think of the alternative - people not caring to spend time talking about your company.

Things move to fast. If you're not involved, you're HISTORY!

How does all this relate to driving sales? Engagement means you're intune with your market. That market can be your internal or external customers, or maybe your "market" is your employee base.

To know what you need to do to offer a needed, compelling product, you need to be ENGAGED!

j. Bruce
www.SalesDrivenMarketing.com