Closing the Loop: How To Truly Measure Your e-ROI

February 26, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

Getting a handle on the ROI of your e-marketing is really pretty simple …and because it can be all-electronic, it involves a lot less guesswork or assumptions than measuring traditional marketing elements like direct mail or space advertising.

Let’s look at a fictional – but fairly typical – B2B example: Foobar Enterprise Software. Foobar’s flagship product has an average initial-order value of $150,000. As a young company in a (so far) not overly competitive space, they enjoy a 20% profit margin; so each sale nets them $30,000. [Read more...]

Filed Under: B2B Web Strategy, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, PPC, Search Engine Marketing ·

Does Your Website Provide Content for All Stages of the Buying Cycle?

February 20, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

If it doesn’t, you’re in lots of company …but not necessarily good company. According to KnowledgeStorm and MarketingSherpa’s landmark Connecting through Content joint study of over 4,000 technology marketers and buyers, 61% of technology buyers say that they look for different content types, depending on where they are in a research-to-purchase cycle. Yet 62% of technology marketers say that they do not provide such stage-differentiated content! …although a bit less than half of those say they do plan to.

At a macro level, this is a rather astonishing disconnect. At the level of your company, however, it may represent a fairly easy way to stand out from your competitors.

What to do?
It’s really not all that difficult to give your prospects what they really want. For each of your significant products or services, you can… [Read more...]

Filed Under: B2B Web Strategy, Engagement ·

Microsoft’s Yahoo Bid Reveals Confidence in Online Spending Growth

February 13, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

Of course, it’s great sport to debate the strategy behind Microsoft’s proposed mega-gamble on Yahoo, and whether it might actually pan out. What’s clearly not debatable, though, is that Microsoft’s 40+ billion chips on the table represent a stunning affirmation of the probable future growth of online advertising …especially since we can be certain that some pretty sharp pencils were being wielded in Redmond.

Industry experts weigh in
eMagine wasn’t at all surprised at this view of online’s likely growth. Neither were the leading industry analysts and observers interviewed by the folks at msnbc.com for their worthwhile article on this transaction, “Online advertising spending will keep growing”. Here are some of their more revealing comments… [Read more...]

Filed Under: B2B Web Strategy, Online Marketing, PPC, Search Engine Marketing ·

Why an Advertising Agency Probably Shouldn’t Build Your Website

February 7, 2008 by · Leave a Comment

While we couldn’t agree more, fortunately we didn’t have to say it; David Meerman Scott did, in his recent RainToday article.

David acknowledges off the top that his premise is a fairly sweeping generalization …but one based on his personal review of more than 1,000 websites. By and large, he says, agencies are conditioned by their print-ad DNA to make two key errors: [Read more...]

Filed Under: B2B Web Strategy, Lead Generation, Online Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, Traffic Generation, Web Design ·