Five Huge Mistakes in Mobile Marketing

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2012-08-28

Online marketing has greatly evolved in the past few years. It’s no longer about buying a few banner ads on a big website and waiting for results. It’s now more about leveraging content to get leads, generate sales and build long term relationship with your target audience.

Yes, content as turns out is the backbone of any online marketing campaign that you run these days. In whatever form it may be, content is necessary to achieve your online marketing goals and get positive results.

But creating a high volume of content that meets quality is not a walk in the park. If you’re doing it on your own then you will have to dedicate a good amount of time to it. The solution to this problem is to outsource your content creation needs and build your own team of writers.

The biggest benefit of doing so is that you will get a great return on your investment (given that you hire the right people) and also save time. Here are a few things to keep in mind when outsourcing your content creation:

Learn the Ropes of Effective Outsourcing

As an online marketer, there are more important things to focus on such as creating new strategies for your business, dealing with customers, building relationships, etc. In such a scenario outsourcing your content can be of a great help, given that you know what you’re doing.

There are two important variables to focus on when outsourcing content creation, which are quality and quantity. You have to find the right writer who can deliver the amount of content you want without compromising on the quality. Your first hire is your first step towards building your a good team of writers.

So without jumping into the complex side of outsourcing your content, start with a simple plan. Test the waters by sampling different writers. Instead of handing over big projects, start with smaller ones. Get a taste of what outsourcing feels like. This gives you the opportunity to strengthen your foundation, and get better long term results.

Be Crystal Clear with Your Instructions

If you want to get great results from your content outsourcing efforts then see to it that you are giving your writers clear instructions. How you work with your writers begins with your communication.

The instructions that you give to your writers shouldn’t be confusing. They should be detailed enough and at the same time be concise. Knowing how to “talk” to your writers and help them get a better picture is a skill that you need to develop.

Over time, as you build stronger relationships with your writers, they’ll know what you’re looking for without elaborate set of instructions.

Focus on Building Long Term Relationships

Content creation is a need for any online marketer, which comes up again and again. And the success of your online marketing lies in how you maintain the quality of your content over time. So work on building long term relationships with good writers instead of focusing on short term goals.

The fact is that finding quality writers is just as difficult as hiring exceptional in house employees. This is why you should grab every opportunity you can to nurture your relationship with writers that have proven to give favorable results.

Give them the necessary feedback, reward them from time to time, appreciate their work, etc. In short, do whatever it takes to not lose them.

How do you create your content? Do you have experience outsourcing it? If yes, do share your experience in the comments section below.

Does Anyone Care What Your Blog Says?

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2012-08-28

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A lot of online marketers start blogging in order to connect with their audience. However, there’s a difference between running a blog and running a successful blog. In order to get your readers involved and have your content spread or go viral, you first need to know what people want to read.

Once you know exactly what your readers will like, it becomes easy to create content that is not only popular but also useful. Given below are a few tips that you can use to understand what your readers want and how you can give it to them.

Look Into Your Own Successful Posts

The obvious place to start is your own blog. You might have written posts that got the best response in the form of new subscribers, shares across social media, etc. Your aim is to discover those posts that will help you repeat your success.

There is no perfect formula to create a viral blog post. You will have to experiment with different ideas to grasp what your readers like. The results you get from these experiments will help you decide what to focus on.

Sometimes you’ll find that a post made it big because it had enough convincing proof to support the headline. Other times it’s mainly because of the way it was written. There could be a number of reasons that made a particular post a success. Your job is to study them and determine as many of these reasons as possible.

However, don’t forget the importance of freshness. Your readers don’t want to see the same ideas over and over again, which is why you should try to find a unique angle when working with your old posts. Look into the current trends and see if you can talk about it from a different point of view.

Go through the Popular Posts on Other Blogs

If you’ve got a few favorite blogs within your niche that you always follow, you can use them to mine ideas. Scan through the popular posts on these blogs and see what you can write on.

The fact that these posts have already been liked by readers goes on to show that you can write on them too. It’s a safe bet. But if you really want this exercise to work out for you, then closely analyze every popular post to learn how they have been written and structured.

You’re not cheating here or doing anything unethical. What you’re trying to do is learn from the best and incorporate their style/idea into your own blog. That’s how you seek inspiration from other blogs so that you can serve your own readers the best content.

Last but not the least, be original in your approach. Add your personal touch to what you’re writing. Incorporate your own research and experience to create truly viable content. Don’t let your readers feel like they’re going through rehashed content.

What do you think? How do you go about discovering what your readers want? Do share your experience in the comments below!

Getting More Blog Exposure with Social Sharing

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2012-08-28

Tired of getting the same, weak response from your social media marketing efforts? Want to get more targeted exposure to your blog with social sharing?

Here’s the thing: Making social sharing work for you takes more than putting your content out there. You have to ensure that your content is shareable. Something your target audience will want to spread with word of mouth.

Here are a few ideas to help you get the most out of social media and increase the exposure you get:

Regularly Leverage Trends

The blogosphere as well as the social networking world is always drowning in conversations. Your job is to find out what people are talking at the moment and become a part of their conversations with your content.

And to make sure you are doing this successfully, you have to start “listening” to your audience. And understand the kind of conversations they are having. The places that you need to start looking into are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and also popular blogs within your niche.

Once you know and clearly identify the conversations, go ahead and draft an impactful blog post that you know will add more value to what people are already talking. You could give facts/figures or give away your expert opinion.

Understand the Mindset of Your Target Audience

Why do people share content online? What makes them leverage social media to spread the word about something? How can you tap into them to get attention to your own blog?

First off, never underestimate the value of useful content. Something that not only informs but also entertains.
Focus on creating and nurturing your personal brand with your content. Do whatever it takes to increase your blog’s mindshare.
Produce content that helps you build long term relationship with your audience. See to it that your content does not lack in this area.

Before you go out there and start going with social media, ask yourself – how do I hook my readers with my content? Because if you can hook them, you can most probably get them to share it too.

Go Beyond and Test Different Types of Promotions

If you want your blog content to pay off in terms of social media sharing, then don’t just stick to one way of promoting. Experiment with various kinds of promotional activities.

For example, if you’re used to posting frequent status updates on your Facebook page, try being different. Instead of just sharing a link, share it with a picture.

Another example is, if you’re leveraging Pinterest then see to it that you’re doing more than pinning pictures. Try to create an ongoing dialogue with your pins. Spark new conversations – even if it requires you to post something controversial once a while.

There are so many ways you can entice your audience through social media to get more shares. You just have to think out of the box. And see to it that you’re not doing the same thing over and over again.

How are you using social media to get more shares to your blog? Do share your ideas in the comments section below!

The Difference Between US and UK Affiliate Marketing?

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Murray Newlands

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2012-08-28

Murray Newlands interviews Mark Russell, the Managing Director of Optimus Performance Marketing (formerly Existem) a major UK affiliate and performance marketing company.
He talked to Performance Marketing Insider TV at Affiliate Summit 2012 in New York about new trends and industry topics that are current in the UK compared with what’s happening in the US. He talks about how some high-end companies are embracing affiliate marketing more in the UK than in the US, plus some other interesting topics.

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Affiliate Summit Losers Will Never Listen

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Ricky Ahuja

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2012-08-27

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Well, it has now been two weeks since the last Affiliate Summit and it has become increasingly evident to me that most just don’t get it. My aim is not to come across as a hater or disgruntled – but it continues to amaze me how companies continue to attend these shows but as it comes to follow up or closing a deal – they have a LOT to learn.

A case in point – I came across this company that specialized in Custom Installer and Toolbar Software and definitely seemed there were some synergies for us to do some serious business. Wouldn’t you know it – on my ride back to DC, I sent a detailed email summarizing our meeting, discussed our synergies and possible next steps. We do fairly well in this vertical so one would think they would be eager to respond….NOT. I don’t know if it was my cologne, my knowledge (or lack thereof about the vertical) or what but two weeks later and still no response. I am fairly certain there is no race/discrimination issue as that was an INDIAN owned company. 🙂 Oh well!!

Do you come across anything like this at the shows? If so – share your comments below will ya?

I can go on and on about other follow up fail examples but I would like to provide some quick pointers on how best to take advantage and work the next conference.

1) WHAT’S IN A NAME: Take the time to look at a person’s name tag and who they are with. Connect that with their face and take notes on point of discussion on the business card. And to those of you attending – please wear the name tag with the name showing, kind of defeats the purpose of going to the “trade show” in the first place don’t you think?

2) PITCH THIS: Have a 60 second elevator pitch prepared about your company so you do not ramble on and on pointlessly. If there is not a fit – have the common courtesy to let them know so you do not waste their time and they yours. This may be hard when you are talking to some hired guns/talent/booth babes – but we are all grownups. Move on.

3) DON’T CALL ME, I WILL CALL YOU: This is a personal favorite of mine – when you are talking to someone, please have the decency to turn off your cell or put it on vibrate. Nothing says “I would love to do business with you” when you ask the person to hold so you can answer your phone from your best bud at the bar.

4) HAVE FUN: People are attracted to other people enjoying themselves. A little sense of humor will go a long way to help break the ice and will help others remember you a lot quicker. Don’t be surprised if you see me dressed in my Elvis suit at the next show shaking my turban! Why thank you – thank you very much.

5) FOLLOW UP: Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. This is THE most critically important step of attending a conference and making new contacts – so you can conduct new BUSINESS. I know you are extremely busy because you have a thousand cards to follow up on and by the time you get back to me it may be a few weeks and even then it will take your secretary another week to coordinate a time for us to talk because we know your schedule is booked solid every moment of the day that you barely have a chance to breathe – I get that. Again – NOT. You have time to do 10 FB updates an hour; you have time to talk to me. You have time to Tweet how much you got wasted the night before – you have time to talk to me. I think you get my point.

I personally use what they refer to as the TAP method. Be TIMELY, APPROPRIATE and PERSISTENT. Trust me – it pays off. Also – there is a new App from Linkedin , called Card Munch which is absolutely amazing at helping you upload and sort your contacts. I approve this App.

Did you find these tips helpful? Let me know below….thank you, thank you very much!

Mobile Marketers: What Does Apple’s Lawsuit Win Mean?

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Pesach Lattin

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2012-08-27

Arguably the most important topic that anyone was talking about near the end of last week was the lawsuit between Apple and Samsung regarding product patents. It appears that Apple had a problem with how similar the innovative technologies of Samsung’s Android devices were to the technologies that make Apple’s iPad and iPhone what they are. Who wouldn’t though? Apple has always been known for its breakthrough technology, and for somebody to start imitating it is almost unthinkable. A main concern for marketers is how this will affect the ongoing battle between Android and Apple. Many people think that this big win for Apple will give the company the lead it needs to be on top of the smartphone market, leaving Android in the dust.

Samsung made some of the most popular Android devices on the market, and now there are rumors that their devices will all be taken off the shelves. In an article by Michael, a writer for Mobile Marketing Watch, he reports this statement,

This is clearly a major setback for Samsung and perhaps the Android platform. Samsung makes a huge share of devices – both tablets and smartphones – that deliver the Android operating system to the masses. If these products get pulled from shelves – and that could happen – the implications will be huge for both companies. Apple wlll gain in ways it never could without this outcome, and Samsung and Apple may perhaps never recover current levels of momentum.

In Mike’s statement, it is pretty clear that there is reason for Google to be worried. The same goes for those who market on the Android platform. When Android goes down, so do all of your mobile advertising dollars. With Android being the top platform for so long, nobody could have foreseen a serious problem with it. There should be no doubt, however, that this lawsuit will affect Android’s performance in the smartphone market, ultimately affecting the performance of Android advertising.

When you consider that Samsung, the company that accounted for a major share of Android devices, just paid its number one competitor $1 billion in damages as a result of the jury in the trial finding Samsung guilty, you can see that there is bound to be some sort of shift.

Mobile marketing is the best place to get the performance that everybody looks for in marketing. Since the beginning of the smartphone, the world of mobile marketing has grown tremendously and steadily. Mobile marketers have always put a lot of trust in Android, as it has been the top selling platform and the top performing platform for a while now. Now that the platform is in some serious trouble, it will be interesting to see what moves marketers will make next. There are really only two options; stay with Android and hope for this lawsuit to blow over smoothly or switch over to Apple and see just what they will be spending those billion dollars on.

Would People Pay to Remove Facebook Ads?

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Pesach Lattin

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2012-08-27

Social media marketing can be achieved on countless networks around the internet, but the networks that most marketers show interest in are Twitter and Facebook. They are used all over the globe, and both have their own unique advantages for marketers, both online and on mobile. Facebook, however, offers a lot more opportunity to advertisers than Twitter does, due to their constant dedication to making marketing on their network effective. With the constant, enormous amount of traffic that Facebook gets, it is a perfect place to place an ad that will get a lot of people to see it. But, that brings to question just how these Facebook users feel about the advertisements they see every day when they log in to their favorite social network. Many have studied how Facebook users react to Facebook Marketing, but a writer at MarketingLand has taken a slightly different approach to finding an accurate answer to the question.

Greg Sterling, the writer mentioned above, conducted an online survey out of pure curiosity, and just as he did, I felt I was obliged to share the results. The question he asked in his survey was, “How much would you pay to remove all the ads in your Facebook account?” Now, I always thought that advertisements annoyed people on the internet, but apparently the times have changed and people have started to embrace the advertising they see everywhere they browse.

The majority at 89.7% said that they would not pay anything because they do not mind the ads showing up on their Facebook pages. The most reasonable price listed was $9.99, and only 4.5% said that they would pay it each year to get rid of the ads. 3.4% said they would pay $99.99 yearly to rid their page of ads. For $29.99, 1.5% of respondents would pay to have ads removed, and for $49.99, .9% would pay for no more Facebook ads. So, to sum up the results, most people do not mind Facebook ads, and there are some people who hate them a bit too much.

If there were a similar appetite for an ad-free version of Facebook globally (10 percent at $9.99 per year this time) the company could make something like $979 million annually. Admittedly it’s extremely unlikely that 10 percent of Facebook’s entire global user base would opt in to a paid-subscription plan.

However this exercise argues there is some meaningful demand — and therefore some serious money — potentially out there for an ad-free subscription offering from Zuckerberg and Co.

Facebook could definitely make a lot of money off of an ad free version of Facebook, but the numbers above show that though there may be a demand, it isn’t a large one. People don’t mind Facebook ads, because Facebook has a clean and simple advertising platform, and most of the ads tend to be beneficial to Facebook users. These numbers just explain further how Facebook is quite a reliable platform for marketing, even if 10% of those surveyed have a problem with it. Facebook’s traffic will be consistent, and it is safe to assume the network will remain as one version.

$50M In Fraud has been Prevented by Scrubkit

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Murray Newlands

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2012-08-26

Murray Newlands interviews Chris Kennedy, the CTO of ScrubKit, one of the premiere CPA fraud detection companies in the world. They estimate that they have prevented since they started over $50M in fraud – which helps create better offers and “real” affiliates get better payouts. Learn more about how their system works and more importantly how it catches the bad guys. Scrubkit is an automated and powerful analytical system that assists with the detection of affiliate fraud. Many known advertising networks are currently using it to effectively reduce their exposure.

The Shocking History of the Mobile Device and its Impact on Marketing.

By

Lance Hemenway

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2012-08-26

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You may not have known this, but America’s obsession with mobile calling goes all the way back to the 1930. Landline telephone users could be connected via radio to oceanic passenger liners at sea at the low, low cost of about $7 per minute which is the equivalent of just under $100 per minute in today’s dollars.

Today’s society would come to a screeching halt without mobile devices. In fact, as of this summer, there were over 327 million mobile phones in the United States alone compared to our population of 310 million people. That means there are more cellphones in the US than there are people! We use our mobile phones for everything from phone calls, texting, social media, gaming, banking, to navigation and everything else between.

A Mobile Timeline:

1930: Wealthy seafarers may call home while crossing the Atlantic to tell loved ones how utterly boring sea travel really is.
1946: The first mobile telephone call is placed in St. Louis, Missouri from an automobile after 10 years of work by Bell Labs scientists. The chatty driver nearly kills three pedestrians and a cat.
1947: AT&T launches Mobile Telephone Service. Only 3 people could call at the same time in any given city. *100% true.
1965: AT&T launches Improved Mobile Telephone Service. Up to 12 callers at a time per city. The average wait time for NYC was 30 minutes to make a call.
1973: Motorola makes the first truly mobile phone call with a prototype the Motorola Dyna-TAC. The phone weighed 2.5 pounds.
1980’s: “Bag Phones” decrease in size and become popular “car phones” for those who could afford the roughly $1 per minute rate plans.
1990’s: Bag Phones are still popular; however Motorola is successful in reducing the size of the mobile handset to roughly the same size as a WW2 handheld radio.
1997: Sprint launches the first all-digital nationwide network, making CDMA a household name. (That’s code division multiple access for the tech geeks out there.)
2002: Research In Motion launches the Blackberry 5810, in my opinion, the first successful smartphone. For the next 5 years, Blackberry would enjoy status as the King of Smartphones.
2004: The Motorola V3 Razr hits the market. While not being a smartphone, it was the phone to have. By 2007 three out of every four handsets was a V3 Razr.
2007: AT&T and Apple launch the iPhone in an exclusive agreement (that would last until 2011). The iPhone was the first multi-touch interfaced device and completely changed the mobile world as we knew it.
2008: T-mobile launches the G1, the first OS phone and the birth of Android begins.
2010: Sprint launches the HTC Evo; the first phone capable of reaching 4G speeds. Android, by Google, being an open source OS, becomes available for all carriers and thus becomes the only real competition for the iPhone.

Mobile phone technology has been progressing at a breakneck speed for the past 30 years and there is no indication of it slowing down. It is predicted that by 2015 mobile internet usage will more than triple that of fixed usage (laptop, desktop, & tablets).

How relevant are you? Quiz yourself- How many of these mobile marketing techniques are you familiar with?

SMS: (short message service) Also known as texting. Limited to 160 characters, you can send short marketing messages.

MMS: (multi-media message service) Includes images, video, and sound.

Mobile Applications: Ads are hosted within the application design and are everywhere from widgets, games, to email platforms and browsers. This has, by far, become the most prevalent form of mobile marketing to date.

QR Codes: (quick response barcodes) is a form of barcode that modern smartphones can scan via their camera and learn more about a product, business, or service.

Pay-Per-Call: Ads can include a clickable link that initiates a billable phone call.

Mobile Marketing Banners: These are just like your full-size website banners but adjusted to fit on mobile websites and optimized to load quickly on mobile networks.

How does this affect marketing?

Take a look around you. Are people staring at billboards? How about the sides of buses?

They’re on their cell phone.

In the United States, every day, 35% of mobile users access Social Media, 40% use email, 60% take pictures, and 75% send text messages (including picture mail). With mobile internet use projected to triple fixed usage, marketers need to understand how people use their devices, discover the value of this platform, and learn to reach that mobile audience.

Mobile is the future and it’s not going to change. Fully one third of the people reading this are doing so on a tablet or smartphone.

Where are your marketing efforts focused?

Brook Schaaf: 10 Tips for Running a Successful Affiliate Program

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Murray Newlands

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2012-08-26

Murray Newlands speaks to Brook Schaaf, a leading Affiliate Management expert and the CEO of Schaaf-PartnerCentric, perhaps the top affiliate management company in the world. He talks about how to run a successful affiliate program, how his company has become so large so fast and gives 10 tips on how to run a kick-ass affiliate program. Schaaf-PartnerCentric specializes in outsourced, affiliate program management, sometimes known as Outsourced Program Management. Our team of affiliate marketing professionals devise the strategies and deploy the tactics that will ensure growth of your affiliate program with a goal of attainable, sustainable results. We work with all of the major networks and are experts at launching or re-launching affiliate programs.

Google Display Ad Planner Could be Huge

By

Pesach Lattin

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2012-08-26

There are many marketers that have always relied on DoubleClick AdPlanner to help them found out anything they need to know regarding analytics of websites from all over. The Google run software allowed for marketers to keep track of the on goings of websites of interest and even their own sites. This week, though, along with a name change to Google Display Network Ad Planner, the analytics network has been hit with some big changes, some of which involve getting rid of the features that many marketers use most of all. For anyone who uses DoubleClick AdPlanner for any reason other than to check out sites on the Google Display Network, there may be some imminent trouble in the near future.

In an announcement on their AdWords blog, Google writes,

Starting on September 5, 2012, DoubleClick Ad Planner will become a tool dedicated to researching placements across the 2 million sites comprising the Google Display Network. Our goal will be to make this a best-in-class planning product for the GDN. It will also get a new name: the Google Display Network Ad Planner.

One of the more commonly sought items that will be removed from the system is Page Views, where people can track just how much traffic and what kind of traffic their pages or other pages are getting.

In a separate, more descriptive post, it is explained just exactly what will be changed.

Information that will no longer be available

Domain info

Site info

Non-GDN placement info

Household Income

Education

Keywords Searched For

Videos Also Watched

Regional Page Views

Worldwide Top Subdomains

Filters that will no longer be available

YouTube Channels: Audience filters removed, Content filters will still be available.

Household Income: will be removed from Demographics filters.

Education: will be removed from Demographics filters.

Keywords Your Audience Searches for Online: will be removed from Online Activity filters.

Site Language: will be removed from Content filters.

Domain research: will be removed.

Changes to how we compute data

Age: will be computed using DoubleClick cookies, not third-party data.

Gender: will be computed using DoubleClick cookies, not third-party data.

Sites Also Visited: instead of sites also visited, GDN Ad Planner will display placements with ads that also received impressions.

Unique Visitors (users): will be replaced with Unique Visitors (cookies), which will be computed using DoubleClick cookies, not third-party data. Instead of Unique Visitors (users), GDN Ad Planner will show Unique Visitors (cookies).

DoubleClick AdPlanner used to be helpful to publishers as well, letting them declare their own websites and find useful information in the line of ad placement. Now, it will be virtually useless in the way of publishing. The changes being made by Google are being made simply to benefit the GDN, which will of course benefit and improve Google itself. DoubleClick AdPlanner, now known as Google Display Network Ad Planner, will have almost completely different purposes now, and it brings to question whether or not it will be a good decision for Google. In the end, one has to consider that Google definitely knows what it is doing in advertising, so whatever it does in the marketing community, it is probably for the better.

SEO for YouTube Equals Traffic

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2012-08-26

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YouTube is more than a video sharing website, it’s also the second most popular search engine in the world. That’s right – millions of people regularly use the YouTube’s search engine to find videos of their choice.

What does this mean to you as an online marketer? It’s pretty simple, if you can optimize your videos to rank well on YouTube you will not only get views to your videos, but visitors that are actually interested in what you’re offering.

A lot of people on YouTube are searching for information in the form of videos. They’re looking for how-to stuff that will help them solve their problems. When you’re using YouTube for your online marketing needs, creating such informative videos and having them ranked well can be a huge plus.

So the question that comes up here is – how do you exactly go about optimizing your YouTube videos? The following article discusses a few simple to apply, workable tips to help you do just that:

Tip #1: Don’t Ignore the Keywords

Regardless of what your video is about, getting it ranked requires you to first take care of the basics. And since people use keywords to search for videos on YouTube, you can’t ignore them.

Your primary keyword needs to go in the title, the description and as well as in the tags. Don’t put this main keyword in the last – put it first before your website’s name.

The YouTube search algorithm is constantly evolving and it takes various factors into consideration. And one such factor is the click-through rate of your video.

This is why you need to write compelling titles for your videos and weave in your keywords naturally in them. Just the way you’d apply copywriting rules when writing blog posts or sales letters, the same goes with your videos.

Tip #2: Build Your YouTube Channel

One of the things that influences your video’s ranking on YouTube is the age of your channel. If your channel is brand new with a few videos and a couple of subscribers, you will have a hard time competing with the big, established guys.

So it makes sense to not waste time when it comes to building your YouTube channel. Start showcasing yourself as an authority.

Go out there and do everything you can to make your channel popular within your niche. Give your audience a reason to subscribe and interact on your channel.

Tip #3: Respond to Comments

YouTube is a social site where people come to not only watch videos, but also interact with other users, discuss, debate, etc. YouTube wants you to encourage comments and one way to do that is to respond to the incoming comments in the first few hours after you hit the publish button for your video.

This is crucial because building comments and growing them early on helps boost the video’s position in search. A very simple step that can help you grow your video rankings over time – so don’t ignore it.

Do you have any SEO tips for YouTube Videos? If yes, then please share them below.

Don’t Ignore This: Freebies Still Drive Traffic

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2012-08-26