Pay Per Call Outranks Pay Per Click on AOL

Absolutely. The internet bubble imploded back at the turn of the century simply because 999 out of the 1000 'ground breaking' companies had no idea of how important the concept of 'customer service' is.
Arguably, too many of those operating e-businesses still don't 'get it' i.e. the importance of having a means where customers can actually speak to a human being, and even more importantly, a human being that is properly trained and capable of providing that personal connection and addressing the needs of the customer ON THE PHONE.

As archaic as this idea might sound, anyone operating a business via the internet MUST build a customer service component into the business model. OK..it costs more...OK...lots of people are getting the hang of shopping carts, click to buy...yadayadayada...and just as many people are being reluctant to do exactly that because of internet security concerns. And don't discount those concerns..for every story you ready about identity theft, there are thousands..yes thousands more that go unpublished.. After all, which website or credit card company wants to publicize the fact that ID theft is a big big problem?? ...Anyway, getting back to pay per call...duh!...I'd much rather pay $1, or even $5, or depending on the price of what I am selling, $10 or $20, for the opportunity to get a trained salesperson on the phone with a customer and close the deal...as opposed to paying .25 or .50 cents to lead someone to my website and hope to God they actually make a purchase.

OnLine Gambling-Las Vegas is ready to deal

duh....of course everyone was waiting for this...if you can't beat them (with lobbyists), join them and then conquer them....Let's be real--every major US casino enterprise have invested plenty of money in R&D over the past few years, and each one is ready to launch their own branded online casino...but they've been standing pat...until now.....and their opportunity is immense--for every dollar wagered on line, there are 5-10x the amount of potential players, only being held back one big concern--the integrity of the website they are gambling on...when major brand operators enter the marketplace, dozens of smaller, off-shore companies will be hit with a tsunami..bet on it and bank on it

U.S. Casinos Relax Opposition
To Gambling Over the Internet

A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
April 28, 2006 11:52 a.m.

The main trade group for U.S. casinos called for the creation of a Congressional commission to study whether the online-gambling industry should be regulated, in a move that appears to relax opposition to the practice.

The move by the American Gaming Association comes at a time when Congress is considering several bills that would explicitly ban Internet gambling. The group said that while it officially remains neutral about the pending legislation, it now "strongly supports" a one-year study that would evaluate whether legalizing and regulating the industry would be "a more viable option" than a ban.

Experiential Marketing: Microsoft Case Study

For every one that looks to poo-poo MSN--first hand knowledge of how they seamlessly and studiously executed a brilliant on-site marketing campaign (at NY Auto Show---an event that had a captive audience of 1 million+ )--here's the news flash: 200 other brand marketers had the same opportunity, but were so dysfunctional--they snoozed and MSN scored.

1. Through an alliance with the show's ticketing system vendor (WalkUp Systems) MSN Autos secured the front door at the Jacob Javits Center and had the exclusive right to place use 'human billboards'..ostensibly serving as Show Ambassords at every entrance way...and the ability to interact with the 1million+ as they were standing on line to purchase tickets.

2. Once having this strategically incomparable physical placement, they leveraged the opportunity by age-old favorite of handing out premiums with a prize element--in this case...'collectible key chains' with MSN Autos and NY Auto Show logo--driving recipients to a special website where they could enter to win a Ford Mustang.

3. Complementing the greeting and key chains, MSN Autos 'wrapped" the ticketing kiosks with billboard signage and ran a montage of MSN Autos video spots (15-second spots ran 4x every 5 minutes) on the ticketing platforms' 9ft video screens---a trifecta approach ensuring high recall and participation in the promotion.

4. Bottom Line Results: 60% of the visitors polled on exit had immediate recall i.e. "who the ambassadors at front door were representing"---and at last count, 50% of the 100,000 key chains distributed have submitted their sweepstakes entry ticket to a special web site.

5. Cost--1/2 price of one (1) 30-second commercial on SNL..

Okay, not everyone has 50k to leverage a 10-day live event with a demographically-targeted audience...but I can count off 20 companies that do have that kind of budget, (duh...Yahoo! and AOL auto divisions, but their heads are so far up their butts trying to justify the impact of highway billboards and low recall tv commercials...they just ain't getting it...yet....

Product Launch Case Study: OnLine/OnPhone

You love the net, but you embrace real-live customer interaction..your brand name isn't famous yet and you can't afford to advertise on TV.

To get the word out, this marketer put 75% of his budget into off-peak radio ads and 25% into paid search ads with Google and Yahoo.

Every single ad had to pay for itself in incoming converted sales. "We go for direct ROI measurement -- always." Brand building would be a side benefit. Click on to see the full story! Combines innovative thinking with common business sense.

Marketing Metrics --Using a Dashboard

Great article to help you determine if you need an oil change, or if you need to fill up your tank..Its about creating a dashboard...what too many people automatically interpret as a software application...but it can simply be a "thought process"..read the whole article!

oes your company suffer from any of these symptoms?

• Marketing is not seen as having a direct impact on the organization's financial performance.
• Functional silos within marketing seem to be operating independently and fighting for budget dollars and attention.
• With the swarm of marketing initiatives, no one is clear on which ones are really contributing the most to the bottom line.
• Marketing budgets are set on what was spent in the past year, not on what was achieved in the prior 12 months or on new company goals.
• Finance isn't buying into the ability of the marketing mix model to link brand attributes to revenue or profits.

If so, you might want to think about how a marketing dashboard can help build marketing's alignment with organizational goals and increase marketing's accountability to enhancing the bottom line. A good dashboard reflects what's going on in marketing, what resources are deployed, to what end, and what ROI is expected for each initiative.

$5 million idea in three sentences

Business Week tripped over this blog posting and republished it in the May 1 edition. They have no idea out prescient they are.....but I'm betting my own $$ that MSN Autos takes notice and forges a deal with NY Auto Show, to be a follow-on to the sponsorship deal that yours truly put into place for this week's 2006 NY International Auto Show... (see www.newyorkautoshowwalkup.com for details of the deal)

NOTABLE POST
Even without considering the cost of an auto-show stand or the expense of going to one, the Internet is 175% more efficient... If the organizers of the New York International Auto Show could suck a buck from every one of the Web heads who check in on their vapid display of automobiles-in-aspic, they'd make enough money to pay for post-traumatic show disorder therapy -- for everyone!"

Whats In Store...

A must read for any media buyer or consumer brand marketer..but it only makes sense for those that know how to do basic math....

Today's article: Where do ad agencies stand with at-retail media?

If April's AdAge article has told us anything about how ad agencies feel about in-store marketing, it's that many firms have not given it the respect it deserves. And if the responses to the original article (including the letter from POPAI President/CEO Dick Blatt) tell us anything else, it's that people in the retail marketing industry are working to remedy the problem. While it's unlikely that one little article will derail the in-store marketing movement (in both static and digital forms), it still seems like the big agencies have done very little to establish their position one way or the other. Sure, all of the big conglomerates have agencies that focus exclusively on below-the-line tactics (including in-store, direct mail, data mining, etc.), but there's no clear powerhouse in the industry as of yet. This is especially surprising given that some of the biggest advertisers in the world, like P&G and Unilever, have conducted extensive surveys on the effectiveness of in-store marketing and stated that they will be spending more marketing dollars on in-store media, while research firms like Arbitron have found that shoppers are receptive to at-retail media. And the trend isn't just limited to the US. Just the other day, one Canadian newspaper noticed that while "TV advertising showed the slowest growth, increasing just 1 per cent, according to Nielsen... spending on out-of-home advertising grew by 14 per cent....

Inventive Ways to Use Place-Based Media

Great update from industry pro Kim Gordon!.

When was the last time you left home and were in a truly advertisement-free environment? Think about it. Now advertising messages go anywhere and everywhere people do. Go to almost any U.S. beach and you'll be greeted with a plane towing an ad banner. You may even be exposed to "beach sand impressions," which are ad messages imprinted into the sand and regenerated overnight. How about a ball game? Every conceivable stadium surface is covered with advertising, from signage to food snack packs, and some stadiums even have video screens built directly into the seat backs. Feel like going for a bike ride surrounded by nature? You may find your local biking trails are named after businesses, thanks to the new availability of naming rights for everything from nature trails to neighborhood swimming pools.

The industry calls this alternative out-of-home or placed-based media, and it's a bonanza for small businesses because there's literally something for everyone. While there are virtually limitless places to put your ads, here are just a few ideas to get you thinking:

Google's Latest Enhancement: Demographic Targeting

No doubt that Google's latest enhancement to Adsense and Adwords is neat. The latest update allows marketers to select specific websites within Google's ad network--if you don't know which sites are in the network, there is a tool that allows you to submit specific phrases and terms, and Google displays the sites that complement your phrases. In addition, you can target sites based on demographic profile of your audience (age, gender, income)... Here's the catch: this program is not a pay per click program--its a CPM impression program.. I got suckered into selecting one site within their network that delivered 65,000 impressions in the course of 6 hours...which is implausible given the 'product' that I was promoting on behalf of a client. But, the good news is that Google's network includes a wide spectrum of high profile and credible sites--the frequency by which the ads are displayed is merely a function of the price you are willing to pay for 1000 impressions.

Professional Services Marketing

Excellent excerpt from last month's CMO ...for all of those law firms looking to hire marketing execs.

Throw your brochures away. Peek in the dark closets of many professional-service firms and you're likely to find cartons of unopened marketing brochures gathering dust. Why? They missed the mark.

Too many brochures, websites and direct mail pieces focus on the professional-service provider, not the client. Clever slogans and images swallow up precious real estate that should be used for what clients really want: help with their problems.

If your marketing material doesn't directly address clients' business issues, you might as well throw it away. Stress instead how your firm solves specific problems. That will get the attention of the right clients. And your practitioners will want to use the material instead of relegating it to the broom closet.

Harness the power of feet on the street. What's the professional-service marketer's secret weapon for carrying the company's message to the market? Your practitioners.

The needs of professional-service clients vary too widely for generic marketing.

The best companies are able to create evangelists of their people—in essence, thought leaders who enthusiastically spread the firm's point of view through multiple but coordinated channels to existing and prospective clients.

With the liberal use of low-cost, high-return marketing tactics like nonsponsored speaking opportunities, e-newsletters, blogs, webinars and surveys, the leading firms take full advantage of their experts as part of their marketing and sales processes. Clients want to know what your practitioners can do, not what you proclaim they can do.

Existing clients get the biggest slice of pie. In professional services, clients are the richest source of new business and referrals. For that reason, focus roughly 60 percent of marketing resources on cultivating those relationships.

Some companies have elaborate client-specific marketing strategies to generate new business and develop referrals from their clients' circle of influence. They measure the ROI of client-specific marketing by observing if the efforts result in incremental revenue.

You must also invest in prospective clients. Use 30 percent of your marketing efforts to reach prospects in your target market(s). Save the final 10 percent for building visibility in the business community.

It's not a refrigerator. What do you need a fridge to do? Keep items cold. Refrigerators vary in size and price, but the basic functions are standard. Not so with professional services. Ten clients who need tax help, for example, probably all need different types of help. The needs of professional-service clients vary too widely for generic marketing. So a critical guerrilla marketing principle applies: One size fits none.

Tailor marketing to meet the precise needs of clients and your market. And don't waste time and money trying to be too clever. You're seeking clients, not marketing awards.

Answer the tough questions. Before using resources for any marketing program, ask these questions: Why do we need this program? Is it aligned with client needs? What are the desired results? How will we measure effectiveness? How will the company be involved in rolling it out? Is there a better way to use these resources?

CMOs must answer these questions and be able to pull the plug on any initiative that is not generating business. Marketers can't solve all the problems facing those selling professional services, but as Peter Drucker said, "The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous."