Posts Tagged ‘legal document’

New research shows consumers have a 45% higher recall of vanity 800 phone numbers than web addresses. The independent survey of 1,000 consumers tested recall of vanity 800 numbers and URLs in advertising, and uncovered consumers’ intended actions when visiting an advertiser’s web site. Study results suggest that advertisers will benefit from featuring a memorable toll-free number in addition to listing a web address in their advertising campaigns.

The majority of consumers surveyed cite “Research the Advertiser” and “Research the Competition” as their first steps when visiting an advertiser’s web site. An examination of multiple industries (auto, home improvement, education and health care) reveals that as many as 40% of consumers research an advertising company’s competition as their first step once they move on from an advertiser’s web site.

“The results suggest that advertisers who use their web sites as the exclusive consumer response tool risk losing potential customers right from the start, with about a fifth of consumers citing ‘research the competition’ as their first step. And, fewer than 10% state that they would communicate with the advertiser as their first step,” says Laura Noonan, Vice President of Marketing with 800response. “If companies aren’t including a phone number in their ads, then they are losing that valuable direct communication with consumers who are already beyond the research phase and ready to buy,” says Noonan.

Is online marketing an important part of your business?  If it is you understand better than anyone the important of strong regulations to ensure your ad is shown to the right audience.  Which makes this week exciting for you.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) today announced the release for public comment of Audience Reach Measurement Guidelines, a major industry-wide initiative that provides clear, consistent definitions of metrics and sets standards for how to measure unique audience across different methodologies. The guidelines were released at the IAB’s annual Leadership Forum on Audience Measurement in New York City, where leaders of media companies, measurement companies and advertising agencies convened to gain insights on the evolution of audience measurement and where sessions will be devoted to a detailed review of the proposed guidelines.

“These guidelines represent an industry wide endorsement of clarity and transparency of methodologies and metrics, particularly around reach, a core metric used throughout the media world,” said Sherrill Mane, senior vice president, Industry Services of the IAB. “The driving force for marketers’ ongoing embrace of interactive media is the accountability that interactive provides and these guidelines will enhance that clarity and certainty.”

The gathering, reporting, and measurement of audience metrics has a material impact on interactive media buying decisions. Transparency into these methodologies and clear definitions of commonly used terms are critical to the ongoing growth of interactive media as marketers continue to allocate a larger portion of their budget to the platform.

The guidelines will address these key areas of audience measurement:

• Provide definitions of key industry metrics such as unique users, unique cookies, unique browsers, visits and time spent.
• Establish a framework for all measurement providers to have their methodologies audited, providing greater certainty for the industry.
• Foster greater accuracy and reliability of all forms of online audience measurement, whether based on server data, online panels or user registration.

“Audience size and composition are vital to planning interactive advertising campaigns,” said Lynn Gutstadt, Director of Corporate Research, CBS Interactive and a member of the IAB’s Audience Measurement Working Group. “Adoption of these guidelines by the interactive industry will give marketers, agencies and other stakeholders in the digital ecosystem greater certainty in the measurement of our audience.”

A key prerequisite to a successful marketing campaign is clearly understanding your customer’s buying behavior.  Today I wanted to examine how to market effectively for car dealerships.

One-third of dealership visitors who used an independent website did not call or send an email before they came to the store, a new dealership study found. The study explored the connection between online research activity and offline shopping behavior to understand how consumers use the internet for automotive buying decisions. It also identified the specific websites and website features that most encourage walk-in traffic.

“Tracking email and phone leads alone gives dealers an incomplete picture of how their internet initiatives perform. Now, for the first time, they can calculate the full return on their advertising investment and quantify the traffic and sales their online programs generate,” said Dennis Galbraith, of Cars.com. “More than any other source, the web connects dealers with in-market shoppers and encourages them to take direct action. Among dealership visitors who used Cars.com, half planned to purchase or lease a vehicle the same day they went to the store.”

This summer and fall, Cars.com and Synovate conducted in-dealership interviews with approximately 700 consumers at 16 stores in 11 East Coast, Midwest and Southern states. Each of the dealerships included in the analysis advertised its listings on Cars.com and AutoTrader.com.

According to the study, one-third of car buyers cited independent websites as a significant influencer affecting their decision to visit a dealership. More than half of shoppers surveyed used an independent website to view vehicle listings; of those, 82 percent visited Cars.com and its online partners. Independent websites were cited twice as often as search engine results and three times more than a dealership website. Competitive pricing, multiple pictures, sell copy and free vehicle history reports were among the online features that most influenced car buyers’ choice of dealership.

With the beginning of a new year I thought it timely to suggest my top five marketing New Year resolutions for 2009:

1. ROI, ROI, ROI! There may be some great sounding marketing tools coming out this year, just remember that the only thing that matters with a marketing campaign is that you make more money than you spend!
2. Stay true to your brand’s mission. Do you remember the reason you launched your company? Return to your roots and your clients / customers will thank you for it.
3. Create Raving Fans out of your customers. This can be accomplished by obsessively executing on what advertise.
4. Work ON your business instead of IN your business. It’s easy to get caught up in the fast to day issues of your company. However to truly develop your business into a thriving organization you will have to develop looking term strategies that fuel innovation and growth.
5. Always remember to not sweat the small stuff, and then remind yourself that it’s all small stuff.

Looking forward to 2009, more than a quarter of recently surveyed small business owners plan to spend more on advertising, and another 60% plan to spend about the same as in 2008.

The Ad-ology Small Business Marketing Outlook survey found that small business owners are cautiously optimistic going into 2009. While 25% stated they are fearful about the current economic situation and 58% are concerned, 83% expect 2009 sales to be up or about the same as 2008.

When broken down by media type, over half of small business advertisers plan to spend the same or more on the following: Online advertising (69%), Yellow Pages (54%), newspapers (51%), and direct mail (51%).

“Small business owners rely on advertising sales reps for guidance and are clearly looking for consultative partners in the advertising process,” said C. Lee Smith, president and CEO of Ad-ology Research. “They are more likely to purchase advertising from those that understand their business,” Smith said.

Other key findings from the survey:

• “Knows my company/line of business” is the top attribute small business owners look for in a media advertising sales rep. “Delivers what they promise” is the second most desirable attribute.
• 52% of small business owners surveyed agree with the statement “you can gain market share by marketing while your competitors are cutting back.”
• 74% believe their company “must be one of the first 2-3 that come to a customer’s mind” when they need what the small business owner is selling.
• More than half of respondents plan to spend the same or more time and money on their Web sites and email marketing in 2009.
• The majority of small businesses are not using other emerging media: 77% do not use online video, 83% do not podcast, and 82% do not use mobile advertising.

With the dawning of the new year, I thought it would be helpful to analyze one of the best tools that any small business has at its disposal: pre-existing customers.  During a down economy it is critical to take advantage of your email list since your clients typically gravitate to vendors that they have purchased previously from.  By staying at the forefront of their mind you will be able to ensure that when they are in need of services, you will be the first company they call.

“More and more small businesses rely on email marketing as one of the cornerstones of their growth strategy,” said Luc Vezina, Campaigner’s head of marketing. “We hope these New Year’s resolutions inspire more small businesses to get started with email marketing and help those already using it to get even better results in 2009.”

1. Clean your email list – Maintaining a clean list is a challenge for businesses of all sizes, especially small business owners who often don’t have dedicated staff to handle such tasks. Take the challenge and make 2009 the year to start clean by scrubbing your list before sending your first campaign of the New Year. You’ll improve your email marketing performance, your reputation and deliverability rates. The first step is make sure your unsubscribe requests are up-to-date.

2. Review what worked and didn’t last year – Take a close look at your 2008 email marketing successes and failures so you can repeat the winning campaigns and cut the under performers. Refresh your 2009 campaigns by combining elements of your most successful email marketing tactics to get even better results.

3. Make a 2009 email marketing plan – We’re all working so hard and running so fast, many of us are accustomed to leaving our email marketing campaigns to the last minute. A great way to improve email marketing effectiveness is to look at the calendar through your customer’s eyes. Ask yourself what business and seasonal cycles are most relevant to your target audiences, then create an email marketing campaign calendar mapped to those cycles. Putting in a few hours to plan out your top campaigns for the year will ensure that your email marketing campaigns are timely and relevant – something your customers always appreciate.

4. Use customer data in email campaigns – Many small businesses today use CRM and lead generation systems that are filled with rich customer data that can be integrated with your email marketing service to dramatically improve campaign results. You can also build more targeted, segmented lists based on customer data. Even if you don’t use a CRM system, you can still segment your lists based on purchasing data. You can also conduct a quick poll through your email marketing service to gather more information from your customers that will help you improve the targeting, relevance and timeliness of your campaigns.

5. Try something new – Challenge yourself in 2009 by trying something new in your email marketing campaigns. Embed a video file or podcast in your next campaign. Adding multimedia can make your campaigns more interactive and engaging. If you haven’t used A/B testing to gauge response to your campaigns, give it a whirl in 2009. You’ll be amazed at what you learn about your customers and how you can use that information to improve results and drive sales. Setting up automated trigger campaigns can also improve the timeliness and relevance of your email marketing campaigns. It might sound too complicated or time intensive, but a good email marketing service should have the tools and technologies to make it easy for you.

Roost announced today that it has partnered with First American CoreLogic to add foreclosure listings from First American CoreLogic to Roost.com’s already database of homes for sale. This partnership offers real estate investors fast and easy access to information on more than 1.5 million foreclosed homes nationwide.

Roost.com is now showing foreclosures in an easy-to-understand, color-coded format. Users can instantly get shorthand information on each foreclosure property – street, size, bedrooms, etc. – as well as its foreclosure status, from just-announced foreclosure to auction, bank sale or reintroduction to the general real estate market. With this partnership, investors will now be able to view summary property-level foreclosure data with instant access to RealQuest, First American CoreLogic’s, online property record Web site, where detailed property-level reporting is available on 97 percent of all U.S. properties.

“We are excited to have Roost.com become one of our national data syndication distributors,” said Michael Maron, senior vice president of First American CoreLogic. “Roost.com offers a high quality consumer experience for home sale listings and a commitment to quality that is a core value of both of our companies. Roost’s superior search technology enables real estate investors and homebuyers to act on great property opportunities quickly and thoughtfully, especially during the current downturn in the real estate market,” added Maron.

“The upside of these challenging economic times is that real estate investors can help reinvigorate some markets, especially those hardest hit by the mortgage meltdown,” said Alex Chang, Roost chief executive officer. “Because we offer listings at every stage of the foreclosure process, real estate investors can jump on immediate opportunities, while homes that don’t sell right away or at auction will be reintroduced to the traditional market, giving everyday homebuyers a chance to purchase their dream home.”

Two-thirds of large U.S. companies believe they need to improve their analytical capabilities and only half believe they are spending enough on business analytics, according to findings of an Accenture survey released today. The survey of more than 250 executives is the basis of a report, “Competing Through Business Analytics,” which studied companies’ use of and investment in analytics to remain competitive.

While more than half (57 percent) of companies surveyed said they don’t have a beneficial, consistently updated enterprise-wide analytical capability, nearly three-quarters (72 percent) said they are working to increase their company’s business analytics usage.

“These findings show that business analytics prowess will be a high priority in the boardroom in 2009 and beyond,” said Royce Bell, chief executive officer of Accenture Information Management Services. “While executives understand that companies with enterprise-wide business analytics have an advantage over those still relying on nebulous sources to make decisions, they face institutional challenges to reforming their processes across the board. Leading organizations are moving from a siloed approach to more inclusive information management programs that work across the entire company.”

The survey also addressed the balance between using analytics and using judgment to make important business decisions, and found 60 percent of major decisions are based on analytics and 40 percent are not. The reasons executives cited most often as to why 40 percent of major decisions are based on judgment rather than business analytics were: because good data is not available (61 percent); there is no past data for the decisions and innovation they are addressing (61 percent); and their decisions rely on qualitative and subjective factors (55 percent).

The challenge to moving from “gut decisions” to employing data goes beyond just infrastructure investments. Large businesses also face a glaring human resources challenge, as 23 percent of respondents identified “insufficient quantitative skills in employees” as a main challenge to their company, and 36 percent said their company “faces a shortage of analytical talent.”

As if retailers did not have enough problems attracting consumers in a weak economic environment, a new research study from IHL Group says that retailers lose sales of at least one item to as many as 20% of consumers coming into their stores – leading many consumers to quit shopping with the retailer altogether.

Consumer Electronics stores are losing the most, with consumers saying that they leave the store without buying at least one item 21.2% of the time. Or put another way, these retailers are losing $1.35 for every customer that comes into their stores due to their level of out-of-stocks. Likewise, Warehouse Clubs lose $1.78 and Grocery stores lose $.68 in sales for every customer when consumers cannot buy that product or an adequate substitute.

“Retailers remain in denial when it comes to consumer’s perceptions of out-of-stocks,” says Greg Buzek, president of IHL Group, an analyst firm and consultancy that serves retailers and technology vendors. “Consumers don’t care why the product is not available. They come in with money to spend at the stores and have to leave either because the shelves are empty, there is no one to help get a locked item, or the staff simply cannot find the merchandise even though the computer system says they have it. Nine percent of all consumers in our study have simply stopped shopping at one or more retailers in the last 12 months due to the problem.”

Some key findings of the study include:

• Among Grocers, best in-stock performance is Safeway (14.7% of consumers experiencing out-of-stock of at least one item); worst are Food Lion and A&P (22.8%).
• For Home Improvement, the best performer is Ace Hardware (13.6%) which was slightly better than Lowe’s (14.1%). Worst performer in the category according to consumers is Menards, with 20.5% of their customers experiencing an out-of-stock of at least one item.
• For Consumer Electronics, Fry’s Electronics has the best in-stock position (13.1% percent of consumers experiencing out-of-stocks). OfficeMax is more than double this at 30.6%.
• Nearly one in 10 consumers of Sears/Kmart has stopped shopping their stores in the last year due to poor in-stock performance.
• Grocery customers leave stores not purchasing at least one item they planned to buy or a substitute product 16.6% of the time.
• Consumers aged 26-35 years of age experience out-of-stocks 11% more often than other age groups.

Know your thyself, know thy industry.  These are words to live by, and if you are in the mortgage or real estate industries, I’ve discovered some helpful research information for you this morning. iEmergent has issued specialized versions of its market data reports for lenders of all sizes who are interested in using affordable forecasting tools to improve performance.

By identifying lending opportunities within specific markets, these simplified forecasting reports enable lenders to increase loan capture efficiency to achieve sustainability and improved performance. iEmergent offers lenders the option to choose between one of two report types:

• Mortgage Opportunity Report - Detailed county-by-county forecasts and metrics covering purchase mortgage volume projections for 2009-2013. Each county is ranked by iEmergent’s eight different market behavior variables, such as the size, density and rate of growth of purchase lending opportunities.
• Mortgage Opportunity Totals Report – County-by-county projections for the total 2009 mortgage lending opportunity, including both purchase mortgage projections as well as a projection of refinance opportunity ranges. Interactive tool enables the user to adjust the national Purchase-Refinance Ratio to recalibrate the refinance lending opportunities in each market.