Posted by: Kelly Hall, Account Manager
Mobile connections recently passed the 4 billion mark around the world according to industry association GSMA. Those connections are predicted to increase to 6 billion by 2013. With increasingly innovative mobile technology, and equally innovative advertising platforms geared specifically to mobile, many marketers are jumping on the mobile bandwagon. From text message campaigns, to mobile websites, to advergames, mobile marketing is upon us. What can you do to mobilize and stay ahead of the trend?
Here are 3 tips:
1) Identify if, and how, mobile marketing is an ideal fit for your target audience.
To date mobile marketing has been largely a B2C endeavor. That said, there are many different ways to leverage mobile marketing for a B2B audience as well. For instance, mobile websites have risen in popularity amongst B2B audiences, possibly because this audience is utilizing their mobile devices to find information online, on-the-go.
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Posted by: Janessa Seewald, Account Manager
Ever since search engines have become such a commonly utilized gateway to the Web, new engines have continually emerged in an attempt to steal searches and market share from bigger companies like Google and Yahoo!; however, besides a small threat made by Ask, no other engine has been able to break through. Cuil, a search engine developed by some former top Google engineers, did pose some threat with its launch in July 2008. It was touted in the blogosphere as a potential “Google Killer,” but according to Search Engine Watch, it had a disappointing start, and traffic numbers are dismal.
So, what will it take for a new search engine to emerge onto the scene and show staying power? read more »
Posted by: Sean Voorhies, Senior Marketing Coordinator
Aside from its attempt to buy Yahoo!, Microsoft’s Live Search spent most of 2008 playing catch up to arch rival Google. Recent attempts to keep pace have included Live Search News, a quality based ranking tool, updates to Live Search local listings center, an adCenter community site, an expedited ad approval process, the adExcellence training program and improved adCenter functionality.
According to Nielson Ratings data, Live’s search volume remained relatively static throughout the year - averaging roughly 1 billion searches per month, while Google’s search volume increased from 4.25 billion in January to 5.5 billion in December.
With its mainstay software business being hit by the recession, Microsoft is under pressure to deliver in online search. So, will 2009 be the year that Live Search steps out of Google’s shadow?
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Posted by: Gloria Dutton, Marketing Coordinator
Personalized search is not completely new. It has been introduced slowly over the last couple of years, but it is now in full force. It is important to pay attention to this change and optimize search engine marketing (SEM) programs accordingly, since a shift towards personalization alters the broader search landscape.
Many factors play a part in determining how search results are shown to any given user, such as past searches, Gmail activity, IP address and more. In addition, once search results are displayed, Google SearchWiki users are further able personalize their listings by removing what they find irrelevant, adding URLs, posting comments, and designating which listings are their favorites. So what does this mean for the future of search? It’s going through big changes, but if we keep just a few key points in mind while optimizing our websites, we should be able to keep up with the transition.
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Posted by: Leslie Russell, Senior Marketing Coordinator
Closing out 2008, Yahoo! continued to lose usage share points, as Google widened the lead as the predominate search engine of choice. Rumors persist about the sale and acquisition of the struggling engine. And yet Yahoo! remains steadfast in its attempts to restore the engine’s image by undergoing both performance changes and staffing changes.
Late in 2008 Yahoo! announced it would be making changes to its crawling, indexing and ranking algorithms. Some industry analysts have reported seeing some of these changes beginning to take shape with the increased emphasis on URL naming conventions as well as Yahoo!’s attempt to clean up the relevancy of search results. Yahoo! has not publically released any specific algorithm updates so far in 2009.
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Posted by: Shannon Anderson, Project Manager
MarketingSherpa recently surveyed some of the largest B2B marketers about their top priorities in 2009 as well as the difficulty associated with executing each tactic. Shown below is the chart they provided. The size of the circle indicates the percentage of companies already implementing that specific tactic.
What are top priorities for marketers at the biggest B2B organizations in 2009?
With the crunch of the economy bearing down on B2B companies, retention marketing and identifying new audiences are proving to be top priorities. As you probably already know, it is easier (and cheaper) to keep your current customers and grow their programs than it is to retain new customers. However, with the customer base shrinking, and with current customers cutting back, marketers have to uncover new audiences in order to expand their businesses.
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