Posts Tagged eBrand Interactive
eBrand Media Research Brief: Relevant, useful, incentivized advertising appeal confirmed again
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
A survey by Lightspeed Research and the Internet Advertising Bureau concludes that the Online audience relates most to advertising that is relevant, useful and incentified with special offers, but there are key differences by age group when developing creative executions.
The survey found that money-off particularly appeals to 18-35 year olds who are more interested in special offers, the entertainment factor, and exclusive information. For 45-54 year olds however, ads need to be more relevant and useful to make an impact. And, in all age groups, there is an appeal to advertisers to better understand their needs.
Every age group surveyed chose sponsored links in a search result, and advertising within a page as the top two ad formats for sparking their interest to click through to the advertisers’ website. Newer forms of online advertising are gaining ground, says the report, with ads using sound and video, widgets, in-game advertising and free gifts.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising on May 18th, 2009
eBrand Media continues to thrive because of its commitment to core values
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
Our values are at the heart of every thing we do. They foster our behavior and determine our results. They’re a connection to our history, a measure of our success, and a guide for our future.
We believe that if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.
The employees at eBrand Media, its divisions, and the companies we choose to partner with, are guided in their work and their interactions with others by six core principles – the values in which we believe. These are the same beliefs that have made us successful since our beginning in 2005.
It matters to us how we play the game
Integrity means honoring our principles – and the rules – even when nobody’s watching. We observe our core values everyday. We play fairly and collaboratively. We believe honesty is a strong antidote to cynicism, and we think that puts us on the winning team.
Our clients mean everything to us
When a company becomes our client, they are, in essence, entrusting their hopes and dreams to us. We feel a responsibility to mentor our clients towards success and to place their interests ahead of ours.
Build relationships with open, clear communication
At eBrand Media, we are first and foremost, communicators. We communicate clearly, actively, and effectively with our clients. We work with our advertisers to convey their message to their intended audience. All that we do is based on this premise.
Posted by Tom Polanski in eBrand Media on April 15th, 2009
eBrand Media shares site redesign tips that will increase conversion rates
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
You’re spending real money driving traffic to your website but what kind of results do you have to show for it? Are your visitors leaving the site quickly? Are people abandoning their shopping cart before they’ve ordered? Are you having difficulty identifying the problems?
The industry standard conversion rate is 3%, which means that 97% of the traffic to a website isn’t sticking. Of course there are a number of reasons why this may be so, but most commonly, we’ve discovered that the majority of sites we’ve worked with, and that numbers in the thousands, are impediments to, rather than facilitators of sales.
An e-commerce site shouldn’t be a challenge for the customer, no matter the size of the product array. It shouldn’t be a spook house of dead-ends, false staircases and hidden doors. A basic understanding of the psychology of the online shopper; their interests, attitudes, opinions, and behavior, along with a concession to the fact that the internet is a super highway where people are searching and scanning quickly would lead to better site design. It’s important to understand what makes your audience tick, click, and stick.
We all suffer from a form of cultural ADD which means that we’re restless. The mouse, and better computer hardware, gives us the ability to move and groove from site to site. Take a look at your site, does it make it easy for a guest to find and get what they’re looking for? Or is the shopping process a series of frustrating friction points and irritants?
Click on the “Continue Reading” link to find a case study, shared with us by one of our partners, where one company increased their conversions with a simple redesign.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Website Optimization, eBrand Media on April 9th, 2009
eBrand Media uses seven proven strategies to heighten e-mail marketing efficiency
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
E-mail marketing is still one of the most powerful marketing, and relationship management, tools available. Even if you’re already inlcuding e-mail marketing as an important part of your media plan, I think, you’ll find the information contained in this blog to be of great interest.
SUMMARY: If your marketing team is forced to do more with less, consider tweaking your email strategy and expanding it into other areas. Below we’ve outlined 7 strategies that come directly from Case Studies and how-to articles.
Strategy #1: Use best practices and basic tests
In short — the basics work. Before expanding your emailing marketing to other areas, make sure that it is strong. Follow the industry’s best practices and test continually.
Applying the basics to an unrefined strategy can yield significant results. Erick Barney, VP Marketing, Motorcycle Superstore, related that sentiment after getting a reliable analytics system to measure and segment email.
Here are a few changes his team made:
o Scrubbing the list – removing names that bounced three consecutive emails increased deliverability by 30% after just five sends.
o Frequency – the team previously mailed once a month and tested more frequent sends, up to once a week. They eventually settled on a twice-a-month send, which boosted revenue over 100%.
o Day of week – the team found that the best days to send promotional emails were Mondays and Tuesdays to give them the most amount of time before hitting the Saturday brick wall.
o Subject lines – benefit-oriented subject lines worked best, and complimentary shipping outperformed the “lowest price guaranteed” phrasing.
o Segmenting the list – the team identified eight customer segments to whom they would send customized emails. Open rates doubled (38.6% from 18.5%), and clickthrough rates more than tripled (20.6% from 6.2%).
Posted by Tom Polanski in E-mail marketing, eBrand Media on March 6th, 2009
eBrand Media shares how to increase conversions by assuring customers.
By Tom Polanski, EVP, eBrand Media and eBrand Interactive
eBrand Media has always been a strong proponent of keeping a security symbol in the homepage “hero” spot. Every site guest arrives with a degree of anxiety and their anxiety level increases exponentially as they move further down the shopping funnel towards the cart. Every friction point should be removed for the purpose of bringing form and function together to create an online store that is positive, easy to navigate, pleasant to be in and conducive to frequent and extended visits.
Clarity, clarity, clarity, and if you think you’ve given enough clarity, give some more.
The prospect of identity theft has led the majority of online users–53 percent–to stop giving out personal information online, according to a study released by Consumer Reports WebWatch.
Additionally, 30 percent of the consumers surveyed reported reducing their overall use of the Web, while 25 percent say they no longer make online purchases, according to WebWatch. The report, “Leap of Faith: Using the Internet despite the Dangers,” was based on a survey of 1,501 online adults.
Even those who continued to shop online reported taking precautions. Fifty-four percent of online shoppers said they now are more likely to read a site’s privacy policy or user agreement than in the past–while 29 percent say they shop online less frequently than before.
The results show a growing concern about identity theft, said Beau Brendler, director of WebWatch. “There’s been a pretty steady drumbeat over the last three years about it,” he said. In addition, the wave of headlines about security breaches at databases has led consumers to rethink how to best protect their personal data, he said.
A previous study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project also revealed that consumers had changed their online behavior, partly because of security concerns. The Pew study, “Spyware,” concluded that fears of spyware and adware had driven 48 percent of Web users to stop visiting certain Web sites.
In keeping with this theme we’d to share a valuable case study with you that we came across in our virtual library, obtained from a leading marketing journal.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Growing a Business, Home Based Business, Small Business, Start a Business, eBrand Media on March 3rd, 2009