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INTERACTIVE: Tumblr Reaches 120 Million People – That’s a Lot of Eyeballs.
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 | Uncategorized | No Comments
[Via Social Times]
Does your company have a blog? A blog is a great way to let your customers know about anything new or fun happening with your business. Not sure a blog would work on your website? Tumblr is a great alternative.
This microblogging social network now has over 120 million users with more than 15 BILLION page views each month. Get some of those eyes on your content!
Read the full article here.
ANALYTICS: Why “Time On Site” May Be Past Its Time.
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
For as long as we’ve been able to say “Google Analytics,” one of the key metrics in measuring a web brand’s ability to engage its visitors is “time on site.” The theory was (and generally, correctly) that the longer your average time on site, the more you were engaging consumers.
Well, a new study by Summus Limited makes a pretty strong case for the fact that “time on site” may fast becoming a fact of the past. The reason? The rise of mobile devices.
According to the research, mobile users access the web and apps far differently than via laptops. Rather than settling in for a leisurely online experience, mobile users tend to visit websites or brand apps approximately 12 times a day — but generally in increments of five minutes or less.
Not only does this fact alone reduce time on site average, a slow-loading mobile website — or even a cumbersome brand app — can cause impatient or hurried visitors to bail, and bail fast. And a bad user experience is one not likely to be repeated.
What should we take away from this? First, when analyzing your analytics, measure any time on site data with mobile device usage before determining any trends. Second, make darn sure your mobile website or mobile app is as fast loading, intuitively obvious and user friendly as possible. And third, continue to follow Trnedspottings for more great insights like this, every month.
SOURCE: SmartBrief, NOISE
WEB: Where the Grass Is Still Greener.
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
If you’re an online marketer, it’s easy to become enamored of social media’s exciting landscape — its seemingly endless ability to engage consumers, stimulate action and influence or even transact sales. But here’s a reminder that despite appearances, the grass of profitable online sales remains far greener on the web side of your digital neighborhood.
How much greener? Among organizations offering both web- and social-based sales channels, according to a recent study by technology marketer Demandbase in partnership with online network Focus, websites remain a whopping 700% more powerful in generating inquiries and actuating income than alternative social platforms.
What should that mean to you? Well, NOISE would suggest that should mean you remain about seven times more focused on the success of your website, making certain it’s:
• Spot-on branded;
• Strategic, intuitive, obvious, simple and fast;
• Enjoyable and rewarding;
• Interactively engaging with video, imagery, social networking, sharing and more;
• Incredibly search engine optimized;
• An awesome user experience that consumers will want to return to and repeat, again and again.
For most marketers, social media isn’t a highly profitable alternative to web-based sales — at least, not yet. So embrace it — like digital marketing, e-marketing and your other effective strategies and tactics — as another seed to help your web sales grow.
SOURCE: ZDNet, NOISE
CAUSE MARKETING: Celebrating 25 Years With $25,000 — Just ‘Cause.
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Cause marketing has emerged over the past year as one of the most effective new strategies to build positive brand awareness, grow and engage social communities and consumers, influence sales and — at the same time, at the bottom line — impact humanity on the plus side. Now, it’s our turn. And we have 25,000 ways we’re saying thanks.
You see, 2011 marks 25 years since John Sprecher incorporated what is today NOISE. And as dramatically as the brand communications industry has evolved since 1986 — from the caveman days of typewriters, markers, White Out and an amazing new thing called a facsimile machine — what hasn’t changed is our company’s four-part mission statement, which includes this closing phrase: change the world for the better.
As a result, NOISE will celebrate and say thanks for 25 years of success — by giving back $25,000 in value of brand development services to great causes, great ideas and great people all throughout 2011 in an effort we’re calling “JustCause.” This will comprise 10 $2,500-value services grants throughout the year — based on nominations of great non-profits, game-changing start-ups or passionate people that you make here at our JustCause site, then decided upon by the number of votes you (and your cause) generate among your followers and friends.
To stay in touch, be sure to follow us on Facebook here. Twenty-five years and $25,000. That’s how NOISE says thanks — and you’re welcome.
MANAGEMENT: Good, Fast, Smart — Pick Three.
Saturday, November 6th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
As a business leader, it’s incumbent on each of us to grow our knowledge base every day. Failing to do so — in today’s exponentially-evolving world that seems to morph every minute — we lose. But as we all know, there simply aren’t enough free minutes in our 14-hour days to stay attuned to every development in management, branding, marketing, sales, user experience, customer satisfaction, advertising, social media, public relations or the countless other contributors to our professional and personal success.
That’s why, if you don’t already, you should know about SmartBrief.
In my opinion and experience, SmartBrief is one of the efficient, relevant, useful and beneficial information resources I consume each day. SmartBrief culls and compiles content from across the internet — then provides it, free of charge, to my in-box in an attractive, easy-to-scan newsletter format that allows me to very quickly identify items of interest. Most importantly, SmartBrief allows its members (again, free of charge) to opt in to to daily newsletters devoted to more than 100 industries and 10 management-marketing best practices.
Good. Fast. Smart. And yup, even cheap.
LEADERSHIP: When Your Quarterback Becomes Your Coach.
Saturday, August 28th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
This isn’t the first time I’ve written how Brett Favre can teach us lessons about business. It might be the last. Or it might not. In the spirit of the star, I’m undecided at this point.
But what we are decidedly opinionated on is the latest case study that Favre, coach Brad Childress and the Minnesota Vikings organization is, by their example, sharing for our business benefit.
The study is ultimately about leadership within an organization — and what happens to that organization’s goals, values, heart, soul, morale and self-respect — when a win-at-all-cost, ends-justifies-the-means mentality is not only allowed, but encouraged.
We all know Favre’s latest dance relative to football, training camp and money. We’ve seen it before and only a fool wouldn’t see it coming again. But perhaps that’s what the Vikings organization is — for unlike probably most other NFL franchises, it has allowed its spoiled star to dictate his terms. Terms that trump team. Terms that trump coach. Terms that usurp leadership’s authority and, in my opinion, ultimately render Brad Childress (for all intents and purposes) impotent when push may come to shove. And it will. It always does.
Perhaps like your business, my business — advertising — has a few Brett Favres. These are your sales or creative rainmakers who will try to parlay client acquisition or award winning successes into their pound of organizational flesh — demands for more money, sweeter perks and an implicit (or explicit) attitude that says: screw the rest of you, the rules don’t apply to me.
Faced with this hostage situation, the question every organization must ultimately ask itself is: sure they make us money, but are we gonna let ‘em get away with that? And if we do, what will it do to the rest of our team, our managers and our ultimate goal?
The Brett Favre case study won’t be decided until the end of the 2010 season. It should be interesting to follow, for football fans and business leaders alike.
SOURCE: NOISE
E-MARKETING: How Do Your Clicks Add Up?
Saturday, August 28th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
While there’s growing evidence that the effectiveness of e-marketing is somewhat giving way to other means of interactive consumer dialogue — specifically social media and mobile marketing — the well-targeted, spot-on-messaged e-campaign remains a powerful, efficient, effective marketing and sales tactic.
And while studying open rates is all well and good, it’s clickthroughs to your websites, micosites or special offers that count. So how do your clickthroughs add up against national averages?
While there are statistics and sources aplenty, one e-marketing performance resource NOISE looks to is Bronto. Delivering approximately one billion targeted emails each day for its clients (utilizing in-house lists), Bronto data on deliveries, opens and clicks should by sheer size be considered “benchmark.” And bonus for marketers, Bronto breaks its data down into 15 major industries.
Here’s a snapshot from today:
• Travel & Hospitality: Open 25.4%, Clickthrough 3.7%
• HealthCare: Open 38.0%, Clickthrough 3.7%
• Real Estate: Open 17.4%, Clickthrough 5.0%
• Entertainment: Open 36.6%, Clickthrough 30.5%
• Retail: Open 19.8%, Clickthrough 3.9%
At NOISE, we’re proud to report that among more than one million e-mail messages we authored for our clients last year, our opens kept pace with national average — while our clickthroughs delivered 450% greater return than the national average. That’s good for us. But outstanding for our clients.
How do your clicks add up?
SOURCE: NOISE, Bronto
SOCIAL MEDIA: 136.38 Reasons To Love Your Likes.
Tuesday, July 27th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Smart marketers invest in social media — specifically, the development of communities of passionate followers — for a lot of reasons intrinsic to the success of their brands. Engagement. Involvement. Reward. Satisfaction. Loyalty. Referral. And while there’s obviously great value in this type of customer relationship, putting a price tag on a social media “fan” has proven donkey-tail elusive. Until now.
According to an extensive study by the research firm Syncapse of more than 4,000 Facebook followers of 20 national brands — including Coca-Cola, Nike, Blackberry, Nokia, Victoria’s Secret, Starbucks and McDonald’s — the average “fan” is worth $136.38 to its brand. How so? Let us count the ways:
1. Brand followers will on average spend 33% to 250% more annually than non-fans.
2. Brand followers are 28% more loyal than non-fans.
3. Brand followers are 41% more likely to recommend and refer than non-fans.
NOISE has championed social media since almost day one — and embraced its potential with the development of Vwallah! Social Media and QwickClick Online Videos. And while each brand’s fan value may of course vary, knowing you can always default to research and multiply your legions by $136.38 per person should be welcome news to innovative marketing directors — as well as nay-saying bean counters.
SOURCE: NOISE, Syncapse, Gigaom
MARKETING: Experience and Satisfaction vs. Nickels and Dimes — What Would You Choose?
Sunday, July 25th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Great brands rock because they succeed at providing exceptional customer experiences and satisfaction. Great brands also rock because they succeed at convincing customers that the value provided is greater than the price charged. But what happens to that brand when it “nickels and dimes” its satisfied customers to almost laughable extremes? And what would you choose to do — abandon the brand, or accept the pocket-change-mentality surcharging?
Case in point: AirTran Airways.
You may disagree with me (and you probably will), but I love AirTran. They satisfy my business travel schedule with more non-stop flights. Their fares are low. Their online reservations process is a breeze. Their online ticketing process the same. Their fleets are new and clean. Their flight attendants are generally very positive. And heck (depending on whether you think it’s a plus or a minus), they were the first to market with in-flight internet.
But here’s the nickel and dime rub, and it’s moved beyond luggage. In my experience, there exists not one seat on any AirTran flight that doesn’t come with a surcharge. Front, rear, aisle, window, middle, exit row, within sniffing distance of the lavatories, it doesn’t matter — now that you’ve booked your flight, you get to pay again to sit down. And last I checked, sitting down is mandatory on U.S. air travel.
I applaud AirTran’s ability to get away with this and still not really irritate me. It speaks volumes for their brand’s overall positive experience, satisfaction and price-value relationship. That’s a goal every brand should strive to achieve regardless of pricing structure. But what would you choose — to reward the exceptional brand that is all about money (so to speak), or abandon ship?
SOURCE: NOISE, John Sprecher
CREATIVE: Whatever It’s Worth.
Monday, May 17th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
As we’ve written here before, NOISE North hosts a garbage can in our conference room, a shiny receptacle that stands as our symbol of the value of award-winning advertising, interactive, social media, public relations or any other brand communications — without results.
So last week, when NOISE South had the great pleasure to share with a number of our outstanding clients the exciting news that four of our creative efforts this past year were judged worthy of “Regional” Addy Awards — three more than any other agency in Southwest Florida, and hot on the heels of our local 19-Addy-awards 2010 performance, which included two Best of Show Awards and a Judges Choice Award thrown in for good measure — we announced the news with a low-key memo simply entitled: “For whatever it’s worth.”
For the most part, the reactions of our clients were what you might expect. Excitement. Praise. Hearty congratulations. Then, we received a note from a client leader whom we’d describe as the “toughest sell” of this award-winning group. To paraphrase his message: “What’s it worth? I believe it translated into positive sales for us.”
We wrote the words “for whatever it’s worth” because even today, given the delicate state of the economy and the incredibly high value of every marketing dollar that you will spend, there are still many marketers who fail to understand that the better the message in, the better the reaction out — unlike the all-too-common very opposite of this that we see all too often in advertising today, which is: garbage in, garbage out.
So to our clients, congratulations on your award-winning work. We’re extremely pleased you see the value in them, in the truest business sense of the word.
SOURCE: NOISE
E-MARKETING: How to Keep Yours E-ffective.
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
There’s a growing uneasiness among some marketing “experts” that the halcyon days of e-marketing are in the rear view mirror. They fear that we’re tuning out due to the daily onslaught of e-solicitations, welcome or not, that find their way into our in-boxes. They opine that we’re turning instead to more social brand interaction alternatives, particularly Facebook “like” pages, for our communications.
While we at NOISE don’t disagree with those sentiments, we’re also clearly in the camp of the majority of marketers profiled in MarketingSherpa’s 2010 “Email Marketing Benchmark Report” who — by a three-to-one margin — remain convinced that the effectiveness of e-marketing continues to increase, rather than decrease.
However, we’d add a number of asterisks to our e-marketing cheerleading, which include:
* Your Message Better Be Branded. You spend a lot of money and energy to build your brand. So empower the architects of that brand — be they agency or in-house — to build your e-marketing campaigns, too. It doesn’t cost exponentially more to have a fully-integrated, cohesively-branded e-campaign. And the results in opens and clicks will far outweigh the production cost.
* Your Message Better Be Valuable. We’re not just talking about value-driven offers here. We’re talking about value-driven content of all kinds. The point is, whatever the editorial agenda of your e-campaign, make sure it provides the kind of interest value that will compel your consumers to open it, engage with it and act on it.
* Your Message Better Be Motivating. Obvious point? Perhaps. But the most effective e-marketing is the kind that provides multiple points of interaction for the consumer — a discount here, a value-added there, an opportunity to win here, an opportunity to share there.
Done right, e-marketing remains highly effective. Done wrong, e-marketing is a waste of money. How are you doing yours?
SOURCE: NOISE, MarketingSherpa
Web Development: Going From Click A to Click Z.
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
If one of your major initiatives this marketing year is launching a new web brand, NOISE Inter.Active would like to share our “NOISE 5.0 Process” that can help ensure your success:
NOISE 1.0: Begin at the End. The first question you need to ask is: what must my new web brand accomplish? Are we an experience and transaction site? An information and engagement site? An engagement and lead generation site? All of this? All of something else? Define your desired user experience and end results, and you’ve defined your goals.
NOISE 2.0: Set Your Site. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line; the same can be said for clicks. At NOISE Inter.Active, this is simply called the Site Architecture — a multi-leveled, content-, technology- and marketing-interface-specific flow chart of your site’s superstructure, and search engine optimization strategies and tactics.
NOISE 3.0: Bells and Whistles. What new, exciting, effective, engaging marketing and social media elements should be integrated into your site to help optimize your website, enhance customer engagement, generate the desired response and foster customer loyalty? Make sure to include this creative discussion as part of “NOISE 2.0″ above.
NOISE 4.0: Brand New, Brand True. For more and more businesses, your web brand is your front door. Make sure that every consumer walking through that front door is greeted with a smile and a welcome that reflects your brand and the many other consistently integrated elements of your brand campaign — while directing them to the next door they want to access.
NOISE 5.0: Kick the Tires. When your site is close to launch and ready for beta testing, invite a focus group of likely consumers in for a couple of hours of tire kicking. Watch as they leisurely and easily steer through your site, or careen out of control and crash into the bushes. How they intuitively interact and engage with your new web brand is the true measure of how successfully you’ve navigated Click A to Click Z.
SOURCE: NOISE Inter.Active
VWALLAH!: This Stuff Works.
Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
What’s your opinion of social media? Are you an evangelist? A believer? A doubter? A nay-sayer? What if I told you that done strategically, creatively and professionally, social media can:
- Extend and Elevate Your Brand
- Create Brand Ambassadors of Your Loyal Consumers, and Create New Converts From Referred Consumers
- Help Mold and Improve Your Brand Via Dialogue and Feedback
- Be Measured, Quantified and ROIed
- Serve as an Outstanding Market Research or New Product or Service Development Resource
- Drive Traffic to Your Website (Sometimes Becoming a Top-Ranked Referral Source)
- Help SEO and SEM Your Website
- Help You Build Databases of Loyal Users
- Help You Better Understand Consumer Keyword Preferences, Making Your Online Marketing More Effective and Efficient
- Create a Community of Users Loyal To Your Brand Who Share Your Story Through Thoughts, Images, Even Videos
- Create Sales
- Create Profits
Done strategically, creatively and professionally, social media possesses the exciting potential to become a vital branding, marketing and sales tool for virtually any company or organization. It’s true. This stuff works.
Introducing Vwallah!, the exciting new social media marketing service from NOISE that’s rocking the worlds of innovative marketers across the United States in travel, tourism, destination, health care, retail, real estate, special needs and other industries.
These clients will tell you. It’s true. Done strategically, creatively and professionally, Vwallah! — this stuff works!
Interested in learning what’s up our sleeve? Contact Vwallah! Social Media Guru Alex Fernandez at 239.395.9555 or email him today at alexf@make-noise.com.
SOURCE: NOISE
SOCIAL MEDIA: What Can Indiana Jones Teach You?
Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I was recently watching an “Indiana Jones” installment and found myself wrapping my head around one of Indy’s one-liners, about a half hour into the movie: “If you wanna be a good archaeologist, you’ve gotta get out of the library!” In my many conversations with clients and associates about social media marketing, it seems this quote would serve most people well.
You see, the number one question I’m asked in my position as Social Media Guru for Vwallah! is this: where do you learn this stuff? And the answer is: not just in the library.
If you truly want to learn how to leverage social media marketing, it takes real-world time. Social media has so many unspoken rules and so much informal etiquette, you need to learn how to do things the right way. Many business owners and marketing executives simply don’t have time for this. That’s one reason, I believe, why our new social media division has, in less than nine months, added significant clients across the country.
Second, limit your research and reading. There are millions of white papers and tutorials out there that attempt to encapsulate all of social media in a few paragraphs. You have likely read a couple. They have promising titles like, “10 Social Media Tools You Must Use” and “How to Measure ROI in Social Media,” and many of them offer helpful information. But who’s got the time? And by the time you’re done reading — because social media changes almost daily — the knowledge is outdated.
Finally, much like Indy stated, get out and start exploring! The best way to learn how social media works, is to get your hands dirty. It takes time, but if you don’t want to hire a social media services firm like Vwallah!, you’ll have to learn by doing. Jump in and play around with the different features on Facebook. Start tweeting on Twitter. Create a Linkedin account and join discussions. There are new social media websites created every day — each week, explore one that you haven’t tried out yet. And keep an eye out for what you perceive as “good” and “bad” uses of social media in the mean time.
Remember to treat social media like you treat anything else that is social:
- Explore and connect with new people and new communities.
- Interact and share with others, and then listen back to what they share with you.
- Work towards establishing relationships, and nurture those relationships over time.
SOURCE: NOISE (Alex Fernandez)
MARKETING: How To Factor Your E-Marketing Budget.
Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
If you’re a smart marketer (and you are, because you’re reading Trendspottings), you’ve no doubt produced highly targeted, professionally executed and customer-centric E-marketing campaigns this year — and you’ve witnessed the benefits of The Almighty E-Mail to deliver outstanding clickthrough results and cost efficiencies for you.
So looking ahead to a wildly successful 2010 as we at NOISE are for our clients, how are you divvying up next year’s marketing spend?
Being the smart marketer that you are, you’re already budgeting more for E-marketing and social media — the only two marketing tactics to increase budget share in 2009. And to help you factor your E-marketing budget, NOISE presents this useful trending from MarketingSherpa that highlights the significant increase in E-marketing spend, across eight industries. (Note: simply click on the image to enlarge.)
Where will your 2010 E-marketing campaigns propell you? Hopefully, to greater success. And should you need a little propellent, well, rocket fuel is available here.
SOURCE: MarketingSherpa, NOISE
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- Early Learning Center on MARKETING: Experience and Satisfaction vs. Nickels and Dimes — What Would You Choose?
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