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Online marketing ad spends continue to trend up as target audiences spend more time on the Internet. Marketers are responding by shifting their marketing budgets to retain market share.

According to recent findings by the European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA), the Internet has more than gained traction, it is the place to attract new customers – both Gen X and the baby boomers.

Not surprisingly, 16 to 24 year-olds access the Internet more frequently than they watch TV and spend 10% more time on it.  But did you know there’s been a double-digit increase in weekly Internet access among the over-55s since 2006? About a third of the current Internet users spend 16 hours or more each week on the web.

How are marketing managers responding?

Read more here →

Contrarian view? Absolutely not. The best time to strike is when your competitors are off guard. While they gather in their conference rooms to complain about the economy, use this golden opportunity to reach out to your existing customers and find new prospects.

Far too many business owners absolutely take the wrong approach. They hunker down, cut marketing budgets and pull back. The end result is "unattended customers" and less competition for you. Businesses that cut marketing budgets also demotivate their best salespeople, which start spending more time thinking about getting a new job than a new customer.

Economic downturns are an excellent time to strengthen your relationships with both your existing customers and your competitors' customers. Odds are, they are not as busy. Are they willing to spend a little more time with you? Very possible so get in touch with them and consider the following:

• Collect testimonials: Asking for a testimonial is a contact with your customer that's not a sales call. Tell them you would like to promote the testimonial and link it to their website, which will promote them as well. Use the opportunity to show your customers you value their opinion, your business relationship, and their business (i.e., dynamic websites, blogs, Scribd, PR news, etc.);
• Survey your customers: Create an opportunity to collect feedback and discuss services and/or products you offer that they may not be fully aware of or completely understand (i.e., email marketing, custom website landing pages, etc.);
• Network: Introduce your customers to people in your network that they consider prospects and ask to meet their business colleagues and associates - an excellent source of referrals (i.e., LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, etc.), and
• Use your "consulting" skills: Help your customers and prospects save time and money by providing pertinent industry news and educational materials that will help them compete during these difficult times (i.e., email newsletters, white papers and custom publications all have high ROIs).

But don't be fooled. There is also new competition for you - competition from << Continued on digital AIM >>

[Please note we have updated our marketing news website. To receive future updates including our 2009 Marketing Plan series, add your info here | digital AIM - Email.]

Why are ads with pictures of people seeing higher response rates than those without? Human beings read a person’s face rapidly; the emotion and feelings are conveyed before the words are even noticed. A recent survey by the MarketingSherpa suggests using people photos in your online ads will increase your response rates.

What else is working for online ad design? Here’s a chart that provides insight into ad design based on an online advertising survey of marketing professionals (click on the chart to read the full article at MarketingSherpa.com):

We all know that content is king, right? Not necessarily. Too much content performs poorly if the recipient doesn't have the time to read it. And, if the goal of your email marketing content is to sell then don't dismiss targeted B-to-B promotional copy. Here's my point.

B-to-B email marketing focuses heavily on relevant content - lots of info and educational flare. Is it working? Not as well as we think in all cases according to a recent study published by the MarketingSherpa, which provides an example where a merchandiser targeted and tested promotional content against informational content. The promotional content won with 89% more CTRs and five times more revenue! You can read the entire article here, Test Shows Promotional Content Beats Information (open access closes August 27).

Take aways from the full article:

• People may not want to read about you products or services as much as you think. They might just want to buy them.
• Discount offers or coupons are common nowadays so don't hesitate to use them; almost required to get attention.
• Email marketing works best when the subject line text reflects the content closely. 
• Don't abandon educational content but condense the info as much as possible; use only the most important aspects of the message you are communicating.

Also note there are two critical items associated with successful email marketing: testing and targeting. When you know your audience (targeting - list segmentation), you should be well aware of what he or she wants - make sure you know what they want (testing). And, let them know you value their time - quickly get to the point.

You might not expect a luxury brand that is a global symbol of cosmopolitan fashion to choose MySpace to target their market. But the market is there and so is Cartier; the French brand known for their exclusive $10,000 watches, clocks and diamonds. 

The Cartier ad campaign includes a link to a Cartier mini-site where you can download free music by Lou Reed, Phoenix, Marion Cotillard, and others. Mercedes-Benz USA has used the free music download marketing strategy for several years now at their corporate site. The latest from MBUSA (excerpt of their email marketing I rec'd on June 26, 2008):

Mixed Tape 21 and Mixed Tape Music Magzine # 5 – now online
Enjoy the fifth edition of Mixed Tape Music Magazine on mercedes-benz.tv. Also online: Mixed Tape 21 with a selection of brand new tracks.

Every eight weeks, Mercedes-Benz not only presents ten handpicked tracks by international newcomers for you to check out and explore as a free download compilation at www.mercedes-benz.com/mixedtape. For added visual delights, visit Mixed Tape Music Magazine, an innovative monthly online TV show featuring audio-visual highlights from around the world, now in its fifth edition.

This month’s theme is ‘Up North’ with artists hailing from the globe’s upper reaches – think Norway, Sweden or Canada. Their music, on the other hand, is decidedly international and at home between Hip-Hop, Folk, Pop and R&B. From Sweden, we have Kocky and his singer Rosanna, Joel Alme and MC Chords – the self-proclaimed luckiest man alive - while Chris Lee represents Norway’s cutting-edge music scene. On the other side of the Atlantic, MC Moka Only and Alanis Morissette shake it up for Canada.

Enjoy the mix!

Your Mercedes-Benz Team
www.mercedes-benz.tv/mixedtape
 

Why MySpace?

MySpace is an online social gathering place for teens right? Think again. Abbey Klaassen of Advertising Age has published an article with more details. Here's an excerpt:

"There's this misperception in the market about MySpace being a youth site, a site for teens," said Travis Katz, managing director-international operations for MySpace. "But 85% of our audience in the U.S. is over 18, and 40% of all moms in U.S. are on MySpace." He claims that MySpace reaches more people making $100,000-plus than other social-network competitors, such as Facebook and Yahoo 360. Real the full Adversiting Age article here.

More info: Cartier's MySpace profile.

You wrap up the final pages of your manuscript and within three-weeks you are on the "Hot New Releases" list. Sound too good to be true? It's not and publishers are using online social networks successfully to promote their books, white papers and business services. For instance, we found this release on PRWEB (one of the better press release sites FYI):

(PRWEB) June 6, 2008 — A new book, "I Met a Greek Goddess in Nashville", self published by Kalpanik S., a previously unknown author made it to the "Hot New Releases" list on Amazon.com's Kindle Book store on June 5th, within three weeks of its publication.

"We are very pleased to see 'I Met a Greek Goddess in Nashville' achieve "Hottest New Release" within a few weeks of its publication. . . . This proves the power of the use of the New Media formats and platforms such as Kindle, Facebook, MySpace, Amapedia, YouTube and Google/ Yahoo groups." [These sites were used exclusively for publicizing the book.]

"I am a busy executive so I did not have time or energy to follow the time consuming publishing or publicizing methods" said Kalpanik S., the author . . . In place of spending my time contacting publishers and agents or sending copies of the books for book reviews, I decided to use the New Media formats, platforms and forums such as Kindle, facebook, Amapedia, MySpace and YouTube for publishing and publicizing my book. These have been instrumental in the success . . ." 

More and more people are realizing the potential associated with marketing directly to the end user online. This strategy is working because things have changed for PR; and how things have changed.

Until recently, media “press releases” were considered dead. First of all, the traditional press release has rapidly evolved with technology. We now focus on “Marketing PR,” which bypasses traditional media outlets and reaches target market directly. How so?

By preparing and sending press releases frequently via wire services, blogs, email newsletters and social networks, you can zero in on business prospects who use search engines – just about everyone in the business world. Shockingly, whether a journalist actually sees your PR or responds to it is secondary in importance.

PR is once again essential because it is cost-effective and properly managed PR campaigns are generating high ROIs.

Seriously consider incorporating PR into your annual marketing plan. More of your existing clients and prospects get to know you – you build stronger relationships and increase your referral rates, which translates to a better bottom line.  

Below you'll find an article by Mark Davies.

Here are six essential practices to maximizing your income as an Affiliate Marketer!

If you are like most new affiliate marketers, you have signed up as an affiliate and posted links and are actively promoting products but you are making few sales. Here are things that you can do to start making real profits:

#1 - Build your own Website:

You need to build your own website to promote the products. Make sure it has its own paid for domain name (mybizsite.com), not a free site like (mybizsite.othersitename.com). If you have been using free hosting, people looking at your site will not take your business seriously. If you don't know how to build a website there are many services that offer simple website building programs for a small fee or you can hire someone build a site for you. Check out elance.com where website designers will bid for the opportunity to build a site for you!

#2 - Write reviews of the products you are promoting:

You need to know the products you are promoting! It is crucial that you purchase all the products you are promoting so that you can write honest reviews about them. Let potential customers know that you are using these products and why they are worth buying! You then need to post these reviews on your website, in your newsletters and in articles.

#3 - Get yourself a Blog:

I recommend that you get a Blog and link it to your website. This will allow you to create discussions on the blog about the products you are selling and list any updates to your regular website. Blogs that are updated and posted to regularly (I recommend every other day) are indexed quicker by the search engines than are new websites, and after the blog is indexed, the pages you have linked to the blog will also get indexed. This is a very powerful way to get your

Read more here →

The environmental movement is rising almost as fast as the rising cost of fossil fuel and the Internet is playing a major role. Environmentally-conscious consumers and the overall population are turning to social networks, online communities, niche-market websites and blogs for green products, hybrids, organically grown food and eco-tourism. 

Just look at some of the numbers from Sarah Radwanick's post, The Internet Goes Green:

TreeHugger.com, a popular green site, has seen visitation reach 515,000 people in March 2008, an 81% increase from March 2007.

Freecycle.org, site connects people in communities to exchange items they no longer need or want for free, gained 15% from the previous year to 322,000 visitors in March 2008.

(Reference: ComScore blog, The Internet Goes Green, by Sarah Radwanick)

Using comScore Marketer, a search intelligence tool, Sarah Radwanich investigated several green search terms and came up with the following:

Terms such as “ecotourism” and “climate change” have experienced large search query increases in the past year, with “ecotourism” growing 574% to 12,864 searches in February 2008 while “climate change” jumped 167% to 9,542 searches.

Searches for “hybrid cars” also gained (up 48% to 68,332 searches), while basic environmental word searches have also seen growth, including “recycle” (up 35% to 72,779 searches) and “pollution” (up 58% to 32,788 searches).

At AIM Custom Media, we're seeing more interest in the environment as well. One of our new clients, Eco-Gardeners.com (a new blog by The Happy Gardener), provides articles and organic gardening tips for gardening enthusiasts. In addition, they offer a full-line of organic gardening products that are safe for children, kids and your kitchen table. Their business model also includes the opportunity for passionate gardeners, and/or savvy entrepreneurs, to start their own home businesses.

The Happy Gardener, has been featured in Women's Day, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, Prevention Magazine and the Richmond Times Dispatch (among others).

Annette Pelliccio, owner of The Happy Gardener, said,

 “Everyone involved with our growing company is committed to helping families learn healthier methods to benefit the future of our communities and the environment.”

Going green to gold isn't limited to gardening and numerous corporations are helping to drive the environmental moment. One book explains how, Green to Gold: How Smart Companies Use Environmental Strategy to Innovate, Create Value, and Build Competitive Advantage (you can read the reviews on Amazon).

There are several articles on this topic. Here are a few more for those interested:

• Corporations Find Business Case for Going Green (MSNBC article)
  Global giants, from Wal-Mart to HP, see cost savings, other benefits
• Corporations Finding Green in Going Green (Engadget.com article)
• Companies That Go Green Really Help (ABC News article)
  Firms Like News Corp. Set a Good Example for Climate Change, Environmentalists Say