Spam, Spam, Spam revisited

In today's blog I am going to talk about Spam. Unlike my last blog though I will not be talking about the canned meat product but those annoying emails we all receive asking us to buy penis enlargement pills, or to send money to a Nigerian prince.

Spam is an annoying aspect of the internet, but the surprising thing about spam is that it works.  This is because it only takes a small percentage of people who open a spam message to respond and the "sender" can make money.  Email is very cheap, and the cost of sending them dwarfs how much money can be made.  I guess the lesson is we have only our selves to blame for the Spam we receive.  There is good news though.  The CAN-SPAM act of 2003 tries to regulate the Spam, and the penalties can be huge for companies who send out SPAM. In fact those penalties can range from $16,000 per email sent, and can even include prison time.

CRM, CLV, LOL, what does it all mean?

The above video shows actors Panatamiming a Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and drives home the point that it is important in this day and age to develop great customer relationships.  The average company loses half of its customers every 5 years, and if it can stem this tide it can increase profits.  Just by stopping this defections by 5% a company can increase its profits from 25-85%.

Customer Lifetime Value is another tool companies can use to determine how much to market to a specfic individual or class of individuals.  This video explains it well.

Briefly it shows that knowing what a customer's CLV is will help in making in marketing decisions.  I think it drives home the point that marketing should not be a guessing game for any company large or small, rather it should be about numbers and using knowledge to make informed decision.

I recently watched money ball, which is the story of how statistics changed the face of baseball, I think that is the same in marketing, and as more and more people get into the marketing game thanks to companies like Google who have lowered the barrier to join, we will see more and more statistics to make sound decisions.

Ad Serving and Google

I knew that there was a connection to the advertising I was seeing on Websites, but I never understood how it works prior to this class. As mentioned in the textbook  "Internet Marketing" ad serving allows websites to generate revenue by allowing businesses to advertise on their sites while working through a middleman. Google explains it all very well in this video.

  

The video explains it  that the process of Ad Serving is very complex and expensive.  Because of this using third party ad serving companies benefits the consumer, business, and website.

What is scary is how good Google is at matching advertising to specific users. I know that it is suppose to be anonymous and that they don't have any identifying information and just my history but it is scary when I google for a product, let's say some North Face Jackets, and then all of the advertising I see on various web pages for the next few weeks feature ad's about North Face.  While I appreciate what Google (and other companies) are trying to do, I think that sometimes they go overboard and that the money could be better spent advertising related products and not just the searched for products.  This is because I may have already purchased my jacket, but perhaps I need a hat or gloves to go with it. 

Creating a Strong Brand Online

I think that all companies should have a presence online and that companies who don't are missing out on great opportunities.  Because the internet is the first place many consumers go to research new products or services all companies should have a site that at least shares some basic information about the company, its products and what services it provides.  Here are a few links to "Mom and Pop" type shops that offer a great internet experience.

http://shermockfinancial.com/ This site offers financial advice to clients in Central Minnesota. While you can tell it offers some stock photos and feel good type language, it also offers a glimpse into the person running the company.  If I were going to invest thousands of dollars I would want to make sure that my adviser was computer savvy and had a webpage.  

http://willowwildrice.com/ This site is still under construction but you can see how even a local company can benefit from the internet.  This person (when his site is up and running) will enter the global marketplace and it will not matter how far away his customers are, he will be able to sell them wild rice.

Finally I think that it is important to create a strong website even if all's it does is provide information to the consumer and creates brand loyalty.

http://www.5gum.com/global/ This site offers users a highly interactive website that allows them to learn more about Chew 5 Gum. You can't order the gum from the site, but the site builds brand loyalty.

Data Mining

Data Mining, which is the process of analyzing massive amounts of data to find patterns that otherwise may not be noticed and then using that information to change behavior.   People are concerned about this but do they have anything to worry about?

What this video shares is that the public doesn't truly understand what data mining is and has a mis-perception  that data mining is a bad, creepy thing.  On the contrary data mining can be very beneficial for the consumer.  When a company mines it's data it is doing it for one main reason and that is to increase profits.  But this doesn't have to come at the detriment of the consumer.  Often times data mining will show that it is beneficial for a company to hold a sale or adjust it's prices in a way that is beneficial to the consumer.

Cookie Monster on Computer Cookies

Okay, okay this video doesn't have anything to do with what you I know to be computer cookies, but I thought it was funny to watch.

In all seriousness though are computer cookies something that people need to be concerned about.  In my opinion, no! Cookies enhance the users experience and I often find myself annoyed when my anti-virus software clears out my cookies and I have to re-log on to all my favorite sites.  That said I do wish that cookies were opt-in so that if I was visiting a site that I don't use often I could opt out.

Optimizing Websites for mobile viewing

I recently read an article on hub spot (link at bottom of blog) that talked about how long blogs should be.  It quickly switched the focus (a blog post should be as long or as short as it takes) from length to how the blog looks on a mobile device.  I then visited Mcdonalds.com on my iPhone and it was a very different experience then visiting it on my laptop. While I had the option to switch the full site which was nice, I thought the mobile site did a horrible job of conveying the McDonald's message and experience. Why was it bad?

1) It had a very different message then the full site and when I visited them both I felt cheated with my mobile experience.

2) It did not have an easily accessible menu to look at. I would think that people who are looking up the site on a mobile device want to be able to see a menu easily.

3) Finally it had a different layout then the main site and I thought that took away from the experience.

Spam, Spam, Spam

I recently visited the Spam website and I have to say that there are definitely using the internet to their advantage.  According to our book (Roberts, 1) there are certain drivers to the internet economy and I noticed quite a few of these "drivers" on www.spam.com. First I notices that they provide a lot of information about their products.  They go above and beyond most other food products to engage their consumers with a fun and interactive website.  I spent almost an hour playing the Spam Games!   Information is the number one driver and the website has plenty of information to share to the consumer.  From recipes to ingredients and other fun ways to use their products.

Marketing in the land of chimpanzees.

Welcome to my blog.  This a requirement for one of my classes at the College of St. Scholastica. Over the course of the next eight weeks I will show you the tips and tricks of marketing that I have learned that you can use at your very own company.  Please let me know if you have any questions.