DEBORAHblog » At The Heart Of The Chart

Social Media And Marketing: How “Social” Are You?

Deborah — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 20:49:01 +0000

What social marketing tactics do you use?

Results of the latest Marketing Sherpa poll shows the average percentage of organizations using each of the social platforms listed below for tactical purposes. Company branded or social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn lead the pack with microblogging (Twitter) and multimedia sites like YouTube tied for second.

What’s Your Favorite Keyword Research Tactic?

Deborah — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:36:37 +0000

Marketing Sherpa takes a look at the best ways to research and define your target key terms. Whether your PPC budget is large or small, site log files are a preferred source for both popular keywords and those that convert best.

Read the article to learn more about the art and science of keyword research tactics.

How Effective Is Local Search?

Deborah — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 21:56:56 +0000

As more marketers gain experience with local search they are coming to the conclusion that it is a very effective way to market. However, some retailers may be missing the mark by not carrying through beyond the landing page.

This Marketing Sherpa chart compares the perceived effectiveness of geotargeting between 2008 and 2009. Find additional data and insight on the perceived effectiveness of local search in this report.

Effectiveness of Local Search 2008 vs. 2009

Search Engine Marketers Rank SEM Challenges

Deborah — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:08:19 +0000

New Marketing Sherpa survey of in-house marketers shows an increase in competition for natural search rankings. That pushes competition for top paid search positions – the usual top frustration – into second place.

Meanwhile, click fraud dropped to only 12% – last place among SEM challenges.

Read this new article for additional research data and insights about SEM challenges for marketers .

How Do Your Search Conversion Rates Compare?

Deborah — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:45:32 +0000

Do you wonder how your search conversion rates measure up when compared to other search marketers?

Remember, the most important part of defining a conversion event is to make sure it matches the strategic goals most important to your organization and is realistic enough that you can receive actionable data. The harder a conversion metric is to collect, the less data you will have to make marketing decisions.

Ideally, an organization will collect multiple conversion metrics in order to gauge effectiveness of marketing throughout the purchase funnel, not just at the end.

Check out this week’s Marketing Sherpa chart to see typical conversion rates for sponsored advertising (PPC), organic search (SEO) and online shopping engines, broken out by conversion type.

How Effective is Social Media in Achieving Target Business Objectives?

Deborah — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:15:40 +0000

Which objectives are most effectively achieved with social marketing?

Organizations in the “strategic” marketing maturity phase are more likely to find social media very effective in achieving marketing objectives. Interestingly, organizations that market to consumers through reseller channels (B2B2C) are much more likely to consider social media a very effective means to achieving their marketing objectives.

Find additional insight and data about social marketing in this recent Marketing Sherpa poll.

Perceptions About Social Media Are Changing

Deborah — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 23:03:43 +0000

A new Marketing Sherpa article shows that social media is gaining respect at a critical time – when budgets are being formulated. And this changing attitude is having a major impact on marketing spend.

Read the full article to see for yourself how perceptions are changing about social media.

What – EXACTLY – is a Conversion?

Deborah — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:36:39 +0000

“Conversion” is a key email-to-website metric, but what exactly is it?

A new article by Marketing Sherpa shows us that there are many definitions of “conversion” among marketers. B2B marketers usually support a long and complex sales process. So, they tend to define it as someone completing a registration form. B2C marketers have a simple and short sales cycle. A conversion for them is someone who purchases a product online.

There is no right answer, but there are many opinions! Read the original article to see which user defined events prevail.

The Art and Science of Keyword Research

Deborah — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:20:24 +0000

My personal experience certainly confirms the alchemic nature of keyword research, whether it be for content enhancement for better natural search results or a quest for the best converting keywords for a PPC campaign.

According to this recent Marketing Sherpa survey, long-tail keywords convert at a slightly higher rate than shorter keywords. How long is long? Six words or less, according to 95% of respondents.

How about you? Does your experience mesh with these survey results?

View the original keyword research article at Marketing Sherpa.

Bye for now!

~ Deborah

More Leads or Better Leads?

Deborah — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:11:27 +0000

Better leads. The sales team definitely wants better leads.

B2B marketers are being challenged like never before to generate high-quality sales leads. In fact, according to Marketing Sherpa, it’s far and away their number one priority. Also in the mix are marketing to a lengthening sales cycle and generating public relations “buzz.”

Click here to view the original article.

Bye for now!

~ Deborah