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07/09/2010

Providing Visibility in Ads
02:03 pm by admin

comScore, Inc. announced the introduction of the Ad Metrix Creative Summary report, which provides us with a detailed intelligence on the size, formats, and types of display ads being used.

“JPEG display ads lead the market with more than 42 percent of impressions in the U.S., while “leaderboard”-style banner ads (728 x 90 in dimension) were the most commonly viewed display ad by size.”

At IWS, we generally recommend the use of banner ads, blog ads, Google ads, and Facebook (JPEG) ads to help promote a Fan Page, brand, or website itself.

Because of the specifics allowed, brands can pinpoint an audience already interested. Such opportunities will too, encourage engagement and help bring you organic growth.

JPEGs accounted for 42.4 percent of ad impressions.

 

 
But wait… Currently, there are far less advertisers on Facebook, than there are struggling in the crowded Adwords space. So less competition, lower cost-per-click, more targeted… It’s a win-win. Where would YOUR eyes wander? What have you used for proven success?

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Maura DeBartoli

06/25/2010

Your Feat Defines Our Success
12:10 am by Maura DeBartoli

When developing an integrated online marketing strategy, we’re going to do it right and we’re going to do it differently.

Building a foundation means not only designing and building a website, but replicating the charisma in you, with content development.

Think you’ve got momentum? Our team has built communities of hundreds of thousands, and brought them together in joined efforts. We rev well.

One truth: Email marketing is still one of the most preferred outlets for candidacy, grassroots organizations, and nonprofits. IWS can check that box with confidence. Consistent donor success? Web applications? iPhone Apps? Check, check, and check.

Above all though, one of the most fun and attractive things IWS is fortunate enough to own is our 12 foot tall, 18 foot deep green screen. You can create whatever and be whoever you want with it!

Naturally, online video viewership has been growing exponentially year after year – just over 66 percent of users engage with video content online, and is projected to be just shy of 80 percent by 2014.

“This shift will be propelled by a combination of technology integration, demographics and a growing comfort level with the idea of watching video hosted on Websites,” says eMarketer’s senior analyst.

Our editorial and production team members are fantastically proficient at what they do, and will tailor it to you. Our gift is a backstage pass. Enjoy.

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Brian Michael

02/02/2010

Is this Blog Post Any Good?
10:10 am by Brian Michael

The answer to the question in the title will hopefully be yes, but it probably depends on who you’re asking. It also depends what they consider a “good blog post”; in other words they all have different measures of success. The same is true with any Web site or online project.

Measures of success obviously can vary from project to project, but they can also vary within a project. In most cases there exist three levels of measures, for our purposes we’ll call them primary, secondary and tertiary.

Usually primary measures of success relate to an offline activity. Although some people may spend more time in front of a computer than away from it, there is still a real world out there – a world that revolves around exchanging money, voting, construction and other human activities. Thus some examples would include making a donation on a mobile phone, getting people to vote for a particular candidate, or winning approval for a new hospital. One or more of these are usually the “problems” a client will have when looking to partner with another firm. These are easily the most important measures of success.

Secondary measures have to do with the activities that lead to one of the primary objectives mentioned above. Since primary measures involve a serious commitment on the part of the end-user, a gradual process of building up to the ultimate goal is required. These nodes of engagement could include participating in an online poll or survey, posting a message on a Facebook Wall, or forwarding an email.

The way to judge the likelihood that the secondary actions will be taken by supporters remains the hard data of the tertiary measures. These indexes – like pageviews, open rates or Twitter followers – are the things successful managers follow on a daily basis; and their analysis will uncover trends among your audiences.  This will in turn allow you to optimize campaigns to drive up the response rates measured in the primary and secondary goals.

Taking a step back we have seen that measures of success directly correlate to a campaign goal.  Measuring those goals can be done on a variety of levels in this case primary, secondary, or tertiary.  These levels could also be called Offline, Engagement, and Indicators, respectively.

The goal of this post was to pass on some knowledge for the offline world, I hope it is measured as a success.

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Kelly Watson

12/07/2009

‘Tis the Email Season
06:29 pm by Kelly Watson

It is no secret that the holidays inspire a spike in email marketing efforts, and the 2009 holiday season is no exception. This year’s email volumes are predicted to increase and even earlier in the season than previous years. Even though most of the messaging comes from retail stores offering the “best deals around,” there is something to be learned from the behavior of email recipients during this time of year.

The Experian Marketing Services posted The 2009 holiday marketer: Benchmark and trend report that includes a review of the email marketing industry’s holiday performance. It also includes a plethora of tips to help us stay ahead of the emailing frenzy that occurs in our inboxes each year. So, what will prevent your company’s emails from getting lost in this year’s messaging madness? Let’s explore.

‘Tis the Holiday Hints:

Don’t hold back. “Don’t be afraid to increase email frequency and deliver relevant messages a few times a week. Customers expect to hear from you more during the holiday season.”

Keep messaging familiar. “Use your company name or email address in the “from” label and be consistent, so your customers know what to expect. Don’t repeat the “from” label in the subject line — space is too valuable.”

Keep subject lines short and sweet. “According to the Q2 2009 Experian CheetahMail Benchmark report, all industries with the exception of consumer products and services experienced the highest open rates when using subject lines of 25 characters or less last year. Longer subject lines of 75 characters or more had the second strongest performance for all businesses except those in the retail, travel and entertainment industries.”

Send a survey. “On average, surveys and polls produce a 30 percent lift in open, click and transaction rates. Link your emails to surveys this season —they are powerful tools for fostering better relationships with your customers and gaining deeper insight into their demographics, opinions, and service and product-satisfaction rates.”

In summary, your email recipients are comfortable with their inboxes looking like the mall on Black Friday. So, keep your messaging active and take advantage of the extra attention people pay to their emails during the holiday season. Merry email marketing!

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Maura DeBartoli

11/16/2009

They Know If You’ve Been Naughty or Nice
12:43 pm by Maura DeBartoli

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There was a recent post by eMarketer that discussed a growing number of web shoppers this holiday season, turning to social networks for advice, sales and information research.  A bit of news from the mobile sector:

Even more consumers – 19% – are planning on using the mobile channel for their holiday shopping… one-quarter plan to make a holiday purchase over mobile.

Does this information change your holiday marketing and sales plans?  It is an entirely new holiday shopping experience for consumers.  Since they’ll be seeking out brands they trust and interact with, it’s a good thing you’ve been ‘nice’ to them via social sites this past year, yes?

Image: miss karen

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Donnie Riggs

10/13/2009

What Marketers are Missing…
03:35 pm by Donnie Riggs

Did you know that 46% of U.S. online retailers are missing out on the best, most time-tested way to spread their message? It’s true. Based on an August 2009 survey by Smith-Harmon, 46% of email marketers aren’t asking their audience to spread the word.

Sharing OptionsWord of mouth is still the most popular way to receive information about a product or campaign. With the rise of social networking, this has become even easier, yet only 6% of the marketing emails sampled  asked their audience to share with your social network. 41% had some type of ‘Forward to a Friend’ message or feature.

This alarming statistic is courtesy of eMarketer.com.  This great service has statistics for everything. Want to know what type of information U.S. Female Internet Users With and Without Children are Most Interested in Receiving via Email? They have it.  Want to know which free email platforms have the highest open rates? Now IWS can provide its clients this service thanks to our partnership with eMarketer.

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Brian Michael

10/12/2009

Brian and Phillies Nation In the News
12:22 am by Brian Michael

The Delaware County Daily Times – out of my old stomping grounds of southeastern Pennsylvania – did piece on my web site last week in conjunction with the Phillies quest to win a second consecutive World Series.

They can be found in Denver pubs, the cafes of Rome and in the sports bar at the Gen. Patton Barracks in Heidelberg, Germany.

And Brian Michael will tell you their numbers are growing.

“You can go to pretty much anywhere and you will find Phillies fans,” said Michael, the 28-year-old founder of PhilliesNation.com

Thanks to Michael and his 10,000-plus subscribers, those fans have had a place to share insights, frustrations and love of all things Phillies since the site went live a few months after Citizens Bank Park opened in 2004.

“I grew up in Philly and had moved away to Washington, D.C.,” Michael said. “I was finding it hard to get all my Phillies information, so I decided to put it all in one place.”

Read the entire “Phillies Nation growing through Web site” article…

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Jessica Carlson

09/01/2009

Advertise to a crowd, not crickets
04:50 pm by Jessica Carlson

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ComScore recently reported that social media sites account for over twenty percent of all U.S. online display ad impressions. Of those social networks, MySpace and Facebook represent about ten percent of all online display ad impressions in the U.S.

While these numbers seem huge, it makes a lot of sense. With the rise in social media usage, I now can go to the New York Times Facebook Page or follow them on Twitter to get my news, instead of going to their website. The way that people are accessing information has been changing drastically over the last several years and it only makes sense that companies and organizations should be dispersing their message where the people are. And where can you find most of your audience? On social networks.

To reach a large, yet diverse group, advertising on social networking sites will provide you with a great return on your investment. Not only are these ads uncharacteristically cheap, they can be custom targeted based on user’s information. ComScore’s senior vice president goes into detail about the growth in social media and advertising on these sites:

“Over the past few years, social networking has become one of the most popular online activities, accounting for a significant portion of the time Internet users spend online and the pages they consume,” said Jeff Hackett, comScore senior vice president. “Social networking sites now account for one out of every five ads people view online. Because the top social media sites can deliver high reach and frequency against target segments at a low cost, it appears that some advertisers are eager to use social networking sites as a new advertising delivery vehicle.”

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