The Artful Dodger may be a beloved character, but feeling as if you’ve had your professional pocket picked isn’t quite as endearing. The numbers don’t lie. Chief Marketing Officers are having their pockets picked. They are being sold marketing activities that are little more than a bill of goods. The world of marketing spend is changing and you need to change with it.
The Bluetext team is regularly talking with CMOs at organizations ranging from mid-sized and emerging companies to some of the world’s largest global enterprises. They all struggle with how to allocate their budgets to most effectively achieve their marketing goals, including lead generation, thought leadership, sales enablement and brand awareness. CMOs who don’t analyze what is working and what is not fall victim to CMO Pickpockets, wasting money with no return for the investment. Here are just a few of ways that slippery fingers are reaching for their corporate wallets:
- The promise of in-your-face on-line banner ads is that they can’t be ignored. Yet, the downside can be substantial. 84 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds have left a favorite website because of intrusive or irrelevant banners ads.
- In a surprisingly large amount of cases, on-line ads are lost in the noise. 31 percent of ad impressions are delivered (and thus paid for) yet never seen by customers.
- Direct mail can be one of the most costly outreach tactics. Yet 44 percent is never opened.
- The only sure-fire broadcast ads that viewers don’t skip are those on sporting events (virtually all sports fans watch in real time). Non-sports represent a much different story. Overall, 86 percent of people skip television ads.
- Facebook’s new algorithm makes it very difficult for businesses to reach their fans. In one recent test, a story with a link reached just 3 percent of those who had opted to “Like” the brand. Instead, companies who pay to be seen hit Facebook users even if those users haven’t enlisted as fans.
- While Americans are moving to mobile devices in droves, marketing professionals have yet to devote a significant share of their spending to mobile marketing. Consumers spend roughly 10 percent of their media time on mobile devices, but advertisers commit only one percent of the ad budgets there.
- Conversely, print publications get only about 7 percent of media users’ time, but advertisers spend 25 percent of their ad budgets on print.
These numbers show a large disconnect between how marketing budgets are allocated and how target customers spend their time and where they get information that informs their decisions. At Bluetext we know that there is no “one size fits all” solution. The marketing pie needs to be sliced very carefully to get the best results. We analyze campaigns and budgets against the habits of target audiences to make sure they map up closely and return that bang for the buck.
Sources:http://contently.com/blog/2012/05/25/the-benefits-of-inbound-vs-outbound-marketing-infographic/; http://paidcontent.org/2012/01/19/419-comscore-study-a-third-of-ad-impressions-are-never-seen/; http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevecooper/2012/11/30/dealing-with-facebooks-unfriendly-new-algorithm/; http://www.minnpost.com/business/2013/02/goin-mobile-cloud-based-lifestyle-moving-fast
WASHINGTON – January 30, 2013 – Bluetext, one of the nation’s fastest growing digital marketing, branding, and strategic communications firms, today announced that it has been chosen by The Washington Times to rethink and redesign the media property’s digital platform.
The Washington Times, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary as an alternative voice in the nation’s capital, has earned a reputation as one of the premier sources of news and commentary for U.S. conservatives. Since its founding, The Times’ award-winning political, social, national security and intelligence reporting, along with insightful editorial and opinion pages, have attracted growing national and international audiences online. As part of its transition to a Digital First news Compatibility horoscope concedes the possibility of romance, but states that long lasting relations are not quite probable. orientation, The Washington Times has embarked on a top-to-bottom reorganization to provide its audience with more timely and comprehensive information, reporting, and perspective on the major stories of the day.
“We chose Bluetext not only for its experience with some of the largest national media brands including Adobe and Google, but also because of its creativity and insight on how to appeal to our audience with the news and information they are looking for,” said John Martin, Chief Operating Officer for The Washington Times. “Bluetext brings us both a great user experience and fresh ideas on growing our revenue opportunities.”
“We are excited to work with The Washington Times to challenge national market leaders as the most innovative media property covering the news and issues coming out of Washington,” said Jason Siegel, Creative Director for Bluetext.
Bluetext was excited to see this month that three of our clients are in the top 10 of Fortune Magazine’s just released 100 Best Companies to Work For: Google came in at number One, The Boston Consulting Group at number Four, and NetApp at number Six! Another client, Cisco, is not far behind.
Now, we’re not taking credit for their high results, but we do think there is a strong correlation between companies who have established the kind of workplace culture that earns them such a high ranking, and the willingness to push the envelope with creative campaigns and communications efforts that make people sit up and take notice.
It takes that kind of work environment to give their marketing professionals the self-confidence to try new approaches, seek out cutting-edge creative, and be strategically focused to reach new audiences in different ways. The conventional approaches may be safe, but trying something a little more creative is how you can get ahead in a tough market. One cool thing about our clients on this list—they are always asking for campaigns that are different and that will set them apart from their competitors. They’re not afraid to take chances, and if we present them with a good idea, they will always find the support for it.
That, we think, is a result of a corporate culture and work environment that gets them to the top of the Fortune list every year. Congratulations for believing in your team, and giving them what it takes to be among the best!
Well, you’ve survived the Mayan Apocalypse, finished your last-minute holiday shopping (why shop if the world is ending?), and slept off the New Year’s Eve revelry. Today it’s back to work! What’s the first thing on your to-do list? Get smart on your digital marketing strategy!
Bluetext’s resident creative director and co-founding partner, Jason Siegel, has unveiled his 11 top digital marketing trends to watch in 2013. Take a look for a glimpse into the factors that will impact:
- Opportunities for cross-channel promotion
- Why your infographics aren’t getting the attention you think they deserve
- Maximizing paid online media
- Snackable content
- The evolution of live IP content
- How to best leverage geofencing
- And more!
We’re extremely excited for a big 2013 here at Bluetext! If you’d like to ask us any questions about these trends or how we can help with your digital marketing and strategic communications programs in the new year, please feel free to comment, contact us, or hit us up on Facebook and Twitter.
I recently gave a presentation to 50 CMOs of large enterprises about the changing landscape in digital marketing. A section on advanced search engine optimization drove especially strong engagement and curiosity from the smart crowd. Some key take-aways include:
1. ATTACK OF THE PENGUIN
Google’s algorithm has changed. If you are gaming anchor text and looking to replicate the same content and links on many niche sites, your site will be penalized. Inbound links are now measured by BOTH the relevancy of content on the page you are linked from, AND the relevancy of the site content and the niche site it focuses on.
2. THE HIDDEN GEMS
SPEED: Google loves speed more and more. How fast does your homepage and rest of your site load? Is your code as light and smart as it can be for your homepage? Will a few extra dollars with a CDN hosting strategy drive your SEO and quality traffic by exponential amounts?
SOCIAL SIGNALS: Sharing, liking, pining, tweets, etc. All these social signals are weighed positively by Google. Be smart about this in your template integration and information architecture.
3. MY NEIGHBOR IS WHO?!?!?!
Investigate if you have any questionable sites (i.e. gambling, porn SPAMengines, etc.) sharing infrastructure with you if you host in the cloud. This could hurt your SEO. A few smart questions to your host provider can go a long way.
4. BEING OLD IS GOOD FOR ROOKIES
Corporations looking to rebrand or look to brand new assets, products, or services should look to buying an aged domain. Age of domain has weight in SEO.
5. THE KING: Content. Content. Content.
Google’s optimizing to serve up fast, relevant and high quality content. More energy needs to go into editorial strategy or looking for angles, cutting corners and gaming. Make sure you look at keyword behavior, web analytics, email analytics and search behavior, and question all trends, to help inform all publishing decisions.
Many of our clients have been calling asking for recommendations on year-end projects to use on expiring budget. If you are in a similar situation and want to maximize your marketing investment, or looking to jumpstart 2013 planning, we thought it would make sense to send out some recommendations. All of these campaigns or concepts could be launched quickly and could help augment 2013 marketing efforts you already have planned this year.
- Build an infographic to effectively position your products or services for 2013
- Audit your website. Is it optimized for lead generation, search, and content marketing?
- Optimize your demand generation solution. Are you maximizing your Eloqua or Marketo platform?
- Optimize your mobile site, as stats are showing that nearly 50% of all web traffic is coming from mobile devices
- Launch a YouTube re-targeting advertising campaign promoting your videos
- Conduct a website analytics review with recommendations and next steps
Those are just some of the ideas we have been recommending. Got a question about optimizing your brand, website, or communications campaign? Give us a call…
Google’s new Hummingbird search engine algorithm is sending shock waves throughout the digital marketing arena. What it means, and how marketers need to adjust their SEO thinking will be on the to-do list for the foreseeable future.
When Google released its latest changes this fall, it used a very clever strategy that took almost everyone involved in SEO by surprise. First, it ran the new algorithm for 30 days before telling anyone. No big announcement, no public launch, just a quiet change. Then it held a press conference to discuss what was quickly recognized as its most significant revision in more than a dozen years. And with a full 30 days’ worth of data under its belt, Google was able to say that the world had not ended by its revision. Not only did the industry feel no seismic disruptions, but by most accounts no one had even noticed.
Hummingbird is a massive change in the way in which the Google search engine returns search results, and it has major implications for the way that companies and organizations need to approach SEO.
First, a little search engine background. Search has always been a game of cat-and-mouse. The marketer’s goal is to use links, key words, and other tactics to ensure that their website comes up high during relevant searches. Google’s interest is in having the most relevant results that don’t favor a site just because it has tricked the search engine. So, for example, when inbound links were weighed heavily, tacticians could create “link farms” that gave the impression of links that weren’t real. When Google altered the algorithm to degrade unimportant links, new tricks were developed that included keyword stuffing, or the heavy use of searched terms throughout the site. Google responded by setting parameters on how many words could be used in a given paragraph. The back-and-forth continued.
Hummingbird marks a steep departure from this word-based game. It focuses on context and what are known as “long-tail” queries to deliver results that are more specific to the needs of an evolving Internet where mobile devices and voice commands are replacing simple word searches. Hummingbird is supposed to reflect that context when, to use an obvious example, we search for Chinese restaurants. What earlier search engines would deliver was a list of restaurants. But what we really want to learn is a good place to eat that is nearby. The intent of Hummingbird is to understand that context and deliver recommendations of good restaurants in our area. Remember that what is a “good” place to eat is a subjective notion and will become very important in how marketers will need to structure their SEO strategy going forward.
That context gets more difficult as people speak their questions rather than type. So for example, while a typed query might read, “nearby Chinese restaurant,” a spoken query might say “What’s the best place to get Chinese near my home.” Google needs to recognize the actual location of your home, understand that ‘place’ means you want a brick-and-mortar restaurant, and get that “Chinese” is a particular type of restaurant. Knowing all these meanings may help Google go beyond just finding pages with matching words.
Google has reoriented its search algorithm in three very important ways in Hummingbird, and two of those changes have to do with what it determines is “good.”
The first is that Google now rewards good content. That means that long, detailed and well-sourced articles are going to get better results than mere word mentions on a page. Do a search on “slavery” and you will find long articles from The New York Times as well as The Smithsonian magazine. Search for “best rain jackets” and you will get reviews from publications and “How to choose” articles from within the REI site, instead of links directly to items for sale.
The second is that Google is putting links to what it considers to be good content directly on the results page, and is including related articles and other information that it didn’t previously deliver. From a consumer’s point of view, this turns the search results page into a sort of encyclopedia with snippets of content pulled from others’ sites. From a marketers perspective, it could mean that viewers will see information from your site, but not need to click onto your site to get it. Skeptics have theorized that Google is actually trying to keep you on their page as long as possible in order to run more ads and realize more revenues. Whatever the motive, getting someone to leave the search page for your website is more challenging.
The third is that social media, and in particular Google+, will become a larger part of the search engine equation. Google’s goal is to tap into your network of friends to give you additional insight on your query. Go back to the question about a good nearby Chinese restaurant. If Google sees that friends within your Google+ circles like a particular restaurant, that might be included in the search results.
This is a lot to think about, and requires a different mindset when executing your SEO strategy. If this is starting to make your head spin, join the club. Much of what has been written about Hummingbird so far is difficult for anyone not steeped in algorithm technology to understand. So with that in mind…
Bluetext is very excited to announce that it has been chosen by the Meridian International Center as its official Branding and Marketing Partner for Meridian’s 44th Annual Ball and Global Leadership Summit, to be held October 12, 2012. The Annual Ball has been named one of the top five social events of the year by The Washington Post, and attracts more than 1000 political, diplomatic, and business leaders from the Washington community. This is the first year for the Global Leadership Summit, and one of our assignments is to help make that a valuable and memorable event.
“We look forward to working with Bluetext to prepare for the 44th Annual Ball and Global Leadership Conference,” said Greg Houston, Meridian’s Senior Vice President for Development and External Affairs. “It’s vitally important that those who attend and enjoy the Ball every year recognize the value that Meridian brings to the global community, and Bluetext will help us develop and convey that message.”
Hosted by Meridian in partnership with Gallup and the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, the Summit will feature presentations from The Gallup Organization and from Fred Smith, the legendary CEO of FedEx. This year’s Ball and Global Leadership Summit will be co-chaired by Mr. Jay L. Johnson, chairman and CEO of General Dynamics, and Mrs. Sydney McNiff Johnson. The Summit will convene a cross-section of international and domestic policy makers, corporate and diplomatic leaders, academics, and members of the media to explore more efficient, effective ways to address global economic and social challenges.
While the Ball is well-known in Washington, the inaugural Global Leadership Summit preceding the Ball will bring leaders from Congress, the Administration, the diplomatic community, and the corporate world together to discuss issues that are central to the challenges they are facing. Part of Meridian’s mission is to bring leaders together to interact with and learn from each other, because leaders make better decisions through shared experiences.
We are honored and excited to be working closely with Meridian on this year’s events. Our brand and marketing experience gives us a unique opportunity to help Meridian deliver to its attendees a great understanding of what Meridian achieves for the international community, and how its members can engage with the organization to further that mission. We want everyone who comes to the Summit and Ball to leave there with a greater sense of global purpose, and also to have a great time.
The Meridian Ball is one of the most prestigious annual events in Washington. Now in its 44th year, the Ball brings together policy makers, private sector and cultural leaders, and the diplomatic corps to celebrate Meridian’s ongoing efforts to strengthen international understanding through the exchange of ideas, people, and culture.
Traditionally held in October, the Ball in known for its intimate dinners, each hosted by an Ambassador at his or her Residence or Embassy, in addition to a dinner hosted by Meridian at its White-Meyer House. After dinner, all guests convene for dancing, dessert, and dialogue at Meridian House, an architectural treasure listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Ball is well attended by public officials including Cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court justices, and members of the U.S. Congress, as well as prominent media figures, foreign Ambassadors, and representatives from the international business and cultural communities.