Ad Sales Blog

How Chris Brogan walks the walk

Social media guru and uberblogger Chris Broganwas coming to town. I was going to see him and Tweeted about it. Having never met Brogan I was surprised and delighted to receive a funny Tweet back (on left). 

I got a laugh but insight as well.In Chris' response was reinforced many social media best practices.

First, as with implementing any social media program, Chris listened before he acted. He must have been monitoring social media networks, including Twitter, and noticed my Tweet about his upcoming appearance.

Second, as with any social media program, his response had a conversational, personal style. In this case, along with his wonderful sense of humor. 

Finally, he was starting to build a community. Every presentation is a community building event; in the best a presenter arrives before a crowd of unrelated people, speaks, and leaves behind a community of people with shared interest, knowledge, and passion. Brogan was starting his community building even before he stood before his audience.  

The Trust Summitwhere Brogan spoke along with Julien Smith, David Maister, and Charles H. Green was a tremendous success.

I especially enjoyed seeing Charlie Green, who long ago almost single handedly created the conversation about trust in business, share the stage with Brogan who advocates social media tools as the new trust builders. The two shared common values and different styles. All the presenters were terrific.  

 

Media planning contorted by social media

if you want ot sell media these days you need to understand the effect social media is having on the minds of the media buyer. This amazing slide show by Hike Hess, VP of Research at Carat, lays out just how the move to social media is blowing many media buying conventions.Packed with lots of great stats Hess shows us the way:

Ama Social Media Pres100109

View more presentations from garystein.

To catch a blogger...

Bloggers have more influence on the web than ever. Many see their influence being as great as paid advertising. But can bloggers be influenced? Last year's Technorati: State of the Blogosphere study shows us the way. When bloggers were asked what content or advertising moves them:

The biggest influence on bloggers is, by far,other bloggers. To catch a blogger's attention, you or your organization need to launch a credible blogor find credible presence on the blogosphere itself. This is good news for content publishers who can create targeted blogs that sponsors may want to support.  

Read the entire Technorati study  

Are blogs the new buyers guides?

In previous posts I have stated the conventional wisdom that blogs are a tough sell as ad sponsored media goes. Unless you have a celebrity blogger or are blogging against an important event, ad sponsorships are hard to sell. In those cases, it can be argued, the celebrity and the event are bringing in the value, not so much the blogging itself. 

But now comes evidence that blogging may have value in it's own right. A study from BuzzLogic and JupiterResearch that focused on the behavior of heavy blog readers finds them relying on blogs for information previously thought to be in the benefit list of search and buyers guides. From the study:       

"Blog readers do not appear to rely as heavily on search as a means to find new blogs as compared to consumers of traditional online media. According to the survey, one in five general blog readers (defined as consumers who have read a blog in the past 12 months) use blog links to discover new blogs. Further, the study suggests blogs are not consumed in isolation, but experienced as part of a connected conversation – nearly half (49 percent) of blog readers and 71 percent of frequent readers read more than one blog per session. Key findings include:
•    Links more powerful than search: For frequent readers, links beat search as a navigation tool: 38 percent said blog links were the top tool for discovering new blog content as compared to 34 percent who voted for Web search.
•    Links signal trust: For frequent readers, blog links appear to have similar impact as a trusted recommendation from a person (a response from 39 percent of survey participants). 
•    Blog search not yet mainstream: Blog search engines received the lowest ranking from respondents: 6 percent of general readers and 11 percent of frequent readers say they use these tools to discover new blogs.

Buying Behavior: The Nature of Blog Influence
•    Blogs influence purchases: One half (50 percent) of blog readers say they find blogs useful for purchase information.
•    Blogs sway more purchases among readers than social networks: More frequent blog readers say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions than content from social networking sites.
•    Niche focus ups influence factor: For those who have found blog content useful for product decisions, more than half (56 percent) said blogs with a niche focus and topical expertise were key sources.
•    Blogs go beyond tech: Outside of technology-related purchases, for which 31 percent of readers say blogs are useful, other key categories include media and entertainment (15 percent); games/toys and/or sporting goods (14 percent); travel (12 percent); automotive (11 percent); and health (10 percent).

It’s Buy Time: Where Blogs Sit in the Purchase Cycle
According to the study, blogs factor in to critical stages of the purchase process, weighing most heavily at the actual moment of a purchase decision. When it comes to respondents who said they have trusted blog content for purchase decisions in the past, over half (52 percent) say blogs played a role in the critical moment they decided to move forward with a purchase.
Blog readers also replied around blogs’ influence as it relates to the following steps of the purchase process:
•    Decide on a product or service: 21 percent
•    Refine choices: 19 percent
•    Get support and answers: 19 percent
•    Discover products and services: 17 percent
•    Assure: 14 percent
•    Inspire a purchase: 13 percent
•    Execute a purchase: 7 percent

This story has some traction, here is a link to a short summary of the that study ran in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/22/business/22drill.html?_r=1

Read the entire Buzz Logic press release:

 http://www.buzzlogic.com/press/news.html?postdate=1225203064

Will linkinars be your next big money maker?

  Linkinars are the poor cousin to webinars but are quicker and cheaper to put on. As result, linkinars offer the potential to do more online events at a higher profit margin.

According to linkinar.com, "A linkinar is an online presentation illustrated with a sequence of web links. Typically, audience and presenter access a live telephone line together as the presenter directs the audience to click on a series of links to illustrate points being made."

Because there are only two services required to put on a linkinar and both are nearly free for most content publishers it is worth consideration. The first is a group telephone line, the second is access by the audience to a web page where the presenter can post a series of web links.

You promote and monetize a linkinar the same way you would a webinar. You still collect sales leads for sponsors by requiring attendee registration and offer "signage" for sponsors.   

For a one hour linkinar typically between 7-15 links work best. The person directing the linkinar introduces the call and directs people to click on the first link. Everyone one on the call does so. After the some discussion the linkinar leader moves to the second link and so on. In essence, the links illustrate the talk very inexpensively.

On the negative side, linkinars do not have the upscale graphical appeal of webinars, and cannot accommodate video. Linkinars are low tech.     

But you can put together a linkinar with almost no preparation time and cost. You just need an expert who has a subject to cover and knows where to find supporting content on the web.  

The best use of a linkinar comes when you use links to content on your own own website and blog(s). Doing this you can build web traffic as well as revenue.  

More information at www.linkinar.com

On selling webinar sponsorships
 

A boost to sell your online news products

If you are selling any kind of newsletters, if your website has a basic news design, or if you are sponsoring any webcasts that have a news or current affairs focus, here is a great factoid to share with your advertisers to reinforce the value of what you sell.  

In just the past few months the number of Americans who pick the Internet as their top choice for National and International news had almost doubled, enabling the Internet to surpass Newspapers as the second most preferred news media. With young people Internet sources are almost tied with the top choice, television.

Although Pew does not mention this, it would be hard to imagine that the recent National elections may have helped focus people on where they really prefer to get news.

From the study:

Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the Internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the Internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70%.

For young people, however, the Internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news on line; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied mostly on television for news than mentioned the Internet (68% vs. 34%).

On a call.

Share this as passing a benchmark, which it is. "Hey did you hear that the number of people who use the Internet as their top source for news almost doubled in the past five months? Internet news sources, for the first time ever, passed newspapers and are only behind television. Glad you are running ads in our online news product? See? You are keeping up with the times!"

 Download the report to take on a call:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1066/internet-overtakes-newspapers-as-news-source

 

Engage or die

Denise Shiffman’s new book "Age of Engage" is insightful, illuminating, and potentially terrifying for media sales people. Shiffman lays bare what the marketers we sell our ads to will be expecting in the next 10 years and sees a future requiring different skill sets and media products. In this world media consumers demand total engagement and control over the content we now dispense at our discretion.

Although she offers little specific advice on transforming our current products into Web 2.0 versions she clearly describes what expectations of all Web products and services must be. Here is a handy chart from the book describing expectations of the old vs. new Web:  

According to Denise:

"The original, static Web drew millions of companies online to offer information about their products, and to sell their wares. The second coming of the Web has transformed the online marketplace into an interactive, personal, and communal space. Consumers have been transformed from passive viewers and choosers to active and powerful beacons collectively creating winners and losers. Breaking through the clutter of voices in this new marketplace is an audacious challenge for any marketer. E-mail, viral, search, social, widgets, avatars, authenticity,and story make up the new language. New media, tools, and technologies have to be mastered to remain in the game. In this reinvention
of marketing, it is the fast, the unique, the innovative and creative, the socially connected, and most importantly, those who engage their audience that will win."

How well will your next media products engage your community? Your future could depend on it. 

Download and read the first chapter of "Age of Engage" for free

Article in Chief Marketer on the book

Targeting the...crotch not blogs!

In early January www.ShapingYouth.org, a blog on marketing to children, complained to mass retailer Target about a new ad campaign that depicted a woman positioned on a target pattern with the bull’s-eye seemingly targeting her crotch.

What gives Target? A subliminal sexual message? A lapse into bad taste? Publicity through controversy?  Or, did their art director, so wrapped up in the "snow angel" theme, miss the obvious innuendo?

Mistakes happen, but Target's response to the criticism was a showstopper that enraged the blogosphere.

In an e-mail response published in today's News York Times Target replied:

“Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets.”

“This practice,” the public relations person added, “is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest,” as Target refers to its shoppers.

The Times covered the response:

Word of the exchange quickly spread and the blogosphere did not appreciate the slight. “Target doesn’t participate in new media channels?” asked the Web site for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. Target “dismisses bloggers” commented the blog for Parents for Ethical Marketing. “Ahem! So bloggers don’t count!” Ms. Jussel chimed in on ShapingYouth."

How long the issue will rage in the blogosphere is hard to say. But a lot of people who held a fine opinion of Target think less so because Target did not offer a simple response to a blogger.

On your next call:

If you have a blog product to sell. Remind your client that while blogs often deliver small numbers, the readers can be extremely influential and able to quickly muster armies of like minded individuals that can do great harm. As Target may now be learning, ignore blogs at your peril.

Read the article in today's NY Times

"Dear NBC your ad stinks"

As an interactive evangelist you have to get tough with advertisers who send you lousy ad copy. In interactive media there is no place to hide when an ad does not perform. If an ad tanks on your blog, or website the advertiser will more often blame your media than their message.

B.L. Ochman, publisher of What's Next Blog, was faced with this situation and posts about the tough love she dished out to NBC who submitted poor ad creative for her blog: 

"Dear NBC - Please don't get me wrong: I love you for advertising on my blog. But I want you to get results so you'll keep coming back, and this ad sucks...

So I'd like to give you a little free advice about how to make your blog advertising more effective.

- The job of a blog ad is not to tell your story. Blog ads need to be intriguing, interesting or entertaining enough to get us to a convincing landing page where you have lots of room to tell us what you've got for us.

- Talk about us, not about you. Don't take this personally, but we don't care about you. All we care about is what you can do for us.

- What's the ROI? Tell us about what advertisers got in the last Olympics. All advertisers care about is ROI, either in orders or awareness. Give us stats. We don't care how many days are left before your Olympic coverage starts. We want you to tell us, in the headline, why we should care.

- Be topical, timely, edgy, and fun. Blog readers are inured to traditional advertising. They're here, and on other top blogs, looking for something new and interesting.

- Be clear! You want to get brands to advertise on NBC during the Olympics. Tell me in the headline why I should bring my clients to you

- Don't make your ad a black hole. When that dreadful flashing stops in the ad, you're left with what is basically a black hole.

- White space is your friend in blog ads. You're competing with lots of copy that my readers came here - by choice - to get. What you have is basically a blob of copy, and since it's not easy to read at a glance, it's pretty much invisible. Less is more in blog ads.

- Don't scream in blog ads. You need to be clever.- Have a sense of humor.

- Don't be boring.

Read all of B.L. Ochman's story on her blog

The power of blogs is in...journalists?

Selling sponsored Blogs can be though. Many are sold on the blogger's reputation when traffic is not high enough for a "by the numbers" buy.

But the power of blogs is often not about big numbers, rather in their ability to influence the the influencers.

The Arketi Group, an integrated marketing and public relations consultancy, released a study of journalists last  month that can help you make this point stick.

On a call:

Share this point: Journalists are clearly influencer's in what ever field they are in. They help shape opinion and attitudes within an industry or category.

Now share content from the study:

According to the study, blogs are now a big influence on journalists. The "2007 Arketi Web Watch Survey: Inside B-to-B Media Usage of Web 2.0" revealed that when it comes to using blogs as primary or secondary sources for articles, 84 percent of journalists say they would or already have.

Sixty percent of journalists say they spend more than 20 hours a week on the Internet. When asked how journalists use the Internet:

• 98 percent say reading news
• 97 percent say emailing
• 93 percent say finding news sources
• 89 percent say finding story ideas
• 72 percent say reading blogs
• 67 percent say watching webinars or webcasts

Share this information with your client. Then share that the same kind of information that journalists find so useful is also the content that industry leaders also find useful. Blogs influence the influencers. How about a sponsorship? 

Read the release on the Arketi web site

Download a report of the findings