Awesome infographic from @Chango showing 7 effective forms of retargeting.
Pop-upView Separately

Awesome infographic from @Chango showing 7 effective forms of retargeting.

Are you using behavioral targeting in your marketing campaigns?

Behavioral targeting. Mention it and marketers start to drool. But what is it exactly?

Behavioral targeting is a practice marketers use to identify web visitors based on certain behaviors they exhibit. Such behaviors might be:

  • clicking on your company logo
  • adding a product to the cart and then bailing
  • adding to the cart and then purchasing
  • watching a particular video
  • visiting your site 5 times in the last month
  • returning to your site for a second visit
  • not returning to your site in 6 months

Each behavior might lead to a unique marketing campaign with its own parameters and goals. In the case of visitors who added a product to the cart but didn’t buy, you might send out an email with a special discount aimed at convincing them to pull the trigger or simply finish where they left off. Or you might offer something special in a series of display ads you that you’ve across the web using “retargeting.”

There are many ways to act on these behaviors as more and more tools are incorporating this into their scope.

In my day-to-day I am experimenting with display ads targeted at shopping cart abandoners. I am also testing unobtrusive popups on returning visitors vs first time visitors. But how bout you? How are you using behavioral targeting?

Businesses: The key to group deal success is your rebooking strategy

Here is a (positive) group deal case study:

My wife is a hair stylist who recently joined a well-established salon in a location where foot traffic is usually high. But with the recent economic slowdown and the closing of a nearby pharmacy, foot traffic was on the decline. So they called LivingSocial and put a deal together for “$25 for $50 of hair services”.

To really get the most out of their deal, I suggested they 1) prepare for the onslaught of calls, meager tips and fickle customers, and 2) more importantly, set a goal of rebooking every customer that walks in the door.

The deal sold 600 vouchers, my wife’s book is full for the next month, and the salon has managed to rebook 80% of new customers because of their rebooking strategy. This business really “gets” it, though I realize not every business does.

Much of the recent negative press on group deals stems from businesses not seeing the return customers they had hoped for. And to make matters worse, Groupon and others are promising numbers they cannot possibly deliver.

I would like to see marketers point out both positive and negative group buying experiences so we can learn from these and move on. Group deals are not going anywhere any time soon, as this daily deals forecast reports.

My advice to businesses looking to acquire new customers through group deals: get real with your expectations. And a word to Groupon: please don’t undercut yourself by promising metrics you cannot control.

Got any group deal case studies you’d like to share (positive or negative)? Leave a comment!

“It’s simple… [Social] shares drive sales!” via @socialtimes. See article: http://socialtimes.com/social-commerce-infographic_b62963
Pop-upView Separately

“It’s simple… [Social] shares drive sales!” via @socialtimes. See article: http://socialtimes.com/social-commerce-infographic_b62963

An Infographic About Infographics! via Ivan Cash (http://cargocollective.com/ivancash#1256850/Infographic-Infographic)
Pop-upView Separately

An Infographic About Infographics! via Ivan Cash (http://cargocollective.com/ivancash#1256850/Infographic-Infographic)

Know your demographics. Infographic via @AdAge.
Pop-upView Separately

Know your demographics. Infographic via @AdAge.

Yelp. Love it or Hate it?

yelpI have a love-hate relationship with Yelp. But I have a feeling I am not the only one.

There are many reasons to love Yelp. How else can I find a good taco joint with legitimate reviews near the very spot where I am sitting at my desk? And there are many reasons to dislike Yelp, especially for small businesses where every review counts. Remember the old saying: a hater will tell 10 people they hate something, while a lover will sit silently by. 

This is nothing new. But what is new is a trick I recently discovered — a new use for Yelp that has me loving it more and more. 

Let’s say you have an idea for a new business, a hair salon. But you plan to offer something slightly different, maybe a focus on blow drying (blowouts). The single best way to research your brand new business idea, from choosing locations to pricing to handling customer service to making your clients feel 100 times better than when they walked in the door, is to read Yelp reviews on other similar businesses. It is pure gold, my fellow marketers/friends.

You will learn so much from this exercise that it will set you up for success. Try it and let me know how it goes.

I think you’re gonna love it!

5 stars

The new marketing trifecta: mobile + email + social.
Pop-upView Separately

The new marketing trifecta: mobile + email + social.

Can Facebook Compete with Groupon for Group Deals?

Facebook announced plans this week to create a group deals feature for its social network of nearly 600 million users. People will be able to share deals with their friends, similar to Groupon and Living Social’s social sharing features. 

But as a marketer, it raises a few questions.

  1. How effective are the social sharing features of Groupon and Living Social? Have you ever shared a deal? I haven’t. By the time I get to it, the deal has already tipped.
  2. Do people want to buy things on Facebook? There seem to be two camps. Marketers say Yes, and non-marketers say… Maybe.
  3. How will they integrate with their current Deals program? Can they successfully tie this to a physical business or check-in?

Let’s just assume Facebook rolls out group deals, and people share and buy them. With all the social data Facebook owns (ie, likes and interests on 600 million people), this concept will ROCK!

I’d like to know what you think.

SMBs: Do Groupon sales wreak havoc on your web analytics, too?

In a previous post, I wrote about how Groupon wreaks havoc on SEM. I can now add web analytics to that list.

How so? Groupon gets people interested in your brand. Lots of people. First, they see the deal on Groupon. Next they open a new tab (usually) and check out your site. But they won’t purchase while they’re there. Instead, they do their purchasing on Groupon’s site, which throws off many of your reports, including Visits to Purchase (a canned report found inside Google Analytics).

The same goes for Days to Purchase reports. This report shows how many transactions occurred within 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, etc., of first visiting your site. When offered such deep discounts, Groupon buyers have less incentive to redeem right away. 

Speaking of redeeming, what’s the going rate for Groupon-deal redemption? 80% or thereabouts, right? Just another way Groupon messes with your web transaction reports.

There may be a solution to this problem: segment your visitors. Just create a custom segment where you can examine all visitors that did NOT come from the referring site www.groupon.com. That should work perfectly, right?

Wrong! Remember from my previous posts many Grouponers are intent on opening a new tab, searching your brand, and clicking your PPC ad? I am afraid there is no way to filter out Grouponers, or at least I haven’t found one yet. Thoughts?