US daily newspapers see 8.7% circulation decrease: ABC

admin    Web Marketing     8.7%, circulation, Daily, Decrease, newspapers

Weekday circulation at US daily newspapers fell 8.7% year-over-year for the six-month period ending March 2010, according to data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. Sunday circulation dropped 6.5%, according to the statistics, which were released April 26.

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Twitter acquires SMS firm Cloudhopper

admin    Web Marketing     acquires, Cloudhopper, firm, Twitter

Microblogging platform Twitter, which launched its Promoted Tweets advertising service earlier this month, announced its acquisition of Cloudhopper, a SMS infrastructure company, on April 23.

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Is the Internet (& Media) an Addiction?

admin    Web Marketing     Addiction, Internet, Media

The University of Maryland’s International Center for Media and the Public Agenda conducted a study of college students, depriving them of the Internet, cell phones, and even TV, newspapers and radio for twenty-four hours. Based on the students’ own comments about how much they missed it and were addicted to the Internet, the researchers concluded that the results of one single day were college students are Internetaholics.

Oh, I’m so addicted to hyperbole.

Feeling dependent on something doesn’t make you actually dependent on it. The students were unwilling to go without media, disliked the experience and claimed to be dependent on and addicted to the Internet and other media—but we’re still a bit short of calling this game.

Now, let me say this: the Internet/media may be an addiction. (And I hereby volunteer myself as a prime candidate for a study on that!) However, this study doesn’t do anything to convince me of that. My cell phone has been in the shop for three hours as I write this, and I feel physically disconnected—like I’ve had my antennae clipped. If I had antennae, you know. But that statement does not a scientific or even significant breakthrough make. There are specific chemical centers and reactions and behaviors in the brain that constitute an actual addiction. Until we’re ready to look at something a bit more scientifically, using the term “addiction”—an actual, scientific term—is premature.

For the real meat: “students felt most bereft without their cell phones,” says the study’s website. Obviously, these were the devices they used the most to contact their friends and family.

Hm… so was it the cell phones, or the friends and family members they couldn’t contact quickly that they missed the most? The quotes they used from the students indicated that the utility of cell phones and social networks were what the students missed most—everything from calling their mom, to planning to meet friends, to taking notes in class, to checking the time. So yes, mobile devices and social networks have become pervasive and well-used—but we’re still using them to do the same things and connect with individuals more efficiently.

Bottom line: college students use media a lot. It’s faster and easier—and yes, very deeply ingrained into the way they do things. But nobody actually broke out in a cold sweat over losing their Samsung. Mercifully, the study was short enough that the participants probably suffered few long-term effects, if any .

What do you think? Is this a case of exaggeration of the findings?

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North Carolina offers e-commerce merchants sales tax deal

admin    Web Marketing     Carolina, Deal, Ecommerce, Merchants, North, Offers, Sales.

North Carolina’s Department of Revenue launched a program on April 23 to help e-commerce retailers with affiliate programs in the state “resolve issues of tax liability.”

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Raitt to step down as DMA chair next month

admin    Web Marketing     chair, Down, Month, Next, Raitt, Step

Eugene Raitt, the Direct Marketing Association’s chairman of the board, will resign his position on May 10. Raitt, who was elected board chairman last October, cited work commitment in stepping down, said Sue Geramian, the group’s SVP and chief communications officer.

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Google Places Wants To Help You?

admin    Web Marketing     google, Help, Places, Wants

Last week Google announced the name change from Google Maps to Google Places along with some changes to the local listing service that is so important to local search. At the end of the week Google also announced something that they are not real well known for: support. Here’s how the Google LatLong blog puts it:

With a new name comes a fresh support experience. The Google Places team wants to make sure that, as a business owner, your experience with Google Places is a good one, so we’ve taken some steps to expand and refine our support offerings.

Before we look at the details let’s make sure you don’t get too excited. Why do I say that? Well, there is no support option that allows you to talk (you know as in hearing a real voice of a Google employee) to anyone about your issues. As a result, I say that while Google claims to be “improving” its support experience it is really just doing the classic “putting lipstick on this pig” routine. Many may think that’s a harsh assessment but oftentimes the issues with Google Places listings really need customized answers and improved forums or FAQ’s are just not customized. As a result, I am playing the cynic and expecting that not circumstances will be addressed to the level necessary for Google Places listings.

Here is what Google is touting as improved support from their blog:

Google Places Help Center: Here you can learn more about managing your business listing on Google, new features and how to report problems. This includes a revamped user guide, support channels, and more.

Feedback for Google Places: Post your burning questions and awesome ideas to our new Google Moderator page. After you post, take a look at what other people are posting, and vote up the ideas you like the most. We’ll keep the page open until May 21, 2010, and then our team will review the top questions and record video responses that we’ll post in our Help Center.

Google Places Help Forum: Discuss with other users how to improve your listing, newly announced features, or issues you’re encountering. We have dedicated volunteers known as “Top Contributors” who can help answer your questions and discuss your ideas. Google Employees will also be monitoring the forum to facilitate discussions in this forum and provide assistance when needed.

Google Places Webinars: Sign up for our webinars to learn about a variety of topics ranging from “Adding a Listing” up to “Enhancing a Listing”. We’re excited about providing a learning environment that allows us to interact more closely with you, the business owner who all these tools are made for! If you can’t attend the webinars, don’t worry – we’ll post the videos on our YouTube Channel at youtube.com/googleplaces.

I have already taken in the first webinar and it is certainly Google Places 101. There were some tidbits here and there but generally it was a death by PowerPoint approach with no interaction. Ain’t that the Google way?

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ABC, Verve Wireless partner on mobile circulation data

admin    Web Marketing     circulation, Data, Mobile, Partner, Verve, Wireless

ABCi, the Audit Bureau of Circulations’ interactive unit, announced April 22 that it has partnered with Verve Wireless to audit newspapers’ mobile content delivered with Verve’s publishing platform.

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Senators indicate support for Postal Service reform in subcommittee hearing

admin    Web Marketing     hearing, indicate, Postal, reform, senators, service, subcommittee, Support

Sen. Tom Corburn (R-OK), a frequent critic of the US Postal Service, emerged as an unlikely champion of the agency’s 10-year plan to revise its business model at an April 22 Senate subcommittee hearing.

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Google Changing Its Agency Interface

admin    Web Marketing     Agency, Changing, google, Interface

Google is changing the way it will interact with agencies using AdWords. They’re discontinuing the Google Advertising Professionals program in favor of the Google AdWords Certification program, and eliminating fees for some agencies using the API, based on client spend.

Agencies that have at least one certified employee may qualify as Certified Partners now. The certification process will also change, with more training materials, harder tests that include application and best practices, and a new badge that includes a “click to verify” CTA. Individuals certifying will now have to pass two tests instead of one, according to Search Engine Land.

For large enough agencies, Google will be waiving the AdWords API fee. They’ll begin accepting applications for that program one month from today.

Google is also adding a searchable database of Certified Partners now, enabling prospective clients to search for an agency to serve their AdWords needs. For once, the database is totally opt-in (good job, Google!). According to Google:

Searches can be filtered by location, agency experience within a particular budget range, the types of services provided and the industry verticals an agency serves. Advertisers can then evaluate the list of Certified Partners that meet their criteria and contact the partners who seem best suited to their needs.

Clearly, Google is looking at the way they interact with agencies, and trying to make their AdWords offerings more friendly to their biggest clients.

What do you think? Will this change the way agencies and Google interact?

View full post on Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim

Improving Sales and Marketing Alignment: The Marketing and Sales SLA

admin    Twitter Marketing     Alignment, Improving, marketing, Sales.

As companies continue to increase the percentage of leads that originate from inbound marketing, effective alignment of sales and marketing becomes a critical area of organizational design.  If the two departments are managed as separate silos, the system fails. For companies to achieve growth and become leaders in their industries, it is critical that these two group be properly integrated 

The Problem

Marketing is measured against aggressive lead quantity goals.   They scramble to meet these goals, focusing on campaigns that produce the most lead conversions.   Lead quality is de-prioritized and suffers.   Sales becomes frustrated with all the time it takes to comb through dozens of unqualified leads to perhaps find one good one.  They stop paying attention to these leads and revert back to expensive, and often times unprofitable, cold calling.  Marketing complains that sales is ignoring the leads that marketing worked hard to generate. 

The Solution

To address this issue, many companies on the edge of inbound marketing and sales 2.0 have introduced a marketing and sales SLA.   We use this technique at HubSpot ourselves.  The marketing SLA defines the expectations that sales has for marketing with regards to lead quantity and lead quality.  The sales SLA defines the expectations that marketing has for sales on how deeply and frequently sales will pursue each qualified lead. 

5 Steps to Establishing A Sales and Marketing SLA

1.       Run a closed loop analysis on your historical inbound lead segments.  Calculate the profitability of each segment.

2.       Classify profitable lead segments as “workable leads”, which are ready for sales.  Filter out and/or nurture “non-workable leads”. 

3.       Determine the number of “workable leads” per sales rep per month that marketing is accountable for.  This metric becomes your marketing SLA.

4.       Define the number and frequency of attempts that sales will make against each “workable lead”.  This metric becomes your sales SLA.

5.       Automate the daily monitoring of the process.  Key metrics to monitor are:

a.       “Workable leads” produced per sales rep, month to date

b.      Attempts per “workable lead”

c.       Connect rate per “workable lead”

d.      Conversion rate to forecasted pipeline per “workable lead”

To maximize accountability and empowerment, it is best define the SLA in a joint meeting between sales and marketing.

What issues do you have with sales and marketing alignment?  What other interesting strategies have you implemented?

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