Predictions for Technology & Advertising

With the start of each new year, strategic planning often follows. For marketers who have to plan for the year(s) to come, Eric Picard’s predictions in using technology for advertising may be of some help.

Predictions include:

• Free WiFi networks
• TV content over the internet
• Filtering technologies for advertising
• Radical technological changes

Filed in: Strategic Planning Predictions Technology Advertising WiFi Filtering

Amazon Introduces Blogs for Authors

As a means of increasing traffic and sales, Amazon.com recently introduced a new service that allows authors to blog on its site. According to Kevin Newcomb’s article, the service provides authors with an opportunity to market new books while readers are driven to visit Amazon.com as they seek to visit their favorite authors’ blogs.

Unfortunately, readers are unable to post comments and subscribe to RSS feeds – the componets that make blogs interactive and successful. Hopefully, as Amazon.com continues to provide the service, it will continue developing the program to provide a more interactive forum for readers and authors while enhancing customer service at the same time.

Filed in: Blog RSS feed Authors Readers Traffic Sales Amazon.com Books Marketing Comments Customer Service

E-mail Newsletter Can Help Build Your Brand

Review this White Paper on increasing customer retention with email newsletters. The paper focuses on providing value through relevant content and staying in front of the customer.

Filed in: Email Newsletter Content Customer

Search Engine Advertising Highlight of Ad:Tech Conference

According to Jupiter Research, search advertising will grow at a compound annual rate of 12% over the next five years while display or banner advertising only grows at a compound annual rate of only 7%.

Kate Maddox’s article, for B to B, focuses on tracking search driven calls with iProspect’s SearchTalk and SearchForce’s Search Marketing Management Platform. The article also covers various other products including:

ClickFraudIndex – provides reporting click activity and pricing
IMN (iMakeNews) – allows marketers to preproduce podcasts into their newsletters
Feedster Media Network – provides RSS feed publishers to participate in Feedster’s ad network to generate revenue through RSS feeds
InFocus – assists marketers in identifying audiences through behavioral, local contextual and demographic targeting

Filed in: Advertising Search Click Marketing Management Pricing Podcasts Newsletters RSS Demographic Target

Are Online Donations Outperforming Offline?

According to this White Paper, a recent study shows that online contributions are 30% more than offline with Andrew Mosawi’s article reporting the average offline contribution, in the United Sates, at $89.25 and the average online contribution at $116.65.

The paper covers strategy for online contributions and the tools to reach contributors.

Filed in: Fundraising Contributions Online

E-mail Marketing Statistics

Now marketers can benchmark their performance with the recent launch of Bronto Software’s online resource for e-mail marketing statistics. It provides weekly updates for several industries including:

Advertising/Marketing
E-Commerce/Retail
Education
Financial Services
Government
Health Care/Insurance
Legal Services
Manufacturing/Distribution
Non-Profit/Association
Publishing/Media
Real Estate
Services/Consulting
Technology
Travel/Hospitality

Be sure to read their quarterly industry statistics report for more details on their research.

Filed in: E-mail Statistics Industry Click-Throughs

Permission-Based Ad Technology for TiVo

TiVo; in cojunction with Interpublic Media, OMD, Starcom Mediavest Group, The Richards Group, and Comcast Spotlight; will be adding ad search capabilities for its digital video recorders (DVRs) this spring. The new technology allows viewers to opt-in and search for ads by keyword or product categories, as well as create a customized profile for the ads they want to receive.

Not only should this come as a relief to advertisers who were concerned about DVR users skipping commercials, but it provides a new opportunity to for them to reach target audiences in a much more focused and direct manner.

TiVo has been working to develop solutions to make ads more appealing to viewers and advertisers like testing a program to show mini-ads while viewers fast-forward past full commercials and launching an interactive direct response advertising program where viewers are asked to respond to a customized call to action or branded "tag" in select commercial spots.

TiVo’s new search technology is just another example of the trend toward permission-based marketing.

Filed in: TiVo Opt-In Target Audience Advertising DVR Commercials Permission-Based Marketing