Nov
28th

Black Friday Battles

Posted by Vern on November 28, 2008 at 11:54 am

Yes, it’s Black Friday, the traditional kick-off of the Christmas shopping season. As I write this, sleepy-eyed bargain hunters are probably heading home after standing in line for hours to get their Black Friday discounted TV or GPS. Other shoppers – the late arrivals – are circling the mall, battling to find a parking spot.

Sounds like fun, but I’m immersed in a shopping frenzy of another kind. You see, I manage the paid search marketing for a major regional retailer. My team and I are engaged in cyber-battle with competing online retailers like Best Buy and Amazon. Today will be spent monitoring and reacting to their Black Friday and online product offerings and putting my client in a position to snatch sales from their less nimble and poorly managed advertising.

black friday shoppers

Some of you may be under the impression that paid search marketing is a “set it and forget it” form of advertising. Sure, there are automated systems that we take advantage of to increase efficiencies and ROI. But we also take a hands-on approach to account management. We monitor competitor prices, ad copy, ad SERP positions, and product availability.

Today’s already been a lot of fun. It’s amazing to see the big name retailers bidding their ads to the #1 position on the Google SERP for products that are sold-out, backordered or, amazingly, not even on the landing page linked to their paid search ads. I’ll add “In Stock” to my competing ad and my client reaps the rewards. If we sell out of that product the corresponding ads are taken offline ASAP to preserve ROI. If I have an item with a significant price advantage, I’ll put it in the ad and bid to a middle of the road position on the SERP to lower CPC.

Have a safe and successful Christmas shopping experience – shop online! You’ll save gas, money, time and your sanity. Merry Christmas!

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Nov
25th

Mobile Applications – They Just Keep Getting Better

Posted by Chip Rice on November 25, 2008 at 8:43 am

It’s time again for your monthly update on all things mobile and once again we have a variety of exciting mobile applications to discuss.

If you’ve been following the mobile space at all it should come as no surprise that development in this area has been occurring at an ever increasing pace. The expanding use of smartphones is largely to thank for this, especially the iPhone and the new Android based T-Mobile G1.

So without further ado, let’s just get right into it.

Image: Waiting for the Train by Joi

G1’s ShopSavvy
Dallas based Big in Japan has unveiled a comparison shopping application for the T-Mobile G1 called ShopSavvy. As one of the winners of Google’s Android Challenge (under the name GoCart), ShopSavvy allows consumers to comparison shop by simply capturing the barcode of any product with the G1’s built in camera. ShopSavvy then uses the barcode information to search the web for the best price on the product both online as well as at nearby brick and mortar locations.

SlyDial
As the name suggests, SlyDial is a mobile application that allows you to call people on the sly by dialing directly into their voicemail. As someone who’s favorite thing about text messaging is that it allows me to communicate short thoughts without the formality of actually making a call and speaking to someone, this has to me my favorite application this month. The SlyDial application is free and currently works with Blackberry, Windows Mobile and the iPhone.

Moodio
While mobile phones with MP3 capability have become a dime a dozen, the ability to access internet radio stations through mobile devices can still be a bit of a challenge, especially if you want to be able to customize your available station options. Moodio is a free service that allows you to do just that.

In fact if your favorite station isn’t currently available you can add it to their list yourself. The only limitation to enjoying Moodio is going to be your service plan. It’s highly recommended that you only use Moodio if you have a flat rate plan that allows for unlimited downloads. Otherwise, this application has the potential to rack up serious charges from your provider.

Voice Search & iPhone
Google joins the ranks of those to offer voice activated search for mobile phones with the latest release of the Google Mobile App for the iPhone. With the free application, iPhone users can simply ask a question of their phone and receive Google search results relevant to the question.

Mobile Maps from Google
The mobile support of Google Maps continues to be improved upon, most recently with the addition of street level views, and will soon be equivalent to the full web version.

The primary limitation at this point is currently that it requires a live data connection in order to access the maps. However a comment made by Maps Guide Tom in this Google Groups thread sure makes it sound like Google might be working on an update that would allow you to access previously stored cached versions when you don’t have an active connection.

Mobile Flash
Driven by the desire to become a preferred platform for the growing market of applications that run on the higher end mobile devices, Adobe has been working on the development of a full-fledged Flash Player 10 for mobile devices. While the actual release could still be up to a year away, at Adobe’s Max conference they revealed working demos for the majority of the major smartphone platforms, including Android — the one major omission still being Apple’s iPhone.

Another mobile update comes to a close almost as quickly as it began. As always, if I’ve skipped over your favorite application please feel free to add it to the conversation by posting a comment.

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Nov
24th

Find & Exploit Your Niche in the Online World

Posted by Steve on November 24, 2008 at 11:24 am

What do you offer your customers?

I’m not necessarily referring to the actual product or service or solution. What I mean is, what is it that you offer that your customers can’t find elsewhere?

In the online world, nearly every space and every corner is filled. Competition is absurdly fierce. And it’s often unconventional. Not only do you have to worry about direct competitors, on the web you also face unconventional competition – not necessarily for customers, but for space.

It’s becoming increasingly necessary for businesses to figure out their niche. Then focus on it, and exploit it.

For many companies, their types of products or services automatically place their business into an identifiable category. Often times though, it’s one particular product or service that truly defines their unique business niche.

Let’s say, for example, that an online jewelry retailer offers everything from women’s watches to men’s wedding bands. For most of the products they sell, they offer others’ brands. However, they also create their own line of engagement rings, which are not only distinctive, but can be priced at the retailer’s discretion.

Let’s use an example from the B2B space. A company that offers enterprise resource planning software is using its marketing budget to target businesses of all types and sizes. The company’s software is customizable and scalable, but is better designed to meet the needs of small to mid-sized businesses in the service management industry.

In many cases, it’s just sensible to offer multiple products or solutions, or offer them to different types of customers. Someone needs A, so we should also offer B. It’s the nature of business – grow, expand. Regardless, however, of the diversity of a business’s product line or service offering, in most cases, they have their strengths, and they have their weaknesses.

Orville Popcorn Advertisement by puroticorico on flickr Would the jewelry retailer be better served by allocating 100% of its time and resources toward their own product line? Should the ERP software provider refine its marketing approach to only target small- to mid-sized businesses?

I believe it was Orville Redenbacher that said, “Do one thing, and do it better than anyone else.” Now I wouldn’t say his popcorn is the best I’ve ever had, but it’s pretty good – the Movie Theater Butter, anyway.

His philosophy, though, is one that is highly fitting in this day and age. Nearly every industry, both online and off, is saturated with competition, and the question that companies need to be asking is, “Are we the best at what we do?”

Image: Orville Popcorn Advertisement by puroticorico

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Nov
21st

They Like Us! They Really Like Us!

Posted by Maureen on November 21, 2008 at 10:44 am

silver davey award This year, the Davey Awards received over 4,000 entries from ad agencies, interactive agencies, production firms, in-house creative professionals, graphic designers, design firms, public relations firms – and just one from Oneupweb.

And now, the entries have been judged, the votes have been counted and the good news is in – our newsletter, OneUp Low-Down , stood apart from the rest and is being honored with a 2008 Silver Davey.

I have to admit, I’m excited. I’ve had the pleasure of helping our newsletter grow and take shape over the past year. It’s been an ongoing commitment to our clients and subscribers, albeit a silent one, that this newsletter would not only include the latest happenings at Oneupweb, it would serve as a snapshot of the digital marketing industry and provide important research that online marketers need to know. And of course, it would do it in a fun, creative and entertaining manner.

From the digital marketing tip of the month to the hottest item on our CEO Lisa Wehr’s desk, the newsletter provides fresh ideas that are proven to help online marketers be successful. A special In the Industry section highlights the latest news, studies and findings in the field, and the occasional goofy picture or YouTube video are thrown in to highlight the different abilities of social media marketing.

But is our mission accomplished? Hardly. While the Davey Award affirms that our newsletter is among the best of the best, it also serves as a reminder that we can always do more. And we will.

Next year, we’re going for gold.

Don’t miss out on the vital information, statistics and more.

Subscribe to OneUp Low-Down today!

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Nov
19th

Read Between the Spectrums – Will White Spaces Shed Light on Broadband Innovation?

Posted by admin on November 19, 2008 at 11:00 am

Do you feel bad for your Internet Service Provider (ISP)? No? You mean you don’t like paying exorbitant monthly fees and bloated service charges?

Not even with Comcast being reprimanded for bandwidth throttling? Or an upcoming legislative year with net neutrality back on the table?

Or more recently, the FCC approval to use unused broadband spectrums known as “white spaces”?

With the government’s approval to use white spaces, ISP tycoons such as AT&T and Comcast may have to start getting creative to keep turning that huge profit.

Serving as a buffer between broadcast channels to help limit and prevent signal interference, white spaces are able to travel faster, farther and travel better through walls. Owing to the need of less wireless transmitters and the power of the signals, these white spaces would be more cost efficient than current WiFi signals, only much stronger and much cheaper.

Image: Ghosts of Glasgow by atomicjeep

Opponents of the issue argue that using these spectrums would cause interference with wireless signals such as TV channels and devices like microphones used by entertainers, preachers and sports arenas. The most famous being Dolly Parton who wrote a letter to FCC commissioners urging them to consider the dire consequences of this ruling.

But if you’re not inclined to sign up to the Chicken Little camp, and would like a more astute and realistic assessment of the situation, advocates of the issue include Google co-founder Larry Page, Microsoft’s chief research and strategy officer Craig Mundie and even the scion of all things technology, Bill Gates.

These guys might have a little clearer understanding as to the implications and applications of white spaces than Dolly Parton.

And just what are the implications and applications for those in the search and digital marketing industries?

For one, rural areas with previously limited or no Internet resources will gain access to not just fast and powerful web usage, but much cheaper access than that provided by the big ISPs.

Also, as Larry Page stated, providing Internet access that works virtually everywhere would translate into more searches on Google, not to mention MSN and Yahoo!, as these previously untapped markets begin to explore the web, and 20 to 30 percent increase in advertising revenue.

The most immediate impact would be for mobile devices such as smart phones and laptops, which are becoming mainstream in terms of Internet and search usage. Having a clearer and much faster path for users to find information via their mobile device is another avenue for advertisers to put clients, products and services in front of larger audiences.

This could also mean increased PPC budgets for targeting these untapped areas of commerce. It could mean small businesses in these areas building web pages and hiring SEO firms to increase presence and traffic around local search avenues.

It could also allow the United States to shake the stigma of being a middle-of-the-pack competitor in terms of its global position in broadband penetration and innovation.

Best case scenario: White space usage forces ISPs into rethinking their business model. Worst case scenario: ISPs find yet another way to exploit this broadband innovation.

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