We recently published a white paper for marketing executives who want to understand the risks and consequences associated with not fully embracing the web. As the web has become the central hub of all communications, no longer can marketing executives afford to take a casual approach to the web by relying on an ineffective corporate website. Rather a full-throttle, all-encompassing web strategy must be in place in order for a business to grow. A holistic web strategy includes components like social media, search engine optimization, video and multimedia, campaign based micro-sites, email ...

I recently began reading Malcolm Gladwell's, What the Dog Saw. In the first chapter Gladwell takes an in-depth look at brilliant marketer Ron Popiel, founder of Ronco, and inventor of popular kitchen gadgets such as the Showtime Rotisserie & BBQ. While I found it interesting to learn about the Popeil family legacy of inventing and entrepreneurial spirit, what fascinated me the most was the fundamental reasons behind Popiel's marketing success. Gladwell attributes Popeil's empire to the fact that Popeil consistently positioned his products as the star of the show. Popeil designed ...

For marketing professionals, measuring return on investment (ROI) is very important. With the right web partner providing effective tools and analysis, measuring ROI with web-based marketing efforts is easy compared to traditional channels where audience interaction is much more obscure. The first step toward measuring results is setting goals. According to search marketing expert Carrie Hill, “The most successful online marketing campaigns use an idea and a goal and leverage that idea and goal as much as they can before it’s exhausted.” Effective goals need to be SMART ...

For many years a company's website was the most important tool in a marketing director's toolbox.  However, as the web has grown it's no longer enough for a company to simply have a static website. There is a great need for companies to employ a holistic web strategy that encompasses things like social media, search engine optimization, video, and mobile capabilities in order to reach their audience and grow their brand. The need for an all-encompassing web strategy combined with the fact that the web has become the focus of all communications, means that marketing directors (not IT ...

We recently had the pleasure of developing a web strategy which included an eCommerce site for Green Boomerang, an eco-conscious start-up looking to revolutionize the shipping industry with their sustainable handling and storage systems. Their goal is to be the Amazon.com of the shipping industry. The main objective of the web strategy was to make things as easy as possible for Green Boomerang's target audience of engineers and sustainability leaders. Engineers traditionally have to spend a lot of time researching and buying containers for their products, often from several different ...

In my previous post about social media ROI,  I talked about establishing a baseline as one of the first steps. Remember, after you establish your baseline it's important to track those metrics on a monthly basis. The next step in calculating social media ROI is to create and maintain a time line of all of your marketing activities. By creating a time line you can overlay your sales data and start to determine trends that will help you connect your investment to its impact on the bottom line (connect the "R" in ROI to the "I"). Start today and from this point forward record all ...

After you have defined goals for measuring social media ROI the next step is to establish a baseline, or internal audit, of where your organization stands now. You need to take an inventory of a variety of business variables (both financial and non financial) that you can use to determine social media's impact on the bottom line $$$. It is best to establish the baseline before implementing your social media strategy. However, if you are already engaging in social media it is still important to establish a baseline of where you stand right now so that you can best determine future ...

Before you can measure social media ROI you first need to define what you want to accomplish by setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound) goals. In addition to being SMART, your goals also need to be tied to an impact on sales. As I discussed in my previous blog post about social media and ROI, decision makers don't care about engagements or conversations. They care about how your allocation of resources has either added to the bottom line $$$ or provided a cost savings. Primary social media ROI goals fall into three basic categories. Here are some ...

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, our team here at Effect has been taking some time to think about all of the blessings in our life. Here is our list of the top 5 things we are thankful for: 1. Our clients Our clients rock. We have so many wonderful clients who challenge us every day to be the best we can be and to stretch our creative wings.  As a web agency we get to be a part of our clients' marketing team, partnering with them to find solutions that grow their business. There is no bigger high than watching our clients meet and surpass their goals. 2. Our talented team The ...

Measuring ROI of your social media marketing IS possible. You can focus your efforts on building a network of engaged, active customers AND you can measure how social media affects the bottom line. Also because social media is NOT free (see the diagram below) it is important to demonstrate this tactic's contribution to the bottom line in order to keep C-Level management happy and the budget allocations for social media flowing. So why then are 84% of social media programs not measuring ROI? I think it's due in part to a lack of understanding about the fundamentals of ROI. Defining ...