Behaviour-targeted advertising is more than twice as effective at converting users into buyers. A new study by the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) found that behaviour-targeted advertising pulled in 2.7 times more revenue per ad than non-targeted advertising.

The study shows us how crucial behaviour-targeted advertising is to improving your conversion rate. Although behaviour-targeted ads sell at twice as much, they are clearly twice as effective as normal running ads.

This increasing significance of behavioural advertising will also now need new consideration of policies that may affect the current online advertising marketplace and the innovation it supports.

Other highlights from the study include:

•    The average relative cost of behaviour-targeted ads in 2009 was 2.68 greater than that of standard run-of-network advertising.
•    Behaviour targeted ads accounted for 17.9% of respondents' advertising revenue, with revenue increasing from 16.2% in Q1 to 19.4% in Q4 2009.
•    More than half of the respondents' advertising revenue - 54.6% - went towards the purchase of inventory and was therefore shared with publishers and content producers to support their businesses.

We’ve spoken many times before about Email Marketing and the importance of building your contacts lists but in this blog post, we’re going to be looking at the downside of Email Marketing and how you can avoid it.

The best way to get results online is to build a contact list of people who are interested in your product/service. One of the best ways to do this is by getting people to sign up for your email newsletter. And how do you get people to sign up? By rewarding them. Now here’s the catch, what email addresses are people giving you to take advantage of your free download or exclusive podcast?

It’s not like it’s hard to find an email address. Gmail is just one of the many services that will give you one (or more) for free. Whilst double opt-in forces your reader to give you a real email address - real addresses are cheap. Readers have dozens of ways to capture your valuable free reward, and then ditch the rest of your email once they’ve got it.

They might unsubscribe (best case scenario). They might throw the email address away or just quit checking it. They might set up a filter that automatically pours your messages right into their Delete folder. Or they’ll mark you as spam (worst case scenario) rather than take the “trouble” of unsubscribing. Annoying but it happens. Incidentally, this is why you must make it really easy to unsubscribe from your stuff. If it’s more than a click or two, you’ll regret it.

So what can you do?

You need to show your readers that what you’re offering is going to be valuable to them. If you can offer a fantastic collection of benefits then you'll get their attention and what you're offering will be too valuable to throw away.

This is why an email auto responder is absolutely essential for every marketing project you work on. Whilst newsletters are an excellent tool, they’re 1000 times better when they kick off with a terrific auto responder.

This works better than a one off download because you’re creating an email sequence that puts the reader in the habit of opening each message. Sure, they can still ditch you at the end of the sequence but by that time, you’ll hopefully have created some trust and your reader will have started to know and like you.

Just think – if you emailed ‘Mr Jones’ 9 times in a row and you’ve only sent him valuable information that gives him the results he wants, then do you think he’s likely to open that 10th email?

Google has come up with a tool to help small organisations advertise on YouTube.

The new feature will let advertisers use simple templates to create InVideo overlays and companion ads on YouTube.  (An InVideo ad is an animated flash overlay that appears at the bottom part of a video that a user is watching.)

Now, advertisers can use the Display Ad Builder to turn their adverts into overlays and run a campaign on YouTube in minutes.

Overlays can be bought depending on the type of campaign the advertiser wants to run. The two options are CPC (Cost Per Click) or CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions,) either can be matched to YouTube videos based on numerous criteria such as demographics, content categories or even on a video by video level.

Considering that takeover ads on the YouTube homepage are said to be sold in advance of hundreds of thousands of pounds, this could prove to be a very popular option.  The move also earns brownie points for being low risk, since it probably didn't take much in the way of resources to execute and it doesn't cut any privacy corners.

Now we just get to guess how much Google will actually make from the feature but here’s a pause for thought for you: a Citigroup analyst has estimated that YouTube will pull in about $1 billion in gross revenue this year. Cha-ching!

A new study has found that people describe brands who are still not engaged with social media, as being 'out of touch.'

1,500 consumers were asked; "What does it say about a brand if they are not involved with sites like Facebook and Twitter?" 

Some of the responses included:

• "It's EXPECTED that a company have some digital face - whether it's on FB or Twitter I don't know - but they need a strong electronic presence or you doubt their relevance in today's marketplace." (Female 50-54)
• "Either they are not interested in the demographic that frequents Facebook and Twitter or they are unaware of the opportunity to get more exposure in a more interactive method." (Male 35-39)
• "It shows they are not really with it or in tune with the new ways to communicate with customers." (Female 18-24)
• "If they're not on Facebook or Twitter, then they aren't in touch with the "electronic" people."  (Female 55-59)
  

The survey found that 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy from the brands they follow or are a fan of. It also found that 60% of Facebook fans and 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands.

The findings evidently show that companies who are still not actively engaging in social media are missing out on a huge opportunity. Not only does social media have a relatively low cost touch point but it has repeatedly demonstrated a direct impact on sales and positive word of mouth. By now, if you're not engaged with social media, you're showing your potential customer a reluctance to engage with them on their terms. Isn't it time you gave your customer what they want?

There are two main categories in marketing: Push and Pull.

Push marketing is basically when you push your marketing message on someone when they’re in the middle of something else such as driving a car, watching television or browsing the Internet.You may have heard this otherwise called ‘interruption marketing’ and you probably know exactly what I mean. Well, here’s a question for you; how do you feel when you favourite television show is interrupted by an advert for washing up liquid? Pretty annoyed I bet.

So it probably won’t surprise you when I tell you that the best way to increase your conversion rate is NOT through push marketing but through pull marketing.

Pull marketing is about putting your message in front of those who are actively seeking the products or services you offer. If they’re already looking for what you do, then this gives the perfect opportunity to solve their problems and meet their needs.

Some of the most common pull marketing tactics include:

•    Search engine optimisation
•    Pay-per-click
•    Social media sites
•    Newsletters
•    Tradeshows
•    Public speaking
•    Blogging
•    Strategic networking

In general, there’s a lower ROI associated with push marketing. You’ll get far fewer clients for every pound you spend and it requires more effort.

Pull marketing, on the other hand, is very targeted. It gets your message in front of your ideal clients, and it presents your business as the solution to problems that people are actively seeking help with. That’s why pull marketing has such a high conversion rate. It attracts more clients, and it takes much less effort.

Here, at Ph. Creative, we’re big fans of conversion rate optimisation and the bigger the increase, the happier we are. You can always improve your conversion rate, and even though 1% doesn’t sound a lot – how much would that be worth to you? Of course a 1% improvement is the lowest case scenario, on the other side of things Voice.com have recently quadrupled their conversion rate from under 5% to 22%.

Lucky for you, we’ve had a look at what they’ve done and put together some great ideas on how you can improve your site:

• Find out why customers aren’t converting; don’t just guess. If you know what their objections are, you’ll have more chance of overcoming them.
  
• Don’t try and be modest. If your company is the best at something then shout about it.
  
• If your visitor’s have many different intentions then try segmenting your messages. Beware that segmentation can create a lot of extra work, so only do it if you have to.
  
• People don’t buy what they don’t understand so make sure you clearly explain your service so your potential customer feels more in control and more likely to take action.
  
• A video is the best way for you to explain your service and provide proof. Web videos don’t cost a lot and can be very rewarding.
  

Unfortunately quadrupling your conversion rate isn’t quite that easy, so let me go into a bit more detail:

•    Really know your customers

We have a lot of experience in improving websites and the first thing we do is to understand what the customer wants. You need to be running surveys, speaking with existing customers and digging deep into web analytics. Eventually you’ll find all you need to know about what customers think when they visit your website.

•    Avoid the Spaghetti Strategy

If you to significantly increase your conversion rate, then you can’t expect to just test two new images with three new headlines like pieces of spaghetti and hope that they stick. You need to put thought into how you can improve conversion rate, and you need to know your customer.

•    Don’t stop at the first test

Increasing your conversion rate from 5% to 22% isn’t going to happen with one test, not even two, three or four tests. In actual fact, the 400% increase is the result of 11 tests. By continuing to learn more about your customer and methodically testing, you’ll achieve great results. Testing isn't a one time thing; it’ll take a few goes until you get your big win.

Spending on online advertising and marketing is expected to exceed print for the first time ever this year.

The new report from Outsell forecasts that companies will spend £80 billion on online and digital strategies, from search engine keywords to webinars, while committing £74 billion to print such as newspapers and magazine ads.

In the U.S, spending on advertising and marketing will increase in 2010, but only by 1.2 percent to $368 billion.

Outsell also predicts spending and growth for five media categories which includes online, events, print, TV/radio and PR/other.

The report reflects the fact that advertisers are now directing money towards the channels that generate the most qualified leads and most effective branding. Online marketing also offers more accountability and more options for those people who are cautiously spending their budgets as we come out of the recession.

Other findings include:

• 51% of B2B marketers rate Facebook as extremely or somewhat effective, followed by LinkedIn (45%), Twitter (35%) and MySpace (25%).
  
• B2B advertisers see cross-media marketing as most effective; 78% combine three or more major marketing methods.
  
• Methods creating the highest B2B ROI are topped by advertisers' own websites, followed by conferences, exhibitions and trade shows: direct mail; search engine keywords; and e-marketing/e-newsletters.

When you think about search and social media, I bet you spend most of your time thinking about traffic, customer engagement and brand awareness. Whilst you’re not wrong, there may be more to that last one that you haven’t considered before.

Brand awareness isn’t just about having a random customer find you via Google or Facebook. Have you ever thought about how channels such as search and social media are used by journalists? The fact is journalists and media outlets utilise both to a great extent.

Search and social media play significant roles in PR and you don’t want to forget this when it comes to getting your project or site in front of them. What can you do as a marketer to make it easier for the journalist to do their job?

One way you can potentially increase your media coverage and in turn increase your brand awareness, is to optimise your content for what you think a journalist is looking for.

Online journalists often have tighter deadlines therefore turn to blogs and social networks for instant sources of information. For example, the real-time nature of a Twitter search is what a journalist needs to find someone who’s talking about the subject they’re writing about.

Which is why Google’s real-time search can help for the same reason, and most journalists use Google anyway to research what they’re writing about. If what they’re looking for happens to be related to a news-worthy topic then they might see Google’s real-time results before anything else. If that topic happens to be something you’re talking about, then you might just be the one they pick from those results.

The point is, if you’re looking for increased media coverage then there are ways to increase your chance of getting in front of the right people. If journalists are now using their contacts within their social networks to find sources, then now is a great reason for you to be engaging in social media on a regular basis.

A campaign landing page is created with specific goals in mind therefore they typically perform better than regular website pages at converting visitors. To make sure you’re not missing out on converting your visitors into customers, there are some things you need to understand first:

1.    Make your page relevant to what your customer wants, not just a general information page. For example, if you offer a painting service and your visitor is looking for information on external paintwork, then taking them to a painting information page will not be as effective as a page which specifically talks about external paintwork. This may mean creating multiple landing pages but the increase in conversion will be worth it.

2.    Make sure you offer your visitor some value in exchange for completing your desired action. This might take the form of a special offer, coupon, tool, or resource that they wouldn't otherwise have access to. Any value you can offer them will help your conversion rate.

3.    Don't make the mistake of putting multiple offers or call-to-actions on your landing page as this will only confuse your visitors and degrade conversion rates. There should be one clear action that you want the user to take and your entire page should be geared to making the completion of that action as easy as possible.

4.    Make sure your offer/call to action is also beneficial to your business. Getting someone to use your planning tool is great, but how can you generate new business from that? Once they create their plan, you can ask them to register to save it and at the same time encourage them to opt in for more information. This will enable you to follow up with prospects later on.

You’ll now by know that your contact list is an invaluable part of your business but do you know how to manage it properly? A greatly managed contact list is the architectural equivalent of a castle; it is respected, it has stood the test of time and you have loyal visitors. Whereas a badly managed contact list amounts to no more than a shed; it’s weak, often forgotten about and left out in the cold. So if you want a concrete contact list and let’s admit it, who wouldn’t? Then there are several things you must have in place.

First of all, you need to build yourself a database of meaningful information about your contacts. You don’t just want to know names and addressees, find out what it is that they are most interested in. What do they like to buy? Where do they shop? Do they like attending events? Whatever it is, make it your personal mission to take the time to get to really know your contacts.

From then on make sure you tailor your emails to everything you've learnt and know about your contacts. This information should be used to target specific campaigns to the specific people who you know will be interested. By increasing your level of personalisation in your communications, you'll build loyal contacts who return to buy from you time and time again.

Luckily, many of today’s email marketing software provides the tools you need to create smaller segments within a large contact list based on specific client’s interests, making your job easier and your emails more effective.

The right software will also allow you to send something out that is much more personal than just another email advert. Remember that your contacts don’t just need more information; the Internet provides them with plenty of that! What they need and want is solid, practical, timely, profit-making advice from respected, expert sources.

It doesn't matter how big your contact list, what's important is the quality of your contacts. You could build an email contact list of 5,000 but if 4,000 of them aren't interested in your service, you’re wasting your time when you could just be focussing on the people who do care. So it's important to keep your contact list clean in order to keep your delivery rate high.

If you do manage to build yourself a solid contact list which is successfully managed then you can look forward to growing your contacts. The most important thing to remember is when you build a loyal relationship with your contacts, you stand a better chance of conversion. So start working on your contact list now and it won’t be long before you will be celebrating your landmark success