“Conversion rates of commercial email campaigns increased an average of 16.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010, compared with the same period a year earlier, for the strongest conversion rate (2.9%) in two years, according to a new study from the Direct Marketing Association and email marketing company Epsilon Data Management.”

Via B2B Online. Read more.

Email Optimization: 5 Ways to Improve Results

Dr. Flint McGlaughlin of MELCABS share 5 insights from over 10,000 email optimization tests on landing pages and emails. The number one insight: Emails should sell clicks, not products.

Via MarketingSherpa. Read more.

“According to a new report from Exact Target and CoTweet, data from “The Social Break-up” indicates 18% of email users say they never open email from companies, and 77% of all US online consumers say they have become more cautious in the past year about giving their email addresses to companies…. Relevancy has become a baseline requirement for consumers, and they are quick to judge companies when their email programs fail to live up to this standard.”

Via Center for Media Research. Read more.

Interesting facts from the Direct Marketing Association’s recently released 2011 Statistical Fact Book include:

• Midday, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., seems to be the best time to send emails.
• Friday is the most popular day of the week for sending promotional retail emails according to the Fact Book. However, b2b marketers may have better luck spreading out their emails over a series of days or considering weekend emailing.
• Subject lines of 35 characters or fewer have higher click-through rates.

Via BtoB Online. Read more.

Court lifts ban on using competitors’ name in search ad

“In a ruling that could affect a large swath of search marketers, a federal appeals court on Tuesday vacated an injunction banning a software vendor from using a rival’s name as a keyword that triggers pay-per-click ads.” No one is saying it’s a good search tactic, but for now it looks like you won’t be infringing on trademarks.

Via Online Media Daily. Read more.

Lessons From JC Penny’s, Overstock And Forbes:

Three Tips to Avoid Violating Google’s Webmaster Guidelines: 1. Avoid using hidden text and/or hidden links. 2. If you buy links, be very careful. 3. Keep an eye on duplicate content.

Via Search Insider. Read more.


Links to Overstock.com web pages dropped from near the top to page five or six for dozens of common searches as Google penalized the company in part for encouraging college and university websites to post links to its pages.

This is the second move by Google in two weeks against a large retailer for allegedly violating guidelines. Earlier this month, the New York Times reported that Google lowered the ranking of links to J.C. Penney Co. in response to tactics employed by an SEO consultant on its behalf.

Via WSJ Online. Read more.

Google changes SEO algorithm – again

Changes in the mysterious algorithm by which Google determines organic ranking of website pages are common place. But some are bigger than others, and Google’s recent change – aimed at so-called “content farms” is a biggie.

Via BtoBonline. Read more. And WSJ Online. Read more.

… Google is baking “friends” activity on Twitter, Flickr, and other platforms (other than Facebook) into the top search results users see. In some cases, “The social search element will change a page’s ranking — making it appear higher than ‘normal,’” reports Search Engine Land. “The ranking impact will be different based on how strong your connections are, and different people will see different results.”

Via MediaPost News. Read more.

Bing search share up; Google down

Microsoft’s Bing search engine captured 13.1 percent market share, grabbing an entire percentage point from Google, which dropped from 66.6 percent through December to 65.6 percent through January.

ComScore said Bing, whose share climbed from 12 percent in December, enjoyed its greatest single-month boost since its inception in June 2009, when the service started at 8 percent.

Via eWeek. Read more.

New rotation in Adwords lets you optimize for conversions

Google has announced a new rotation option that shows the best converting ads more often. Google’s default setting shows the ads with the highest click through rate most often. Best conversion rate makes more sense. However, you’ll need to factor this into your ad testing plan.

Via Inside Adwords. Read more.

Longer headlines available on Google

Google has begun changing the placement of the first description line for certain ads that appear above the search results on Google. For some ads where each line appears to be a distinct sentence and ends in the proper punctuation, description line 1 will be moved to the headline and separated by a hyphen. As a result, some top placement ads will have longer headlines. Search agencies report increased click-through rates with the longer headline.

Via Media Post. Read more.
Via Inside Adwords. Read more.

Bing’s Local Search Feature Could Drive Clicks And Cash

Bing began testing two types of search queries to better understand human behavior and increase the relevance of results — not only organic, but paid search, too. The tests running in the United States focus on results based on previous searches, and results based on location.

via SearchBlog …  more

Emails to Loyal Customers Pay Off

According to a new study by Experian, in comparison to bulk campaigns, emails targeted to current loyalty program members have 40% higher open rates; 22% higher click rates; and transaction rates and revenue per email that are 29% and 11% higher, correspondingly.

Mailings targeting prospects with an invitation to join a loyalty program tend to outperform the promotional mailings for the same businesses with a 28 percent lift in transaction rates and 25 percent higher revenue per email.

via Promo! … more

Microsoft to stop investigating trademark complaints on Bing

To come in line with search industry practices, as of March 3rd, Microsoft will cease editorial investigations into complaints about trademarks used as keywords to trigger ads on Bing & Yahoo! Search in the United States and Canada. If there is concern that an advertiser may be using a trademark keyword inappropriately, the trademark owner should contact the advertiser directly.

via Microsoft Advertising … more

IT buyers don’t trust IT vendor content

A new study finds half of IT customers don’t think vendor information is useful, with some turned of by bias they uncover by checking the content against other sources.

84% cross check vendor content against other sources. 33% don’t typically look at vendor-provided content because it is often biased. A relatively low 28% have based a buying decision directly on vendor supplied or supported content.

What kind of vendor content do customers find the most useful? The report found that “technical information” (80%), “technology strategy and analysis” (74%) and “how to information” (65%) were at the top of the list.

Via eChannelLine ….

Web email use declining

Unless you sell to the AARP crowd, your target audience is dropping web email in favor of social networking, according to a new comScore report. This won’t come as a huge surprise to anyone who knows anyone under 25, but it might surprise you to know web email usage among even the 45-54 year olds was down 12%.

Via Tech Crunch …

Today’s post covers getting to know your website visitors. Check it out. I think you’ll find it interesting.  One Hour Marketing – Week One – Get to Know Your Visitors.

See you there.

U.S. Paid Search Budgets Forecast To Rise 15%

Marketers will increase search budgets again in 2011. Small- to-mid-size advertisers are expected to increase budgets on Yahoo / Bing to begin to take advantage of potential volume and stronger return on investments on the new platform.

Via MediaPost …

Small Businesses Planning Techie Marketing

According to the Ad-ology 2011 Small Business Marketing Forecast, small business owners are increasingly optimistic overall, and 46% plan increased marketing spending in 2011, up from 29% who planned increases in 2010. Email marketing and company websites continue to be the most popular online marketing methods, but 45% plan to do more with online video and 35% said the same for mobile advertising.

Via Center for Media Research …

Early Morning Email Readers Use Mobile

Based on a composite cross sampling of 155.3 million emails sent across 12 industry segments in the 4th quarter of 2010, a new Knotice study finds that 13.36% of emails are opened by a mobile operating system or device, and the balance on a desktop.

The report shows that the iPhone clearly dominates in terms of email interaction, even as the number of Android devices in-market surpasses iPhones in the latter part of 2010.

Via Center for Media Research …

Business Development and Marketing a Priority For Small Business

An overwhelming majority of small business owners plan to spend money on their business in 2011, according to a new survey by Manta. 47% have prioritized marketing and sales as their top spend, with 24% noting business development as top priority and 23% opting for marketing and advertising.

Via Center for Media Research …


IBM Reports Most SMBs Upping Their IT Spending for 2011

Small and midsize businesses are planning 2011 investments in business analytics, cloud computing, collaboration, mobility and customer-relationship packages.
Study after study has been released lately talking about trends in future IT spending. Most of the ones eWEEK has seen are optimistic in outlook for 2011, following challenging years in 2008 and 2009 and an even-keeled 2010.

Big Blue reported that more than half of the 2,000 midsize companies (in 20 countries) it polled are planning to increase their IT budgets during the next 12 to 18 months. Specifically, 53 percent of responding IT managers expect their budgets to increase over the next 12 to 18 months.

Via eWeek …