Saturday, May 5, 2007

And They Blogged Happily Ever After...

We have both learned so much about blogging and e-marketing through the development of our e-market news blog. It was my first time creating or even commenting on a blog. I had learned about their applications to marketing in other classes, but the best way to learn is with hands-on experience which I definitely gained this semester.

Due to the maintenance of this blog Audra and I have stayed up-to-date on e-marketing news. This is one of the advantages of blogging, it is a way to learn about topics that you are interested in with little effort. It also builds a sense of community because you are interacting with other people who have the same intersts. This common interest enables you to make contacts that could be beneficial in the future and also provides an open forum for asking questions and getting feedback. In regards to business, blogging is an inexpensive yet effective marketing tool with great potential. One of the most significant challegnes that I found in regards to blogging was making the time to maintain it. Furthermore, you have little control over what others post and false information could undermine the initial purpose of the blog.

Commenting on other peoples blogs and receiving feedback on your own blog can be a fulfilling experience. I like to make sure others are aware that someone is paying attention and that they are not just posting for no reason. This is also true in the reverse and it's exciting to see what others think about my postings. Another benefit of blogging is the development of ideas that is possible with this new technology.

In a corporate setting, blogs can be used to spread information about new and existing products and provides an effective medium for a viral marketing campaign. If you can make people aware of your blog, building buzz around your product will be more easily attained. A company blog can also maintain a positive image and build brand loyalty to a company and its products. In addition, this is a great way to get insight into what your customers are really thinking. Internal blogs can also be useful to keep employees informed about things within the company. This is especially true with large companies in which face-to-face contact is less likely; blogging provides open two-way communication.

Managers who intend to blog in their professional capacities need to be aware of several issues. First, be sure to have some type of screen internally for who can post on the blog and what can be posted. The company will have very little control once the blog is open to the public so making sure that the company is portraying a consistent brand image internally is crucial. Internal posts should avoid controversial poliical and social issues and keep a positive tone. Furthermore, make sure that the blog is targeted to the appropriate audience and that it does not exploit that audience with deceptive practices. Avoid blogs that appear to be unaffiliated with the company because later, if the truth is revealed, customers will feel decieved and the company could lose business.

Overall, our experience with blogging was informative and fulfilling. I hope you enjoyed it as well.

Data Mining: Customer Data Knocking at Your Door

Merchants are missing a large amount of valuable data because they aren't converting it into useful information that can be leveraged to increase sales. The use of data mining will enable marketers to face the challenge of extracting useful information that is valuable for business from that which is less useful. The second generation of data mining solutions tailor to individual market needs and are built by experienced providers. Data mining has become very popular in the e-marketplace because of the rapid growth of the Internet and e-business, which leads to increased online transaction processing and the expansion of large databases. All of this contributes to the "data explosion" and there is a widespread need for data management solutions.

"In terms of e-commerce, there is valuable data many merchants don't convert to useful information, and that can have a profound impact on sales. Data points that often go unchecked include: items visited but not purchased, abandoning shopping carts because the shipping cost is too high or abandoning the cart because the user interface is clunky."

For example, by analyzing these data points that are often unchecked one client was able to get a 40% increase in sales by lowering shipping costs by $.50, which was the critical breaking point in consumer's minds. Another commonly overlooked area in data mining is historical information pertaining to fraudulent transactions. When data mining is combined with the already implemented Internet security system an additional layer of security is achieved. Pairing these two security elements can greatly increase security by selecting various parameters several times a day and looking for unusual patterns.

The use of data mining will become more significant in regards to e-marketing as time progresses. Most business information is simply not made available to the right people in a context that makes sense. New business intelligence systems will utilize web portals and data mining to offer a degree of summarization that is more easily understood by key decision makers. In this age of information, the businesses who most effectively convert raw data into useful information to improve day-to-day processes will gain an incredible competitive advantage.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Yahoo acquires Right Media

Yahoo has just announced it plans to merge with Right Media Exchange at a cost of only 680 million dollars. "The acquisition of Right Media will further Yahoo!'s goal to create the industry's most open, accessible and vibrant advertising marketplace, which will help democratize the buying and selling of digitally enabled advertising," said Terry Semel, chairman and CEO of Yahoo!" By merging with Right Media, Yahoo! hopes to compete with Google as the leading search engine and information provider. The article says, "The Right Media Exchange is the industry's largest emerging online advertising exchange, and as publishers increasingly turn to exchanges to monetize their ad inventory, this acquisition will help Yahoo! establish a leading position in this large, attractive and fast growing segment of the online ad market." With this new combination Yahoo! hopes that the following will occur:

1.) Advertisers will have greater inventory and audience options from Yahoo! and other participants in this exchange, as well as increased control and visibility into the buying process.

2.) Publishers will be able to bundle their own ad inventory with Yahoo!'s inventory and the exchange's inventory - thereby boosting demand and generating the highest returns for each ad placement.

3.) Advertising networks will reap the same benefits as advertisers and publishers, and additionally, the exchange will benefit those ad networks with unique value propositions, giving them an opportunity to compete with the largest players, thanks to reduced friction and increased transparency.

4.) For Yahoo!, this more open approach will allow the company to increase liquidity, allow advertisers to more efficiently ascertain the true value of display ad inventory, and generate greater returns for Yahoo!'s own display inventory. It will give Yahoo! a new channel and inventory for excess demand and provide an opportunity to derive more value from non-premium inventory.

It will be interesting to see where Yahoo! ends up in the months to come and what kinds of new and innovative ideas we will be getting from this new merger.