Online Marketing Blog » Reader Polls

Which Flavor of Social Commerce Is Right For You?

Lee Odden — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 12:43:08 +0000

Photo credit: timtak via Flickr

Social Commerce is a very hot topic right now with numerous blog posts, articles and even a few events focused on ecommerce and social media.

Adding ecommerce functionality to social sites is something that I’ve wondered about for quite a while:

“What I’d like to see more of is the availability of basic ecommerce functions as plug ‘n play options with major blog software packages. Blogs are good for business, big and small and I think there’s a lot of opportunity for business and value for consumers with ecommerce blogs.” Dec 28, 2005.

Too bad I wasn’t more of an advocate for social commerce since, but then again, consumers haven’t really responded well to shopping implementations with social media sites until recently, if at all.

Overt marketing messages have not traditionally been very welcome within social channels but as more brands become involved, consumers are expecting more than being able to comment, rate and share.

When considering the question of ecommerce and social media, I think there are two fundamental approaches to consider:

Adding social media features to existing ecommerce websites.

Examples of this are abundant now, especially with the addition of Facebook Like buttons on shopping sites and the ubiquitous social news, bookmarking and Tweet this buttons. See a great pair of jeans on Levis.com? There’s a Facebook Like button there to share it with friends, to get opinions or just let them know what you found. The Digital IQ Index Specialty Retail report (download pdf) from earlier this year found: “Retailers who currently host the “like“ button on their site demonstrated 80 percent higher average three-month traffic growth.”

Other social features that have long been in place with ecommerce and shopping sites include ratings and reviews which are well entrenched in certain industries like travel & hospitality. Adding links to social sites a company is active on is a pretty common feature for services like Google Places.

Plus servies like Groupon adds an entirely different angle to social and commerce.

Adding social features to existing commerce platforms and situations is the low hanging fruit of social commerce at the moment and studies like this one from Eventbrite show a clear revenue benefit. I suspect its something consumers are starting to expect.

When I was in a somewhat remote place last week on the South island of New Zealand, I noticed the standard “Visit us online at companysite.com” was often replaced with: “Visit us online at (followed by Facebook and Twitter icons). I’m sure you’ve seen such signage in storefront windows in your town as well. Social connections are becoming part of expected exchanges between consumers and the brands they buy from. The opportunity for brands is, how relevant and useful (and easy) can they make these exchanges as part of the customer relationship?

Adding sharing, interaction, rating/review or even something like group buying to a web property that is already perceived as a destination for ecommerce transactions is an easier thing to do than adding ecommerce to a social media site and it’s likely perceived as more appropriate. It’s a way of showing that the brand isn’t just about selling product/services, but that its open to connecting and useful engagement too. Companies are increasingly rewiring more than their web sites for such social commerce.

Incorporating ecommerce functionality within social media websites.

Early adopters for adding ecommerce and transaction capabilities within social media sites include Brooks Brothers and 1800Flowers with storefronts and Walmart with a deals app on Facebook. Another major retailer, Target, put searchable product inventory on Facebook as part of their Club Wedd registery offering, but the actual transactions take place on the Target.com website.

It’s still early days for finding the right way to add ecommerce functionality within a communication environment that is intended to be social, not transactional. Of the early adopters that added online stores to Facebook or their blogs, I do wonder how profitable those initiatives are at this point.

My cautious optimism about social ecommerce doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s an area that will take hold. I do, as long as merchants can make the buying experience part of the social experience. I suspect that’s going to be different by industry and community.

What do you think?

Are social networks and media sites ready and appropriate for transactional ecommerce functionality? How seriously should brands take the opportunity for order capture within social media sites?

From a consumer perspective, have you ever ordered something within Facebook or another social media site? If you’ve checked in out and didn’t why not? If you did, what made you comfortable and would you do it again?

In fact, let’s take a formal poll on which “flavor” of social commerce our readers are implementing most:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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SEO Tops Digital Marketing Tactics for 2011

Lee Odden — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:19:43 +0000

Here we are just past the halfway mark in 2010 and we’ve tapped into the stream of future marketing planning with our readers for 2011 with a poll. Our question? What 3 online marketing channels & tactics will you emphasize in 2011? The number one answer? Not social media, not email marketing.

The top digital marketing tactic for OMB readers in 2011 is Search Engine Optimization

Our poll this year provided 44 different answers to choose from ranging from display advertising to no holds barred spam. Over 200 readers took the poll and made their choices. While there are many signs of marketing budgets making a recovery, the vast majority of marketers are still focused on planning the most efficient and effective online marketing mix they can for the new year.

Hopefully the responses from our poll will be helpful in making those choices as budgets and strategies are planned for 2011.

The top responses in this year’s survey reflect a more holistic perspective that includes search, social media, advertising, content and email. While social media marketing continues to get a lot of media attention and companies are investing more ($1.2 billion 2011, Forrester), search marketing (PPC and SEO) gets the lion’s share of digital marketing budgets ($20.7 billion 2011, Forrester).

A new entrant to the top 10 this year is content marketing which is a reflection of the increasing importance on providing more than just product/service features and benefits to customers in order to get them to buy. Content is the glue for the intersection of SEO and Social Media. Content is often the outcome of social interactions online and content can be shared and linked to, increasing it’s visibility within all kinds of search. I wouldn’t be surprised if Content Marketing jumped a few more spaces next year. According to the Junta42 Content Marketing Spending Report, 59% of marketers surveyed planned to increase content marketing spending in 2010.

Advertising through Pay per click and social media rated well, but not concomitant with budgets. That is more likely an indication of the topical focus of Online Marketing Blog which pays less attention to advertising than Search Marketing, Social Media, Content Marketing and Online PR.

Keep in mind, the results of this single question poll are a reflection of our readers and with 232 responses, isn’t a significant sample size for making broad generalizations. It is however, useful insight for our readers to see what others are focusing on. Online Marketing Blog is rated well as a marketing blog and has a significant readership in the marketing community.

You can see the full set of responses and all 44 digital marketing tactics here.

Are Search Engine Optimization, Social Networking and Blogging your top digital marketing tactics for 2011? If not, what areas will you emphasize next year?

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2011 Digital Marketing Poll

Lee Odden — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 11:35:56 +0000

It’s safe to say 2009 and 2010 were breakout years for social media. Our last Digital Marketing poll showed 6 of the top 10 tactics as social media complemented by search engine marketing and email. Slimmer marketing budgets and mass media attention have inspired a rush to many types social media marketing tactics bringing a certain over-optimism about what the social web can do for a company’s bottom line.

With the economy recovering slowly, what will 2011 bring? Are social media and content marketing the glue that brings multi channel marketing together? Is 2011 finally the year for mobile? Will companies focus on more holistic online marketing?

We’d love to hear your opinions in the 2011 TopRank Digital Marketing Poll. Please take the poll here and share it, post it, bookmark it and help us reach over 200 responses:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Thank you for taking the poll and we’d sincerely appreciate your help promoting it. We even have an awesome short URL for you to share: http://tprk.us/dm2011

We realize there are a lot of choices in this poll and appreciate your time and participation a great deal. Our last digital marketing poll was of great benefit to many of our readers and we hope to tap into your expertise and opinion on a topic of interest to every digital marketing professional.

We are absolutely interested in your comments about this poll and about your opinion on the future of digital marketing. Did we leave any tactics out? Should we have?

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Blog Fun: Vote Your Favorite Header for Online Marketing Blog

TopRank Online Marketing — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:31:48 +0000

Online Marketing Blog has been toying around with a new blog header and thought it would be best to get your opinion on which design we should choose.

In the upper left corner of this post there are 5 different headers to check out, each with it’s own name. Click on each one and the header will change – see what you think.

Once you decide which one you like best, please vote below!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

We’ll let voting run until Friday this week and then we’ll update the blog design with the most popular header. All thanks to you

Thanks!

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Reader Poll: Help Make Online Marketing Blog Even Better!

Lee Odden — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 12:00:19 +0000

Thanks to readers like you, TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog has experienced a long and rich blogging life over the past 6+ years with 2,300+ posts, hundreds of thousands of unsolicited links from powerful industry web sites and content that has helped thousands of readers become smarter online marketers.

We watch what our readers say in comments on and off the site as well as looking at referring keywords in web analytics and site search keywords to get an idea of what our valued community is interested in. With over 30,000 RSS subscribers and well over 100,000 unique visitors, we appreciate your attention a great deal and want to do our best to be a helpful resource.

To help us further refine the content we offer you, please complete the following poll on what types of posts you like best. If you have more to say, such as what topics you would like to see more of, or any other insights, please make suggestions in the comments.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Thank you for participating in this poll and if you ‘ve made a comment, thank you even more for sharing your insight! If it wasn’t for you, TopRank Online Marketing Blog wouldn’t have become one of the most popular marketing blogs on the web.

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Losing Time on Social Media

Lee Odden — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 11:45:19 +0000

Social media is everyone’s shiny object in the digital marketing world. Personally, professionally and otherwise, millions of people worldwide are switching from other information and entertainment channels (or multitasking) for social destinations online and on the mobile web.

I know there are a good number of early adopters that read Online Marketing Blog and since you’re probably prone to trying the latest apps and tools, there are undoubtedly certain types of social media sites that have really turned out to be a time suck.

That assumption leads us to our 60th Reader Poll! (pick up to 3)

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

No, I didn’t include online games of any kind in this poll because, while they can absolutely be social, I consider them to be inherently time wasting. Whereas the sites/tools listed in the poll above have at least the remotest possibility of helping people become more productive.

If your top time waster isn’t listed, please share in the comments. I’d also like know your preferences on topics for future Reader Polls. If your suggestion is picked, we’ll give you credit and a nice juicy link when the poll is run.

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Shutterstock Voted Best Royalty Free Stock Photos Site for Bloggers

Lee Odden — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:00:28 +0000

A great photo can really add a lot of flavor to a blog post and in our own analysis at Online Marketing Blog as well as with clients, including quality images with a blog post can boost traffic and referrals 30-50%. To make posts more personal, I try to use my own photos as much as possible and do use imags from Flickr under Creative Commons from time to time. This is an area of significant impact for blogs as effective communication and marketing tools, so last week we ran a Reader Poll on the best site for royalty free, stock photos for bloggers.

We had the most comments from iStockphoto users and interestingly enough, the “Other” category came in second place with suggestions including: screenshots, stock.xchng, PhotoXpress.com and Creative Commons imagies from Flickr.

The poll results are below, but as you can tell from the image, Shutterstock was the winner: Best Stock Photo Site for Bloggers.

Shutterstock.com (38%, 83 Votes)
iStockphoto.com (31%, 68 Votes)
Other – Add to comments (9%, 19 Votes)
dreamstime.com (8%, 17 Votes)
fotolia.com (8%, 17 Votes)
morguefile.com (2%, 5 Votes)
stockvault.net (2%, 4 Votes)
freedigitalphotos.net (1%, 3 Votes)
everystockphoto.com (1%, 1 Votes)

Online Marketing Blog has been using iStockphoto for the past 3-4 years but after seeing this poll, we’ll check out Shutterstock. In fact, I ran into the Shutterstock booth while at the SXSW Interactive conference and shared the good news in person. There was a photobooth within the exhibit booth (with props) that was very popular with conference attendees.

Congratulations to Shutterstock on winning Online Marketing Blog’s Best Royalty Free Stock Photo Poll.

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Art of SEO: Best Search Engine Optimization Book in 2009

Lee Odden — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:49:04 +0000

Our recent reader poll of 14 books either focused on, or with significant content dedicated to, Search Engine Optimization has concluded with 174 votes. And the winner by one vote and 27% of the total votes is….

Art of SEO (Theory in Practice) by Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin and Jessie C. Stricchiola.

Published by O’Reilly, this phone book sized bundle of SEO wisdom is chock-full of advice for marketers that want to leverage search engine optimization as a marketing channel. Congratulations on winning our Reader Poll!

Here are several reviews of Art of SEO to consider or you can take up O’Reilly’s offer to write one yourself.

Runners up for Best SEO book of 2009 were:

Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing – Kristopher B. Jones (Published by Wiley)
Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day – Jennifer Grappone & Gradiva Couzin (Published by Wiley)

You can see all 14 books about SEO along with the voting distribution and non-affiliate links (in case that matters) to their pages on Amazon.com on the Best SEO Books Reader Poll.

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Reader Poll: Best Books on SEO

Lee Odden — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:20:28 +0000

With all the hubub about personalized and real time search and the potential impact on the SEO work that can influence search visibility, the question about relevance comes to mind when considering books about search engine optimization. Search engines like Google change often (38 new search products in 70 days) so one could argue that a book published in print would become outdated. For those books that outline very specific tactics and even tricks/loopholes, that indeed is the case.

However, there are many SEO books that focus on strategy and tactics worth considering. Well understood principles of information retrieval, content optimization & promotion, consumer search behaviors and analytics are timeless.

To that end, I’ve compiled a list of 14 books on SEO below from our list of 100 Search Marketing Resources and setup a poll that provides you the opportunity to pick which 3 are your favorites. Maybe we’ll find the Best SEO Book of 2009 (according to Online Marketing Blog readers at least).

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

If you would like to learn more about any of the books on SEO in our poll, here are the links to their pages on Amazon (not affiliate):

SEO Warrior – John I. Jerkovic
Art of SEO – Eric Enge, Stephan Spencer, Rand Fishkin, Jessie C. Stricchiola
Search Engine Marketing Inc, 2nd Edition – Mike Moran & Bill Hunt
Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day – Jennifer Grappone & Gradiva Couzin
The Truth about Search Engine Optimization – Rebecca Lieb
Search Engine Visibility, 2nd Edition – Shari Thurow
SEO: Search Engine Optimization Bible – Jerri L. Ledford
SEO Made Simple - Michael H. Fleischner
Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing – Kristopher B. Jones
Building Findable Websites: Web Standards SEO and Beyond – Aarron Walter
The Findability Formula: Easy, Non-Technical Approach to SEM – Heather F. Lutze
Landing Page Optimization – Tim Ash
Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets – Andrew King
Inbound Marketing - Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah

Also, here are two new SEO books coming out in 2010: Search Engine Optimization Secrets by Danny Dover and Marketing in the Age of Google by Vanessa Fox.

There is some irony in this poll of course, because Aaron Wall’s “SEO Book” is no longer sold and therefore, not included in the poll. Are there other well written and relevant books on SEO that we missed? Please mention them in the comments and we’ll add them to the 100 SEM Resources post.

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Reader Poll Winner: SEO Dojo for Best Paid Subscription SEM Community

Lee Odden — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:53:27 +0000

TopRank has been publishing the BIGLIST of SEM blogs since Jan 2007. We’ve created other BIGLISTs of resources as well including the BIGLIST of 100+ Search Marketing Resources posted in October. The categories for that list of SEM resources includes books, conferences, newsletters, blogs, forums and many more. We decided it would be interesting to see which resources from that list our readers felt were the best.

In the past 3 plus years TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog has run over 50 polls: Everything from Best Social Media Podcast to best Keyword Research Tool to Best City for a Search Marketing Conference. In that longstanding tradition, we recently conducted a poll focused on Best Paid Subscription SEM Communities. We defined the category as membership and subscription model sites that include forums, tools and/or training or content focused on search marketing. After asking for additional suggestions in the BIGLIST 100+ SEM Resources post, no additional sites besides SEOmoz, SEOBook, WebmasterWorld Supporters and SEO Dojo were suggested.

After 220 votes, we can now announce that the Paid Subscription Community that Online Marketing Blog readers like best is SEO Dojo. Congratulations!

SEO Dojo was launched publicly over 2 weeks ago, but has been in operation for about 10 months, according to David Harry, creator of the community. While an early stage SEM community, SEO Dojo members are clearly passionate evidenced by the number of votes and comments left on the poll. Here’s the official description:

We are here to teach, learn, and grow. Every teacher a student. Every student, a teacher. This SEO Dojo was founded to give those with an interest in search optimization, personally or professionally, a place to gain knowledge, interact and even teach others the craft.

The SEO Dojo (or Fire Horse) was started as a place to collect search related documents, interact with others and spread the word of search optimization in it’s highest form. We felt there needed to be a place for the new adventurers and uber SEO geeks alike. For determined website owners, or professional SEOs, the in-house, the consultant… the shirt maker.

The basis of SEO Dojo’s creation is similar to other free and paid communities, to serve as a resource and community for search marketing students and long time professionals. In particular, there’s a passion for testing and openness as well as an appreciation for search as something where the learning never ends.

As the newest paid SEM community in the poll, (Sphinn Members launched after this poll was started) the response was impressive, especially considering the size and tenure of the other SEM communities in the poll. In the end, the enthusiasm demonstrated by SEO Dojo members resulted in winning the poll, a free ad on toprankblog.com for 2 months (we don’t sell ads, so this is very unique) and a press release distributed on PRWeb announcing the poll results.

Congrats again to SEO Dojo and thank you to all who participated in the Online Marketing Blog Reader Poll.

We’ll be running polls on SEM Resources in other categories on a bi-weekly basis, so be sure to watch for the next category to be posted. If you have suggestions for additional sites/blogs/forums/books/conferences/newsletters/etc to be added to the BIGLIST of Search Marketing Resources, please visit that link and add them in the comments. Of course, after we started the Best Paid SEM Community poll, a number of suggestions were made and we’ll include those the next time we run it.

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Follow Me Follow You: WhyFollow Twitter Poll

Lee Odden — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:08:44 +0000

With Twitter riding the social media wave to a $1 billion valuation, the attention from celebrities, usefulness for everything from real-time communications in natural disasters to serving as a profitable marketing channel, a momentum of interest has spawned in how to make the most out of spending time on Twitter. Like any tool, Twitter is what you make of it. But Twitter and social communication applications like it are a lot more than just tools. One question about Twitter best practices that often comes up deals with how people (not bots) decide to follow one another on Twitter.

I ran an informal poll (on Twitter of course, another of it’s many uses) to proof a few ideas I had on what factors weigh most heavily for people when deciding whether to follow another Twitter account. My initial influences included location, bio, offline connections and others. You can read the replies to that poll here: #whyfollow. A self-assessment in combination with the informal poll feedback are what power the potential answers in this Reader Poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

By sharing your top reasons for following others on Twitter, we can all learn how to be more useful to the communities we’re trying to reach.

If one or more of your answers are in the “Other” category, then please add them in the comments below. Sharing this poll with others is GREATLY appreciated. Can we get over 200 responses? How about 500?

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17 Ways to Stay Current with Search Marketing

Lee Odden — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:36:18 +0000

Over the past few weeks TopRank has been conducting it’s own search of sorts, for a Senior Search Marketing Manager as well as a Search Marketing Strategist. One of the questions we ask is, “How do you stay current with tactics and strategies in the SEM space?”. It’s a good question both for hiring agencies to ask as well as companies that are looking for SEM consultants.

Search is a changing marketplace. Whether it’s paying attention to the effect of Google infrastructure updates like Caffeine or industry aggregation like BingHoo, it’s important for companies that want to stay ahead of the competition and for SEM consultants to deliver first class services, to stay current. The question is, how to do that? We offer 17 ways in our current Online Marketing Blog Reader Poll:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Did we miss any primary methods of staying current with Search Marketing tactics and strategies? How do you use these methods to keep your SEM knowledge fresh?

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Poll: Levels of Corporate Social Media Engagement

Lee Odden — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:06:58 +0000

The notion of social web and how companies can engage is as multi-faceted as anything I’ve seen in my 12+years of marketing online. The many ways for companies to involve themselves using social technologies are as varied as the reasons they may do so. Whether it’s to better connect with customers, attract more media attention or crowdsource product ideas, social web participation can offer many benefits.

This understanding of different perspectives and methods leads us to a new TopRank Reader Poll that considers the many different approaches companies may take towards social media. As a poll, it’s only a snapshot in time, but the results will be of great interest to all who participate. Please select up to 1 “best” answer:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Are there answers I’ve left off the list?

Please share this poll with others by retweeting, linking from your own blog or email so we can get a great sample size.

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Poll: How Do You Measure Business Blogging Success?

Lee Odden — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 04:27:38 +0000

I recently completed developing and recording 2 modules for a business blogging program with the DMA. One of the most interesting portions (in my opinion) of the material addressed measuring blog success. There’s no one right answer because the purpose for business blogs can vary from branding to sales.

Since bloggers often read other blogs, I’m counting on Online Marketing Blog readers to take this quick poll to identify what the most common goals for business blogging are. There should be enough options to address whatever purpose you have for your blog. You can pick up to 3 choices.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

A bit of Online Marketing Blog trivia: This is our 51st poll!

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Reader Poll: Podcast Popularity vs Live Streaming Audio

Lee Odden — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:56:41 +0000

I’ve had some back and forth with collegues recently about the popularity of podcasting, live audio streaming and also how podcasting fits within the social media category of communication channels.

eMarketer says podcasts are rising in popularity: “As a percentage of Internet users, podcast downloaders will grow from 9% in 2008 to 17% in 2013″. The Pew Internet & American Life Project also indicates an uptick in podcast popularity, stating that 19% of all internet users have downloaded a podcast in 2008, up from 12% in 2006.

It seems to me that live streaming audio is likely more on the rise but I did not find any research at eMarketer or at Pew about the distinction between podcasts and streaming audio on the web. Hopefully you can help me out by taking this poll.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Thank you for participating. If you’re aware of any research or studies done on the popularity and use of podcasts vs live streaming audio, please share in the comments. Share your opinion or more information about how you might use podcasts or live streaming audio.

As for the topic of podcasts and social media, the question that’s come up is, “Are podcasts really social media?”. I had a pretty good response on Twitter when posing this question both for and against. Some say that podcasting is unidirectional, there’s no direct interaction with the audio content. However, others stated that podcast hosting platforms or aggregators allow comments just like a blog post. That qualifies as interaction in my book.

Speaking of podcasts and social media, be sure to check out the award winning Dishy Mix by the amazing Susan Bratton, winner of Online Marketing Blog’s “Best Podcast on Social Media”.

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Top Digital Marketing Tactic for 2009: Social Media Marketing

Lee Odden — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:14:00 +0000

With concerns over the recession and its impact on marketing, we decided to run a TopRank Reader Poll to discover reader (and their networks) preferences for digital marketing tactics in 2009. Companies world-wide are cutting costs as well as looking for creative, high impact and accountable marketing. Our amazing readers both on Online Marketing Blog and followers at @leeodden helped uncover the top tactics.

Over the past 11 days 532 readers have cast 1559 votes for their 3 top digital marketing tactics for 2009 with Blogging, Twitter and Search Engine Optimization topping the list. Equally interesting was that out of the top 10 tactics, 6 fall into the category of Social Media Marketing. See the full list below along with other statistics about where voters came from as well as info about the readership of Online Marketing Blog.

The question we asked was, “What 3 digital marketing channels & tactics will you emphasize in 2009?” Here are the top ten tactics selected:

Blogging (34%)
Microblogging (Twitter) (29%)
Search engine optimization (28%)
Social network participation (Facebook, LinkedIn) (26%)
Email marketing (17%)
Social media monitoring & outreach (17%)
Pay per click (14%)
Blogger relations (12%)
Video marketing (10%)
Social media advertising (7%)

See results for the full poll of 45 different digital marketing tactics here.

Other stats and observations about this poll:

All 45 tactics received at least one vote, even “no holds barred spam”. Email marketing rated higher than PPC which is surprising given the budgets spent on PPC vs email. Some tactics are much easier to implement than others, or less expensive, which may explain a few of the top choices, such as Twitter.

Corporate web sites don’t rate in the top ten tactics. Does this mean the death of company web sites? At least in their current form it does. Some companies are succumbing to the social media perspective to extremes, like the Skittles site which has been simplified to a page of search results from Twitter on the Skittles name. Others are adding social features to their company sites to compliment existing messaging and functionality. I suggest somewhere in the middle is where many companies will end up by 3rd or 4th quarter this year.

For promotion on Twitter, we generated a unique URL through Cli.gs, which offers some handy statistics as well as URL shortening. See the image on the right for the traffic to the Cli.gs URL, promoted exclusively on Twitter and the countries that traffic came from.

Overall, there were 36,144 visits to the Poll blog post over 11 days. Visitors came primarily from: United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia and spent an average of 2 minutes and 27 seconds on the poll.

The breakdown of traffic sources for the poll include (stats from Clicky):

Direct 13,010
Search 12,198
Links 5,335
Social Media 4,654
RSS Reader 652
Email 295
Ads 3

The large number of visitors compared to the number of respondents resulted in about a 1% response rate. For a one question poll, that’s low and undoubtedly, the large number of options (45 digital marketing tactics) may have been overwhelming.

Feedback on the poll ranged from (“3 tactics is not enough” to “There are way too many options to choose from” to suggestions for additional tactics including providing APIs and livestreaming content.

By now, most companies (we hope) have their 2009 online marketing plans in place. Does this ranked order of tactics mean you should change up your online marketing mix? The answer is that digital marketing tactics should match the needs of the situation, company resources, the target market and end consumer preferences. The proper tactical mix for an digital marketing program could be anything from the 45 tactics listed in the poll and still be successful as long as they support a valid strategy.

Some companies are prepared for digital and social media marketing programs and many are not. To get “ready”, companies need to develop strategic plans and get up to speed on both best and worst practices. This TopRank Reader Poll on Digital Marketing Tactics indicates a strong interest in social media marketing. Whether those methods of reaching and communicating with customers reconciles with existing marketing plans or not, companies would do well to allocate resources to some level of ongoing education, testing and development of expertise in the social media space.

Were the results surprising to you? Right on? We’d love to read your feedback and discussion. While future versions of this poll will actually be a multi-question survey, we’d love to get your feedback on making it a better tool for you.

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Reader Poll: Top Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009

Lee Odden — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:45:52 +0000

We’ve run several Reader Polls on favored internet marketing tactics over the past year and a half flavored by a sentiment towards recession and also as a general indication of future plans. The state of the world and certainly the marketing world is as unique and challenging as it’s ever been. Many companies and vendors are scrambling to figure out how to make most efficient/effective use of resources to grow their businesses in this uncertain economy.

Traditional marketing budgets are increasingly shifting to digital marketing and why not? Internet marketing is often more cost effective, builds awareness quickly, fosters relationships and is measurable in ways traditional advertising just can’t match. Within the world of digital, there are many, many options and considerations. Situations, circumstances and objectives vary, but the commonality of digital delivery, interaction and measurement brings this poll together. We’d love your participation and insight:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Please share your insights in the comments and if we’ve left out significant digital marketing tactics, we’d welcome suggestions.

The most responses we’ve had to a poll was approximately 400, so please share, tweet, submit and vote as is deserved. We’ll share the results of the poll in a post next week.

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Reader Poll: Best Blog Analytics Software

Lee Odden — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 12:00:36 +0000

There are more companies blogging now than ever. How do you measure results? Measuring the social web is a different thing than what most web analytics packages offer. It can be easy to start a blog, but making it successful requires an excellent feedback mechanism. Blog analytics is one of those sources of feedback to know what’s working and what’s not.

We’ve listed interesting blog analytics tools of various types before, but now’s your chance to vote for (up to two) of the best software focused on measuring what happens on blogs.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Free analytics services like Google Analytics, StatsCounter and W3Stats were included because they they offer the kinds of standard analytics information useful for blogs and any kind of web site as well as the fact they are used by a large number of bloggers.

If we’ve missed a great blog-centric analytics package in the list above, please add in the comments and we’ll include it in our next reader poll.

Here is a list of the blogs/Forums for the Blog Analytics tools in our poll:

If you’d like to learn more about blog analytics in general, check out these resources:

Blog Metrics: Six Recommendations For Measuring Your Success – Avinash Kaushik
Defining Business Blogging Success – Online Marketing Blog
Tips For Measuring Success Of Your Blog – Avinash Kaushik
Framework for Measuring Blog Success – Greg Verdino (PPT)
Blog Analytics & RSS: Interview with Paul Strupp Sun Microsystems – WAA
New ROI of blogging report – Forrester

If you have other useful resources on blog analytics, please share in the comments. Especially videos, podcasts, presentations, articles, software reviews/comparisons, screencasts or conference session live blog posts.

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SEO Tops Recession Internet Marketing Tactics

Lee Odden — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:34:56 +0000

Let’s face it, we’re experiencing more than “interesting” economic times, especially those with a marketing responsibility in-house and at agencies.

To tap in to the stream of marketing-savvy collective wisdom online, we reached out to our network with a top internet marketing tactics poll for the next 6 months. Over 400 business marketers responded, making this the most popular poll Online Marketing Blog has run to-date. Readers were asked: What 3 internet marketing tactics will you emphasize most in the next 6 months?

Here are the results of the poll:

Search engine optimization (36%, 149 Votes)
Blogging (33%, 134 Votes)
Pay per click (26%, 107 Votes)
Email marketing (22%, 89 Votes)
Social networking (Facebook, LinkedIn) (21%, 86 Votes)
Blogger relations/blog PR (14%, 56 Votes)
Microblogging (Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku) (11%, 47 Votes)
Affiliate marketing (11%, 47 Votes)
Advertorial (NewsForce, AdFusion) (10%, 40 Votes)
Video marketing (7%, 29 Votes)

Search engine optimization, blogging and PPC taking the top 3 spots shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, although I wouldn’t have called them in that order.

One surprise is that “Corporate Web Site” received only 7% of the votes. An even more interesting result was that Advertorial was in the top ten. While AdFusion certainly falls in the advertorial category, NewsForce doesn’t consider itself advertorial, but rather “paid PR”. I personally don’t see the difference at the category level.

I suspect if “social media” had been presented as a single category, it would have garnered the top spot since social media tactics involve 5 of the top ten.

What do these poll results mean for internet marketers? First, SEO has achieved a comfort level for most marketers. Contrary to some mainstream media characterizations, search engine optimization is a high impact, high value tactic for reaching customers online. Actually, search is about customers reaching/seeking companies, not the other way around. With SEO, it isn’t a matter of “Should we?” it’s a matter of, “What’s stopping you?”.

Personally, I think those that incorporate long term engagement strategies via social media rather than short online campaigns with definitive start/end dates will realize continued growth in their marketing programs regardless of the economic situation. Social media tactics occupy 5 of the top ten spots. Social media is an ongoing relationship of listening, engaging and “giving to get”.

Search engine optimization factors into many aspects of social media (think keywords and tags!) along with being a highly effective tactic on it’s own. Many of the marketers taking this poll realize that and have responded accordingly.

Do you agree that SEO should be online marketers’ top internet marketing tactic over the next 6 months?

Thank you to all the readers of Online Marketing Blog, our Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn networks for taking the poll!

You can see the poll with all 41 internet marketing tactics listed here.

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Reader Poll: Influence Marketing with Social Networks

Lee Odden — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:00:36 +0000

Networking has been a core tactic for building and marketing businesses long before the internet came of age and certainly even more so with the explosion of services such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Ning. Web technology and the mass appeal of making connections online makes social networking an attractive channel for businesses that want to extend their word of mouth reach, credibility and influence.

While there’s plenty of buzz about social networks (socnets), most companies aren’t quite “wired” for enganging social communities just yet. Amidst all the shiny new objects of Web 2.0 web applications, it’s important to understand which networks are influential and relevant. Hence, our Reader Poll:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

For these options, I am including Twitter and FriendFeed as social networks, even though most would characterize them as having social features, but not necessarily pure socnets in the sense that LinkedIn and Facebook are.

Many people use multiple social networks. For example, the three I use most often are: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. YouTube and Flickr offer social networking features, but I suspect the majority of users are personal, not business. For this poll, just pick one and share others in the comments including an anchor text link to your profile if you like.

Please also share other business social networks, especially any that are niche or vertically specific.

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