Good Read: Drake Morton

Tuning In To Media-savvy Girls:

10 Things To Know

By Denise Restauri  Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012

1. This is the time of the girl – we’ve seen it coming, and it’s here. Global organizations focusing on girl “upliftment,” serving future family “upliftment” is working. There are now more girls in U.S. universities than boys.

2. Address the “missing in media” puzzle. Geena Davis Institute on Gender Media:

Myth: Gender imbalance issues have gotten better. Fact: Statistically, there has been little forward movement for girls in media for six decades.

3. Youngster media queens are naturally on the rise. “It wouldn’t be fair for all the girls to buy princess and all the boys to buys superheroes cause… [some] girls want superheroes.” Check out 4-year old Riley on Marketing.

4. Know it and show it: Girls are into what they are into. They are a self-feeding society. Businesses that are on the outside need to get inside.

5. Sharers, creators and carers. They’ll share the “wow” stuff, and if such stuff isn’t out there, they’ll create it.

6. Real, extreme, & fantasy. Girls want to know about real girls doing real things (changing the world), and they want fantasy and extreme. They want it all.
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You need to understand: Drake Morton

Managing Data For Sales Conversion

by Tim Altier, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011
There’s no shortage of data — it’s proven data conversion that is in short supply.

As a data analytics professional, every day I’m faced with finding the ways to make customer data pay dividends with increased sales and improved customer engagement. And I know lots of people who are interested in the same thing but don’t know where to start.

Maybe it’s counterintuitive, but the better the data management, the better the emotional connection with the customer.  A data dive into a customer’s history, purchase habits and channel preferences is like a treasure-trove that can be utilized to enhance the connection with the customer.  And the beauty of that enhancement is that you’re building a foundation for future purchases and even brand advocacy.
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Just in case, I think you need to know: Drake Morton

 What Are Teen Girls Really Talking About?

By Denise Restauri  Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011

We need to be a part of their conversations, but what are their conversations?  What are the topics they are talking about and more importantly, what are they really saying – their words, their voices?

Who is this teen girl? She’s the girl who loves herself. She’s the girl who hates herself. I poured through hundreds of blogs written by teen girls– here are their top 20 topics in random order.
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Good Read: Drake Morton

You Only Get One Chance To

Make Seven Trillion Impressions

by David Koretz , Friday, April 8, 2011

This year, publishers worldwide will serve more than seven trillion display ads.

Those ads will be sold by hundreds of thousands of publishers, more than 400 ad networks, and a growing number of DSPs.  To make matters worse, the amount of online advertising inventory is growing at rates of more than 50% year over year as mobile devices and 4G help skyrocket the number of Web-connected devices.

2012 alone could add three trillion impressions to the pile of inventory that has to be sold.

It shows no sign of slowing down. In 2010, we passed five billion Web-connected devices. By 2017, that number is expected to be 17 billion. (more…)

Good Read: Drake Morton

Teaching Old Dogs Seven New Tricks

The MTV Movie Awards are a trending topic on Twitter and the Internet is buzzing with comments on fashion, funny moments, celebs and performances. Chances are pretty good that teens are also talking about it offline and posting comments on their Facebook pages.
Last month, Twitter updated the algorithm that’s responsible for determining what’s in its Trending Topics list to display “breaking news” and “hottest emerging trends.” The change bumped off 16-year-old singer sensation Justin Bieber, which shocked him and his fans. Fans responded immediately by figuring out how to get him back on the list. They started spelling Justin’s name as Twieber or Jieber to get around the change. Look now, and Twieber is back on the top Trending Topics list.

Smart move on the part of Justin’s fans, and it points to some really important facts about how teens interact through social channels — and how we can learn from that behavior and apply it to traditional email marketing. (more…)

I keep telling you: Drake Morton

Viva Los Internets!

by Josh Chasin , Tuesday, July 21, 2009

As we’re about to put our first wise Latina on the U.S. Supreme Court, it is somewhat serendipitous that I’d been planning for some time to write about the U.S. Hispanic online marketplace.  It is an interesting and fast-growing space, distinctly different from the general market, and too, distinctly different from offline U.S. Hispanic media marketplaces.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were about 43.7 million U.S. Hispanics aged 2+ as of 2008.  In May 2009 comScore reported that about 21 million of them were online, representing about 10.7% of all US persons online.  And the U.S. online Hispanic population is growing about three times as fast as the overall online population.
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You Should Know: Drake Morton

Why People Go Online

JULY 17, 2009
Learning and fun top the list. If idle hands are the devil’s workshop, the Internet is a pretty hot place.

According to Ruder Finn, 100% of US Internet users surveyed in Q2 2009 went online to pass the time.

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Good Read: Drake Morton

Be Your Subscribers’ Best Friend:

Design for Dynamic Content

by Alex Madison and Lisa Harmon , Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Imagine how strong your brand’s relationship with subscribers could be if you knew each one intimately and could send personal emails to all of them. So far, the closest you can get to this email inbox utopia is to construct dynamic messages based on your subscribers’ unique interests.
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Brand Mentions Preferred over Ads

APRIL 20, 2009

Young people especially receptive.

Want to get Internet users to visit your Website or follow your brand?

The best way to accomplish those tasks, according to ARAnet, based on polling by Opinion Research Corporation, may not be advertising.

Compared with banner ads, pop-up ads, e-mail offers and sponsored links, articles that include brand information were most likely to lead US Internet users to read—and act.

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Excellent Read From Jill Konrath

What am I learning at the Sales 2.0 Conference?

Definition of Sales 2.0, as per David Thompson, CEO of Genius: Sales 2.0 combines customer-focused processes with Web 2.0 productivity technologies to enhance the art and science of selling while creating customer value.

It’s all about driving more revenue, more quickly, through the pipeline.

According to Thompson, it’s all about Marketing & Sales:

• Being in alignment with the customer throughout the buying and lead life cycle.
• Working collaboratively to approach buyers when they’re ready, extracting timely and relevant insights and sharing customer intelligence.
• Accelerating and optimizing every phase of the sales funnel by connecting with the right prospects at the right time.
• Measuring and improving the lead-to-opportunity conversion equation and sales performance.

Thoughts from Scott Santucci, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc.
Santucci covered the entire lead generation & sales process - what’s broken & what needs to be done. Key points include:

• The salesperson IS your company to prospective customers. Most companies are asking their sellers to learn so much! What’s broken right now is the conversation between the buyer and seller.

• Both buyers and sellers are suffering from complexity problem. Customers are suffering from too much info, vendor fatigue, more stakeholders involved & longer decisions. Sellers also have complex portfolios, random acts of enablement and changes in their company.

• Need to flip the focus of Marketing/Sales: Model it around customer problems/decision process; Map it around the problem portfolio. Then, Match sales tools to this process to support customer conversations.

Key take-aways from Jim Dickie, CSO Insights:

• Lead generation #1 sales effectiveness initiative this year. Recent study: qualified leads that turn into discussion now at 39%; down from 55% .

• Need to recognize Buying 2.0 too! Customer now get all sorts of information about your products, services, capabilities - way before they talk to a seller.

• Recommended customer engagement objectives for 2009: 1) Optimize prospect intelligence; 2) Develop enhanced messaging; 3) Create enhanced sales/prospect engagement tools; 4) Nurture sales leads and 5) Integrate lead management/CR analytics.

• Companies must make existing lead follow-up more effective. They don’t have big enough marketing budgets to keep generating more leads.