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Best of 2007: Marketing Research


How is online consumer behavior changing? Which SEO tools and techniques produce the best results—according to the experts who use them? Does advertising on social media sites really work? What do marketing professionals need to know about online video? Get the answers to these questions and more from this collection of some of the best articles and blog posts from 2007 on marketing research.

There’s Still Room on the Web for Small E-Tailers by bMighty.com

Writer Fredric Paul cites a study showing that smaller web-based retailers have an opportunity to take share from more established sites by implementing solid SEO. Many larger e-tailers (and B2B vendors as well) have left the door open to more nimble competitors by failing to search optimize their own sites: "only 20 of the top sites were considered 'well-optimized' while another 20 qualified as 'moderately optimized.' On the other hand, 34 were 'nominally-optimized,' and 27 showed 'no signs of optimization.'"


The 18 Mistakes That Kill Start-Ups by Paul Graham

After pointing out that the single mistake almost universally responsible for the failure of start-up companies is "not making something users want," Paul Graham goes on to detail the "list of 18 things that cause startups not to make something users want," including picking a marginal niche, relying on a derivative idea, launching a new product or service too early, and "not wanting to get your hands dirty." Graham provides an excellent list of strategic mistakes to avoid for any start-up enterprise.


People Do Read Online -- Who Knew? by Marketing Interactions

After citing research showing that online readers are more likely to read an entire story, or a least a significant portion of it, in an online source than print, blogger Ardath Albee drives home the key takeaway from the research for marketers: "People want to read content that has benefit to them...a story about how their lives will change if they use your products, or even better, why they should disrupt the status quo and bother at all, in the first place."


Creativity & You by THINKing

Blogger Harry Hoover comments on the results of study into the roots of creativity. The good news is that we all have more creativity within us than we probably give ourselves credit for. Among the keys to unleashing that creativity are training, practice, and most importantly self-confidence.


Most Searchers Have Two Words for Google by Search Engine Watch

In this brief article, Enid Burns quotes research showing that two-word searches are most common across the major search engines, accounting for nearly a third of all searches. Searches using four or more words collectively account for about 26%. For SEOs, particularly in the B2B space, it's important to point out that although multi-word searches are less common than for shorter phrases, searchers using longer search terms usually have a much better notion of specifically what they are looking for, and—if they are potential buyers—are likely to be further along in their buying cycle.


Best SEO Resources, Practices & Conferences : Reader Poll Roundup by TopRank Online Marketing Blog

Search guru Lee Odden provides a mega-post detailing the results of 14 separate online polls tallying the votes of SEO professionals on questions such as how many conferences they attend each year, which online communication and networking tools they use most frequently, favorite keyword research tool, and best search marketing newsletter.


The writers of the MediaPost blogs also frequently do a great job of covering online research findings. Here are some of the best marketing research-related posts from MediaPost bloggers last year.

Happy World Internet Day by MediaPost Online Spin

Seana Mulcahy provides a brief history of the Internet, some interesting statistics, and her list of favorite web research-related sites.


Pure Viral Marketing - A Pipe Dream? by MediaPost Online Spin

Max Kalehoff notes research showing that viral marketing campaigns aren't like a pyramid, where you tell 10 friends, who each tell 10 friends, who each etc. until the entire planet has seen your content, but more like bouncing a basketball--if you throw the ball against the ground, you'll get a big first bounce, followed by a series of successively smaller bounces. The key to viral marketing success, therefore, lies in getting as big a first bounce as possible.


Advertising On Social Networks: Risk or Reward? by MediaPost Online Spin

Seana Mulcahy observes that while social media offers a powerful way to reach prospects, traditional advertising probably isn't the way to do it. "Web users do not view social networking sites as a place to buy products and services." Instead, marketers should view these sites as medium in which to track user feedback on their products and services, offer valuable content, and build relationships with prospects.


Generation Net-Obsessed by MediaPost Online Spin

This post provides some interesting statistics and observations about the "net generation," 16-to-29 year olds who have "grown up with computers, video games, the Internet, instant messaging, online music and the like." It provides that top ten themes of research on this generation, and not surprisingly notes that "77% of the net generation could live without television but could not live without Internet access."


Just An Online Minute… Web Video Watchers by Just an Online Minute

In this short but informative post, Wendy Davis provides some interesting data on who's watching online video, what type of content they watch most frequently, and how frequently they watch.


Online Debate #2 Today, As Survey Delves Into Who's Watching by Online Media Daily

Citing research into the use and consumption of online media for political campaigns, Les Luchter finds that although "traditional media reigned as the overall choice...for getting 2008 campaign news, with 86% planning to use TV and radio for info about the candidates, and 63.5% planning to use newspapers and magazines," online sources are becoming more important, and the demographic group most likely to tune in to online debates may surprise you.


Previous articles in this series:

Best of 2007: SEO Analysis Tools
Best of 2007: SEO Keyword Research Tools
Best of 2007: News Articles on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Blog Posts on Social Media Marketing
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEM
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on Google AdWords
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 1)
Best of 2007: Articles and Blog Posts on SEO (Part 2)
Best of 2007: Website Design
Best of 2007: Blogging for Business

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Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

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All Time Greats

7 Reasons Every Business Needs to Twitter

This post has been moved to 7 Reasons Every Business Needs to be on Twitter on the Webbiquity blog. ***** technorati tags: Twitter Dell Zappos customer service influence-the-influencers market intelligence Tony Hsieh b2b Twitter del.icio.us tags: Twitter Dell Zappos customer service influence-the-influencers market intelligence Tony Hsieh b2b Twitter icerocket tags: Twitter Dell Zappos customer service influence-the-influencers market intelligence Tony Hsieh b2b Twitter Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Getting More Out of Each Click with "Post-Click Marketing"

With the economy now officially in a recession (as if we didn't know that), marketers are under increasing pressure to do more with less. On the interactive marketing side, few marketers will get budget increases enabling them to drive more clicks. The challenge, then, is to maximize marketing productivity—to get more leads out of the same number of clicks. This is the first of two posts that will look at how to improve conversion rates to get more value from each click. One answer to this challenge is provided by "post-click marketing," a.k.a. lead automation management vendors. While the specifics of each service vary, all of them essentially: automate the process of extracting visitor IP information from your log files; match the IP address to an organization; filter out ISPs; and map the company name to one or more external databases to provide additional information (company size, industry, key contacts etc.). The better services also use geo-location filte

How to Use SEO: Leverage SEO To Be Found Online and Boost Your Online Marketing

All businesses that want to attract customers online, no matter the business size or age, have few options other than Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  SEO In The Box™ by Results Driven Marketing®, LLC There are roughly 1.8 billion websites online, and basic SEO allows Google to find and index or catalog your webpages.  After that, Google serves you up to searchers in the organic section.  The question remains: where they list your site, on page one or page 22 or further back? SEO controls your positioning. Do you want to be found online or not? If your business is online or you want your product or service to be found online, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a must, and knowing how to use SEO to leverage the power of the internet is vital. Arguably, an effective SEO strategy gets you on the organic results section of the search engine results pages (SERP). Organic traffic is highly valuable and requires high-quality SEO. But even businesses that use l

Book Review: Website Optimization

This post has been moved to Book Review: Website Optimization – Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets on the Webbiquity blog. ***** technorati tags: Andrew B. King, Web Site Opimization LLC, Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets, book review, Wordtracker, SEO insights, social networking, Marketleap.com link popularity tool del.icio.us tags: Andrew B. King, Web Site Opimization LLC, Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets, book review, Wordtracker, SEO insights, social networking, Marketleap.com link popularity tool icerocket tags: Andrew B. King, Web Site Opimization LLC, Website Optimization: Speed, Search Engine & Conversion Rate Secrets, book review, Wordtracker, SEO insights, social networking, Marketleap.com link popularity tool Contact Tom Pick: tomATwebmarketcentralDOTcom

Top Notch Digital Marketing Tip: Google AdWords and PPC

MARKETING: 101 Looking for some online marketing strategy or social media tips to grow your business? Well, you’ve come to the right digital marketing resource! Web Market Central has been doling out the proper digital marketing advice for years. And as you already know, marketing to customers online is 100 times easier than using dated, expensive and traditional marketing tactics. Like seriously, who uses billboards in 2019? But you already know how effective digital marketing can be in the modern age. So now that you're totally convinced of what you already knew, let’s give you today's top-notch digital marketing tip! The Pure Unfettered Power of PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and PPC Campaigns Just like optimizing your site to rank for keywords, you can use our online marketing tips to pay to run advertisements on Google so that your business is shown on the first page of search engine results. Ranking this way is instantaneous whereas SEO (Search Engine Optimizati

Feedback Friday

Give us some feedback on how we are doing! We would love to hear how we can improve our website and the advice we dish out to our readers. And while you are at it, check out some of our favorite articles from the past few weeks: https://www.digitalrdm.com/5-components-successful-branding-strategy/ https://www.paulandpaul.com/what-are-the-different-types-of-trademarks-and-trademark-laws https://www.lawfirmmarketingcompany.com/content-marketing http://saffwein.com/concussions-car-accident/ http://www.newsworld.site/space-force-future/ http://www.newsworld.site/what-to-do-if-you-are-involved-in-a-forklift-accident/ http://www.newsworld.site/trump-sanctions-russia-election-meddling/ http://www.newsworld.site/bracket-busted-no-13-buffalo-upsets-no-4-arizona/ http://www.newsworld.site/candidate-alvin-de-levie-demands-change-and-transparency-at-psu-board/

Email Campaign, Newsletter and Banner Ad Click-Through Rates (CTR)

When planning online advertising and email promotion budgets, it's critical to calculate the likely ROI upfront whenever possible, as well as to establish campaign benchmarks. The first step is understanding the average and likely range of CTRs for various programs. The growth in online advertising, the proliferation of enewsletters, the emergence of new forms of information delivery such as RSS and the emergence of social media sites have all affected CTR, so planning based on current data is crucial. It can be challenging to find current statistics, but based on several studies, these are typical CTR ranges for email newsletter ads, email campaigns (blasts or internally-produced enewsletters), and banner ads. Email newsletter advertisements Open rates range from 28-40%, with an average of about 33%—meaning that roughly one-third of the subscriber base is likely to see your ad. The Advertising Is Good For You blog tracks these statistics from DoubleClick . The average CT