Advertising and Marketing Blog

Live (it up) At Eden

Posted on 05/21/2010, by DMC

We recently launched a new campaign for our client, luxury apartment building Eden Apartments, in downtown Baltimore’s stylish Harbor East. The client came to us wanting a way to connect with potential residents without getting into the commodity pricing wars that dominate their marketplace.

We told the client that Eden Apartments epitomizes luxury living. And convenience. And what it’s like to be 20- to 30-something living in a trend-o neighborhood and be, well, beautiful (no dogs allowed!). Don’t give that up. In fact, embrace it. Become the destination for downtown Baltimore living – or at least the pied piper for urbanite coolness. Show me why I can’t imagine living anywhere other than Harbor East and more people will . . . include places like Eden Apartments in their list of potential residences and end up living in Harbor East.

Of course, the traditional ways to reach these folks continues to evolve. Reaching the sought-after would-be-tenants is harder with newspapers failing and so many of them not watching TV commercials. So what do we do - hit ‘em where they live. On the streets (with mobile, scrolling ads and a 36-foot wide banner), online (with a cool new blog site) and in their favorite watering holes (with t-shirts and a coaster campaign at 13 bars) enticing them to text in to win a prize, and build our client’s database at the same time. New leads come in but also the client is armed to continue nurturing those leads so as leases come up Eden goes to the top of the wish list. See the rest of the work on our portfolio here.

Occupancy up. Client happiness up. Bottoms up!

Understanding Online Advertising Metrics

Posted on 05/11/2010, by DMC

Online advertising. You just got a bit scared didn’t you? Well don’t. Many times companies big and small begin to get sweaty palms when their agency suggests including an online component in their mixed media campaign. There has been myriad research into the effectiveness of online advertising and just how to track that effectiveness. While the jury may still be out among the self styled ‘gurus’ of the web, one can turn to well respected journals and research and begin to form a clearer picture of the landscape of the digital world.

Since its advent (AT&T ran the very first online ad) in 1994, online advertising has grown leaps and bounds in some areas while remaining static in others. I could write a book on the various research focused on advertising effectiveness in the online space but I’ll try to give a brief rundown or a 30,000 foot view to try and give you the proper lens through which you should understand online advertising.

There are two metrics through which one can understand online advertising: click-through and impression. Let’s take a quick look at both.

While both impressions (page views) and click-throughs are easy to put a number on through analytical tools, to understand them is a much more difficult task. First, what are you trying to accomplish by your online or mixed media campaign? Awareness building? Instant, direct sales? Building a Brand? Depending on your goal you need to look at these metrics very differently. In almost every area but direct sales, you shouldn’t pay much attention to click-through. Half of you just gasped. Stay with me. Research shows that impressions are much better at building brands, awareness and credibility among audiences. A click-through gets you a sale (maybe), an impression builds mental consensus.

Research has shown that even depending on the mindset of the web user (goal oriented or surfing) ads build brands whether the user even consciously registers that they saw the ad. The process in the mind that occurs during this lack of attention or intentional ad avoidance is called implicit memory (as opposed to explicit in which the user notices your ad but doesn’t click) which over time, with repeated exposures, can build a positive mental attitude of a brand even if the user isn’t paying attention to your ad.

So when running online or mixed-media campaigns – remember to be realistic with your expectations of acceptable metrics in light of the goals of the campaign. And don’t make the mistake of only measuring online advertising & interactive marketing in terms of click-through.

-g.d.

Five Important SEO Questions

Posted on 05/03/2010, by DMC

We talk constantly with clients and prospects about the value of applying strong analytics to the marketing programs we engage in. It’s an easy sell really – ask good questions up front, come to consensus on which metrics should be used for sales, leads generated, conversions, whatever the case. Then partner together to come up with meaningful ways to quantify the results. However, for some reason when organic search engine optimization (SEO) comes up, there are still those willing to take it on faith.

I know that SEO is a confusing marketplace for many customers – led in no small part by the lack of consistent product offerings, prices, etc, etc. So let’s set a baseline. In our eyes a good SEO program drives QUALIFIED traffic to your website – delivering people, business, whatever who are interested in the types of products/services you sell. And then working with the other related components of marketing – the website, advertising, landing pages, social media (yes, but more on that later) to drive conversions. Those two goals – qualified leads and increased conversion rates – I think we all can agree are important to any business.

So when you’re told your site is performing well because your Google PageRank is a seven (never mind that the world has begun to realize that PageRank is irrelevant since at least early 2009) or you get e-mailed a blind Google Analytics report, ask for the following:

How has my website performed, month over month, in categories like average time on site, new vs returning visitors, total organic traffic and total referral traffic.
How is the balance of traffic to my website between organic, direct, referrals, etc.?
How are my keywords performing overall and month to month?
How can I measure the SEO results against other marketing programs (direct mail, e-mail, PPC, etc.). What do you see and are there recommendations that can help save money or increase performance?
What can be done to improve the performance of any of the above?

Being able to be found online by people who want to buy what you sell is incredibly important. And I’m not saying Google Analytics couldn’t do a lot of this. It can and does. But if you’re spending money with a vendor to gain better SEO performance, you should get some strategic thinking with your monthly report. I’m just saying . . .