Yearly Archives: 2008
Analytics Ian Lurie24 Mar, 2008
Google Analytics Benchmarking: Tutorial, and Things that Make You Go Hmmmmm…
Google Analytics now has their nifty benchmarking feature all set up. If you’re running Google Analytics you can see how your site traffic compares to others. First, here’s how you set it up, and why you should: Open Your Kimono, Just a Little First, you have to give Google access to your analytics data. “OH… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten24 Mar, 2008
Sandwich Your PPC Ads with URLs
We all know that the biggest part of attracting a potential customer to clicking on your ad is the headline. They see that bold text, what they searched for and are drawn in like a moth to a flame. But in the continual quest that is a PPC Analyst’s career, we have to think of… Read More
Ian Lurie21 Mar, 2008
Bad Monkeys (Part 1): Getting the Most Out of Your Agency
Everyone who has worked in internet marketing for more than 5 minutes has encountered the following situation: Someone, somewhere says something like, “I notice that the first chart on page 7 shows our bounce rate on the Press page jumped by 10% in February.” It sounds like a reasonable enough question. Why is your bounce… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie21 Mar, 2008
The Internet Marketing List: 59 Things You Should Be Doing But Probably Aren’t
Internet marketing is about lots of little things, not one big one. This list is half-list, half-procedure. If you go down these items in order it might give you a decent internet marketing plan for the next few months. If you have others, post ’em as comments: If you have a Flash introduction on your… Read More
Portent Staff20 Mar, 2008
Bait and Switch is Bad! But Bait and Sweetly Suggest Works!
Portent recently won an award for something I initially thought sounded very counter-intuitive, maybe even a little shady. But it turned out to be one of our most successful email opt-in campaigns to date. Below are the marketing insights I believe made all the difference. The idea was to add an email subscription page between… Read More
Ian Lurie20 Mar, 2008
Screw You: Alaska Airlines Teach Us About Internet Marketing and Customer Service
Update: The point of this post is internet marketing, and the fact that honesty – and apologies – go much further than ignoring the problem. A few folks pointed out that I spent more time bitching about Alaska Airlines than talking about the marketing stuff. My bad. I usually try to sandwich my posts in… Read More
Tom Schmitz18 Mar, 2008
B2B Marketing: Is It Time to Expand Your B2B Internet Marketing Strategy?
What is your B2B Internet marketing strategy? For most companies the answer is a website with: Descriptions of products or services, contact forms and perhaps a shopping cart Additional sales information in the form of case studies, industry lists or another organizational breakdown. A description of the company, press releases and job announcements. This strategy… Read More
Ian Lurie17 Mar, 2008
Internet Marketing Is About Discoverability (Not Yelling)
I was listening to Joseph Jaffe’s most recent podcast and one concept blew me away: Old-style marketing was about interruption. No news flash there. But Jaffe’s statement that marketing is now about discoverability really resonates: You must be present at the customers’ convenience and request, not screaming at them 24/7. You must answer their questions… Read More
Elizabeth Marsten17 Mar, 2008
The Mysterious Black Holes of the Content Network
Once upon a time, the Content Network seemed eternally damned to represent hundreds of thousands of impressions, a few too many hundred clicks, no sales or leads and no idea where in the universe your ads were showing up. I used to just opt out the content network every time since it just seemed to… Read More
Analytics Ian Lurie16 Mar, 2008
Multivariate Testing: What it Is, Why You Need It
Friday, someone told me it’s hard to convince folks they need to use multivariate testing in their internet marketing campaigns. Once my mouth closed, I decided to write this post. What Multivariate Testing Is If you already know, you can skip down to why you need it, below. I can’t define it without twisting my… Read More
Featured Ian Lurie14 Mar, 2008
Conversation Marketing: The Book (buy it!)
Sometimes I forget to remind folks: I wrote an internet marketing book. It only costs $19.95. Yes, you can read it online for free. But for less than $20 you get the feel of crisp, recycled paper and the smell of printer’s ink. And the warm fuzzy feeling that you helped keep Conversation Marketing afloat.… Read More
Internet Marketing Ian Lurie14 Mar, 2008
If You Give A Corp. A Web Site…
…It will want to get lots of visitors on its new site. So you get a few visitors on the new web site through some clever internet marketing. When you get visitors on the web site, you’ll remind the CEO that the website exists. So he’ll go look for it on Google. When he sees… Read More
Internet Marketing Ian Lurie14 Mar, 2008
Happy pi Day! But What About e?
Today is pi Day, in case you didn’t know. Geeks like us assigned 3/14 as ‘pi day’ because, well, it’s 3.14 and that’s funny. Chuckle chuckle snort. pi Day is Great. But Why Not e Day? But I have to stick up for a less known but just as important constant: e. E is 2.71828… Read More
Ian Lurie13 Mar, 2008
The Cluetrain Manifesto, Critiqued by John Cass
John Cass over at the PR Communications Blog posted an excellent, thoughtful piece about the Cluetrain Manifesto. His examination centers around (at least in my mind) two primary themes of the Manifesto: That companies need to ‘get out of the way’ and ‘let the inevitable happen’. The ‘inevitable’ in this case is the formation of… Read More
Portent Staff13 Mar, 2008
What kind of client are you? Introducing the Portent Client Matrix
Do you know it all, and just want someone else to take care of it? Or do you need help figuring out what to do? Save yourself a passel of hassle and know what kind of client you are before you call anybody for help.
Matched with a company who understands where you are in the Portent Client Matrix will reduce confusion and frustration and encourage achievement of your goals.