Three New WebmasterRadio Shows Debut in August
August 3, 2009 by Jim Hedger
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August is a busy month here at WebmasterRadio.FM. Along with our full scale coverage of the upcoming Search Engine Strategies Conference (complete with a full-scale SearchBash party), WebmasterRadio.FM has three new shows debuting this month.
WordPress developers and bloggers will be pleased to note, world renown WordPress expert, Joost De Valk hosts “Press This!”, a show featuring exclusive interview with fellow WordPress developers, topics such as WordPress hosting and SEO, and news on the latest plug-ins and updates. “Press This“ premieres August 4th and will air every Tuesday at 5pm Eastern/ 2pm Pacific.
For email marketers we have, “Inboxed”, an e-mail marketing program recently added to the network offering best practices for email marketing strategies. “Inboxed“ is hosted XY7 and Rapid Response Marketing CEO Kevin De Vincenzi, Marketing Director Jon Fondy and and email marketing expert Adam Young. The program airs Wednesdays at 5pm Eastern, 2pm Pacific.
“Search Cowboys” is a program that covers news on search engine marketing, social media and other related subjects. Based in Europe, “Search Cowboys“ will have a special interest in Search in Europe, and they will also feature bloggers from around Europe. The program is hosted by European search engine marketers Bas van Den Beld and Roy Huskies, premieres August 20th and will air every Thursday at 1pm Eastern/ 10am Pacific.
Inboxed Delivers Email Strategies to Keep You From Going Postal
July 8, 2009 by Jim Hedger
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Email marketing is a tough game. If you do it right, you can see a very strong return on your efforts. If you do it wrong, you can lay waste to the selling power of your well developed product or brand. Do you know the difference between the right ways and the multitude of wrong ones? WebmasterRadio.FM’s newest show, Inboxed aims to help you develop email marketing strategies that will keep you from going postal.
Inboxed is hosted by XY7.com marketing director, Jon Fondy, XY7.com president, Kevin De Vincenzi (aka, Clickfather), and Rapid Response Marketing LLC email expert Adam Young (aka, Doctor Delivery). The debut show which was recorded live on the floor of Affiliate Convention in Denver two weeks ago covers a recent court case between XY7 and anti-spam attorney Dan Balsam. Guest Bennett Kelly of the Internet Law Center discusses the case and the verdict with Jon and Kevin.
“I’m excited to do the show in that we will be able to take real-time questions from the listeners and give them real-time solutions,” said Fondy. “This is an industry that is growing and changing, and we want to be able to bring in the experts to help everyone grow and become more competent.”
“Inboxed” airs every Wednesday at 5pm Eastern Time beginning July 8th and is available live at WebmasterRadio.FM or on demand in the WebmasterRadio.FM archives inside the Internet Marketing Channel or through iTunes.
Searchonomics – Search Spend Goes Social
May 8, 2009 by Jim Hedger
Filed under WMR Blog
“Thump!” That’s the sound of yet another shoe falling…
A report in this morning’s WebProNews suggests that over 50% of online retailers were scaling back their search marketing spend in favor of social media and email marketing.
The findings come from a Forrester Research study commissioned by Shop.org. Of 117 online retailers contacted in the study, nearly 33% said they would be cutting back on their marketing budgets and just over 50% said they would cut spending on search engine marketing campaigns.
Digital retailers are not stopping their online spend entirely however. The study goes on to note that some of that money will be refocused on social media and email marketing, targeting consumers who state preferences through action or association.
One underlying fact informing the study is that consumers are increasingly receiving information via the Internet. While many retailers are being forced to cut marketing budgets out of necessity, others are taking advantage of their competitors’ weakness by increasing spend on marketing directed towards current customers and targeted towards social communities.
The results of the study leave a lot of room for speculation on the directions online ad spend will take in the future. In the study, search appears to include both PPC and Organic results. Savvy online marketers know that organic search results drives more traffic than paid results do though PPC draws far more ad-spend than SEO does.
Similarly, an indication of increased spend on social marketing might really be an indication that online advertisers want to drive messages directly to current customers instead of winning over new consumers. Despite years of promises of strictly targeted advertising, online marketing remains predominantly a shotgun style of advertising based on search users requesting information rather than that information being automatically served to those known to be interested in a specific product or service.
It should also be noted that surveys record yesterday’s impressions and make them today’s news. The global economy is in a highly dynamic state right now though it continues to appear and feel somewhat stagnant for retailers and consumers. Everyone harbors fear for the survival of their employers or their operations and in such an environment, decision makers appear to be making increasingly dramatic choices. Those choices, when expressed via survey results tend to create a feedback loop that may or may not give an accurate accounting of today’s thinking.
That thought aside, the Shop.org study shows online retailers are seeking far better results for their online ad dollars. If spend does shift towards social media, a far larger market opens for members of the search marketing community though that market will involve psychology as much as it involves technology. The most important take away from these findings is simple. Digital marketers must work far harder to engage online consumers if they wish to keep the ad-spend flowing.
