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Research and studies Category

« Older Entries

Study: Impact of Positive & Negative Product Reviews

Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

A study from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas reveals some very interesting findings on the importance of product reviews on buyer habits. The findings draw from 165 participants who tested video games. They had no previous knowledge of the game, Plants vs. Zombies. I know, I know, but stay with me… The point here isn’t  really about video games.

The study, called, ”The Influence of Professional Critic Reviews,” divided users into three groups. One was exposed to positive reviews of Plants vs. Zombies, one was exposed to negative reviews, and the third was shown none. Participants then played the game for 20 minutes. Next, they filled out an exit survey, gave the game a review score and chose to either receive a free copy of Plants vs. Zombies or $10.

Positive reviews made a big difference.

Those who read positive reviews were twice as likely to choose the copy of Plants vs. Zombies instead of the cash. And they were 85% more likely to take the game than those not exposed to any reviews.  

Read more about the study ag G4tv.com: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/706037/New-Study-Suggests-Video-Game-Reviews-Actually-Important-To-Success.html#ixzz0tf5OS39o

Are you making use of buyer reviews? They clearly influence purchasing decisions, even if you’re not in the business of the undead.

Posted in Brand Consulting, Business to Business Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Measurement, Public Relations, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

New eMarketer report on SEO and SEM Spending

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Search is fundamental to customer acquisition. And search engine optimization (SEO) is projected to grow consistently, according to eMarketer’s Search Marketing Trends report.

Read the rest at blogs.aquent.com:  http://blogs.aquent.com/aquentblog/author/kelly-boykin/2009/06/

Posted in Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Online Marketing, Research and studies, SEO, Search Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »

Still not sure of the ROI of email marketing?

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

What’s the return on investment of email marketing? It’s easy to get a bit jaded when it comes to email marketing, as we’re cleaning out our inboxes. It seems like on a good day the proportion of solicited messages to unsolicited messages is 1:10. On a good day. . .

But, marketers, don’t allow your assumptions to cloud your judgments. Email marketing has a very real ROI.

According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing returned $43.62 for every dollar spent on it in 2009. Yes, the nice people at the DMA might have a dog in the fight. (I really hope people aren’t googling dog fighting and ending up on the TechnologyMarketingBlog.) But who else are you going to trust to measure it?

And while down a bit, they estimate email marketing is expected to return $42.08 for every dollar spent on it this year.

So, if you’re not consistently using email marketing, maybe you should be. And if you’re not getting a healthy ROI, it’s time to evaluate your methods.

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Direct Mail, Direct marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Marketing Research, Measurement, Online Marketing, Research and studies, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Report: Online Ad Revenue Reaches Record High $6.3 Billion in Q4 ’09

Thursday, April 15th, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

The online ad marketing had it’s best quarter ever in Q4 09, according to a report from the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

This record $6.3 billion in revenues speaks to the worst of the ad slump behind us, according to PwC’s David Silverman.

Other highlights of the report:

  • Search and display advertising is still the largest overall interactive advertising spend. Search revenues comprise 47% of the total spending.
  • Digital video in particular is strong, with an almost 39% increase from 2008 to 2009.
  • Based on data from PwC from 2005 to 2009 in tv, radio, newspapers, consumers magazines and Internet, the Internet’s share of combined ad revenue more than doubled from 8% to 17%.

Find out more at http://www.iab.net/about_the_iab/recent_press_releases/press_release_archive/press_release/pr-040710

Posted in Advertising, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Marketing Research, Measurement, Online Marketing, Recession marketing, Research and studies, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Social Media Use Doubles for Small Businesses

Wednesday, March 31st, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Small business use of social media is steeply on the rise in the U.S.  The third wave of the Small Business Success Index™ (SBSI), sponsored by Network Solutions® and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, reports that social media is being used by twice as many small businesses since last year.

How does your business measure up?

Read more and see the breakdown at http://growsmartbusiness.com/small-business-success-index-highlights/.

Tags: network solutions, small business, small business success index, small businesses, Social Media
Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Marketing Research, Measurement, Online Marketing, Referral marketing, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

SEO, PPC, Social Media & More–Find the Top Online Marketing Firms

Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Here is a TopTenREVIEWS review of the top internet marketing companies. Various service areas are evaluated, including search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), link building, social media optimization and more.

Read the online marketing services firms review.

Tags: link building, online marketing services firms, pay per click, ppc, review, search engine optimization, SEO, top internet marketing companies
Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Industry Trends, Lead Generation, Marketing Research, Online Marketing, Research and studies, SEO, Sales and Marketing, Search Marketing, Social Media, Web site development | No Comments »

IT Spending to Rise 6.6% in 2010, Says Forrester

Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

Forrester Research predicts IT spending will rise 6.6 percent in 2010. This is a stark contrast to 2009, where IT spending fell 8.2 percent in the U.S. and and 8.9 percent overall in international markets.

Hardware and software investments will drive the rise in spending, with software projected to rise 9.7 percent.

Read more from Nasdaq.com. Here’s to a strong tech marketing 2010!

 

Posted in Business to Business Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Recession marketing, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Brand Loyalty–Another Recession Consequence

Monday, June 22nd, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle
For most of you out there, another fallout of this strange economy is the loyalty of your customers. Buyers are increasingly looking to make the absolute best decisions with their budgets. In an attempt to shave dollars, they will even incur greater risk by swapping you out for a new product or service provider. And there’s also the risk of them cutting your portion of the budget entirely.
 
Forrester’s George F. Colony says in the Huffington Post:
 
Brand loyalty will be limited. For five years, Forrester has been tracking the precipitous decline in brand loyalty — particularly for complex products like cars. Brands will afford only limited protection for your company in the new world — because choice has been radically expanded. All brands are subject to consumer testing, discussion, disclosure, and transparency. You can no longer own your customer — your customer will own you.
 
Wow. Your customer will own you. Seeing any of that in your industry?
 
Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you know the Technology Marketing Blog isn’t about gloom and doom or hand wringing. We’re about solutions here, people. The question is–what are you going to do with this information?
 
We all know that new customer acquisition is a high priority. But an even higher priority is keeping the customers you’ve worked so hard to attain. If your pipeline has slowed, you certainly can’t afford to lose customers. But if customer retention isn’t part of your current marketing strategy, be prepared to face that unpleasant reality.
 
Later this week we’ll discuss marketing activities you really should be doing to increase customer retention.
 
Another interesting, if harrowing read, is from NakedCapitalism.com. If you’re not on board with the severity of this issue, this is pretty convincing.
 
Join us next week for solutions, and visit www.q2marketing.com for lots of other ways to solve your tech marketing challenges. Till next time….

Posted in Customer retention, Economy, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

Six Principles of Brilliant Branding from Starbucks’ John Moore

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle
Build a business that’s profitable, makes employees and customers happy and you don’t need to worry about branding. Branding will take care of itself.
These aren’t sentiments you’d expect from a marketer, must less John Moore, who designed and implemented marketing programs for Starbucks Coffee for eight years. But he’s pretty much an authority.
 
I attended his presentation before Accelerent last week. Special thanks to Brad Powell of JX2 Professional Software Services for the invitation. In his talk, Moore espoused six principles worth consideration—if not embracing—by marketers everywhere. Because he’s a heck of a wordsmith, some of his phrases are repeated here verbatim, or at least close to it. Here are the first three of his six principles:
 
1. The more obvious you are, the more original you appear…and vice versa. And here’s something particularly compelling for some in the tech marketing world. There’s no such thing as a dull product category. There are only dull brands.
 
He stressed the importance of earning opinions from your customers. A way to do that: unconventional names for your cup sizes. By taking something common and making it uncommon, you make your customers feel special, citing loyal customers who speak Starbuckian.
 
2. Be careful when defying your “circle of expectations.” The more obvious you are, the smaller the circle gets. Starbucks’ mark in the sand, as defined by Moore:
 
·        bold coffee (this isn’t Folgers!)
·        high quality beans
·        not cheap
·        non-traditional marketing consisting of locations as billboards and patrons carrying the distinctive cup
·        comfortable stores
·        engaged employees–another part of the Starbucks experience
 
The point is that the smaller the circle, the more effective the brand. Starbucks tried milder coffee, cheap coffee, salads, ice cream and other brainstorms that Moore said were unsuccessful because they were outside the circle.
 
3. If you want to earn customer loyalty, first earn employee loyalty. Your competitors can replicate your products and programs, but they can’t replicate your corporate culture.
Check back later this week for more on Moore’s six principles….

Posted in Advertising, Brand Consulting, Case studies, Industry Trends, Marketing Research, Public Relations, Research and studies, Sales and Marketing | 2 Comments »

Stimulus Law Means $2.5 billion in Tech Funding from Federal Government

Thursday, March 19th, 2009 - by Becky Sheetz-Runkle

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the much-talked-about stimulus spending law, is estimated to bring $2.5 billion in spending to technology vendors. This is according to IDC Industry Insights, as reported by David Hubler in Washington Technology.  

This is a “once-in-a-lifetime flood of new technology money,” says IDC. They estimated $101.2 billion in technology spending will be generated between 2009 and 2012.

Among the federal tech opportunities that law is expected to impact the most:

● The Social Security Administration’s (SSA) National Computer Center data center modernization—$500 million.

● The SSA’s claims processing program—$490 million. 

● The Homeland Security Department data center, law enforcement communications–$340 million. 

● The State Department’s security and network assurance technologies—$290 million.

● The Institute of Education Science’s high-performance computing and predictive services—$250 million.

● The Veterans Affairs Department data center and information technology services—$50 million.

● The Agriculture Department’s Farm Services Agency data center and systems services—$50 million.

Posted in Business to Government Marketing, Economy, Industry Trends, Research and studies, Technology Marketing | No Comments »

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