In the article below you can find small budget planning for marketing….You have a great product, a great website and a great staff. The only thing that isn’t “great” is the size of your marketing budget. Roughly $27 billion dollars will be spent in online advertising in 2008, according to eMarketer. With so many marketers occupying the same space, how can a company stay competitive while staying within its budget?

Don’t resort to taking up offers from the snake-oil salesmen such as bogus SEO optimization services or overpriced and over-glorified affiliate marketing programs. Instead, use proven ways to compete toe-to-toe in today’s online market without breaking your budget.

We have all seen companies get caught up in the losing game of keyword bidding wars over terms that are way too general, or against competitors with deep pockets that are willing and able to spend on loss leaders. A strong presence in today’s online market is critical — but contrary to popular belief, size isn’t everything. What does it take for a marketer to compete effectively when money is tight? Here is a list of six key strategies marketers can use to get ahead while staying within their advertising budgets.

1. The “they’re huge!” effect

When you see commercials, billboards, print ads, online ads, etc. for the same company over and over again, you probably think, “They’re huge!” Right? Customers’ perception of your company has a lot to do with their decision to buy from you. The more you stay top-of-mind to a consumer, the more likely it is that they will purchase from you. So the trick is getting your message in front of your customers at a good rate without having to throw major bucks at a search engine, email marketing campaign, ad network or other advertising vehicle.

The common types of behavioral targeting are effective, but they don’t necessarily give the returns that would justify the large ad spend to get the “they’re huge” effect. It’s costly to contextually or behaviorally target customers via display advertisements. These are great marketing vehicles to use when you have the budget, but when your advertising dollars are limited, these forms of behavioral targeting should be left for the big boys with the budgets that can support them.

Newer behavioral targeting methods, like retargeting, are cost effective and deliver incredible results. Retargeting is categorized as behavioral targeting because the customer’s behavior — visiting your website — causes that person to be shown targeted displays ads during his or her everyday web surfing activities (visiting sites like Yahoo, Facebook, etc.). You aren’t spending money to get placement in front of certain demographics; you are directly targeting customers who have visiting your website.

Here’s an example: Jane visits a website that sells cosmetics. She leaves the site for whatever reason — she wants to comparison shop, she is at work and her boss walks over to her desk, or maybe she gets interrupted by a phone call. When she gets back online, she goes to her Yahoo email account. When she logs in, she sees an ad for the cosmetic website she visited earlier. Later, she goes to CNN.com to read the news and, again, there is an ad for the cosmetics website. She sees ads for the cosmetic website as she visits her favorite celebrity blog website, and also as she goes to a local directory website when she’s researching wine bars. Jane is not aware that she is the only person seeing these ads as she visits these web pages, but she is left with the impression that the cosmetic website must be huge since its display ads are everywhere online.

A few months back, one of the investors of FetchBack saw our ads everywhere online and made the comment, “How much are you spending on marketing?” We explained to him that we aren’t spending much on advertising; the reason he saw our ads everywhere was due to retargeting, and apparently it had worked in created the “they’re huge!” effect we were going for.

2. Focus where there is interest

Those who know me know that I strongly encourage marketers to focus primarily on their interested prospects and existing customers, and not to spend most of their time attracting new customers. Traditional advertising programs — including paid search, affiliate programs and other traffic drivers — get prospects to your site and are important; however, they are not the most important things for marketers to focus on. At times, they can even be cost prohibitive. Once you spend the money to get a customer to your website, the majority leave without purchasing. Rather than simply focusing on getting another new customer to come to your website, you should work to get the customers who have already visited your site to come back.

Once customers visit your site, they are put into one of two categories:

* Interested prospects: customers who visited your website and didn’t purchase
* Existing customers: customers who visited your website and purchased

So why should you focus on these customers and not work primarily to get new leads in the door? The answer is simple: These customers are responsible for one of the most important metrics that most marketers don’t pay attention to: your site’s return conversion rate. Our data show that, on average, return conversion rates are four times higher than new customer conversion rates. For every new customer you convert, four customers who have either visited your website in the past or made a purchase from you are converting.

That is a huge number that you should work to increase. Don’t simply think that customers will come back to your site again to purchase, regardless of what your competitor is doing. It is important for you to stay top of mind and find ways to entice customers to come back to your site and re-purchase again and again. Methods for doing this include email campaigns, retargeting, superior customer service, reward programs and sending discount coupons in the mail to say “thanks.”

On your website, prominently display ways for consumers to opt-in to your email marketing program. They have shown an interest in your product by visiting your website, and they should also be interested in your special offers. You can also create a loyalty program and promote it on-site to encourage customers to visit your website again and purchase. Add your loyalty program information to your display advertisements and paid search text ads, and don’t forget to give it exposure on your website. If you promote the value customers get from purchasing from you, more customers will come back and do so.

It’s more expensive to get a new customer to your website than it is to convert an interested prospect or existing customer. Don’t leave money on the table from your acquisition efforts by not continuing the conversation with them. This is not an easy task to take on, but once you start increasing your return conversion rate, you will see an overall lift in sales and will spend less money acquiring new customers.

3-4. Highlight benefits; use testimonials

3. Highlight your benefits
Highlighting the benefits you have over your competitor is an effective method of driving conversions and interest in your company. The best way to do this is to create content that compares the benefits of buying your product or service to that of your competitors. Tell the consumer why you are the best choice, and be as specific as you can, so that customers can be assured of your value. Examples of points that could be included in comparative content could be the fact that your laptop performs better than your competitor’s, that your candle has a more pleasant aroma or that you have the best customer service in your industry.

Once you’ve developed such content, you need a strategy to get it in front of your customers. This strategy should include free press-release tools and microsites that customers can visit. Getting your content printed in a publication pertinent to what you are selling is also tremendously useful.

If you create a microsite, buy keywords that drive traffic directly to it. Those keywords might include searches around negative issues in the market where you shine above your competitors For example, your keywords could include “short battery life” if you are promoting a laptop with a long battery life. Your microsite can tell customers how your laptop is superior to your competitors’ laptops.

Later in this article, I discuss do-it-yourself PR in detail; this is another important way to help customers understand why you are better than your competitors. Create case studies or write an article comparing your product to your competitors’ offerings. Once the content is created, send it out to the editors of product review sites to see if they will publish it. Be your biggest fan, and use facts to show why you are better than your competitors. The point is to give your customers every reason to purchase from you by highlighting why you are superior. Use this method to push the real substance of what sets your company apart, in a positive way.

4. Use testimonials
Let your existing customers speak volumes for you by leveraging testimonials in your marketing efforts. The most important thing that most companies forget to do is to simply ask customers to provide testimonials. People love to talk about a product or service they enjoy, and on-site ratings are gaining in popularity.

Include testimonials on your website, incorporate them into your advertisements and add them to your email signatures at work so that everyone you interact with sees the good things people are saying about your company. Potential customers that see positive reviews about your product or service are much more likely to purchase, especially online. We are living in an era where customer reviews are prevalent and influential to customer purchase decisions. If your customers are not familiar with your company or brand, let your satisfied customers help you in the sales process by giving their thumbs-up for others to read.

5. Do-it-yourself PR

Guy Kawasaki posted an article on his blog written by Glenn Kelman of Redfin about why companies should move to a do-it-yourself PR strategy. In essence, the PR game is not what it was five years ago. Forget hiring an agency and spending the standard $5,000-$20,000 fee per month to have your account handed off to an associate who knows little more than you do about how to pitch ideas and stories. The most important part of a good PR pitch has always been the value in the idea that is being pitched.

In the past, PR reps would scroll through their Rolodexes, call press contacts and pitch them ideas for stories. The value in this was that information about companies and press contacts used to be much harder to come by. From the companies’ perspective, the press contact was hidden, and the press contact had no idea who to contact at a company about new innovations. Now, mainly due to the internet, both companies and members of the press have the same ability to search each other out and discuss story ideas.

Take some time to think about how you can help those who are in a position to write about your company to do so. Kelman’s article provides some excellent insights. It’s not just about pitching story ideas; you can also create the content you would like to see distributed. Write an article and contact an editor of an online publication and pitch them on the idea of running the story. Who knows your company, your product and your service better than you?

Think about what you can offer to a reader that is informative, interesting and adds value. Creating this valuable content is going to get you noticed and get free publicity for your company. Who can argue with anything free nowadays? The more people hear about your company, the more apt they are to want to learn more about you, thus creating a huge opportunity to convert them.

6. Customer service is not a cost center

One of the most overlooked — and yet most critical — ways to improve sales is through a company’s customer service. Your customer service team has incredible influence on your customers and whether or not they purchase. One bad experience can cause you to lose a customer for good. No amount of incentives or cool product offerings can correct that customer’s perception of you if it’s a bad one.

The marketplace is competitive, and there is more than one company out there that will happily scoop up your disappointed customer and make them feel valued. The more an organization looks at the entire experience of the customer as part of the goal to retain and acquire customers, the more likely customer service will be considered an investment. It’s an investment that will drive down the total costs of acquiring a sale, as well as give you more exposure in the marketplace.

Ask yourself the following questions:

* How does your organization view customer service?
* What does customer service bring to the table to help increase sales?
* Do your customer service representatives up-sell customers with complementary products or enhancements?
* Do they get your customers’ email addresses so you can market to them later?

There are countless ways to optimize your customer service. Take time to consider how customers are treated at every touch point and how you can improve those interactions. It takes time to examine this process, but companies like Zappos are finding continued success by focusing on customer service and retention.

Marketers are facing tough times, both online and offline. During such times, you have to be creative and innovative with your advertising efforts in order to differentiate yourself. It can be tough to compete against a company that has 100 times your marketing budget. Don’t get discouraged; in some instances, you actually have the clear advantage. Most large companies couldn’t care less about competing harder for a single customer. They often don’t provide the same level of service or value that you can.

Once you have an interested customer, do everything possible to stay in front of that person and convert them. Once they convert, provide service that is second to none and remember to treat them with the value they deserve. It might be difficult in the beginning to gain the general awareness necessary to compete, but once you are dealing with interested prospects, you can not only compete, but you can dominate.

Microsoft To Buy Back $40bn of Its Shares

phantom flan flinger writes “As you may have heard already, Microsoft have announced their intentions to buy back $40 billion in stock from their investors, in the biggest single buy-back plan in business history.
The announcement has given Microsoft shares [1]a small gain but they still stand significantly below their level in January – before Microsoft’s unsolicited bid for Yahoo!. The announcement of the plan has also created new speculation about [2]a now-or-never deal with Yahoo!.”

Türkiye’deki popüler medya ağzıyla, iki üniversite öğrncisinin yurtta kurduğu sonra milyon dolarlar eden bir proje olan yahoo ile başladı, internette arama macerası. Yahoo insan kontrolünde olan bir arama yapısı idi. Dizinler elle oluşturulup, web sitelerindeki indekslemeler sisteme ekleniyordu. Fakat zamanla internetin ticari yapısı, web sitesi sayısının hızlı yükselişini ve indeksleme faaliyetinin ciddi bir iş yükü olması durumunu getirdi. Bu nedenle daha hızlı indeksleyen bir yapıya ihtiyaç duyuldu. Bu şirketin ismi Google’dı. Google bilgiye ulaşmanın zor olduğu ve insanların bilgi yığınlarının arasından çıkmakta zorlandığı dönemlerde, iyi veya kötü önümüze kullanılabilir bilgiler getirmeye başladı. Bilgi yığınları artınca, google’da “copy-paste jenerasyonunun” altında ezilmeye başladı. Google, aslında sadece interneti indeksleyip yol gösterme görevini üstlenmekten çok, zamanla ben internetin önsözüyüm, özetiyim. Yani ben internetim demeye başlamıştı. Bu konuda en ciddi cevabı, facebook verdi. Facebook internetin insanlardan oldugunu farkeden ve insanları internet üzerinde gerçek kimlikleri ie varolmasını sağlayan bir yapı yaptı. Bu bir tabunun da sonu olmuştu. Facebook’a kadar herkes, internetin insanların ikinci kimlikleri ile bulunmaktan hoşlanacakları, kişisel gizliliğin ismini saklamak olduğunu düşünüyolardı. Ancak durum hiç böyle olmadı. Facebook bu tabuyu çok kısa zamanda yıktı.

Aslında facebook insanların arama ihtiyaçlarını da biraz olsun arttıdı. Yıllardır internette sitesi olmadığı için ulaşamadığımız eş, dost, akraba ve arkadaşlarımızı facebook!da arayarak ulaşabildik. Kendi arkadaş listemizi oluşturduk. Sonra farkettik ki ilkokul arkadaşımızla konuşmuyor olmamızın sebebi ona ulaşamamaktan çok, paylaşacak birşeylerimizin kalmamasıymış. Bu bilgi aynı zamanda internet üzerindeki arama dünyasınında yüzleşmek zorunda kaldığı bir gerçek olarak karşımıza çıktı.

Google’da bir arama yaptığınızda sizi iki tip bilgi ilgilenediriyor. Birincisi konu hakkındaki en güncel enfermasyon (facebook mantığıyla o anki kontaktlarınız), çok sık olmamakla birlikte de konu hakkındaki referans niteliği taşıyan enformasyon yani gerçek anlamıyla zamandan bağımsız bilgi.(facebookdaki akrabalarınıza denk gelen kişiler). Google bu iki bilgiyi kullanarak yıllardır aramalarınızın ilk sayfasını bu linklerle dolduruyor.

Bu bilgiler bize yapyani bir kapı açtı. Bu kapının ismi anlamsal yani semantik web. Bu yeni arama şekli bir kelimenin ne kadar çok geçtiği ile hiç ilgilenmiyor. Daha çok anlamını kestirmek için farklı algoritmalar kullanıyor.

Anlamsal arama havuzunda bir Türk!

Hakia isimli bir arama motoru ile ortaya çıkan ve yıllardır Rıza C. Berkan, anlamsal arama konusunda en eski araştırmaları yapan kişilerden birisi. Ancak arama motoru istediği noktaya ulaşmamış gibi görünüyor.Freebase.com

İşte google’ın karşısındaki en ciddi tehdit. Anlamsal arama yöntemlerini kullanarak yapabileceklerinizin sınırının olmadığı korkunç bir site. Wikipedia’nın ansiklopedik bilgisi ve google’ın indeksleme yeteneklerini bir arada tutan melez zeka. Örnek olması açısından 2008 Yaz Olimpiyatlarına katılan ülkelerin daha önce katıldıkları olimpiyatlar listesini sadece 2 tık ile elde edebiliyorsunuz. Bir dönem bir bankanın iki tıka bir porche verdiğini gözönüne aldığımızda, bu iki tıkın insanlık için değerini artık siz hesaplayın….
Google

Arama dünyasının devi. Yeni fikirler bahçesi. Anlamsal web konusunda daha ortaya Bir şey çıkaramadı. Zaten Microsoft yüzünden derdi başından aşmış durumda.

Sarah Palin, yahoo hesabı kullanıyormuş. Malumunuz bu tip hesapları açarken eğer şifrenizi unutursanız diye, bir soru seçmeiz ve sorunuzun yanıtını vermeniz istenir. Şifrenizi unuttuğunuzda karşınıza bu soru gelir siz de cevabını yazarsınız.
İşte bu sorular aslında yıllardır bir güvenlik açığıdırlar. Mesela annenizin kızlık soyadı yakınınızdaki birçok kişi tarafından bilinen veya araştırılabilecek olan bir bilgidir. Veya ilk köpeğinizin ismi… Yahoo’daki büyük tehditin sebebi, soruları onların belirlediği sorular arasından seçmekten kaynaklanıyor. Bu soruların çoğunun cevabını da etrafınızdaki birçok kişi biliyor.
Aslında bu sorun yıllardır bilişim dünyasının kafasını karıştıran konulardan biriydi. Hepimiz onlarca siteye onlarca şifre koyuyoruz. Artık şifreler bile o kadar çok karışıyor ki; çoğumuz şifreleri bilgisayara kaydediyoruz. Bu ise başka bir güvenlik açığını ortaya çıkarıyor. Yıllar önce passport isimli bir şirket bu sorunu çözmek için, tek şifre ile onlarca web sitesine girilebilen bir yapıyı hazırlamış, başarıyla da uygulamaya başlamıştı. Ancak Microsoft tarafından şirket stın alınınca proje hotmail’in bir parçası olarak entegre edildi. Şimdi ise yaygın kullanılmıyor.
Üzücü olan bu tip bir uygulamanın gerekliliği. Bu nedenle son dönemde OpenID isimli firma, bir web sitesine kayıt olduğunuzda, diğer web sitelerinizi de önünüze açan bir sistem üzerinde çalışıyor. Merak ettim kullandıkları teknolojiyi inceledim. Son derece başarılıbir güvenlik altyapısına sahipler, ancak kullanımının daha kolaylaşması gerekiyor.
Yine son dönemde internet dünyasına başarılı bir giriş yapan pageonce.com’u da unutmamak gerek. Pageonce’a kayıt olduktan sonra, şifre ile girdiğiniz birçok bilindik siteyi onun sistemine kayıt ediyorsunuz. Siteye her girdiğinizde şifreyle kayıtlı siteleri otomatik olarak açıyor. Aslında bir portal çözümü olmasına rağmen güvenlik problemini de ortadan kaldırıyor. Bu sitelerden birini kullanmanızı, internet güvenliğiniz için öneriririm.
Gelelim herkesin en büyük problemi olan, banka hesap güvenliğine. İnternet bankacılığı son dönem “atm fareleri”nden sonra daha güvenilir görünmeye başladı. Yalnız şifrenizi sıklıkla değiştirmek şartı ile. Güvenlik uzmanlarının söylediği güzel bir söz vardır. Şifre sakıza benzer, uzun süre değiştirmezseniz yumuşar. Bu nedenle bankaların neredeyse hemen hepsinde olan şifrematik uygulamasını herkese tavsiye ediyorum. Hesabınızı ondan daha güzenli koruyacak bir sistem daha bulunmadı.
Gelelim Sarah hanımın hatasına… Geçen yıllarda çalışma arkadaşlarımdan biri annesinin kızlık soyadının bir banka tarafından sorulmasına ve açıkta yayınlanıyor olamasına isyan etti. Ona önerim bu soruya gerçek annesinin kızlık soyadı yerine başka birşey yazması idi. Tabii hatırlamak şartı ile. Sarah Palin’de benzerini yapsaydı, hesabını bir kolej öğrencisi olan David Kernell’a kaptırmazdı.

As Microsoft Walks Away, Yahoo Enters Google Ad Pact

Microsoft Corp. abandoned its pursuit of Yahoo Inc., opening the way for Yahoo to complete a search-advertising pact with rival Google Inc. that pits the industry’s two biggest forces against Microsoft.
Yahoo says talks with Microsoft are off, and it’s also not interested in selling parts of its business to the software giant. This means Yahoo’s future probably isn’t heading in the direction most investors would like. John Letzing reports.

Microsoft told Yahoo that it was no longer interested in pursuing a takeover, even at the $33 a share it offered for the Internet company last month. That price would have valued Yahoo at nearly $50 billion.

Microsoft also unsuccessfully floated an alternative proposal to acquire Yahoo’s search business for about $1 billion, a person familiar with Microsoft said. As part of that deal, Microsoft said it was prepared to acquire an additional 16% of Yahoo for $35 a share, or about $7.73 billion, according to people familiar with the situation.

Yahoo said Thursday that under the new Google pact, it will display some ads sold by its rival in a deal Yahoo estimated would generate $800 million in annual revenue through improved monetization of certain types of searches. Both companies said they were looking at ways to expand the limited partnership, possibly into display advertising.

Yahoo will control how Google’s ads are displayed alongside its own advertising. The pact is sure to face regulatory scrutiny. The companies agreed to delay its implementation for as many as three and a half months to allow regulatory review. In an interview, Yahoo President Susan Decker described the deal as “a bridge” that will help the company build up a converged display and search business.

The agreement seemed to leave room for Yahoo to pursue another deal, including a sale to Microsoft. Yahoo said either party can end the agreement in the event of a change in control. If that happens in the next 24 months, Yahoo would have to pay a termination fee of $250 million, minus some of the revenue Google had earned through the deal.

Yahoo said Friday that Google may terminate the agreement if it can’t generate a certain minimum revenue amount. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said Google can terminate the agreement if after 10 months — and each month after that — the gross revenue recognized by Google is less than $83.33 million for the four prior calendar months.

The Google-Yahoo collaboration is likely to get a hard look by regulators in both the U.S. and Europe. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wisc.), chairman of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee, said the deal “raises important competition concerns” and promised a close examination.

“The consequences for advertisers and consumers could be far-reaching and warrant careful review, and we plan to investigate the competitive and privacy implications of this deal further in the Antitrust Subcommittee,” Sen. Kohl said in a statement.

The latest moves portend a period of deep uncertainty for the Internet sector, as the biggest players look for strategic footing against Google and smaller upstarts. Yahoo’s future also remains unclear. It must prove to impatient investors and employees that its independent strategy can work while competition heats up.

In retrospect, Microsoft’s tactics appear to have badly backfired. Instead of winning Yahoo’s huge audience and online search capabilities, Microsoft has driven its quarry into the arms of its archenemy — Google.

Yahoo resisted Microsoft from the beginning. Microsoft later raised its bid from $31 a share to $33. When Yahoo demanded even more, Microsoft said it was walking away.

A few weeks later, Microsoft re-emerged, saying it was willing to discuss an alternative transaction with Yahoo that wouldn’t involve a full takeover. But it also said it wasn’t ruling out pursuing a full-scale deal. That gave Yahoo investors hope that a deal was possible.

Chief among those hoping for a deal was investor Carl Icahn. Mr. Icahn said Thursday that he was studying the situation but otherwise declined to comment.

The negotiations between the two companies unraveled June 8 during a meeting at a private airport in San Jose, Calif. The Yahoo contingent included Chief Executive Jerry Yang and Chairman Roy Bostock. Microsoft’s team was led by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer.

At the meeting, Microsoft made it clear it no longer wanted to pursue a larger deal, the people familiar with the matter said. The Yahoo camp wasn’t interested in the smaller deal.

Two days later, Yahoo’s board met to evaluate its options and decided to pursue a deal with Google. Thursday, Mr. Yang notified Microsoft of Yahoo’s decision. Yahoo and Google signed the new deal.