Monthly Archives: May 2015

May 14, 2015 · 10:06 am

Data Collection Matters

There was a piece on MediaPost about how the broadband providers and their trade associations have gone to court to prevent the FCC from imposing some of the new rules on how those providers may behave. The specific ones upon which I’m focused today are the ones concerning privacy and data collection. The article explains the issue nicely:

They specifically complain that the FCC’s decision to treat broadband as a utility also empowers the agency to impose privacy rules that could curb its behavioral advertising efforts, which involve targeting ads to users based on the Web sites they visit.

“Today, broadband providers can lawfully use information about customers’ Internet access services and usage to develop customized marketing programs that benefit both the provider and its customers,” AT&T and the others say in their court papers.

On the surface, maybe they have a point.  After all, many of us prefer to see targeted ads and as someone who has made a living off of marketing programs I’m all for them.  There is, however, a broader issue and it’s one of which any business who collects data (that would probably be YOU, dear reader) needs to remain cognizant.

The amount of data your wireless and/or broadband provider has about you is staggering.  They know where you’ve been and when.  They know what you research and with whom you communicate.  This fabulous piece demonstrates what all of this data retention means.  Ad targeting is one very simple use, but what happens when some insurance company decides to work with a broadband provider to find speeders and raise their rates?

Honestly, I’d still be OK with all of it with a very big IF.  Ask yourself this: do you know what’s being collected and do you know how it’s being used?  I can can “yes” to the first question and a very big “no” to the second.  I’m not a tin-foil hat guy – I don’t think there are seriously nefarious things going on at the ISP’s involving data misuse (the government is another matter).  I do think, however, that data collection needs to be explained to consumers in simple language and with sample data.  I think we all need transparency and the ability to opt in, not the demand that we opt out.  Having some protections in place isn’t a bad thing.  After all, the brief history of the commercial internet is rife with bad actors (see ad injectors, malware distributors, browser hijackers, etc.) who will do just about anything to line their pockets.

How do you see it?

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May 13, 2015 · 9:52 am

Your Own Deflategate

I’ll say right at the top I’m not a New England Patriots fan.  Being a loyal fan of the Michigan Wolverines, however, puts me into a state of cognitive dissonance over the Tom Brady “deflategate” issue.  I’m writing his bad behavior off to being immersed in a bad environment – he didn’t learn this stuff in Ann Arbor.  By the way – I’m amazed how some folks think he was suspended for conspiring to deflate the footballs.  As I understand it the issue is his lack of cooperation with the investigation and not his guilt or innocence with respect to the rules violations.

New England Patriots at Washington Redskins 08...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You might wonder why I’m bringing this up on a business blog.  I suspect there are many folks in the digital marketing business who are shaking their heads at what went on with the footballs.  Maybe there is a sense that cheating your way to a win diminishes both the win and the game itself.  Most of these folks would say they’d never do something like that and yet I’m willing to bet many do on a regular basis.

All of us in the digital media business are aware of fraud.  There are publishers who buy traffic which they know is not human traffic and which they turn around and sell on the ad exchanges in a form of arbitrage.  They might make a couple of hundredths of a cent on an impression but do it a million times a day and suddenly real money is involved.  It’s easy to spot anywhere in the media chain – the publisher sees it, the exchanges see it, I suspect the ad agencies see it and perhaps even the clients see it.  How?  Analytics.  When lots of your users are running a 10-year-old version of flash and a 5-year-old version of a browser (doesn’t happen in the real world, kids), someone is cheating.  If you’re buying really cheap traffic from someplace, you can assume it’s not human.  Yet no one is putting their hand in the air saying “I’m not going to take the money because I know it’s wrong.”  Like the Patriots, they just want to win.

The rage now is “viewability.” The problem is that the folks who are making money off of ad fraud – and the marketers who knowingly support it – will come up with a way to defeat the tactics to measure real ad views.  You don’t think any real marketer would do that?  Who is putting their ads on the ad injectors – the thieves who steal traffic from websites and layer their own ads on top?

There is an old expression in sports: “If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying hard enough.”  When the most penalized team in the NFL wins the Super Bowl (the Seahawks a year ago), what does that say about pushing the limits, which is what the Patriots were doing?  More importantly to your business, you need to think about how far you’re willing to go and to what degree you are willing to push the limits to win.  Personally I like to be able to look at myself in the mirror without shame.  You?

 

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May 12, 2015 · 10:47 am

Mowers And Marketing

I bought an electric lawn mower this morning.  It runs on a rechargeable battery and it is both incredibly light and much quieter than the old gas-powered thing we’ve had for decades.  That it’s more environmentally friendly goes without saying – no fumes means no pollutants.  Yes it was a higher investment cost initially but over time it will just as cost-effective to cut the grass as with the old thing.

Obviously I didn’t just grab the first mower of this type I spied.  I went to the internet to do research and there was lots of information about battery-powered mowers generally and every model specifically.  That’s not news to you but it reminded me of a few points that might be applicable to your sales efforts so let’s review.

First, the single most important information upon which I relied was user reviews.  Putting together a list of the purchase candidates was relatively easy – I just searched for “battery-powered lawnmower reviews” and found a few professional sites that had side by side comparisons of features.  As an aside, most of these contained affiliate links to purchase the mowers which reminds us that having an active affiliate program is something every online seller needs.  Once I had sorted out my choices down to my three top candidates I went to Amazon to read reviews.  Any mower without at least a dozen recent reviews became a questionable choice in my mind.  Why rely on real people rather than the professionals?  Both because of much higher volume and due to the fact that I have no way of knowing who is being paid to say nice things (thanks, content marketing…).

That activity is typical.  A Bazzarvoice study looked at how reviews can impact sales and return on social media investment.  You can read it here.  The big takeaway is you must get users to write reviews.  They help with search results (SEO benefits) as well as with conversion:

As the number of reviews ticks higher, businesses start to see increases in the conversion rate. Just one review can increase the conversion rate by 10 percent. At 100 reviews the conversion rate can be boosted by up to 37 percent, and by the time there are 200 reviews, the rate can be boosted as much as 44 percent.

The fact that these reviews exist is just as important as what they say, as it turns out.  They add authenticity, and in addition to the types of ROI already discussed, authentic content also positively impacts overall consumer trust in a brand. Even negative reviews (which you MUST NOT edit or delete) can help.  I found many of the one or two star reviews were based on some nit or an unrealistic expectation (no, the battery doesn’t last for three hours before it needs recharging).

The only thing the folks at Home Depot won’t understand is how I came to choose their store and that model.  They have no clue how I did my research and the folks at Amazon won’t understand why I did all this research and never bought (their prices were hundreds of dollars too high).  That cross-channel measurement is a much longer topic but it’s a critical missing link in much of our marketing.

Think about your last major purchase.  Did it flow something like mine?  How are you serving all the folks who are doing their research right now?  How are you encouraging  reviews and getting them front and center?  Make sense?

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