Category: Web Marketing

New ways to create and measure sites so they improve their ability to bring your best customers closer and attact other individuals just like them

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Tonight only, at a theater near you: the podcast innovators of Rifftrax

Anyone who has followed this blog long enough knows that I am fascinated by how entrepreneurs have attempted to make money with podcasts. For a moment, forget about news publishers, or those focused on b-to-b lead generation or working on a non-profit model like NPR. I’m talking about pay for product — and your product is a podcast. I’d even eliminate Audible.com — the spoken word bookseller — from my list, because they sell their content by subscription instead of purchase by the podcast.

I found one business a few years ago that fits my rigid, purely retail requirements. They sell what has to be one of the most novel applications of a podcast. Rifftrax started their business by selling podcasts that only have value when listened to while watching a movie.

The company has since morphed and grown. I now see that Rifftrax is testing live events “rebroadcast” in movie theaters. Below is an ad for a screening that’s taking place all over the country, tonight, of what I’m sure is a very funny version of the world’s worst film: Ed Wood’s Plan 9 From Outer Space.

Rifftrax at a theater near you!

I will be intrigued to see how this national screening takes hold. When I went into the site of NCM Fathom, their apparent partner in this event, I saw that a good dozen theaters within the Metro Milwaukee area are showing the film. If any of my readers attend the event, contact me or leave a comment. I’ll be intrigued to learn how it went, and if this may be the first instance where a podcast business has spawned a theatrical film series.

Full disclosure: When I wrote my first blog about Rifftrax, they sent me a $10 eCoupon to encourage me to select a podcast or two for a Rifftrax party I was throwing. I paid for the download instead and gave away the gift as a prize in a subsequent reader contest.

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Even bad reviews can improve your sales

There is mounting evidence that authenticity is more important to consumers than some perceived level of perfection. Here is another case — this one coming from a report by CNN Money, about AlpacaDirect:

AlpacaDirect.com always offered a page full of cherry-picked customer comments raving about the site’s alpaca sweaters, socks and yarn. But recently Hobart, 47, decided to take the idea a step further: He hired PowerReviews, whose software lets shoppers write their own product reviews directly on the retailer’s Web site.

It was a risky move for the four-year-old company, based in Brentwood, Calif. Hobart was effectively paying to host bad press — such as posts by customers who described AlpacaDirect’s golf cardigan as “kinda sweaty” and a “poor fit.” Both awarded the cardigan three out of a possible five stars.

But a month after installing the PowerReviews service, Hobart saw sales climb 23% on items that had customer reviews (even that cardigan, which garnered an average of four stars).

This leap in sales is not atypical. It’s hard to believe that one bold change can really improve sales by this much. But it’s true.

Related post:

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Measure clicks and ROI from Twitter posts

A week ago I was a co-speaker at a C2 Five Dollar Friday event. One of the last items I touched upon was how to measure traffic that comes from Twitter and other social media posts. I promised the group that I’d document the process.

Note: Get news on my expanded web design ROI workshops, to be held by C2 in Milwaukee and Madison.

Twitter As A Channel for Sales

It wasn’t too long ago that there were no definitive examples of strong positive ROI from Twitter. Since then several high-profile companies have publicized their successes. You might have read a recent account of how, according to Forbes and other sources, a division of Dell Computing has earned over $3 million from sales generated from its Twitter posts.

Here’s how your business can accurately measure direct sales — or track sales leads — generated by this powerful communication channel. All you need is a free Google Analytics (GA) account and the following new GA profiles (a special thanks to eConsultancy for their terrific post on this topic in May):

1.) Track all clicks from Twitter and major Twitter agents

a.) Add a new profile in Google Analytics

Name this new profile something like Twitter Traffic. If you’re creating this profile significantly later than the rest your Google Analytics set-up, you can add a date to the profile name. That will help you know how far back in time your results reach. In this case I haven’t:

Step 1

Continue reading “Measure clicks and ROI from Twitter posts”

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Get the basics of Digital Marketing ROI at C2’s Five Dollar Friday!

I’ll be speaking Friday at C2, as part of their Five Dollar Friday afternoon sessions. Here’s what C2 says about the event:

September 18, 2 – 5 pm: SEM, SEO, PPC, HTML, CSS and other important web acronyms demystified!

We work in a quickly evolving industry. New versions of software, browsers and social media launch so often, keeping up can be a challenge. Today clients expect that creative professionals, regardless of title, know it ALL! C2 understands your pain.

To the rescue, C2 presents two sets of expertise: Andrew Wintheiser and the team from Lightburn Designs, and Jeff Larche, owner of Digital Solid. Andrew will clarify and simplify some of the more complex elements of search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC) and search engine marketing (SEM). Andrew will fill the first part of the afternoon with best practices, resources and case studies to help demystify these crucial web acronyms.

Jeff Larche will follow, to demystify one last but arguably most important acronym: return on investment (ROI).

He’ll walk you through some simple steps and web analytics to help you report, in real dollars, the effectiveness of your online work. Jeff explains, “It’s ironic that something so measurable – online marketing – should also be so difficult to quantify. But there have been recent gains in web analytics. They’ve produced techniques you can take your clients through.” He’ll also show how you can use current measurements as a benchmark, to gauge progress in growing ROI over time.

There are still a few seats available. Sign up now!

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What Would A Garage Band Do?

This post, on the social media portal SoHoBiztube, is a riff on Jeff Jarvis’s book. Businesses can learn a thing or two from the scrappy ethos of today’s starving (and techno-savvy, and, yes, LOUD) artists:

Garage bands … are taking the technologies that are familiar to their target market and using them in ways that are new and effective.  In an odd way, it is these seat-of-the pants performers who can serve as some of the best inspiration for businesses large and small.

NOTES: The title of this piece on the portal was truncated to Garage Band Startups. The editorial elves have spoken, and I’ve learned my lesson that I shouldn’t refer to the headline in the lead of a post. Unless I want some confused readers! Also, a link to a prior blog post on busking was taken out. Here’s the post I referred to in that SoHoBiztube piece:

Enjoy, and have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!