Vipin Mayar - Digital Impact: The Two Secrets to Online Marketing Success

Contents

Copyright 2011 by Vipin Mayar and Geoff Ramsey. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Ramsey, Geoff, 1959

Digital impact : the two secrets to online marketing success / Geoff Ramsey, Vipin Mayar.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-470-90572-2 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-08774-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-08775-6 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-08776-3 (ebk)

1. Internet marketing. 2. Electronic commerce. I. Mayar, Vipin, 1962- II. Title.

HF5415.1265.R358 2011

658.872dc22

2011005630

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to extend their gratitude to the many who have helped shape, support, and streamline the process of writing this book.

GEOFF

A number of eMarketer staff provided assistance to help us present the latest and most relevant data and information, but Id especially like to thank Tracy Tang, a master researcher who can find anything; Dana Hill, who took on the role of chart production manager; and Nicole Perrin, who helped pull together key trends for the mobile chapter. Special thanks also go to my dear friend and business partner Terry Chabrowe, and eMarketer President Lisa Church, who were both so understanding as I redirected more and more of my time and attention toward the book this past year. Finally, I am thankful for my familymy wife Kimberley, three sons Graham, Liam, and Kieran, and daughter Kaitlynwho all had to put up with my early morning, late night, weekend, and holiday schedule changes as this project progressed.

VIPIN

My special thanks to Laurie Peterson for doing the heavy lifting on a couple of chapters. To my wife, Ranjana, and my three kidsVinay, Ajay, and Anikathank you all for understanding that I was not crazy getting up at 4 a.m. every day, and for giving me a lot of personal time on weekends to write. Finally, Id like to thank McCann Worldgroup for providing a stimulating work environment that motivated me to develop and complete this book.

Last but not least, both of us would like to personally thank and honor Mia Amato who helped edit, organize, and manage the entire process of writing this book.

PART I

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

The 2010s will be the Data Decade. Companies that understand how to harness it will win. Those that dont will perish. The same goes for marketers.

Steve Rubel, Senior VP, Director of Insights, Edelman Digital ( Advertising Age , January 4, 2010)

In an era of constantly evolving technologies and platforms, companies large and small need a bulletproof game plan for their digital marketing programs. Digital Impact answers that need by providing readers with a complete set of guidelines, along with practical strategies, for both engaging consumers online and ensuring maximum return on investment.

But you can stop reading this book nowunless you fundamentally identify with the two common challenges facing digital marketers today:

1. Lack of adequate metrics and measurement systems to drive marketing performance.

2. Frustration with how to effectively engage online consumers, who have short attention spans, face abundant choices, and are increasingly resistant to advertising messages.

In this book, well explore solutions to both of these big challenges in considerable depth and explain two core strategies you can use to address them in every online channel you employ. Youll learn:

1. The seven most important digital marketing metrics every marketer should know.

2. How to establish the right measurement system for your organization.

3. How to break through advertising clutter and engage with consumers on a deeper and more personalized level.

4. How to calculate a return on investment (ROI) for social media and other new media initiatives.

5. How to integrate offline and online marketing approaches for the best possible outcomes.

Along the way, well show you how to plan, execute, and optimize every facet of your online marketing programs. Even if you use only a few online channels today or have not yet explored some of the more complex measurement systems out there, you will find a variety of tips, tactics, and strategies that will help you move your businessand your careerforward.

Our more than 30 years of combined experience in digital marketing is supplemented here with insights by dozens of top-tier marketing professionals interviewed for this book. We bring you statistics, best practices, and practical advice culled from McCann Worldgroups global analytic practices and from hundreds of other sources aggregated by eMarketer, the digital intelligence firm co-founded by author Geoff Ramsey in 1996. Youll benefit from all we have learnedand much more. All the cards will be on the table; there will be no smoke and mirrors, no sleight of hand.

Thats not how it all got started, of course.

The Magic of Measurement and Engagement

GEOFF: Many people ask me how I got into the research business with my company, eMarketer.

I like to tell them this story. I was 15, living in the college campus town of East Lansing, Michigan. I was determined to turn my love for performing magic tricks as a hobby into a career. I had managed to get the occasional paid giga childs birthday party, a Lions Club meeting, a Boy Scout eventbut it was difficult to get sufficient steady work to even pay for the cost of the magic tricks I bought, and there was certainly no money for advertising in the local newspaper.

I began looking for an arrangement where I could get paid for doing my magic on a regular, weekly basis. I eventually came up with a plan to offer my magical services to the owners of local, fine-dining restaurants, who would pay me to entertain their dinner guests. I would perform what is called tabletop magic, during the period between ordering the food and waiting for it to arrive or while waiting for dessert or the check. There was only one problem. How would I convince the managers that my entertainment offering would have a material impact on their businesses? This question was all the more challenging considering that I was, for all outward appearances, a typical, bumbling, pimple-faced teenager.