The Widemile Blog

I am excited that Widemile is participating in one of the most original and innovative online marketing campaigns that I have seen in recent memory.  Why is the campaign so compelling? Because it is completely transparent, hence The Open Campaign.

“We’re going behind the scenes of an actual marketing campaign to show
in real time how these elements come together to generate profound
customer insight and digital marketing success.” – Webtrends

Webtrends is collaborating with key Open Exchange Partners: ACR Analytics, ExactTarget, ForeSee Results,  Mullen, Voce Communications and Widemile. Each partner, as well as Webtrends, will be sharing the behind the scenes tactics and strategies associated with their involvement in the campaign via frequest blog posts and a weekly feature. In addition to showing what happens in the back office, you have an opportunity to engage in the conversation about the campaign with the people who are driving the execution.

The Webtrends marketing team is leveraging the Widemile Optimize  on-demand platform to test and optimize the number of subscribers who express interest in being contacted by Webtrends or a partner. Check out the Site Optimization blog post by Billy Shih, Widemile Optimization Analyst.

Today’s industry journals, news sites and blogs are dominated with headlines highlighting the recession and the reduction in consumer spending. Cutbacks are impacting corporate marketing budgets and forcing retailers to rethink their multi-channel marketing investments.

This “do more with less” operating environment playing out across marketing departments has elevated the priority of maximizing return on marketing investment (ROMI) for all acquisition, conversion and retention activities. As highlighted in industry and business articles on almost a daily basis, traditional qualitative marketing activities (e.g. offline advertising, sponsorships) that cannot be directly measured are being slashed – and increased emphasis and budget is being shifted towards digital marketing (e.g. search, social media) as the medium delivers measurable activities. Multivariate testing, i.e. testing different versions of page elements simultaneously, and executing tests against key audience segments generates is quickly growing in adoption as it delivers marketers with the ability to achieve greater ROMI without impacting their overall investment in marketing.

For multichannel retailers, online testing is a cost effective way to quickly refine messaging, test price points, and discover and target customer segments. Insights from testing and optimization can and should inform other marketing channels in order to maximize their effectiveness.  For example, one of our clients assumed their audience was mainly male, SMB. As a result of testing they learned the majority of their market was female, SOHO. This insight improved their conversion rate by over 500% and radically changed their creative to better serve their true market.

In a time of declining marketing budgets, how much should be invested in testing? If 5% is spent on testing and increases the effectiveness of a remaining budget by 10%, a measurable gain has already been achieved. Now apply that logic to an annual marketing budget of $10,000,000. The budget is now performing as though $10,500,000 had been invested. At a 40% lift in conversion rates, the marketing will perform as though over $13,333,000 had been invested in your 2009 marketing.  That translates to a 33% boost in marketing results, without increasing budget. And that’s just for online.

Testing your content allows you to answer not only what works best, but why it worked and what mattered to your customers.

Improve your 2009 Marketing Performance with Testing

On February 18th, 2009 Widemile and the IAB presented the first ever member hosted webinar titled “Less Budget. Better Results. Improve your 2009 Marketing Performance with Testing” for all IAB members.

View this webinar on demand here.

I appreciate your continuing interest in Widemile. We are in the business of helping companies make more money online – something of particular importance in this difficult economy. Widemile’s technology enables digital marketers and their agencies to maximize revenue and ad campaign performance by quickly determining and publishing the web content that delivers the highest returns.

The Year in Review. At this time last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered above 13,000, and I certainly was not thinking about FDIC bank seizures, corporate bailouts nor Bernie Madoff. A lot has changed in our world since then and, unfortunately, much of it for the worse. However, we must not lose sight of the good things for which we have reason to be grateful. For me, that includes wonderful family and friends and the gifted people with whom I work. I’ll dispense with my traditional, more detailed year in review, since most of us would prefer to just move forward. However, I can’t resist pointing out, despite dramatic spending cutbacks most everywhere, online advertising still increased more than 17% in 2008. Marketers continued to shift spending to digital at the expense of more traditional media and marketing tactics.

What to expect in 2009. Here’s my view of the next 12 months, as it relates to digital advertising and online sales.

Business Results. Tangible business results matter now more than ever. Gone are the days a marketer can focus only on building brand awareness and generating website traffic, while ignoring customer conversions and measurable value creation. Show me a marketing professional who is not working hard to demonstrate real return on their investments, and I’ll show you a person whose job is in jeopardy. Any budget that fails to demonstrate measurable business results and value creation will be cut.

Full Funnel Responsibility. Expect to see a growing trend toward greater assumption of oversight responsibility for the entire online sales funnel (i.e. acquisition, conversion, retention), especially the conversion point, by those responsible for online media budgets, since their job performance is increasingly linked to measures like return on ad spend (“ROAS”) and return on marketing investment (“ROMI”). For instance, those responsible for managing key word budgets need to exert greater influence over the pages where that traffic converts (or not) into paying customers.

Spend Where (You Know) It Delivers Results. Since the measurable business results generated by each marketing dollar are more important now, it’s likely we will see more money spent where it is most easily measured – meaning digital and especially search. Performance metrics have been the long-time promise of digital advertising. However, during better economic times, increased accountability may actually have throttled growth of digital advertising, since the returns may not have “appeared” as rich as everyone assumed other media delivered.

Our troubled economy may finally usher in broader embrace of greater marketing accountability, which is likely to influence budgets as well. Randall Rothenberg, CEO of the IAB, in his holiday blog post reminded us that “below the line” transactional marketing increases during recessionary times. In the past, that meant more coupons and point-of-sale promotions because they are tactics closely linked to measurable results. This year, expect to see less money devoted to brand building, including banner display, and more budget allocated to online selling, especially in areas where the returns are easily quantifiable and can justify the spend.

Widemile. In light of the steady march of sobering economic news, one must remain cautious about business expectations in this New Year. However, since Widemile is in the business of helping online marketers generate revenue more efficiently, I am optimistic about our ability to continue contributing to the success and growth of our industry.

There is no question a well-tested and optimized web page targeted to specific customer segments delivers a better user experience, more conversions and increased revenue. Is there any business owner that doesn’t want to offer customers and prospects a better online experience or would say “no” to more conversions and increased revenue?

Thank you for your continuing interest in our industry and Widemile, in particular. As always, if I can be a resource to you at any time, please don’t hesitate to ask. Best wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous 2009.