InternetMarketingClub.org Presents: The Shopper Economy

Don't you wish there was an easy way to check out what's going on in the mind of the consumer? Fortunately, there is! Liz Crawford, talented author and business analyst, has created a new study to evaluate the current trends in shopper behavior and retail changes. Her book, The Shopper Economy, discusses ways to turn these customer behaviors into financial capital for your business. Liz claims that buyers can be rewarded for one of four behaviors: paying attention, participating, advocating, or committing. Is this a new form of currency that has been unleashed? Find out more in Liz' presentation with us on May 16th. 
Click here to register: 
http://bit.ly/shopperregister

About Liz Crawford

Liz Crawford has more than 20 years of brand management and consulting experience with a concentration in strategic innovation. Her concept and new product launch, Lysol Antibacterial Kitchen Cleaner, won the prestigious Edison Award for New Products. Over the last few years, Crawford has focused on developing integrated Shopper Marketing strategies for Fortune 500 clients. Her last agency assignment was as SVP Strategy for Mars Advertising.

Currently, she is an analyst and contributing writer for the Path to Purchase Institute, publisher of Shopper Marketing Magazine. Her book, The
Shopper Economy is being released in April 2012 by McGraw-Hill.

Crawford’s clients have included: P&G, Safeway, Walgreens, Publix Supermarkets, Kraft, Pepsi, Nabisco, Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Kimberly Clark, American Greeting, Mars Candy, Hershey, Newell Rubbermaid, Y&R, BBDO, CIBA Vision, Spanx, and Pirelli Tyres among others.
Click here to register: 
http://bit.ly/shopperregister

Coachella's Smart Wristbands: Connecting People or Invading Your Privacy?

Coachella's "Live Click" Social Media Check-in Portal

Back in 2007, Twittermade a big splash at SXSW, simultaneously popularizing the micro-blogging service and branding the Austin-based film and music festival as a significant interactive conference as well. Now, Coachella is leading the social media community by providing RFID wristbands to ticketholders. The 2-weekend long festival in the California desert valley of the same name had 30,000 fans register to “Live Click” at various touch points throughout the festival grounds, which automatically updated their Facebook status. This was apparently just an experiment, according to an article by Fast Company, but it obviously has far-reaching implications.

Would you allow your wristband to check you in at social events, or are you concerned about privacy issues? More importantly, did SXSW miss out by not introducing this technology? 

New Ratings for Google Quality Scores

You may have missed this update due its subtleness, but Google has increased its transparency in Google AdWords Quality Scores.

Now advertisers can get feedback directly from Google on an expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. This feedback is provided as “average”, “above average”, or “below average”, in comparison to other advertisers.

By way of a status hover (speech bubble icon) over a specific keyword, you will now find this additional feedback to the right of the numeric quality score.

As an advertiser, it is critical that you evaluate and improve your Quality Scores. Not only will you save money in the end, but the visitor has a more positive user experience. This way, everyone is happy! The higher your Quality Score means that your keywords, ads, and landing pages are more tightly woven.

Your Quality Score will affect the following things in your account:

• Ad auction eligibility
• Your keyword’s actual cost-per-click
• Your keyword’s first page bid estimate
• Your keyword’s top of page bid estimate
• Ad position

How are you using this feature to improve your campaigns?

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.

Image credit: Images_of_Money

Social Media and Global Power Shifts

Today Mashable published an article on social media and the global power shift that it claims has come with the advent of new technologies. With social media taking responsibility for the mass appeal and massive outpouring of support for movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Egyptian revolutions, it's hard not to agree that a power shift is afoot. Even the power of marketing has been shifted to the consumer - inbound marketing, not outbound marketing, is now at the heart of the marketing world. Consumers are now the ones who can better control what ads they see and when, and how companies can connect with them, which can heavily impact the moves that companies today make.

Do you agree with Mashable? Is there a "new power" afoot that comes with the new technologies that we have created and popularized? Or do you believe that power will still naturally be relegated to the hands of a select few at the top of the pyramid?

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents: 3 Things To Do About Google's Penguin Update

Google constantly changes the way its search algorithm gathers information from the web. First, it was the Panda update that hit Internet marketers hard. Now with Penguin, is there anything left you can do to save your online content and hard work from being tarnished? Join Margie Schneider, VP of Operations at Ten Golden Rules, and Stuart Smith, Strategic Director at Ten Golden Rules, as they present this week's webinar and discusses three ideal strategies to use Penguin to your advantage. 


Click here to register (5/9 at 12:30PM)http://bit.ly/penguinregister

About Margie Schneider: 

Margie Schneider has been involved with the interactive medium since 1994. She has participated in everything the Internet has to offer: developing, designing and delivering web sites; online advertising and promotion; search engine marketing: SEO and PPC and community and electronic communication. Her specialties include: social media, search engine optimization SEO, PPC management, online reputation management, project management, personnel management, strategizing web development and design solutions; as well as experience marketing across all media types. 


 About Stuart Smith: 


 A husband, dad & fitness geek, Stuart Smith is an old school internet marketer and social media guru. With over 10 years of experience in Internet marketing involving PPC Campaigns, website/application development, eCommerce initiatives and marketing, search engine strategies, email marketing campaigns and image/brand development, Stuart has worked with a variety of industries to provide cutting-edge consumer connections. His specialties include online marketing such as Social Media, SEO, Email Marketing, Web Design, PPC Campaigns, GAP Certified, MCSE, eCommerce and Management.



Click here to register (5/9 at 12:30PM)http://bit.ly/penguinregister

A New Kind of Press Release

SEOMoz opted to go bold with their latest announcement - instead of writing a standard press release to announce $18 million in Series B Funding, they decided to "memenounce" it. They've announced that they "dislike...the normal press release" and would instead prefer to distribute the information by creating several memes that can easily be propogated across the web. Although they do interrupt the images with brief statements that provide further information on the topic ("The Seattle-based company received $18M in Series B funding today from The Foundry Group of Boulder, Colo., with an additional investment from Ignition Partners of Bellevue, WA."), most of the page that announces the funding is dedicated to a series of common memes that have been tagged with funny takes on the announcement. It's an ingenious marketing strategy - people will not only share the images, but share the story behind them.

What do you think? Are you bold enough to use memes, social media, or other strategies to disseminate your news? Will you try a new and innovative method of announcing information? Or has SEOmoz gone too far?

Structuring Your Business for Mobile Success

Google recently released The Mobile Playbook, The Busy Executive’s Guide to Winning with Mobile, By Jason Spero and Johanna Werther. While exploring the Playbook, a panel of leading mobile experts reviewed the following 5 necessary questions for mobile success:

1. How does mobile change our value proposition?
2. How does mobile impact our digital destinations?
3. Is your organization adapting to mobile?
4. How should our marketing adapt to mobile?
5. How can we connect with our tablet audience?

The Mobile Playbook ends with a helpful action items checklist and an additional resources list.

I recommend reviewing this ebook if you are looking to further your business’s mobile strategy. One of my favorite tips from the Playbook is the GoMoMeter. This Google website (How To Go Mo) allows you to test a website’s mobile appearance, learn the top ten mobile design practices, and the ability to generate a custom report with improvement recommendations along with a vendor list to help you get started.

Please share your comments and questions about mobile for business below.

Like this post? Connect with Erika Barbosa on Google+.