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August 28, 2006
SherpaBlog
1.Why You *Must* Track Delayed Search Impact -- Real-Life Story

Case Studies
2.B-to-B Home Page Design Tests to Turn More Clicks Into Accounts
3.How to Raise Email Newsletter Clickthroughs by Testing Content Types
4.How to Measure Search Campaign ROI -- 4 Stunning Lessons Learned From Motorola's New SEM Scoring System

Practical Know-How
5.Special Report: MarketingSherpa's Practical Podcasting Guide for Marketers
6.Fame Briefs: Three New Awards for Women, Tech Innovators & Transgender Ads
7.Career: 63 New Jobs & 2 Seekers Available
8.Our New Book Offer: 'The Powerful Process for Discovering What Your Customer Really Wants'

#1 SherpaBlog: Why You *Must* Track Delayed Search Impact -- Real-Life Story

I've seen a 180-degree change in marketers' attitudes toward search marketing in the past 12 months. Last year, marketers we spoke to in nearly every industry were busy expanding their search campaigns from hundreds to thousands and even tens of thousands of keyterms. The long tail was very much in fashion.

However, as 2006 has worn on, I'm more often hearing a new refrain. In part driven by excesses of 2005 as well as rising click costs, many marketers now tell me their revised SEM focus is about tightening focus.

If you're cutting your search budget to target only keywords with immediately obvious ROI (i.e. where clicks convert on the first visit), first consider this real-life story that Michael DeHaven, Ecommerce Marketing Manager at CareerBuilder.com, told me:

"We were beginning to cut the majority of our paid search budget, because we were struggling to get any ROI at all. Too many employers who clicked didn't buy on their first visit."

But, before the final SEM budget decision was made, DeHaven asked the tech team to create a new longer-term tracking system that combined multiple databases -- initial search tracking cookies, ecommerce activities, the site's registered user database and the business development and call center's CRM systems.

Measured results were beyond dramatic.

"For one paid search team, there was maybe $10K in immediate revenues. When we evaluated it after 15 days, it was $120K. When we looked at the delayed impact 30 days out, there was about $1.2 million. Going further out to 45 days, it was over $3 million. It blew me away when I saw this."

That one revelation not only changed CareerBuilder.com's SEM plans, but it also propelled the marketing team to revamp the home page and email tactics they had in place to convert those delaying employers. Look below for Sherpa exclusive Case Studies on both of these revamp projects.

I hope you find this data as inspirational as I do.

BTW: Do you have interesting stats of your own tests to share with the Sherpa community? We're accepting posted comments on *all* MarketingSherpa stories and Case Studies now at our site so that you can share your know-how with the community. Just click on the "Post a Comment" link on any story.

To comment on this blog in particular, here's the link:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29684

(Note: Marketing vendors and consultants, please don't be self- promotional in your postings. Thanks.)

Anne Holland, President
Feedback(at)marketingSherpa(dot)com
MarketingSherpa, Inc

P.S. As always, our Case Studies and articles are open access for about 10 days. Then they go into SherpaLibrary where you can research for a small fee. The links always remain the same.


CASE STUDIES

#2. B-to-B Home Page Design Tests to Turn More Clicks Into Accounts

SUMMARY: Does your home page already have pretty good, clean design? CareerBuilder's home page for employers did. Then, a newly promoted marketer decided to change it.

Discover his A/B test results (potentially worth millions in business account revenues). Includes the answer to the big design debate -- text-heavy links vs short copy with attractive graphics:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29681
(Open access until Sept. 2nd)


#3. How to Raise Email Newsletter Clickthroughs by Testing Content Types

SUMMARY: Do you sweat for hours over a hot keyboard trying to come up with fascinating content for your next email newsletter, only to wind up with slim clickthroughs?

Get inspiration from this story of a marketing team who experimented with topics and headlines until they grew story clicks from 1.5% to as high as 14%. Yes, includes samples:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29682
(Open access until Sept. 4th)


#4. How to Measure Search Campaign ROI -- 4 Stunning Lessons Learned From Motorola's New SEM Scoring System

SUMMARY: If you run paid search ads, but actual purchases happen on a third-party site -- or even offline -- how on earth can you measure campaign success?

For a new phone launch this spring, Motorola's team invented a predictive scoring system to determine which search ads really work ... and which just get a lot of worthless clicks.

Includes four results that may surprise you:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29680
(Open access until Sept. 2nd)


PRACTICAL KNOW-HOW

#5. Special Report: MarketingSherpa's Practical Podcasting Guide for Marketers

SUMMARY: Podcasting is about to celebrate its second birthday and we don't know of a marketer out there who isn't at least mulling over the possibilities.

Here's our handy guide, including:
-> Surprising data on listener demographics
-> 3 Mistakes to avoid
-> 5 Rules for podcast content
-> 4 Tips to create commercials that get results

Plus, loads of handy hotlinks for vendors, blogs and info:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.php?ident=29679
(Open access until Sept. 1st)


#6. Fame Briefs: Three New Awards for Women, Tech Innovators & Transgender Ads

Here's a quick listing of the latest marketing, ad and PR awards you can nominate yourself for.
http://www.MarketingSherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2632
(Open access = permanent)


#7. Help Wanteds: 63 New Jobs & 2 Seekers Available

The past week's new posts including jobs at AmEx, NBA, Gap and Amazon.com. Plus, learn how to post your own opening. (Complimentary service).
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2522
(Open access = permanent)


#8. New Book Offer: 'The Powerful Process for Discovering What Your Customer Really Wants'

Ever wonder what the key is to marketing products to customers? Paul Cherry has. In his second book, 'The Powerful Process for Discovering What Your Customer Really Wants,' he does the dirty work for us to figure out the answer. Because he is an educator (he teaches more than 3,000 professionals a year in his training organization), the book is not only informative, but also easy to read.

Through illustrations of examples, sample questions and exercises, Cherry shows how to connect with customers. It is precisely this focus on real-life situations and not on hypothetical instances that makes this book worthy of marketers' attention.

Cherry demonstrates how to be a superior listener by selecting certain key words from customers' language and using them to generate further discussion. This way, a vendor can ask questions that a customer can relate to; they are based on the customer's own concerns. Samples of different question types, such as "vision questions" and "pay-off questions," exemplify this practice.

The most important element of Cherry's approach is the emphasis on creating an emotional connection between customer and vendor. Since sentiment is a major motivating factor that vendors should be adept at focusing on feeling without causing the customer to experience discomfort. He elaborates more on this tricky situation in his technique of the "lock-on question."

Cherry donated five copies for Sherpa to give away. Toss your name into the hat here to try for one.
http://sherpa.bookoffer.sgizmo.com
(Ends 09/03/06)

+ Last week's book offer:

These five lucky marketers will get their own copies of 'Tricks of the Podcasting Master':
  • Roberto Atienza, IBM, Hong Kong
  • Sarah Farebrother, Gazette Communications, Cedar Rapids, IA
  • Alicia McBride, Friends Committee on National Legislation, Washington, DC
  • Stefanie Scott, AchieveGlobal, Tampa, FL
  • Craig Schwartz, Abacus, San Diego, CA

P.S. Did a friend send you this? Go Here for your own copy - it's award-winning, useful, and complimentary.

P.P.S. Got questions, comments, or ideas for editorial?
Email Editorial Director Tad Clarke at TadC(at)marketingsherpa(dot)com
or call Customer Service at (877) 895-1717 -- thanks!

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