January 22, 2001
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*** MarketingSherpa.com's MarketingToWebMarketers ***
Practical Marketing News for Agencies, ASPs & Suppliers to the
Web Marketing and Advertising Business
Jan. 22, 2001 - Vol. II, Issue 2
Yes, you can forward this as long as it's UNCUT. Thanks.
Free subscriptions at http://www.marketingsherpa.com
1. NEWS: Hollywood, ckDigital, QFactor
2. More MarketingSherpa Headlines
3. CASE STUDY: Searchbutton Raises Sales by Dumping Business
Magazine Ads in Favor of Highly Targeted Marketing
4. EVENT REVIEW: Iconocast's Exclusive NY Luncheon
*****
NEWS
*****
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decision makers at medium-large companies? MarketingSherpa's
got 25,000 of them! Choose your target:
- B-to-B marketers
- Consumer marketers
- eFinance and bank marketers
- Content marketers
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and contact us today at ads@marketingsherpa.com 202.232.6830.
* Hollywood's Marketers Still Spending Online Ad Dollars
As TeamAudio's CEO Cathryn Ramin makes her normal rounds
through the Hollywood studios, she's noted an extremely high
interest on studio marketers' parts in Internet marketing.
Ramin says, "Creation of online content is dead here. But,
entertainment companies are aware that the Web can be turned
to their advantage to promote existing properties through
online advertising." Sounds like some of the interactive
advertising agencies and vendors who've been having hard-luck
in San Francisco (aka dot-com-gone-land) should try their
chances further south!
http://www.teamaudio.com
* ckDigital Serves as Co-Branded Strategy Arm to Interactive
Agencies and Vendors
In a time when other firms are cutting back, ckDigital has
just moved from CEO Christina Kerley's home office in Brooklyn
to corporate offices in mid-town Manhattan, and plans to
continue staffing up over the next few months. Kerley
launched the digital branding firm in June '99, "My first
client found me over the Net, and I basically grew from
there."
>From day one, ckDigital got a lot of experience with name-
brand clients by acting as a subcontractor for larger firms
such as Middleberg Euro and Lounge Lizard. Kerley explains,
"A lot of times the client will believe I work there. I'm a
plug-and-play subcontractor. I'll brand under you so we can
make it seamless and fluid to the client, and everyone wins."
While about 50% of ckDigital's work now comes from its own
client's directly, the firm is still open to partnerships with
other agencies. Kerley describes her dream partner, "An ad
agency or a stand-alone services firm that has all the
components for marketing communications, but don't have the
strategic, trend-spotting, analysis or agenda-setting side.
We serve in more of a marketing director's role. We help with
competitive intelligence, branding and extending brands across
all media." Interested in partnering? Contact Kerley at
ck@ckdigital.com
http://www.ckdigital.com
* QFactor Lays Off Sales Team; Closes NYC and SF Offices
QFactor announced Jan 16 that it was "positioning itself for a
fifth year of consistent growth and profitability" by laying
off 22 employees. We learned from sources outside the Company
that what the press release didn't say was that the victims of
the company's new "operational efficiencies" included its
entire sales team, as well as its New York and San Francisco
offices. QFactor's main offices in the metro Washington DC
area remain open.
http://www.qfactor.com
*****
MORE MARKETINGSHERPA.COM HEADLINES
*****
* Welocalize.com's "Free eQuote" Web Site Button Generates
Sales Leads from the Global 2000
http://www.b2bmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1346
* News Briefs: MediaCentral, B-to-B Works, BISG, Pohly & Partners,
Clicksmart.com, Brian Alt
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1359
* Nina Castro Owens of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young on the
Electronic Financial Services Marketing Wars
http://www.financialmarketingbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1355
* Archives of past MarketingtoWebMarketers Issues:
http://www.marketingtowebmarketers.com/archives.cfm
*****
CASE STUDY: SearchButton
*****
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* Searchbutton Raises Sales by Dumping Business Magazine Ads
in Favor of Highly Targeted Marketing
CHALLENGE
As SearchButton's VP Marketing Carol Shellhorn
explains, "Site search is a commodity. You can get it
anywhere." Shellhorn needed to communicate how the product's
reporting features set it apart from the pack.
She says, "We're not unlike a lot of other companies out there
18-24 months ago. The goal was to reach critical mass, to go
out there and get as many eyeballs as possible, to give
products away and to make investors happy. We did that, and
we did it very well. We did all the things that are no-nos
today!" These no-nos included heavy advertising schedules in
Industry Standard, Business 2.0 and Inc. magazine, featuring
copy "all about the features."
CAMPAIGN
Last year SearchButton relaunched itself,
eliminating the free offering; improving infrastructure and
customer service; and only marketing its services to a highly
targeted group of businesses. Shelhorn says, "We're not
targeting the Fortune 1000 webmasters anymore. Our customer
is a mid-tier company for whom the Internet is essential to
the success of their business. We've turned away business
because it wasn't part of our core competency."
Shellhorn has transitioned, from broadcasting a message to the
world at large, to a much more targeted marketing approach.
She explains, "Our product is not industry specific. Anyone
who has a Web site could benefit from it. However, when we
looked at our customer database we saw natural groupings there
-- healthcare, insurance, travel, financial. We interviewed
customers within each one of those segments and extracted
information from them about how our products are solving
problems for them. They must have felt some sort of pain or
we wouldn't be there.
"Then we went out to other like companies in their industry
segment and leveraged that information with a targeted
message. We explained how we've helped other companies just
like them. It resonates very well. Imagine if I say I've
helped your competitors do X, Y and Z and I can help you too.
They listen to that."
Shellhorn continues, "It just gets back to the basic marketing
principal. You don't tell prospects it's an all-in-one
solution. You tell them it's a very targeted solution for
them! This gives us a lot of credibility."
Searchbutton also targets its messages separately to
marketers, content managers and webmasters. For example,
Shellhorn says, "We don't say 'There's no IT expertise
needed,' because webmasters like their jobs! So we tell them
we supplement them instead of replacing them.
"Also what we're finding so far is if the message is correct,
marketers will respond to an email. They are very busy
professionals. We do a lot of transaction selling to them via
email. On the other hand, we'll get IT's attention via email,
but they don't respond that way. They want to have a personal
conversation to ask about security and a lot of technical
details."
Although you won't see space ads for Searchbutton in any
magazines for the time being, Shellhorn is testing a mix of
direct response media, including email newsletter
sponsorships, direct mail, telemarketing and client referral
programs. However, she does not plan to rent the broadcast
email lists currently on the market because they don't appear
to be targeted enough for her tough criteria.
RESULTS
Shellhorn says, "We are much more successful with
many fewer, happier customers today!" Her highly targeted
campaigns are pulling unusually high results, for example one
direct mail package got a 3.2% response rate. Plus the
company's average sales cycle has shortened dramatically from
90 days to 30-45 days.
Perhaps most interestingly, Shellhorn learned that higher
pricing can make you much more successful, when she raised the
product's minimum price point from $1,000 to $5,000 in October
2000. She explains, "I was stunned! People aren't flinching.
It's the value that we deliver. In fact, before at $1,000
people were suspicious of it. They thought there must be some
hook."
http://www.searchbutton.com
*****
EVENT REVIEW: Iconocast's Exclusive NY Luncheon
*****
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* Iconocast Asks, Can Classiness Raise Ad Sales?
A friend of ours says, "If Michael Tchong's throwing a party
it's either gonna be very upscale at the chicest place
most people never heard of; or it will be hugely over-the-
top and entertaining."
When we entered the posh AZ Restaurant to join about 70 of New
York's online advertising elite at Tchong's invites-only
luncheon last week, it was obvious Michael decided to go the
chic route this time. And, yes everything was purrrfect. The
coat check, the service, the food, even the event's respect
for our time (less than two hours from start to finish.)
Can you say seamless elegance?
We arrived a little late (OK so we're not perfect) and grabbed
a seat next to Courtney Pulitzer, who was wearing a subdued
suit unlike anything we've seen on her before. MediaPost's
Adam Herman and Jeff Loechner were also there, and several
media buyers told them how much they love Masha's daily column.
There were also several of those quintessentially first quarter
'01 creatures: amazingly brilliant Internet marketers who've
just bailed on their jobs.
As we began eating, a screen slid down smoothly from the
ceiling and Tchong made his usual dramatic entrance. He gave
a rousing pep talk about how the industry is NOT dying. It was
preaching to the choir, but we appreciated it anyway. Next he
introduced Iconocast's two newest products, the laminated
Iconomap reference guide and the new newsletter Prosumer.
Naturally everyone was expecting a pitch of some type, but it
was nicely understated. No hard selling at this posh lunch.
Yes, there was a new Iconocast media kit on everyone's free
Iconocast backpack, but no one was so crass as to mention it.
Even as the goat cheesecake arrived for desert, many attendees
were slipping away back to work -- or back looking for it.
Will this event result in more ad sales for Iconocast's
properties? We don't know. If upscale branding and personal
relationships can make a difference in today's freefall
advertising world, then maybe.
Iconocast
http://www.iconocast.com
AZ Restaurant
http://www.aznyc.com/
*****
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