The guest speaker spode about search engine optimization and these are some points I thought were interesting:

1. Keywords play a major factor in search engine optimization, but not just having the right keywords. It is also important to have the right location of keywords, such as title tags, headings, body text, meta tags, and picture text.

2. I also thought is was very interesting that how popular your site is can influence your search engine rank, which Google calls Page Rank. The popularity of your site can be measured by how many other sites have links to your pages.

3. I also thought he brought up a good point of calculating what a "click" is with to you before you initiate PPC strategies. It is an obvious step to take, but I can see a lot of companies not making proper predictions and setting themselves up for failure. Maybe that had some contribution to the dotcom crash of some compaines?

Post to Blog: Usability Assignment -- Check out Useit.com. Summarize one article from the "alert box" on the site in one page or less. Do you agree with the author? What are the implications of the article? Due Nov 9.

Useit.com article summary

Jakob Nielson posted "The Most Hated Advertising Techniques" to his Alertbox on December 6, 2004. There are many studies that calculate clickthrough rates to measure how sucessful online advertisement are, but studies fail to measure how sucessful the user experience of the online ads are. Because online advertisements are everywhere on the web, they have become an intergral part of the web users experience. John Boyd from Yahoo! and Christian Rohrer from eBay presented research at a confrence Nielson attended on how aspects of online ads affected Web users experience. Rather than a black and white analysis of whether the ad was clicked on or not, this research looked further into whether the ad was a positive or negative experience. Inluded on this list of negative ad attributes are pops-up in front of your window, loads slowly, tries to trick you into clicking on it, does not have a "close button, blinks on and off, and automatically plays sounds. This list essencially sums up what to not do when placing an ad online! The ad attributes that had more of a positive impact are it indicated what will happen when clicked on, it relates to what people are doing online, it identifies itself as an ad, it presents information about what they are advertising, and it provides additional information without having to leave the page. Nielson also extends these positives and negatives to corporate websites. If something will turn a user of an advertisement, chances are it will also cause them to leave your website.

I agree with the results of these attributes. When attracting users to an advertisement it needs to be an extension of what they are already doing so they aren't severely interrupted and are able to return to what they were doing without confusion or annoyance. Most of the negative ad attributes do this: taking up the whole page, playing audio, misleading the user to another page, etc. If the user recognizes your ad as an ad they will instincly find the close box and close it without even playing attention to what the ad is about. Users now have a muscle memory to find the "x". The more intrusive the ad, the faster the muscle memory finds the close box. I think the most successful attribute to an ad is having it relating to what the user is doing or reading. They will then find themselves interacting with the ad before they realize it is an ad. This will at least slow down their muscle memory enough so they see the brand in the ad and decide whether it is something they are interested in or not.

Being able to understand what users like or dislike about an ad, rather than only knowing whether they clicked on it or not, helps advertisement agencies to produce more user friendly ads. This will draw more eyes and clickthroughs that will lead to checkouts instead of clickouts. Understanding the user is important in knowing how to bring them to your site when you are up against Jakob's Law: users are spending most of their time on any site but yours.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20041206.html

Clickz Article Summary

In-Game Ads: Working With Developers, by Enid Burns, is about the integration of advertising into video game. I chose this article because I think product placement advertising is going to become more and more critical as the marketplace has become saturated with products and traditional advertising. More specifically, the internet has become wallpapered with banner ads and pop-ups. Onliners are becoming fed up and blind to these ads they consider a distraction.

Integrating advertising into video games is a great advertising strategy that is beneficial to the game developers as well as the advertising companies. Because there is already a product with a brand message, the game developers don’t have to spend time coming up with fictitious ones and the ads raise brand awareness for the company. There are many possibilities for placement. It could be an advertisement in the background, an ad creative that offers players bonus points or resources, placement as an integral part of the game, such as a race car, or one of many more possibilities that are up to the imagination of the developer.

The success of integration relies on products being contextually appropriate to the plotline and the communication between parties up till the release of the game. The priority of developers is the game and the advertisements are used to enhance the gamers’ experience by adding authenticity to the game. Gamers don’t want distractions though. If the product doesn’t fit the situation it could remove the gamer from “character” and become an annoyance resulting in “banner blindness”. “Banner blindness” may also result if the advertisement doesn’t have meaning to the consumer. Marketers still need to be aware of their target audience and the games target audience when they are choosing games to integrate with.

Communication between the developer and the brand is important in the success of the final product. Putting an ad in the game last minute isn’t how the process works; in fact, the development lead time for product integration can be 14 to 16 months. Small placement and billboards can be added four to five months before the game is finished. Getting connected early on is necessary for the developers to integrate the advertising concepts into the game. If scenes/ situations in the game rely on the product it could hold up production.
Some games are ad-supported, allowing them to be free. Companies like Acclaim are able to put out games over the internet with out charging consumers or relying fully on their own financial investments.

I definitely think we will be seeing more of this type of advertising. Generating profits through advertisements without upsetting consumers is the kind of strategy YouTube and other online websites need.

In-Game Ads: Working With Developers. Burns, Enid. August 21, 2006. http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3623222. November 11, 2006.

Our guest speakers lectured on Direct Marketing. For the most part they talked about the internet as a resource for direct marketing and not necessarily a venue.

I had never heard about the list component of direct marketing in such depth. Their points on how crucial the list is was helpful. There are so many list resources available that allow you to narrow down to the demographics/ psychographics of your target audience. They made a point that if your list isn't your target audience your creative and promotion have no meaning. Some examples of lists are lifestyle, credit bureau, and in house lists. I now understand why direct mail is so widely used by marketers.

I liked their points on "addressable" media vs. "mass" media. Direct mail will have more "opens" if it has an address and contact name. Secretaries will often through any mail away that isn't addressed to somebody in the office. Addressable mail is easier to track as well. They brought up how companies can track where their internet hits are coming from by customizing webpage addresses. For example, if Dell is running an online promotion through the TV they can send consumers to dell.com/TV. They will know those consumers are acting on the ad they saw on TV.

They also spoke on the importance of maintaining lists. Having an inhouse list can be a great resource, but they are difficult to keep up on. A lot of money can be wasted if mailers aren't reaching their target audience member because they moved.

Assignment #2

1. I chose the light blue version of the Converse All Star Slips.

2. From the reviews I found out these shoes tend to run big and don't offer much arch support. It is also very apparent that these are trendy shoes being worn by people all over the country, including celebrities like Brad Bitt.

3. The reviews would make me more likely to buy these shoes because the owners are so excited about them. They get lots of compliments and find them very comfortable which is a great combination!

4. The reviews offer an incredible advantage to ordering the right size. Just over half of the reviews indicated they run true to size. Of the 15 reviews I read, 9 found them to run at least a half size too big.

5. When buying shoes online you don't get to try them on. When reading the reviews you get a chance to hear from owners of the shoes how they may fit. Consumers are more likely to buy the shoes if they have more hints as to how they will fit and feel. Positive reviews increase the chance of consumers buying the product. Cross-Recommendations for other shoes may increase sales as well.

6. I think sites like Kencole.com should offer reviews. If a consumer goes to a sight that only sells its brands of shoes they already have interest into that brand. More than likely they are repeat customers. I don't think a negative review will influence them as much as a positive review. If they are deciding between more than one shoes a negative review may help them pick which one would be best for them, but I don't think it will change their mind about buying that brand of shoe.

7. I don't usually look at recommendations from other consumers when shopping online because for the most part I already know what I want. I have made up my mind and at that point price is my only deterant. If I do look at recommendations I usually get confused because there can be so many and sometimes they are complete opposites. Some people will absolutely hate what another person loved. For example, I look on ratemyprofessor.com sometimes to get an idea of a teacher's style and some people will have hated the class, while another loved it an thought it was easy to get an A. They are all opinions and you don't know they people so it is hard to understand where they are coming from. When buying off Ebay I do look at other consumers' remarks on the seller to make sure I will actually recieve what I want to buy.

8. If it is a site with repeat or loyal customers I think recommendations can be good because I don't think the consumers will be turned off of the product, but they the reviews may help them find a product they will be very satisfied with. Sites that recieve "surfers" or sell all kinds of different products may not recieve as credible or serious reviews and those that do read the reviews may be more turned off easier.

Assignment #1- Why blog?

1)Blogs would be a way for organizations/industries to get pretest and posttest feedback from customers on new products or movies. Organizations could also get ideas from consumers on what kind of products they would like to see developed. Marketers could connect a link to a blog to their banners to give consumers a chance to comment on the advertisements as well as the products. Potential buyers could get real opinions on products and may be pursuaded to buy them. Negative comments are too be expect though, so this use of blogs may not be the best. Technical companies could use blogs to provide questions and answers to solve user problems. Content sites can attatch blogs to their stories to allow for feedback, questions, and comments. They may even recieve more information on a story from people who had firsthand experiences.

2)I do think blogs should look and feel like traditional marketing and advertising for the sake of credibility. Anybody can create a blog and put an organization's name on it. When a blog is made for business the organization needs to make it feel traditional so readers don't get confused. Creativity doesn't have to be compromised, however, readers need to be able to recognize who's blog it is and be able to connect the feel to the company.

3)I think blogs for the most part are a fad. Personal blogs will probably stay around for awhile because it is such a great way for people to communicate and express their creativity, etc. From a business side I don't think there is enough solidity to keep organization/consumer blogging alive. There is too much room for false comments, concerns that would have organizations hands tied. Also, if a majority of companies went with marketing through blogging I think onliners could lose interest, just like banners are likely to be overlooked because there are so many. Blogging does provide organizations and consumers a unique way of communicating that could continue to influence more "raw"/ grassroots marketing though.

4)I prefer the traditional webpage that I can go to for straight forward information and contacts if I need to know more for the marketing department. I appreciate all the information/ personal insight you can find at one place with a blog, but I think there would be too many to sift through to find what I would be looking for.