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Is it Time to Take on Tumblr?

posted on August 31, 2011

Forget Blogger, LiveJournal even WordPress — Tumblr is the hot new blogging spot and it may be time to add it to your list of social media marketing options.

According to numbers from comScore, this creeping giant grew 218% in the last year, rising from 4.2 million visitors to 13.4. The trouble is, if you’re not a twenty-something female, you’ve probably never heard of the site.

Tumblr is like blogger for those with a short attention span. Though you can leave lengthy text posts, the site is designed to work with smaller bits of information such as photos, videos and quotes.

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ABC, NBC, CBS and Yahoo?

posted on August 31, 2011

Yahoo is going into the TV business, but you won’t find their new shows on your living room screen. Where you will find them is on your computer, tablet or smartphone which means you can watch from the bedroom, the office, the park or the living room after all.

This fall, Yahoo will launch a schedule of short-form shows that were made specifically for the web giant. Comedian Niecy Nash will have her own show as will Morgan Spurlock and Judy Greer.

Variety reports that the shows will skew female with an emphasis on food, romance and celebrities. One show right up my alley is called Your Friends Will Never Believe You. In each episode a fan will receive a “unique” surprise visit from their favorite celebrity. All My Children star Cameron Mathison will help men deliver the Ultimate Proposal while Spurlock helps people deal with their fear of failure be it in business or in their relationships.

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80 Percent of Shoppers Change Purchase Decision Based on Negative Reviews [Research]

posted on August 31, 2011

Negative service and product reviews are tough to handle on many levels. First and foremost it is becoming increasingly difficult for the average consumer to tell the difference between a genuine review and one that has been planted or is simply an over-reaction. In addition, just because someone posts a negative review has little or no bearing on if that person had a truly bad experience.

Bad customer experience is a relative thing. Some people gripe at miniscule “issues” and blow them out of proportion. Others scream and yell at anything as a way to derive some power in a situation. Still others are just people that most others don’t want to interact with anyway because they are just miserable human beings in every sense of the word.

For business owners, however, the truth is that no matter where or how that negative review came about it can have a potentially serious impact with the worst-case scenario being a lost sale or, even worse, lost future sales.

Cone, a marketing agency out of Boston, recently released survey data that will raise a few eyebrows for sure. It says that 80% of people have changed a purchase decision due to a bad review they saw. Ouch. This chart shows the power of reviews.

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Of Unicorns and Inbound Marketing

posted on August 31, 2011

HubSpot is the Sponsor of Marketing Pilgrim’s Inbound Marketing Channel.

I often use references to unicorns to represent the fantasy side of some subject that people like to debate. Apparently I am not alone. HubSpot is using the unicorn theme to point out some of the misconceptions that B2B marketers in particular have regarding the techniques of an inbound marketing program vs. those of traditional marketing efforts. To make their point, HubSpot has produced some videos that make their point and also point out that some unicorns have bad attitudes.

These videos are being used in conjunction with HubSpot’s participation in Salesforce’s Dreamforce event this week in SF. Maybe that is a fantasyland as well since Metallica played the event which is another thing in itself. Here are those videos. What’s your take?

Be sure to get HubSpot’s latest e-book, Marketing Fact vs. Marketing Fantasy.

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Google, Intuit and Missouri Partner Up to Get SMBs Online

posted on August 30, 2011

There was a time when all a local business needed was a phone and an ad in the Yellow Pages in order to bring in customers. Today, 97% of Americans go online to find local services but only 63% of small businesses have a web presence. Why? Because as hard as it may be for anyone who reads MarketingPilgrim to believe, not everyone knows how to build a website.

Then there’s this: “the nation’s 27.5M small businesses comprise half the US GDP and create two-thirds of all new jobs.” SMBs truly are the backbone of our economy and they’re also the ones who struggle the most to remain afloat.

The State of Missouri wants to help, so they’ve partnered with Google and Intuit for the “Missouri Get Your Business Online” campaign.

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Most B2Bs Spend Under 5% of Revenue on Marketing

posted on August 30, 2011

Everyone knows you have to spend money to make money, but in the B2B world, that spend is only around 5% of the make.

According to numbers from eMarketer, the majority of B2B marketers say their spend is equal to 5% or less of their company’s revenue. But even though the numbers are tied together, 35% of marketers said they didn’t report their financial contributions to senior management. 33% said they don’t even track their return on investment.

If we talk strictly about smaller B2B companies, it’s easy to see why they aren’t tracking and reporting — because it takes too much time and time is an even tighter commodity than money. There are plenty of tools online to help you gather stats but connecting those stats to income is the tricky part.

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Yelp Is the Latest to Turn from Deals

posted on August 30, 2011

Seems like a lot of big names are steering clear of the deals space. The latest news comes from Yelp. While they haven’t abandoned the space completely they are certainly rethinking their position and just how much effort along with resources they will throw at it. Is this a yelp for help? Not really but it does make one wonder about the deal space in general.

Bloomberg Businessweek reports

Yelp Inc., a website that collects local business reviews, is scaling back its year-old deal service, following Facebook Inc.’s retreat from a market where consumers and merchants say they’re becoming inundated.

Yelp will cut its sales staff dedicated to Yelp Deals by half, the company said yesterday. Facebook, the world’s largest social network, said on Aug. 26 it would shut down its Deals local-discount feature, decamping from a business it entered in April. Both services were started to compete with Groupon Inc.