by
0 Comments

For Some Verticals, Websites Carry Most Research Weight

posted on August 29, 2012

Let’s be careful with this one kids. If you like sensational headlines that suck you in and don’t tell the whole story this could have read something like “Retailer Websites Most Critical in Purchasing Process” but instead we decided to give you the real deal. Less sexy we realize but oftentimes the real story is never as sexy as we need it to be.

But as for the power of websites in certain categories to deliver purchasing punch, Compete did some research looking at the grocery, health and beauty, household essentials and pet supply verticals and found the website reigns supreme (thanks to eMarketer for chart).

This is interesting but it raises a few questions.

by
0 Comments

HubSpot’s New Platform Aims for Larger Businesses

posted on August 29, 2012

HubSpot (disclosure: Inbound Marketing channel sponsor for Marketing Pilgrim) has carved a very strong niche for itself in the Internet and social media marketing world. Over the past 6 years the company has grown aggressively to now serve over 6,000 customers using their SaaS (software as a service) delivery model to help create and manage marketing activities that help small and medium businesses get the most from their online efforts.

Starting today, however, HubSpot is now going after larger marketers with a new offering. The Boston Globe reports

Cambridge software maker HubSpot Inc. will release a completely overhauled version of its online marketing platform at the company’s annual user conference Wednesday, which is drawing about 2,800 customers and marketing professionals to Boston’s Hynes Convention Center for three days.

by
0 Comments

Smartphone Adoption Happening 10 Times Faster than PC’s in the 80′s

posted on August 28, 2012

Let’s take a brief walk down memory lane.

We went from arcade games to Pong, to Nintendo 64, to Kinect and now games you can download and play instantly on your phone while on the go.

On the go phones, used to mean a phone booth then people with money had car phones with a mobile operator and from there we had mobile phones the size of a brick. Phones gradually got smaller, then they got smarter and look where they are now.

Computers? They used to take up an entire room and you needed thousands of punch cards and a degree in order to run one. Then home computers hit the market, we DOSed until Microsoft opened a Window and now you can carry a computer in your pants pocket, no wires, no punchcards.

by
0 Comments

Can You Hear Me Now? Facebook Searches for New Reach Metrics

posted on August 28, 2012

If a man stands on the corner and shouts a message through a megaphone, everyone who walks past him will hear the message. That’s reach. He talked, they heard it, but did they listen?

Let’s say he’s shouting about a sandwich deal at a local sub shop. If one person who heard him decides to eat at the sub shop instead of the pizza place next door, then we have a winner. But if 900 people walked by and still passed on eating at the sub shop was it worth the cost of the man and the megaphone? Probably not.

The trouble is, no one can predict what a crowd will do, so you put out the best pitch you can, roll with the odds and hope for the best.

by
0 Comments

Google Uses Home Page to Pitch Nexus 7 Tablet

posted on August 28, 2012

Google has the pure audacity to actually use their own property (the Google home page) to show an ad for a Google product (the Nexus 7 tablet)! Boy that takes some stones doesn’t it! Here it is. Oh the humanity!

Of course I am joking about it being such a bold move. It’s Google’s business so they can do whatever they darn well please. But if you want to see just how ridiculous people can be about anything Google does take a look at some of these comments from folks over at cnet.

*I was annoyed by this and I own a Nexus 7.

by
0 Comments

Can We Hit the Reset Button on Google Plus?

posted on August 28, 2012

We’ve now lived with Google Plus for a little more than a year and I want to ask an important question: can we hit a big “reset” button on Google Plus? I don’t mean on the social network itself, but rather the way we, as marketers, think about and approach the platform.

There is not a day that goes by where we don’t hear some kind of griping and complaining about the social network (I know, I know, Google says it isn’t a “social network.” Point taken. But it is in the social space and it is a network, so work with me here.). To be fair, Google Plus has its fair share of challenges, but I believe that we’ve missed the point of how to use the network. It isn’t Facebook. This isn’t the place where you go to hang out with your long-lost best friend from 8th grade. This isn’t the place to build the unofficial timeline of your life and put it on display for the world (at least, not yet). No, I believe Google Plus is something completely different all together.

by
0 Comments

Google+ Hits the Conventions With Politics & Elections Coverage

posted on August 28, 2012

Well, here we go.

The Republican National Convention is underway following what baseball fans would call a ‘rain delay’ and Google is looking to make the most of the opportunity (as well as with the Democratic National Convention) by using Google+ for its Politics & Elections coverage. This Google+ page is far from new (It started on January 6, 2012) but the coverage of a convention in this style certainly is.