This is a follow up on my last Post about Otto, but this time in English!

Before I start complaining again, I will give you a brief summary of my last post.

The “Otto Versand” is the major German Mail-Order Company. But once again there is a huge gap between American and European Online Business. I guess Otto hasn’t realized the importance of the Internet yet. They still focus on rural stay-at-home Mums who order by old-school mail and this is supported by their Online Marketing practices. They use long cryptic URL s on their Web Pages, have no innovative Affiliate Programs like the “Amazon Wishlist,” and when you try to Google them, you have to assume that they have never heard of search engine optimization (SEO). Otto operates the second largest market in the world, but their web appearance is from ages ago!

Those were my thoughts two months ago and, to be honest, not a lot has changed in the meantime! The URLs are still cryptic, there is no new Affiliate Program, and the one they still use doesn’t have a good reputation at all!  However, all of a sudden they do appear in Google’s top search results about nearly any consumer good! Bravo!

Listen up Otto, this was a start, but if you want to catch up, there is a lot of work that needs to be done! Go Otto Go!

BtoB Online reports that 60.1% of B to B marketers will increase their marketing budgets next year.  While that’s more than half, but still shows caution.  It’s probable that many are unsure about the direction of the economy.

The good news is that 79.1 percent will be increasing their online budgets for 2008.  Of all the methods of marketing, that stand as the highest.  What we’re going to be witnessing is companies taking money out of traditional and going online.  And we may see a lot of this happening.

Given now that we’re seeing consumer generated goods making their way successfully on the internet through the use of ad units, I’m going to guess that B to B will go that route as well.  And a very healthy dose of search.  Both should be essential.

I’m wondering though…will we see much devoted to social media.  Educational/promo pieces on YouTube, increased blogger engagement, the use of podcasts for current customers.  I’m sure this is being done, but more likely in the tech sector.  I’m just wondering what other industry cultures will move in that direction.

The culture of participatory social media is having some surprisingly significant effects on both the way satisfied customers play a role in contributing to the marketing message development of products and services. And it is also playing an increasingly important role in defining the key touchpoints that customers use in the deciding factors one what to purchase. What makes this all the more noteworthy is that much of this is rooted in offline purchases. I’m putting this together from two recent studies…

Read more…

I keep on trying to legitimize the reasons that Facebook is using to justify their new marketing program, “Facebook Beacon”. But it’s just not happening. It keeps on coming back to user relationships, user privacy, and user benefit. You know, the USER.

If you’re not sure what Beacon is, it’s basically this. Facebook is setting up agreements with online retailers that aren’t part of Facebook to have the retailer directly send information of what people buy on the retailer site to their “friends” on Facebook. The user is first supposed to see a notice on the retail site for which they need to give the thumbs down if they object. So the system is supposed to be opt out. But there’s been some circumstances where the information is just automatically sent without approval or even notification of the buyer. That means the next time you buy a book from Amazon or an item from Overstock.com, the retailer could end up letting your friends know what you bought unless you explicitly stop it.

Read more…

The November 8th edition of The Economist has an article that asks us “Will Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites transform advertising?”

In truth, the article is poorly written. It asks the wrong question, it’s lazily researched, and it provides little actual theory or empirical evidence to justify the premise they are trying to suppose. Perhaps the reason for this is that The Economist is a general news publication – one that I respect – and that the article was intended for a mainstream readership that’s likely mostly interested in reading about general trends and not deeper analysis. But nevertheless…

Read more…

This morning I read two important posts written by Greg Sterling on his blog Screenwerk. One is Nielsen - WebVisible Data on Local Search. The other is New Findings on SMBs and User Reviews. It left me more and more convinced how local businesses must view the internet as a marketing and business development source, and as a customer relations and reputation management tool.

Read more…

Chris Cunningham of Freewebs has put forward a suggested metric for measuring the effectiveness of widgets as an advertising vehicle. In a MediaPost article, Widget Marketing Metrics That Matter, he outlines the three metrics that matter most: views, usage, and uploads/installs.

Read more…

Kelly Mooney has a great piece in AdAge, For Relevance, Think Three Way, in which she talks about the concept of ‘triangulation’ involving the brand, the customer, and the community and that all three need to embrace one another. She also blogs at MooneyThinks.

She’s quite right in that, for many of us, we’ve moved much of our media gathering experience online. Websites, blogs, social networks, forums are the areas that we discuss brands or experiences with brands or our impressions of brands.

Read more…