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Feedback Request

This is the newest rich media email that WDM, llc is constructing. Although we have some more work to do and a few things to tighten up, I wanted to post for some intial feedback, reviews, etc. Thanks in advance for your comments... For more detailed information, demos and whitepaper(s) on the e-webie concept, feel free to visit us at (http://www.e-webies.com)/ More posts to come ...

The Target Audience

There's a fair amount of talk about 'social graphs' and how to correctly measure the amount of traffic to a site in order to judge exactly who is coming to a site, how long they stay, how often they come back and, in general, what visitors do on a site. Mitch Ratcliffe over at ZDNet makes an interesting point about exactly who those vistors may be in the next few years.

Even the titans of business are unsure of how to use the untapped potential of social networks, atleast from an advertising standpoint, to somehow turn those millions of members into millions of dollars by getting them to click and buy. I have to admit that I'm not sure exactly why lately in general a large portion of the users either: don't have disposable income right now, or are wary of buying online. Possibly all the stories of personal data theft are discouraging more people from buying online. Possibly costs are up and spending is down.

I think, along with Mr. Ratcliffe, that as these demographics change it will require a shift in strategy. It shouldn't be a surprise that when a market changes you may have to change your advertising. Will there be a shift not only in advertising techniques, but also in who we target more often than not in the ads? Will print advertising go back up? Will 'flashy' ads become less effective than those with clear, large print?

It seems a no-brainer that 'know who you're selling to' would make targeted selling easier. If Mr. Ratcliffe's observation holds true, we have a good idea of who we'll be selling to in the future. If you currently collect this kind of data, and can share it, when you started viewing this data, were you surprised when you found out that who is visting your site isn't who you thought it was?

Addition: This just popped up. Private Matters: Senate Hearing To Debate Web-Based Targeted Ads I'll be keeping an eye on that.

The growing need for engagement

Over the past few years or so there has been a little gorilla growing in the corner and it wants out but is it 800 lbs yet. The problem with weighing wild animals is getting them on the scale. Measuring engagement has the same issues. Generally everyone is in agreement that as an industry we need to move away from the metrics we have been using standardized on and move into something more relevant to measure how visitors are using our sites.

One of the problems with finding that measurement is what tools do we use and what do the results mean. I found a good starting point here but found it to be a little overwhelming. Even the author of the article says his formula may not be the right one for all sites and that there may not even be a formula that fits every site. That didn't really stop me from trying. 

I looked at the stats that are most currently most relevant to people now: number of visits, how deep into the site did people venture, how much time did they spend on the site and overall page views for a given time period. My time period was a month. I came up with the following formula

Using that formula if Engagement is anything above zero you have some sort of engagement and obviously the higher the better. But does this formula make sense? If it does what is a good engagement score?

Once a base formula is established it can help everyone get on the same footing, so to speak. As an example take two sites with similar content. Site A has a lot of visits and page views but the has low depth and time on site ratings. Site B has a lower number of visits and page views but a jacked-up depth and time on site.

Some quick hypothetical math

Site A = 10,000 visits * 2 pages deep * 4 minutes / 20,000 page views = 4 Engagement Rating

Site B = 3,000 visits * 4 pages deep * 7 minutes / 12,000 page views = 7 Engagement Rating

Now that the math is out of the way we can see Site B has a higher engagement rating then Site A with more page views. What does that mean for the guys running the site and for the companies that advertise on your site. To me it means that if I can create content that keeps people on my site and I can grab a higher engagement rating people will be exposed to ads, internal and third party, for longer periods of time. It also means I might be able to charge a higher CPM. And if you know a site has a higher engagement rating than your own you might be able to learn from them and improve your own site and push your engagement rating up.

There are always going to be mitigating factors that will throw your stats off but if we can get it down to a formula of a few factors we may be able to eliminate some of those mitigating factors.

I hope my first post proves to be a legit one. Let me know what you think.

Change!

Pick a handful of "rich-media" ads from the web and what do you find in common?

Pretty images. Clever copy.
Clever copy. Pretty images.
Still more pretty images and clever copy.

Yawn...

What could be a powerful tool to create change in the prospect mindset is used to trumpet "Buy Me". Naturally, not too many people care to buy.

Rich-media needs to change before it can drive change.
The question is, how?

Jay, from Bangalore
http://ideaburger.blogspot.com

Welcome Aboard!

Well, it's taken some time to get back in the swing off things and get members approved for posting but all invites have been sent and I look forward to talking with everyone via the blog. Alot has been going on since we first started this group and we will be posting some interesting case studies (in the near future) on current rich media email campaigns. We look forward to your feedback and can hopefully return the favor!

Question:
What do you think is the most critical issue facing rich media email marketers as the landscape of IT departments continue to change?

Have a great day!

Team WDM