How many people do visit our website? Are your visitors increasing (or decreasing)? What are visitors looking for in our webpage? How much time do visitors spend in the webpage? Where do visitors come from? How the traffic to the website have changed after a new publicitary campaign after, and so on.
If you can sleep thinking in all questions, web analytics tool will try to solve them for you, tracking your sites´ statistics, possibly helping to understand your customers´ wants and needs.
Numbers get by the use of this tool should be considered as a tendency and not as absolute. For example, cookies allow identifying visitors, but these cookies can be deleted, blocked o get locked by any user.
Google analytics is probably the first and the sole web analytics that which rings your bell. But there are bunches of web analytics out there:
ClickTracks
WebTrends
WebSideStory HBX Analytics
Sources:
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page6760.cfm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_analytics
http://www.advanced-web-metrics.com/docs/accuracy-whitepaper.pdf
Cyber squatting refers to register , using or trafficking a domain name in bad faith with the goal of profiting from a well-known brand name. Once a cybersquatter has the domain name may seek to sell the domain to the company who owns the trademark a higher price or place advertisements on its webpage and get money from those advertisements. Cybersquatting is a major internet problem, which is currently on rise.
Some example of cybersquatting are helpdarfur.com, arackobama.com, unsecuritycouncil.com, http://jonsonbaby.com/, http://georgewbush.org/., www.microosft.com, www.cokacola.com. Therefore, almost all well-known name could be subject to cyber squatting, that includes, companies, politician, international organizations, actors, singers, current disasters and so on.
These pages act as a parasite´s brand, taking away traffic from the real one. What really suspires to me, it’s the fact that some well-known companies seems to pay to this “parasite´s companies”. For example, the webpage www.blakberry.com, drives to the real www.blackberry.com. As mentioned before these pages may gain from traffic or publicity, so as soon as you make a click in one this webpage, they are receiving money. In fact, I have already contributed to them through this research.
What we can do? Two options: First, remain vigilant about this webpage, its contents, and messages. Second, register the companyin all Commonly-used Domain Name Suffixes. Third,sue under the Anti-Cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act ( ACTA), however this process could be long and expensive.
Rerefences:
http://www.cadna.org/en/resources/other-domain-name-abuses
http://www.fairwindspartners.com/en/newsroom/perspectives/vol-1-issue-4
http://www.unc.edu/courses/2008spring/law/357c/001/WebTM/Domain%20Name%20Issues.html#TYPOSQUATTING
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9134605/Domain_name_wars_Rise_of_the_cybersquatters?taxonomyName=Networking+and+Internet&taxonomyId=16
Some example of cybersquatting are helpdarfur.com, arackobama.com, unsecuritycouncil.com, http://jonsonbaby.com/, http://georgewbush.org/., www.microosft.com, www.cokacola.com. Therefore, almost all well-known name could be subject to cyber squatting, that includes, companies, politician, international organizations, actors, singers, current disasters and so on.
These pages act as a parasite´s brand, taking away traffic from the real one. What really suspires to me, it’s the fact that some well-known companies seems to pay to this “parasite´s companies”. For example, the webpage www.blakberry.com, drives to the real www.blackberry.com. As mentioned before these pages may gain from traffic or publicity, so as soon as you make a click in one this webpage, they are receiving money. In fact, I have already contributed to them through this research.
What we can do? Two options: First, remain vigilant about this webpage, its contents, and messages. Second, register the companyin all Commonly-used Domain Name Suffixes. Third,sue under the Anti-Cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act ( ACTA), however this process could be long and expensive.
Rerefences:
http://www.cadna.org/en/resources/other-domain-name-abuses
http://www.fairwindspartners.com/en/newsroom/perspectives/vol-1-issue-4
http://www.unc.edu/courses/2008spring/law/357c/001/WebTM/Domain%20Name%20Issues.html#TYPOSQUATTING
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/print/9134605/Domain_name_wars_Rise_of_the_cybersquatters?taxonomyName=Networking+and+Internet&taxonomyId=16
New term, possibly new paradigm and new business opportunity. According with Jeff Howe, author of Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business, Crowdsourcing is “ when a company takes a job that was once performed by employees and outsources in the form of an open call to a large undefined group of people generally using the internet”
That definition implies that companies rely more on its customer on the process of creating, designing, choosing and launching a product. It´s like Company X has a problem and decide to ask to the”online crowd” what the best solution is. This simple but powerful idea has serious implications like more access to wide range of talent that is outside the organization, opportunity to find creative and innovative ideas, more opportunities to get first-hand insight on customer´s desires, resolve problems in a cost-effective way, and empower the crowd to feel owners of the organization.
Let´s change the name Company X for a real one. For example, Unilever is offering $10,000 in a competition to find ideas for its next TV campaign for snack food Peperami, using the crowdsourcing platform IdeaBounty. This kind of measure imposes new challenges and new threats for current actors, in this case, Lowe, the marketing agency with whom Unilever was working since 1993 was taken out of this project. Is this the future of marketing? What will happen with existing marketing agencies?
A crowdsourcing project, like others project could fail. It´s difficult to control a crowd, and remember that this customer are not employees of the companies, probably there is not written agreement, so if there is not sufficient and clear leadership by the company the project may turn out of control. Besides, this kind of initiatives demand a lot of time, attention and communication skills. Also, keep the crowd motivated is another big issue, because motivation drives to quality, therefore, the company must define clear and attractive incentives to the winner(s).
Looking for more initiatives but more directly related with our current career, it can be found that this year was launched BBNM CrowdConsulting with the goal of resolving real and current business problem. Undoubtedly, this approach will propitiate a closer link between companies, students and universities which are participating. FIU must form this kind of alliances with other universities or we´ll just start loosing ground. Is doing FIU something like this? Is this in its future plans?.
That definition implies that companies rely more on its customer on the process of creating, designing, choosing and launching a product. It´s like Company X has a problem and decide to ask to the”online crowd” what the best solution is. This simple but powerful idea has serious implications like more access to wide range of talent that is outside the organization, opportunity to find creative and innovative ideas, more opportunities to get first-hand insight on customer´s desires, resolve problems in a cost-effective way, and empower the crowd to feel owners of the organization.
Let´s change the name Company X for a real one. For example, Unilever is offering $10,000 in a competition to find ideas for its next TV campaign for snack food Peperami, using the crowdsourcing platform IdeaBounty. This kind of measure imposes new challenges and new threats for current actors, in this case, Lowe, the marketing agency with whom Unilever was working since 1993 was taken out of this project. Is this the future of marketing? What will happen with existing marketing agencies?
A crowdsourcing project, like others project could fail. It´s difficult to control a crowd, and remember that this customer are not employees of the companies, probably there is not written agreement, so if there is not sufficient and clear leadership by the company the project may turn out of control. Besides, this kind of initiatives demand a lot of time, attention and communication skills. Also, keep the crowd motivated is another big issue, because motivation drives to quality, therefore, the company must define clear and attractive incentives to the winner(s).
Looking for more initiatives but more directly related with our current career, it can be found that this year was launched BBNM CrowdConsulting with the goal of resolving real and current business problem. Undoubtedly, this approach will propitiate a closer link between companies, students and universities which are participating. FIU must form this kind of alliances with other universities or we´ll just start loosing ground. Is doing FIU something like this? Is this in its future plans?.
Why we buy things? Why we buy what we eat? Why we buy the new iPod? We´re constantly taking decisions, like what to write in this blog, the same happens when you are deciding what to buy. This is the task of the marketer, the task of unveiling the customers’ mind.
For sure there are not unique responses for those questions above-mentioned and it´s not my intention to solve them in this posting; because we will need more than a mere posting for discussing the theme.
However, as an inexperienced marketer I would like to share some of my thoughts:
The experience of buying things in the Dolphin mall or Saw Grass Mill or whatever shopping store you like, with all kind of symbolisms, propaganda and of course discounts, “maybe” is similar to a web-based shopping store. I say “maybe” because we´re different kind of customers and some could simply agree or disagree with me. My point here is the internet user is starting feeling that the internet is “humanizing” more and more as time goes by. In the internet, we can found virtual walk, interactivity, social media, excellent presentation quality, and so on, and as more human the internet becomes more rewarding will be the experience that potential shopper will find.
Another example of this trend is Fresh Direct, which sells online grocery, are employing experts who test the freshness of the product and this way are reducing the fact that the customer is not touching the product. I also like the strategy applied by Fresh Direct for creating more sales, using a system that tracks each customer´ past purchases and presents them on screen for re-ordering or the YMAL tool, You-Might-Also-Like, which makes recommendations for buying more products.
Technology has been changing the way customer behaves, causing that our web experience change with the time as new forms of technologies, ways of communications and interaction affect our perceptions, needs and wants.
Therefore, some authors like Seth Godin has been proposing new Ps for e-marketing
For sure there are not unique responses for those questions above-mentioned and it´s not my intention to solve them in this posting; because we will need more than a mere posting for discussing the theme.
However, as an inexperienced marketer I would like to share some of my thoughts:
The experience of buying things in the Dolphin mall or Saw Grass Mill or whatever shopping store you like, with all kind of symbolisms, propaganda and of course discounts, “maybe” is similar to a web-based shopping store. I say “maybe” because we´re different kind of customers and some could simply agree or disagree with me. My point here is the internet user is starting feeling that the internet is “humanizing” more and more as time goes by. In the internet, we can found virtual walk, interactivity, social media, excellent presentation quality, and so on, and as more human the internet becomes more rewarding will be the experience that potential shopper will find.
Another example of this trend is Fresh Direct, which sells online grocery, are employing experts who test the freshness of the product and this way are reducing the fact that the customer is not touching the product. I also like the strategy applied by Fresh Direct for creating more sales, using a system that tracks each customer´ past purchases and presents them on screen for re-ordering or the YMAL tool, You-Might-Also-Like, which makes recommendations for buying more products.
Technology has been changing the way customer behaves, causing that our web experience change with the time as new forms of technologies, ways of communications and interaction affect our perceptions, needs and wants.
Therefore, some authors like Seth Godin has been proposing new Ps for e-marketing
Due to the fact that internet puts in direct contact sellers and buyers around the world, people could expect that some intermediaries may disappear. Why do we need intermediaries if I can deal directly with my supplier?.
Internet has allowed e-distributors not only to efficiently get together sellers and buyers, particularly in high-volume of trading of commodities, but also to help manufactures in almost all sectors getting access to small and hard-to-reach buyers.
In this model e-distributors characterize themselves by selling a huge variety of products and services as possible. A successful story is Grainger.com, which specializes in products for maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO), offers more than 475,000 items in its website, which can be mostly shipped the same day to the customer. In the case of Grainger the impact of on-line stores was immediate boosting its revenues by 17% from 1998 to 1999.
Buyers are lured by the idea of making only one purchase, in one place and having to track just one order. Sellers like the fact that they can compare price and decide what the best price is.
Therefore, the question now will be how to choose an e-distributor?.Some features that maybe are relevant: off-line experience, establish brand name, have brand name recognition, encourage customer and supplier relationship, and excel on logistic, delivering products just we we need it.
Reality hits in a different way. Instead of disappearing some intermediaries are becoming more and more powerful.
For more information about how grainger makes business, please review the following link http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Secret-to-Being-Grainger&id=4207625
Internet has allowed e-distributors not only to efficiently get together sellers and buyers, particularly in high-volume of trading of commodities, but also to help manufactures in almost all sectors getting access to small and hard-to-reach buyers.
In this model e-distributors characterize themselves by selling a huge variety of products and services as possible. A successful story is Grainger.com, which specializes in products for maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO), offers more than 475,000 items in its website, which can be mostly shipped the same day to the customer. In the case of Grainger the impact of on-line stores was immediate boosting its revenues by 17% from 1998 to 1999.
Buyers are lured by the idea of making only one purchase, in one place and having to track just one order. Sellers like the fact that they can compare price and decide what the best price is.
Therefore, the question now will be how to choose an e-distributor?.Some features that maybe are relevant: off-line experience, establish brand name, have brand name recognition, encourage customer and supplier relationship, and excel on logistic, delivering products just we we need it.
Reality hits in a different way. Instead of disappearing some intermediaries are becoming more and more powerful.
For more information about how grainger makes business, please review the following link http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Secret-to-Being-Grainger&id=4207625
It´s astonishing how many things are changing in this times. Personally, I think one of these changes is related with Marketing: Inbound Marketing . But, What is it? Why do it? Inbound Marketing is about attracting customer, but without using conventional tecniques, like television or radio ads.
So, How do you get to your consumer?. Well, in these day more and more people live on the internet, on facebook, on twitter. Taking advantage on internet to grow, a company start creating online blogs, videos, photos, that potential consumer want to see, to read.
Inbound marketing requires a set of abilities: First, the ability to write appealing content that may attract potential consumers. Second, the ability to put that content in a way that can be easily found, which require techniques for search tecnique optimization. Third, the ability the engage your customers to follow you, to interact with your content, to make them express themselves, to have a fruitful dialogue and to spread the message.
Inbound marketers believe that your own web page is the most important asset. I disagree with them, but I cannot deny the fact that is a useful and cheap tool for a company, especially a start-up one. If you are starting a company, probably you are not going to pay for a commercial on TV, but what you can really do is to create a compelling web page in order to lure customers.
Of course, one visitor does not mean that you are going to make a deal, or a sale. In fact, one of the most important aspect is to have this clear since the very beginning. The ratio of Visitors/Customers varies from 2000:1 to 5000: 1. So this is not an easy task, first you have to get found by your potential prospects and later convert those prospects into leads and costumers.
There are some companies who can help you with this task, one of those companies is Hubspot, which charges for small companies a upfront fee of US$500 and US$250 monthly. What is really remarkable about this company, is the fact they have never pay for any tv ad, they are stick to inbound marketing philosophy. They convince its own customer with the fact that inbound marketing work for them.
In this globalize marketplace, Inbound Marketing is undoubtedly a strategy that we cannot rule out.
So, How do you get to your consumer?. Well, in these day more and more people live on the internet, on facebook, on twitter. Taking advantage on internet to grow, a company start creating online blogs, videos, photos, that potential consumer want to see, to read.
Inbound marketing requires a set of abilities: First, the ability to write appealing content that may attract potential consumers. Second, the ability to put that content in a way that can be easily found, which require techniques for search tecnique optimization. Third, the ability the engage your customers to follow you, to interact with your content, to make them express themselves, to have a fruitful dialogue and to spread the message.
Inbound marketers believe that your own web page is the most important asset. I disagree with them, but I cannot deny the fact that is a useful and cheap tool for a company, especially a start-up one. If you are starting a company, probably you are not going to pay for a commercial on TV, but what you can really do is to create a compelling web page in order to lure customers.
Of course, one visitor does not mean that you are going to make a deal, or a sale. In fact, one of the most important aspect is to have this clear since the very beginning. The ratio of Visitors/Customers varies from 2000:1 to 5000: 1. So this is not an easy task, first you have to get found by your potential prospects and later convert those prospects into leads and costumers.
There are some companies who can help you with this task, one of those companies is Hubspot, which charges for small companies a upfront fee of US$500 and US$250 monthly. What is really remarkable about this company, is the fact they have never pay for any tv ad, they are stick to inbound marketing philosophy. They convince its own customer with the fact that inbound marketing work for them.
In this globalize marketplace, Inbound Marketing is undoubtedly a strategy that we cannot rule out.
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