Prosper Magazine Executive Blog

Sacramento area business folks, if you haven't yet discovered Prosper Magazine - do yourself a favor! Get to know Prosper!


About Prosper
Welcome to Prosper, a monthly business magazine serving the greater Sacramento Metro Market and targeted to you. As its name implies, Prosper is about your achievement and your success.

Prosper was founded on the premise that successful CEOs, middle managers of large and small companies, promising entrepreneurs and ambitious hopefuls of the Sacramento region need to exploit their accomplishments, learn from each other and share with the world the dynamics of the budding Sacramento Metro Marketplace.

A new publishing voice for our emerging marketplace was an idea long overdue. The incredible change in the perception of our community as a bastion for government workers to a dynamic marketplace is a story worth telling, and every month, in lots of different ways, Prosper tells that tale.
And each month, the talented team of editors, writers, designers and photographers gathered to produce Prosper design a magazine that simplifies business for those of us doing business in the region.

The mission at Prosper is to provide accurate business information that is pertinent, well-written, graphically pleasing and informational. You will notice while reading Prosper, that you can get in and get out of a subject quickly. If you want more information, the magazine will direct you to other online resources. And because there is always time for a little fun, Prosper includes lighter fare.

Finally, while you're perusing prospermag.com, make note of our advertisers. In the spirit of their entrepreneurial swagger, let's all dare to Prosper.

Home Page: HERE

Blogs are the new focus groups

A good friend of mine recently asked me what benefit Blogs could offer him and his company. Here is a good, partial, answer...(and frankly one I forgot to ask him - sorry Bob.)

When U.S. Cellular's marketing agency G Whiz went trolling on blogs to find out what cell phone users were complaining about, they walked away with ideas for a new ad campaign without shelling out a dime for focus groups. Increasingly, blogs are being seen as a free and reliable source of market intelligence. Adweek (subscription required) (6/20)

This is so true...


Robin Good - http://www.masternewmedia.org/sharewood_tidings.htm

If you DON'T build it, you are dumb! (My stupid h-line - not Robin's)

As access to powerful and low-cost new media, electronics and digital technologies becomes easier and easier thanks to innovation and lower and lower prices, creating value, products and good content is no longer the exclusive property of large corporations, or financially equipped teams of investors.

Amateurs are figuring out (in more than one way) that they too can be effective as "sustainable products creators" without needing to tap into large budgets, expensive machinery and highly paid professionals. (Are you one?)

Thanks to the Internet and to the ongoing growth of former underground movements like Open Source, Blogging and P2P, a growing number of individuals are figuring out that even creating their own newspaper, magazine, radio or TV channel it is no longer out of their reach. (More)

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JB Comments: Come on folks - Why should you settle for the "right seat on the bus" based on what your manager thinks? Get off of her bus and drive your own damn bus, motorcycle or Hummer!

Online Features - Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds - sacbee.com: "Women"

Local Search Engine Marketing: Get in the game or be ignored.

Yesterday, I met with a brilliant, local, business person. His multi-million dollar company is now growing to other cities and states. Clearly no dummy, this guy knows what he’s doing. Charming and charismatic, and a brilliant marketer, he uses radio and small amounts of other “traditional” media almost exclusively.

Here’s my big “BUT…” You knew it was coming. (Its not that big…is it?)

It is actually.

By his own admission, he now realizes he’s “left his back door wide open” to online competitors. (His analogy not mine…rather fitting however.) Just because he doesn’t understand “that Internet stuff” he wrongly assumed his customers wouldn’t miss him there. Oops.
This is what we discovered:
1. Four competitors had purchased his company name as a Google “key word” or search term. Meaning, when local customers try to find his company online using his well established brand name, paid for with prime-time radio spots, it could be his competitor’s web-link that gets clicked, not his. (Ouch. Is this happening to YOUR company?)

2. When searching online, for the services he provides and using Google, Yahoo and MSN (representing more than 90% of ALL search traffic when combined) he was no where to be found. His biggest competitors were ALL there however, some of them so bold as to use his companies name as their ads headline!

3. Finally, we discovered that his competition was paying nearly $5.00 per-click or per-lead (PPC, PPL) for certain terms on their Yahoo! search ads, and it appears as if they had been paying this (and much more at times) for many months.

To quantify this ongoing missed opportunity...

We discovered there had been over 129,000 searches conducted for the products and services his company offers during the past 60 days over a number of search networks. The research showed an expected 110,000 searches over the next 60 days. However, his company did not appear on ANY of the first 6 “search result” pages. (Although this is only closely estimated traffic and not just local in scope – I hope you get the picture. He certainly did.)

Finally, it’s safe to assume his competitors would not be paying such a high “click-rate” and doing so for so long, if the conversion from “click” to actual “lead” wasn’t there. In other words; it must be worth it, because online – EVERYTHING is tracked and accounted for. If it works you know how well, who and when.

Conclusion:

You don’t need to be an e commerce enabled company to benefit from search presence…

Online product research conducted by consumers in the past year (2004) was responsible for driving $180.7 billion in offline spending, compared to $106.5 billion in direct online consumer spending.*

By using a search engine and typing in the description of products and services they are looking to buy as well as the city or area they want to buy it in, users are literally asking for information on YOUR services.

Forget all the Internet-geek double speak and confusing terms… this stuff is simple…

If the 2004 Kelsey Group report** that says as many as 1 in 4 searches are “local in nature” is to be believed (IE Sacramento car dealer” for example.) you’d better ask yourself what words and/or terms a customer might use to find your company online, go to your favorite search engine, enter those terms and see what you find.

Only one of two things will happen. They'll either find you or they will find a competitor.

The choice seems clear, either you is or either you aint.

About me: I am the recent past Online Business Development Manager for The Sacramento Bee’s Internet division (Sacbee.com, Sacramento.com and SacTicket.com) and co-founder of Left Brain Studios – an interactive lead generation company.

I often speak for Northern California trade groups and marketing associations, please contact me should you have an interest in my speaking for yours.

Sources:
*Dieringer Research Group http://www.thedrg.com/d/mcr/aics/bulletins/20041001_offlinespending.htm
** The Kelsey Group Report: http://www.kelseygroup.com/press/pr040211.htm

Many may have read this in December - READ IT AGAIN! Really interesting stuff...

Search Engine Users: Internet searchers are confident, satisfied and trusting – but they are also unaware and naïve

1/23/2005 Report Deborah Fallows Pew Internet Life

Internet users are extremely positive about search engines and the experiences they have when searching the internet. But these same satisfied internet users are generally unsophisticated about why and how they use search engines. They are also strikingly unaware of how search engines operate and how they present their results.

Internet users behave conservatively as searchers: They tend to settle quickly on a single search engine and then stick with it, rather than switching as search technology evolves or comparing results from different search systems. Some 44% of searchers regularly use just one engine, and another 48% use just two or three. Nearly half of searchers use a search engines no more than a few times a week, and two-thirds say they could walk away from search engines without upsetting their lives very much.

Internet users trust their favorite search engines, but few say they are aware of the financial incentives that affect how search engines perform and how they present their search results.
Only 38% of users are aware of the distinction between paid or “sponsored” results and unpaid results. And only one in six say they can always tell which results are paid or sponsored and which are not. This finding is ironic, since nearly half of all users say they would stop using search engines if they thought engines were not being clear about how they presented paid results.

View PDF of ReportView PDF of Questionnaire