Google releases add-on to block its own analytics

Good news for customer and bad news for marketing. Since Google has to face a lot of issues about privacy, Google has released a new add-on that will block the information that is captured by Google Analytics.

Most of you may heard about it, but you may not know exactly what is it. Google Analytics is "the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. Powerful, flexible and easy-to-use features now let you see and analyze your traffic data in an entirely new way". To make it simple, Google Analytics will track all traffic to your site and create as a report for you. The information the Google Analytics (GA) captures include the IP address, browser information, Operating System, ISP, and geographic information.

Figure 1 Google Analytics

The new Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on , that is available on Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome, will block information that will collect from your PC.

This Add-on will be concerned by Web Sites especially marketing since this add-on will possibly cause Google Analytics to collect unreliable and inaccurate data. What should we do as an Internet marketing ? What tools or process we should use for accurate and reliable information?

via cnet.news

How to create and send HTML Email

During the class last week(May 17), I learn about HTML Email. Although HTML Email is used for a period of time, I've never paid attention in it. This class trigger my interesting in how can I create one, so I search for it and found some interesting and useful article that will teach you how to do it.

What is HTML Email ?

According to my class, there are two different Email type: Plain text and HTML.

According to Wikipedia, Plain text Email is "the contents of an ordinary sequential file readable as textual material without much processing, usually opposed to formatted text." While HTML Email is "is the use of a subset of HTML (often ill-defined) to provide formatting and semantic markup capabilities in Email that are not available with plain text." ( source from Wikipedia)

To put in simple word, plain text is normal text format that we normally send to another one while HTML Email will contain picture and link, and have been organized and create by using HTML code.

Figure 1 HTML Email

We know the different now. How can we send one of these HTML Emails.

Tim Slavin did really good job in the way to explain how to code HTML Email Newsletter, but you should have some HTML skills to understand it clearly. He provided the basic fundamental, and step by step to create HTML email. His article also included the best practice and further resource.

Herman Drost also provided you with Pros and Cons of HTML Email, and how to create simple HTML Email.

Click here, for more information about how to create and send HTML Email.

If you don't know how to start it, let's check the HTML email template that will make your life easier. :)

Example
CampaignMonitor
MailChimp
benchmarkemail
more...

If you feel uncomfortable to do it yourself , there are many service provider out there that's ready to take care your problem.

Enjoy :)

Don't drink 9 year old milk - funny IE8 commercial

You wouldn't drink 9 year old milk, so why use a 9-year-old browser. This phase is come from a new marking campaign team that was launched by Microsoft Australia.

Microsoft claim that IE8 is designed to protected users from cyber crime while IE6, that was launch in 2001, is outdated. Therefore Microsoft launched this new funny campaign to persuade users to update their browser.

Although Microsoft released many new version of its IE browser, some of users still stick with the old ie6. One of the reason is, IE 6 is a built-in application that comes with Windows XP. IE6 interface is also pretty similar to window explorer, so a user feel more comfortable to use it.

We also need a similar campaign for Windows XP to change to Windows 7, but we need to persuade a user to buy a new PC/laptop first. :)

Due to the performance of IE8, I still use Firefox and Chrome, but I still expect something good from IE9
some more information about IE9

via cnet.news

Using games to advertise your product

Recently, my friend send me a link of the game. This game is pretty old, but it's quite interesting and funny. The game's title is "Pepsi-man" who is an official Pepsi mascot from Pepsi's Japanese corporate branch (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi#Pepsiman). This game is pretty similar to a race game that you have to race against the time.

Figure 1 - Pepsi-man

After playing this game, I feel like to talk with my friend about this game. This game may not success in generating revenue, but it's able to make a gamer/non-gamer, who may be their target audiences, looking at Pepsi brand for a period of time with positive attitude (unlike TV commercial). This make me think about using games for commercial. Why don't companies use a game channel to advertise their product? Considering with the cost, time, and target audience, developing a game could possible be cheaper, take less time and get more attention from target audience than another channel. In this case, I refer to develop game on Facebook since there are more than 400 million active users (http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics). Most of the games are developed in Flash that easier and take less time and money to develop compare to traditional game.

One of the example that I found in Facebook is the game's called Dante's Inferno (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=49784132315&ref=ts). I feel like this game is developed in order to support and boost the sale of this game with the same name in console version. There could be more out there, but they may not be as good as this one.

Figure 2 - Dante's Inferno on Facebook

The advertised game may require less time and cost, but ,however, it could be used in limited area of target audience (7-30) and type of product/service. It also requires a well-designed and good imagination to create a good game. If you can overcome these challenge, using games as advertisement could provide significant result in brand building.

Podcast and Internet Marketing

"Podcast" is something that I heard for a period of time, I only know it as "radio over Internet", but I've never paid any attention to it until I heard it again in Internet Marketing class. It caught my attention this time, so I try to figure out how can podcast use in Internet marketing, below is what I get from Google. :)

What is podcast?

According to Wikipedia, A podcast is a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication.

To expand the definition, Podcast Alley provide you the longer, but may be easier to understand. Podcasting, created by former MTV VJ Adam Curry, is a term that was devised as a crisp way to describe the technology used to push audio content from websites down to consumers of that content, who typically listen to it on their iPod (hence the "pod") or other audio player that supports mp3 at their convenience. The term podcasting is meant to rhyme with broadcasting and is a derivative of the iPod platform. While not directly associated with Apples iPod device or iTunes music service, the company did contribute both the desire and the technology for this capability. Podcasting is not unlike time-shifted video software and devices like TiVo, which let you watch what you want when you want by recording and storing video, except that podcasting is used for audio and is currently free of charge. Note, however, that this technology can be used to push any kind of file, including software updates, pictures, and videos.

Podcast and Marketing

According to a study performed by Edison Media Research over the course of one year:

• Consumer awareness of the term "Podcasting" increased from 22% to 37%.
• Consumers who have listened to an audio Podcast rose from 11% to 13%.
• Consumers who have watched a video Podcast rose from 10% to 11%.

source: http://www.rssapplied.com/podcastmarketing.html


According to Patricia Faulhaber, he suggested a few applicable uses for Podcasting include: Direct Marketing; Public Relations; and Education.

Direct Marketing Podcast - "Highlighting products or services – discussing special promotions or discounts"

Public Relations Podcast - "a great medium for public service announcements, especially in a shrinking media market. The next generations of adults have shown that they go to the web for everything including local, regional and national news."

Education Podcast - provide the training video on demand service

On top of these uses Podcast is still free and easy to use.

source: http://podcasts.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_business_of_podcasting

This is a link for basic step for Podcast marketing here.