NMG Blog

The Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau Implements NMG’s Industry Specific iPhone Application

Cassie Pekar — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 10:14:08 -0500

June 8, 2010 New Media Gateway (NMG) is proud to announce that the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau (GHCVB) is the first to officially implement NMG’s Destination Specific iPhone Application.

The GHCVB has been a valued client of NMG since 2005. They currently utilize the full suite of online marketing products and services such as, Search Engine Marketing, PPC Campaigning, Web Content Management System (CMS) and their Destination Business System which is comprised of an industry specific, web-based Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) and Digital Marketing Center (DMC) solution, all of which are designed to help to increase business for the most innovative DMO’s worldwide.

The iPhone application sparked the interest of the GHCVB with its ability to reach thousands of new visitors through an entirely new communication medium. The bureau plans to integrate the application into every touch point strategy that they currently use for both visitors and convention/event attendees, which will ultimately result in a potential reach of millions of enthusiastic iPhone travelers.

When Holly Clapham, VP of Marketing for the bureau, was asked what the first thing Houston plans to do with their new tech savvy launch of the Houston iPhone app, she responded: “This is kind of like a ‘seeing is believing’ tool, it’s an extension of a concierge that the user is in full control of, you can use it in real time, 24 hours a day.”

The GHCVB was well aware of all the iPhone applications on the market, but having partnered with NMG already on things that are not conventional features of a CVB website, they felt that integrating their NMG content management system (CMS) with the iPhone app, without having to utilize a third party, was the next step to seamlessly keep up with the growing digital market.

When it comes to Houston’s relationship with NMG, Holly says, “It’s complicated, innovative, pioneer, a unique close knit environment, it’s on many levels a very personal relationship. NMG understands the goals of the CVB on an intimate level.”

New Media Gateway looks forward to working closely with Houston’s implementation of the iPhone application, its future innovative phases to come, and to seeing how it can help CVB’s all over the nation drive traffic and build deeper, more meaningful relationships with their visitors.

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About New Media Gateway
New Media Gateway, Inc. is the leader in providing the most sophisticated and comprehensive digital marketing to destination marketing organizations. NMG helps them to expand their brand, drive more visitors, exceed member/partner expectations and increase productivity with its suite of on-demand products. NMG also offers a full suite of interactive services built specifically to increase meeting, convention, and leisure traveler business.
To learn more about NMG and their Destination Specific iPhone Application please visit: http://hospitality.newmediagateway.com/hospitality-software/iphone-application

About the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau
The GHCVB is the primary sales and marketing arm of the city of Houston and Harris County. The mission of the GHCVB is to improve the economy of Greater Houston by attracting conventions, tourists and international government officials to the area through sales and marketing efforts. Sales tactics include direct sales and meeting planner education through advertising, industry events, tradeshows, direct mail, relationship marketing, networking, distribution of collateral and city orientation visits.
http://www.visithoustontexas.com

Pensacola Bay Area CVB Goes Live with NMG!

Cassie Pekar — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 15:50:02 -0500

We're Live!

In February of 2010, The Pensacola Bay Area Convention and Visitors Bureau (PBACVB) had selected New Media Gateway’s Destination Business System, which is comprised of an industry specific, web-based Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) and Digital Marketing Center (DMC) solution which together help to increase meeting, convention, and leisure travel business for the most innovative destination organizations worldwide.

After fully evaluating New Media Gateway’s technology platform against that of their previous provider’s, the decision was made to switch to NMG in order to secure increased efficiency in their sales productivity as well as in the effectiveness of their overall marketing and sales efforts.

The Bureau officially went live with NMG this Tuesday, June 1st, and has been successfully implementing their new platform capabilities such as Ad Hoc reporting tool which single handedly eliminates the need for a destination marketing resource to build reports from multiple, disjointed systems.

“We are very excited about the CRM going live, especially because we’ll have the Ad Hoc reporting tool, which will enable us to view our business in a 360 approach,” says Ed Schroeder, Executive Director at the PBACVB.

The bureau needed a partner and platform that stood on the leading edge of innovation, was better tailored to meet its specific business needs, and was also flexible enough to support growth efforts moving forward, so the choice to move to New Media Gateway was obvious. When Mike Bersabal, Pensacola Bay Area Convention and Visitors Bureau E-Commerce and Internet Marketing Manager, was asked why the PBACVB decided to switch to NMG, he responded:

“We selected NMG because of their strong passion, commitment and desire to work with us.”

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About New Media Gateway, Inc. New Media Gateway, Inc. is the leader in providing the most sophisticated and comprehensive digital marketing to destination marketing organizations. NMG helps them to expand their brand, drive more visitors, exceed member/partner expectations and increase productivity with its suite of on-demand products. NMG also offers a full suite of interactive services built specifically to increase meeting, convention, and leisure traveler business.

About Pensacola Bay Area Convention and Visitors Bureau
The PBACVB offers everything from on-line comprehensive visitor and meeting planner guides to a live area web cam cast on their website. The bureau also assists meeting planners and the like with securing the most competitive bids, planning/leading site visits, and tours for corporate meetings, reunions, and conventions of all sizes for the Pensacola Bay Area.

How to leverage Facebook's New Functionality

Greg Colunga — Fri, 28 May 2010 10:20:36 -0500

“As Facebook rolls out new functionality, brands have the opportunity to act immediately in a variety of ways. In addition, it's important for brand managers to re-imagine their brands by leveraging social enhancements.”

We feel this is true for all social networks, because just like us at New Media Gateway, social networks are constantly changing and enhancing their network and product capabilities.

Here are some of Facebook’s new enhancements we think you should be taking advantage of:

Social Currency:
A new currency system through Facebook’s upcoming App2User platform, will allow brands to sync their loyalty and rewards systems to offer users Facebook Credits.
“So what does this mean for marketers? It would allow consumers to redeem their loyalty points for virtual currency, and would likely be a much cheaper redemption for the retailer versus having to stock inventory and fulfill physical rewards.”

Likeable Websites
Several companies are integrating and expanding the “like” feature directly to their website.
“Imagine having your circulars or catalogs (or travel guides, media kits and products) brought fully to the digital space and infusing "like" functionality across all of them to create social conversation and trending, and also seek out the most popular items among your peers.”
This would be especially helpful around peak holiday or travel seasons when you need to publicize what your most popular items or attractions are.

Mobile Facebook
“The true benefit would be for Facebook fans to be given offers from retailers. With recent talks of Facebook's location feature scheduled to launch in the next month, mobile will be a game changer for the Facebook platform”
“Users would simply fan of your brand or destination on Facebook for a chance to get fed unique location-based offers. Tie back the loyalty programs we brought up earlier, and you can start to see how this picture will play out in the coming years.

Facebook Connect
A tool formally known as Facebook Connect allows you to create more utility for consumers across the platform. You can access your Facebook friends that are connected to your companies or partners networks, and sort for any kind of content you’re in search of.
“Brands should understand that the increased access to Facebook data will enable them to potentially provide more pinpointed utility to their targets. Imagine if Axe deodorant created a Facebook app that pulled data from Facebook to enable a guy to find all the single girls in his network, and send them a custom message during Valentine's Day via a custom video message.”

Video Streaming
Channels such as Ustream are available to live stream content directly on the Facebook page.
“Facebook can offer fans rewarding, exclusive content. Sponsors of festivals and concerts have started to lock up streaming rights, and will likely start to ensure their fans are consuming this content. The ability to chat with other viewers is also strength here, so unlike TV -- which to date lacks an online social element -- a Facebook Live Stream can connect you with others on the Facebook network to chat.”

Rewarding your Fans
“It is important to recognize these fans because you want to ensure that if you post video, photos, or other content, you are aware of which fans are consuming and sharing this content. The ability to bring in points and rewards for participation will increase fan participation with brands. There could also be exciting opportunities to leverage Facebook Credits through this type of fan reward and interaction.”

Marketers should consistently be paying attention to their fans feedback and also utilizing tools such as social listening platforms to help leverage untapped marketing information. This will allow your social media managers to find out which users are unhappy and also which to pay increased attention to. Marketers can also gain insight to product trends to uncover valuable marketing patterns.

Conclusion
“Marketers need to take stock of their existing inventory, assets, and traditional tools and see how they can leverage the flurry of Facebook functionality that has become available. Brands need to stop thinking about Facebook as purely a place to mass communicate to a ton of friends, and look at it as a complement to their entire business model.”

B2B Marketing Pro's Should Tap Into LinkedIn

Greg Colunga — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:48:27 -0500

B2B Marketing Pro’s Count on LinkedIn

More than 50% of marketers use the site more than they did the previous year.

A recent article posted by e-marketer stated that although sales cycles are slowing down this year, marketing pipelines are still growing and companies are relying on Social Networking and their corporate websites now more than ever.

A recent sales study revealed that one of the most successful social networks for sales prospecting was LinkedIn by a generous lead coming in at 3.1 out of 5 in comparison to 2 for blogs, 1.9 for Facebook and 1.8 for Twitter.
LinkedIn Usage has gone up considerably over the last year both for prospecting and research whereas in the past, the site was not used for research at all but rather for communications between personnel and prospective employees.

Other data sources showed that 45% of North American B2B companies using LinkedIn for marketing had acquired a customer through the site. Company blogs were effective for 43% of respondents, while 38% and 33%, respectively, got customers from Twitter and Facebook.
According to TechCrunchies LinkedIn’s recent launch of an improved people search is driving a lot of traffic to the site, showing a 50 percent increase in activity on the new search platform.

While Facebook and Twitter still yield the highest return on investment out of the hundreds of social networks, LinkedIn easily takes the win for lead generation. Maximize your LinkedIn prospecting by delegating sales reps to keep up with LinkedIn just as equally as they do for the big FB and T.

Spring Cleaning: Best Practices for Direct Marketing

Cassie Pekar — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 12:51:13 -0500

Spring Cleaning

Yes, it’s that time of the year…time to start dusting off old e-mails, mobile apps and even newsletter templates. Companies are switching into high gear because the holidays are over and let’s face it, the leftovers are no longer in high demand. Like every good marketing plan, there’s always time allocated to freshen things up a bit and spring forward into a new marketing season.

Whether it’s purchasing a new platform, generating some new graphics or even simply re-purposing, there’s always room for improvement. I recently came upon a great article posted by iMedia that highlights some simple and efficient ways to freshen up your direct marketing. And, of course, we’ve added a few tips of our own.

1) Clean the Gutters: Dead leaves and dust are much like your dead contacts that never respond or have unsubscribed. They can cause all sorts of clogs in your system if you don’t take care of them. They can increase send costs, development time, and if you’re using direct mail, they can increase overall mailing costs. It’s more beneficial for your performance to just pressure wash them out then to keep them.

2) Water those Hopeful Buds: Before you completely wipe out your non-responders, see if you can revive them. It’s worth a shot if they could eventually turn into something beautiful. Try a few cold calls or even a limited time offer.

3) Summer Streamline: Spring will hit you fast, just like a shark attack, and you don’t want to be left without any limbs for summer fun. So make sure you’re looking ahead and planning for the steps that will follow any green lights resulting from your Spring shape up.

4) Tuck your Winter gear away: The switch from turtlenecks to tee’s is an obvious one and, just like the seasons, your audiences needs change throughout the year. Recipients may not want the same things they did in winter so be aware of your subject matter and content in campaigning.

5) Let the Fresh air in: Get some new opinions and a fresh take on your marketing strategy. Invite others in to evaluate and share their perspectives. Listening and gaining feedback from others is a great way to keep things fresh no matter what time of the year it is. You can even do this in another fashion just by listening to your social networking feedback or by monitoring any responses coming from your direct campaigns.

6) Plant New Seeds: Try new things and don’t be afraid to experiment. Some of those spring buds could turn out to be the best hybrids or blooms you’ve ever had. “Working on initiatives in targeting, segmentation, social, mobile, or your personal favorite next big thing now gives your team time to understand how these initiatives can work on a larger scale.”

7) Check for old moth Holes: Just because it was your favorite shirt doesn’t mean it’s still wearable. Just as you may have tested something in the past, doesn’t mean it hasn’t developed any holes or that its results haven’t expired. What was once valuable information could be outdated. Now is the time to re-evaluate what was working, what wasn’t working, and what will work in the future.

8) Re-Arrange the Furniture: All winter you thought to yourself, “wow that table would look really great in the other room,” why not try it out? See if you get a better performance out of it. As we grow together our strengths can change, evaluate your team and make sure you have the right people doing the right jobs. Make spring-cleaning easy and take it further by fully evaluating all your marketing collateral. What can you re-purpose, what can you throw out and what can you move around to achieve maximum results?

9) Don’t Rush: There’s a reason Spring Cleaning is so popular, it only happens once a year, and that’s because it’s meant to last. So put your best food forward to yield the best long lasting results. If you work hard enough, all you’ll need is a little maintenance here and there to keep everything spit spot throughout the rest of the year.

So there you have it, go ahead and grab your tools and get to work!

What's your Social ROI?

Greg Colunga — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:56:02 -0600

Investing in Social Media

In the beginning, everyone knew social media would be beneficial to their business objectives, so they did it without a real way of tracking the impact it was having or by measuring the returns generated from the time and resources being invested.

We thought, “everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn’t we?” And why wouldn’t you? Social Media made big promises. It promised to build a deeper and more meaningful connection between your brand and your consumer and that it would broadcast your brand and personality to the world that would listen. You could reach people you never even knew you wanted to listen.

But has social media delivered? Can you even tell?

According to eMarketer, Social network ad spending will reach $2.5 billion worldwide throughout 2010 and $1.3 billion just in the US, but according to an outside survey only 1 IN 5 marketers even measured their social media ROI in 2009.

Much of the problem starts with the fact that when companies construct their social media plan, it’s often not a plan at all. It’s simply a pre-meditated series of executions to which no strategy is implemented. There’s no true objective other than to throw it out there and see what comes back. Then, as you can see below, marketers try and justify these “random executions” by simply measuring website traffic as a key indicator of social media success.

We’ve found that in order to successfully measure return on social investment, marketers’ need to define their goals and directly connect them to all social media objectives, including the dollar value associated with them. Markets should be systematically monitoring all social interactions with advanced web analytics including the negative feedback.

The most value added to your social media can be found by enabling your network URLs with analytics-encoded strings to successfully measure inbound traffic and campaigns for visitor trends. All of this lies within your Search Marketing and Optimization strategy. Something New Media Gateway is especially qualified to help with. NMG is a Google Analytics Authorized Certified Consultant which, needless to say, pretty much means we know what we’re talking about when it comes to web optimization.

Companies all over are catching on to the importance of measuring social ROI and it’s time you did too. To learn more about what successful social media tactics to employ, measure and optimize, visit our blog “Social Media Tactics that Work,” or contact a New Media Gateway representative.

Merry Measuring!

Social Media Tactics That Work

Cassie Pekar — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:57:47 -0600

As you well know, Social Media has rapidly become the leading promotional tool in today’s market but it may not be yielding the results you thought it would, or the results it promised it would. Certain tactics that were once proven to be successful may in fact no longer be the best as sites like Facebook and Twitter are constantly changing.

We’ve found that a recent survey of 5,140 B2B and B2C marketers conducted by MarketingProfs shows how companies are successfully using social media to measure ROI, create better campaigns, and reach new and qualified audiences.

Current Facebook marketers most commonly used tactics to drive traffic consist of leading customers through status updates and administering friend requests to their clients and followers. However, more and more consumers are becoming tech savvy with the increased usage of products like the iphone so marketers are switching to more effective practices such as generating custom Facebook apps.

Another popular method B2B and B2C marketers found successful was implementing fan surveys to track and analyze useful data and gain consumer insight. What’s important to note, however, is that buying ads was proven to be the least effective type overall. This chart shows the percentage of marketers surveyed and the tactics they most commonly deploy.

Twitter marketers looking to increase traffic most commonly used links to their web pages and promotional pages but once again, these may not have been the most useful ways to reach their targets. More and more users, especially B2C marketers, found that the most success came from monitoring for PR problems and contacting those users who tweeted negatively about their brand or service. This kind of monitoring is successful for B2B companies as well paired along with inviting users to events. Notably, the study showed that driving sales concluded to be the least effective tactic overall when marketing on Twitter. Below shows the most commonly used tactics by the marketers surveyed and, as you can see, communication and monitoring are among the highest used strategies.

It’s clear that a significant number of marketers are planning to continue the use of social media marketing as well as trying to find more innovative ways to reach targets such as emerging mobile tactics. So, not only is it important to stay on top of interactive web marketing trends but it’s also important to take note on exactly HOW you as well as your competitors are utilizing certain resources such as those mentioned here today.

So as you move forward into the New Year stay ahead of the competition by making sure you’re using all social media resources to the best of your advantage in the most successful ways possible.

Good luck and happy tweet-booking!

Using Social Media Strategically

Greg Colunga — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:26:28 -0600

Some interesting charts regarding social media usage and budgeting is allocated in the charts below. As you can see, social media can be leveraged in a number of different ways, ranging from the most commonly predicted areas (such as generating leads, or additional web traffic) through to better managing and offsetting customer support issues.

When it comes to developing a social networking strategy, your organization should understand that there is no "one size fits all" mentality that can be taken. Each organization is different and will require a unique strategy custom built for their own needs/requirements.

With that said, however, nearly all social media strategies will require two things:

A consistent message across all users representing a brand
A personal touch
A listening strategy

Let's examine some of the use cases for how businesses (according to the 2010 MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report released on December 11, 2009) strategically plan on using social media:

As you can see, social media can be leveraged as an extension of your search engine marketing efforts, something that New Media Gateway is uniquely qualified to assist you with (as we are Google Analytics Authorized Consultant and Google AdWords certified providers).

When developing a budget line item for social media expenditures in 2010, you may want to consider what your colleagues in your industry are doing, who responded to the same study (again, conducted by MarketingSherpa in the same report cited earlier in this article). If you are categorized in any of the following industries, you may consider itemizing a social media budget for your 2010 initiatives moving forward, as well.

Overall, it looks like 2010 is going to be a good year for a great number of industries. We believe that many marketers believe it's time to invest and increase their marketing expenditures (not just in social media, but in other marketing services) to increase results. All indicators that we're reviewing here at NMG are showing that the companies that they work for are in agreement that it's time to put the bad economy behind us and move forward strong into 2010.

All the best to you/yours and enjoy your holiday season!

Happy hunting in 2010!

Sincerely,
The New Media Gateway Team

Adobe Helps Make Digital Marketing Center Even Better!

Tim Storer — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 03:11:09 -0500

Crucially, Adobe has signed on a number of key launch partners for the product including Google (GOOG) and Research in Motion (RIMM). By the first half of next year, consumers can expect Flash on nearly every smartphone operating system including Google’s Android, Nokia’s (NOK) Symbian, Palm’s (PALM) webOS and Microsoft’s (MSFT) Windows Mobile. (Hopefully iPhone will be soon also!)

This is GREAT NEWS for Digital Marketing Center customers. The release of Flash on mobile devices will allow users of the Digital Marketing Center to send recipients video e-mail messages and interactive multimedia presentations using the E-mail Marketing Center and Presentation Generator capabilities.

Behavioral Targeting Misses Mark

Tim Storer — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:33:28 -0500

Americans reluctant to be tracked

Despite the concerns of some consumers and privacy advocates, marketers have defended behavioral targeting on the basis that Internet users would prefer to look at relevant advertisements and offers.

But a study from researchers at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of California Berkeley School of Law and the Annenberg Public Policy Center reports just the opposite.

“Contrary to what many marketers claim, most adult Americans (66%) do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests,” according to the paper. “Moreover, when Americans are informed of three common ways that marketers gather data about people in order to tailor ads, even higher percentages— between 73% and 86%—say they would not want such advertising.”

Respondents showed somewhat more interest in receiving personalized discounts and news, but still, less than one-half of Americans wanted any tailored Web content at all.

That was true of consumers in every age group—even young adults ages 18 to 24 were more likely to say no to behavioral targeting than to accept it, except for discounts.

Several earlier studies reached different conclusions. For example, ChoiceStream consistently found from 2006 through 2008 that at least 70% of Internet users were interested in seeing personalized online ads. And more than one-half of Web users surveyed by Q Interactive in March 2009 said they would prefer to receive targeted advertisements based on their personal data in order to enjoy free content. Most also said they would view an online advertiser favorably because of ads tailored to their interests.

More than two-thirds of respondents to the Annenberg/Berkeley study felt they had lost control over their personal information. At the same time, however, they believed businesses handled their data well and that they were already protected by current regulations.

Even so, marketers hoping to avoid regulation through industry self-policing may have an uphill battle, as most respondents were in favor of new legislation. Almost two-thirds (63%), for example, thought there should be a law requiring advertisers to immediately delete information about their Internet activity.

October, 2009
Emarketer: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007121

Return Path, a New Media Gateway integration partner, has secured a deal with newly announced MySpace Mail!

Tim Storer — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:24:44 -0500

Return Path, a New Media Gateway partner, has secured a deal with MySpace to ensure that the new social networking email service upholds the same high standard as ISPs. MySpace will also be implementing Return Path Certification to make sure that MySpace members get the email they request. That means that Return Path Certification partners (such as New Media Gateway) will receive VIP access into the inboxes of millions of MySpace users in addition to the largest and most respected whitelist program in the email universe. Additionally, MySpace will contribute data to the Return Path Reputation Network, the cooperative database that powers Return Paths Sender Score service. This announcement in addition to New Media Gateway's already leading social networking capability through its recent Sharethis integration continues to keep New Media Gateway at the bleading edge of marketing technology.

New Media Gateway continues to leverage its platform as well as integrated partner relationships to maximize return on investment for our clients.

Becoming a Social Media Champion

marym — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:14:44 -0500

By Veronica E. Williams, New Media Gateway

As the Annual Convention in Atlanta quickly approaches, the theme "Creating Champions for Destinations" becomes significantly important. During this time of economic uncertainty the destination marketing organization (DMO) needs to become even more creative in their messages to potential visitors.

Social media is the most cost-effective way to promote your destination to the greatest number of people. The champion will be the one who not only understands this, but puts a solid plan together and follows through with that plan.

With any new marketing initiative, DMOs need to take the time to develop specific user roles, easy to understand guidelines, and a way to demonstrate their success.

Below is a brief outline on how to develop your social media plan:

1. Obtain Management Input and Approval
This is very important as management will be out talking to media, potential/current customers and potential/current visitors. You want to make sure that management not only approves of what you are doing, but understands it as well. Nothing is worse than an uninformed sales manager who goes on and on about Facetweet and wanting clients to "subscribe" (Facebook=Fans and Twitter=Followers).

2. Include a Listening Strategy
Know what is being said out there and by whom. Before you even compose your first Tweet, you want to make sure that you have done your homework. Begin by identifying your top five competitors and look at what they are doing with social media. You can learn a lot about how they interact with clients, promote upcoming events, and handle service questions.

It is just as important to find out what your top ten clients are chatting about. This is a great way to find

"Social media is the most cost-effective way to promote your destination to the greatest number of people."

out what is important to them -- which should be important to you. It is also a way to find out if they need anything. The easiest way to become a champion for your clients is to discover a challenge they are experiencing and provide successful solutions -- without them having to ask!

Additionally, you want to make sure you are actively searching for chatter about you and your brand. There are complimentary applications that do this easily for you. TweetDeck is one that has a search function built in that sends you any Tweets containing keywords you provide. You will be amazed at how much you can learn and how many little victories you can have just by responding to seemingly random questions.

3. Incorporate a Plan for Assigning Resources
To ensure the most candid responses you will want to include staff in various departments other than marketing to your plan. Social media users can sniff-out a PR pitch quicker than you can send it and will stop following your updates.

Remember that social media is just that -- social. So don't try to make everything you push out perfect. It should be an ongoing conversation with you and your followers. Which is why putting someone from sales in charge of monitoring your sales keywords/clients is ingenious. They become immersed in that environment everyday, thus they are aware of the trends and the latest gossip.

4. Develop an Internal Social Media Process
Social media is made up of short, quick messages. Preparing your team for direct requests or customer service questions is definitely a time-efficient. One way to accomplish this is to compile a list of FAQs (frequently asked questions) of each department as a reference for your team. Keep in mind that not every question or statement will be covered by this list so be prepared for the unexpected.

In addition, defining content responsibilities will assist with oversaturation and overlooking a social media medium. People feel more secure knowing exactly what they are responsible for and what they are not.

5. Construct a Content Plan
As discussed above, social media is not just about entering 140 characters every few days. The successful DMO will take the time to put together a plan that coordinates traditional communication, press releases, interviews, targeted emails, and newsletters using social media aspects such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, ShareThis and user reviews.

Make sure at your tradeshow booth you have someone taking photos of you with your customers and post them on your Facebook page. At the same time discuss the tradeshow on your blog and have your President mention it in an interview.

It's all about creating a buzz.

6. Measure Success
Listed below are a few ways to measure social media and its impact on your DMO:

ShareThis: ShareThis is a widget that allows organizations to take available content and allow it to be shared by target audiences on nearly all social networking sites via email, SMS or instant message. Users can post calendar events, articles, blogs, listings or send out newsletters, emails or landing pages and a visitor can pick that information and share it to friends, family and groups -- all of which can be re-syndicated virally. ShareThis (which has recently partnered with New Media Gateway) will provide tracking reports on click activity giving clients the ability to fully measure the extent of the viral marketing efforts."

GoSeeTell Twitter DMO Rankings: This is a great way to see how you stack up against your competitors. The results are calculated via Twitter Grader which "basically is trying to measure the power, reach and authority of your twitter account. In other words, when you tweet, what kind of an impact does it have?" They also have a tool to grade your Facebook page, press releases and website.

Most importantly have fun! If you don't think what you are posting is interesting you will lose your audience. Analyze and invite your audience to become an active follower of your social media plan.

Are you ready to be the Social Media Champion of your Destination?

References from: Telesian Technology, Grader.com and New Media Gateway

Future of Digital Marketing

Tim Storer — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:48:43 -0500

These are the two primary drivers as to why New Media Gateway's DMC Multichannel Marketing Platform is in such high demand. This article provides more insight into the conference.

Article: The Future of Digital Marketing -

The Future of Digital Marketing conference, presented by Econsultancy, is an annual fixture on the London marketing calendar. This year’s gathering again boasted a number of stimulating presentations, as well as heated discussion.

After the opening keynote, four hour-long sessions were devoted to the travel, financial services, retail and publishing industries.

These were the themes of the day:

The Future of Digital Marketing Is the Future of Marketing

Digital channels are increasingly crucial for all advertising and other communications with consumers. In fact, the word “digital” is becoming superfluous.

The Future is Unknowable—But It’s Already Here

Few speakers were prepared to predict the future. But speakers and delegates seemed to share a sense of what it will be like.

Within a few years, one or two genuinely new technologies will burst on the scene. But most “innovations” in marketing will be new applications of technologies already available, such as using Google Earth more to provide local context for travel destinations online, or using augmented-reality programs in mobile phones to display full product and price information for items viewed in the physical world.

Respect Is Key

In a world of behavioral targeting and the mountains of information being amassed about Internet users, transparency is more important than ever.

Top tips:

Relevance for consumers means respecting their declared preferences, the explicit permissions they give and their right to privacy. Take the high ground.
Give people access to their own information. That breeds trust and will lower resistance to marketing messages.

Going Back to Basics

A recurring refrain in all the industry sessions. Marketers of all stripes, dogged by the recession and overwhelmed by the plethora of digital tools and channels available, need to get the essentials right.

Top tips:

Website optimization. Know what’s working, and fix what’s not. Ease of use for consumers is increasingly important. Make sure navigation and content are efficient and up to date, and remove dead links.
Consistent, end-to-end branding.
Ensure your products, services and USP are crystal clear to consumers.
Make simple, clear calls to action.
Set deadlines and keep them. Work backward from where you want your business to be in six months to establish marketing plans. If you can’t see reaching the goal you set, rethink the goal.
Concentrate on home markets first. Get those right before rolling out elsewhere.
Search: It may not be sexy, but it remains “the lifeblood of marketing.”
Don’t average cost-per-click data over entire campaigns. To see underlying patterns, you need to get granular.
Make your money go further. Assess the media you own (content assets, Website and so on), the media you buy and the media exposure you earn (mentions in major newspapers or industry news sources, for example). Maximizing coverage of your owned and bought media in the press can multiply your exposure many-fold.

Basics Aren’t Enough

Somewhat paradoxically, this theme went hand in hand with hard advice on Web analytics, clarity, brand consistency and leveraging existing assets. Many speakers stressed the importance of getting beyond the predictable and the merely adequate to deliver an unexpected, higher-value consumer experience—aka “magic.”

Top tips:

Think high value, not high volume.
Avoid fake personalization. If you claim to act on your customers’ declared interests, make sure it shows. Tailor content to your site visitors and the recipients of your e-mail campaigns.
Empower your advocates, and provide tools they can use to spread the word.
Cool tools are best, such as iPhone applications or widgets that make key activities portable, easily accessible—and fun.
Use an element of surprise to spark excitement and interest. If you run a travel site, delivering one unexpected, intriguing option in an otherwise predictable list of hotels in Florida can remind users of something often forgotten these days: Serendipity is central to the online experience.

Article Source: EMarketer - http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007149

Taking a Second Look at E-mail

Tim Storer — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:46:48 -0500

E-mail Marketing continues to advance with no end in site. Below is a nice article from ClickZ that discusses the ongoing advancements in e-mail marketing strategy.

Article by Jeannie Mullen (clickz.com):

When I started to write this column, I ran into a problem. I couldn't think of anything exciting in e-mail to write about. Call it e-mail marketer writer's block. This got me thinking: Has e-mail marketing gotten to a point where we have nothing new to talk about? Has this industry matured enough that we now just need to focus on the tried-and-true acquire, convert, retain principals?

Then it hit me.

The e-mail marketing industry could never land in this type of rut. As the backbone of all other digital media, our e-mail efforts will keep growing and evolving as new technologies do. For those of us who choose to ignore the power that e-mail marketing can have as an influencer for other channels (like social and mobile), e-mail will remain a fairly cut-and-dried direct marketing practice. The rest of us, though, have reason to celebrate.

Here's a list of some newer aspects of e-mail you should be aware of. If you haven't considered these as part of your strategy, what are you waiting for?

Acquisition-focused upgrades:

Tiered performance pricing for prospecting

E-mail as a branding tool

E-mail to feed into social networks

Mobile e-mail

Conversion:

Social/micro-messaging options

Channel/source optimization

Preference center enhancements

Win-back advancements

Retainment:

Partner-oriented value add

Inventory management

Co-op marketing

Social influencing

Video in e-mail

Out of all of these new initiatives, my recent favorite is partner oriented-value add. This is where customer e-mail programs include some type of unanticipated reward for reading the e-mail. Unanticipated rewards have been around a long time in marketing but have rarely been used in e-mail. That's because e-mail marketing was historically such a high conversion channel that this tactic was rarely needed. But in today's world of inbox overload and channel integration, e-mail needs a little sweetener. Including a valuable, unanticipated reward packs a one-two punch. Here's how:

In a recent column, I wrote about a new segment in our e-mail lists: the social influencers. These people aren't always your best click-and-buy people, but they are the best people to share, post, and talk about your recent e-mail effort (which results in even more sales than if they bought themselves).

When these people receive an e-mail from you that contains an unanticipated reward, something that they enjoy, you'll increase their level of loyalty to your brand. That's important. Equally important, or even more so, these people will share that great news and your generosity with others through social networks and online water-cooler conversations.

This opens up a whole new world of opportunity for you to attract new customers and increase revenues simply by adding unexpected value into your messaging.

Yes, the world of e-mail is nowhere near tired and old just yet. As new developments and trends rise, e-mail is right there to help maximize exposure and monetize results.

I love being a part of the e-mail industry. Don't you?

Source: www.clickz.com

ROI Measurement a Must

Tim Storer — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 08:57:40 -0500

Recent articles by eMarketer highlight the importance that is being placed on ROI measurement within organizations in order to secure and justify marketing budgets. New Media Gateway was founded upon this important practice and why all of our products and services incorporate the ability to measure and track effectiveness in real-time. Recently, New Media Gateway took our measurement and analytical capabilities to another level by becoming one of only about 30 Google Anaytics Certified companies in North America as well as deeply integrating all of our products with Google Analytics. The articles below provide support as to why we are so pationate about ROI measurement.

The need for measurement and analytics is growing in importance.

According to a study by the Lenskold Group and MarketSphere, 65% of marketers said that CEOs and CFOs are demanding to see return on investment (ROI) as a part of securing budgets for marketing initiatives.

Seventy-nine percent of the marketers felt that the need to measure, analyze and report marketing effectiveness was greater in 2009 than in previous years.

But getting accurate measurements takes money, and with the downturn in full swing, funds aren’t easy to come by.

In fact, 59% of marketers felt the need to measure ROI was greater than ever but were not budgeted for the necessary effort.

Only 20% of respondents said the need to report marketing effectiveness was higher and that they had adequate funds to do the job.

When asked how much of their budgets were dedicated to measurement and analysis, 31% of marketers answered “none.”

A mere 2% of marketers allotted more than 30% of their budgets to marketing measurement and analysis.

Measuring ROI in the best of times can be challenging, but the Lenskold Group has five recommendations for how to succeed:

Estimate ROI potential in the planning stage.
Invest in measurements and analytics with immediate payback.
Increase experimentation and testing.
Prepare for aggressive competition during the recovery.
Pursue efficiency and effectiveness.

Looking for ROI...

The economy is putting ever-increasing demands on marketers to make every dollar count and demonstrate positive ROI.

According to the “2009 Promo Interactive Marketing Survey” from PROMO magazine, the demand to perform is driving marketers online. More than one-third of marketers surveyed believed that interactive marketing ROI would be more profitable than traditional marketing—such as TV, radio and outdoor—this year.

While 29% of the marketers surveyed were not sure whether digital marketing ROI would be more profitable or not, only 7% of them believed that digital marketing would be less profitable.

So it comes as little surprise that 22% of the marketers indicated they would shift dollars from traditional media into the digital space.

The problem with shifting funds to digital initiatives is that consumers are gravitating to areas where the metrics are still pretty shaky, such as blogging, social networking, video and word-of-mouth.

Paradoxically, under much pressure and with little choice, the drive for performance seems to be pushing marketers into spaces where they have few means to measure ROI—and prove performance.

Marketers are moving dollars to emerging media—even though, among the marketers polled, 38% didn’t know or didn’t measure their online ROI.

Go figure...

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Article References:

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007143

http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007100