Comments on: Why Marketing Fails #2: Follow The Herd Marketing http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/why-marketing-fails-follow-the-herd-2/ Practical tips for small biz owners Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:19:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Karyn Greenstreet http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/why-marketing-fails-follow-the-herd-2/comment-page-1/#comment-15054 Karyn Greenstreet Tue, 13 Jul 2010 23:14:05 +0000 http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/?p=255#comment-15054 Yeah, Marci, when I started to tally up all the different ways I know to market your business, I came up with over 80 ways. I think that's a good thing, because it allows us to choose marketing techniques that match our personalities, skills, budget and time constraints. Yeah, Marci, when I started to tally up all the different ways I know to market your business, I came up with over 80 ways. I think that’s a good thing, because it allows us to choose marketing techniques that match our personalities, skills, budget and time constraints.

]]> By: Marci http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/why-marketing-fails-follow-the-herd-2/comment-page-1/#comment-15047 Marci Tue, 13 Jul 2010 20:35:55 +0000 http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/?p=255#comment-15047 Wow, 80 different ways to market our business. I have tried a little bit of this and that. I usually start with a plan- where future clients may be found and then end up doing what I like to do (web design, writing, etc). I know what works for me, and I haven't tried FB yet for anything but connecting with friends and fmaily. Thanks for the reminder, the updated statistics, and interesting discussion. Wow, 80 different ways to market our business. I have tried a little bit of this and that. I usually start with a plan- where future clients may be found and then end up doing what I like to do (web design, writing, etc).

I know what works for me, and I haven’t tried FB yet for anything but connecting with friends and fmaily. Thanks for the reminder, the updated statistics, and interesting discussion.

]]> By: Karyn Greenstreet http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/why-marketing-fails-follow-the-herd-2/comment-page-1/#comment-15042 Karyn Greenstreet Tue, 13 Jul 2010 11:51:29 +0000 http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/?p=255#comment-15042 Thanks for the udpate, Mike. Your stats still show that 50.1% of FB users are in the 18-34 age range as of January 1, 2010, with 29% in the 35-54 range. (I wish they'd break down that 35-54 range into some smaller groupings like they do with the two previous groups!) It will be interesting to watch FB over the next year. My experience is that FB click-throughs on posted profile links (non-paid-ads) is quite small (2-3%) and from Twitter even smaller. But this has to do with who my audience is and where they hang out online. Don't get me wrong: there's a lot of good reasons to be on FB and Twitter for accessibility and building relationships, but it depends on whether your audience not only <strong>has </strong>an account on these services but also if they actively <strong>use </strong>them. I'd love to see some stats about the number of people who have accounts but haven't logged in for the past 3 months. :) Also, the paid advertising click-through rates I'm hearing about from others are less than 1%, which has been my own experience as well. Again, a function of target demographic and ad fatigue, as well as the quality and value of the ad. When I looked it up to see what others were getting for their clickthrough rates, this is what I found: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=74100576336&topic=12730&post=59344 http://www.tbiresearch.com/facebook-is-improving-its-self-serve-display-service-for-advertisers-2010-1 http://mashable.com/2009/07/07/twitter-clickthrough-rate/ (This is an excellent article and explains click-through rate as a function of how many "friends" you have.) If you have any links to share, I'd love to see them! Statistics help me to make sense of what I'm experiencing in the real world, and as we're all aware, statistics can be "interpreted" to mean many, sometimes opposing, things. :) P.S. I agree with you re: Adwords on Google. I used to get great clickthrough rates several years ago, but it's steadily dropped to the point where I just don't use them anymore. But I have extraordinary organic SERPs through SEO for the keywords I'm targeting, which yields huge clickthroughs. Thanks for the udpate, Mike. Your stats still show that 50.1% of FB users are in the 18-34 age range as of January 1, 2010, with 29% in the 35-54 range. (I wish they’d break down that 35-54 range into some smaller groupings like they do with the two previous groups!) It will be interesting to watch FB over the next year. My experience is that FB click-throughs on posted profile links (non-paid-ads) is quite small (2-3%) and from Twitter even smaller. But this has to do with who my audience is and where they hang out online.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s a lot of good reasons to be on FB and Twitter for accessibility and building relationships, but it depends on whether your audience not only has an account on these services but also if they actively use them. I’d love to see some stats about the number of people who have accounts but haven’t logged in for the past 3 months. :)

Also, the paid advertising click-through rates I’m hearing about from others are less than 1%, which has been my own experience as well. Again, a function of target demographic and ad fatigue, as well as the quality and value of the ad.

When I looked it up to see what others were getting for their clickthrough rates, this is what I found:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=74100576336&topic=12730&post=59344

http://www.tbiresearch.com/facebook-is-improving-its-self-serve-display-service-for-advertisers-2010-1

http://mashable.com/2009/07/07/twitter-clickthrough-rate/ (This is an excellent article and explains click-through rate as a function of how many “friends” you have.)

If you have any links to share, I’d love to see them! Statistics help me to make sense of what I’m experiencing in the real world, and as we’re all aware, statistics can be “interpreted” to mean many, sometimes opposing, things. :)

P.S. I agree with you re: Adwords on Google. I used to get great clickthrough rates several years ago, but it’s steadily dropped to the point where I just don’t use them anymore. But I have extraordinary organic SERPs through SEO for the keywords I’m targeting, which yields huge clickthroughs.

]]> By: Mike http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/why-marketing-fails-follow-the-herd-2/comment-page-1/#comment-15032 Mike Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:38:23 +0000 http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/?p=255#comment-15032 I couldn't help but notice that the Facebook statistics you quoted from were dated Sept/2009. And although I get your point about marketing using the latest "flavor of the month," you should be aware of the current Facebook statistics: There are over 400 million users with over 103 million users in the USA. (Source: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics) 18-24 age group accounts for 25.3% 25-34 accounts for 24.8% 35-54 accounts for 29% 55+ 9.5% Females - 54.3% Males - 42.6% (Source: http://www.istrategylabs.com/2010/01/facebook-demographics-and-statistics-report-2010-145-growth-in-1-year/) CTR (Click through rate) vary, but as far as my own experience with Facebook goes, it also varies from anywhere from about 2.43% to 6.41%. Adwords on Google get less than 2%. This makes is cheaper for me to run a marketing campaign through Facebook (and I do use other marketing methodologies). I help business owners utilized the power of the internet to get more local leads and cut their ad budget by 50%. Maybe since my demographics have a wider age range is why it works well for me. For the record... I'm in full agreement with everything else in your post and it was absolutely not my intention to be rude. I apologize if it seems that way. I'm just calling 'em as I see 'em. I couldn’t help but notice that the Facebook statistics you quoted from were dated Sept/2009. And although I get your point about marketing using the latest “flavor of the month,” you should be aware of the current Facebook statistics:

There are over 400 million users with over 103 million users in the USA. (Source: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics)

18-24 age group accounts for 25.3%
25-34 accounts for 24.8%
35-54 accounts for 29%
55+ 9.5%
Females – 54.3%
Males – 42.6%
(Source: http://www.istrategylabs.com/2010/01/facebook-demographics-and-statistics-report-2010-145-growth-in-1-year/)

CTR (Click through rate) vary, but as far as my own experience with Facebook goes, it also varies from anywhere from about 2.43% to 6.41%. Adwords on Google get less than 2%. This makes is cheaper for me to run a marketing campaign through Facebook (and I do use other marketing methodologies).

I help business owners utilized the power of the internet to get more local leads and cut their ad budget by 50%. Maybe since my demographics have a wider age range is why it works well for me.

For the record… I’m in full agreement with everything else in your post and it was absolutely not my intention to be rude. I apologize if it seems that way. I’m just calling ‘em as I see ‘em.

]]> By: Karyn Greenstreet http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/why-marketing-fails-follow-the-herd-2/comment-page-1/#comment-15020 Karyn Greenstreet Mon, 12 Jul 2010 19:55:38 +0000 http://www.passionforbusiness.com/blog/?p=255#comment-15020 Hi, Marilyn. It's entirely possible that you're not using FB correctly as a relationship-building tool. It's about having conversations with your clients and prospective clients, sharing ideas and tips, but not spending hours a day on it. Maybe you need to re-think exactly how you want to use FB and how much time a week you want to spend on it? (Also, are you getting any results from using it?) Hi, Marilyn. It’s entirely possible that you’re not using FB correctly as a relationship-building tool. It’s about having conversations with your clients and prospective clients, sharing ideas and tips, but not spending hours a day on it. Maybe you need to re-think exactly how you want to use FB and how much time a week you want to spend on it? (Also, are you getting any results from using it?)

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