Internet Marketing Course BLOG

By Loren Baker

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): The article highlights 3 excellent Blog Search and Search Marketing Blogs that ALL online marketers should know of and read on a regular basis.

“The Search Engine Journal 2005 Search Blog Awards votes have been tallied and I’d like to thank our readers who nominated their favorite search blogs and all of those members of the blogging and search community which voted and ranked your favorite search blogs (blogs about search engines).

The first set of awards are for News & Blog Search Engine Run Blogs, Search Engine Marketing and Contextual Advertising Blogs, and Search Engine Owned Blogs.”

Find out who the winners are (and link to them and/or sign-up for their RSS feeds) by clicking on this link:
2005 Search Engine Blogs Awards : Blog Search, Search Marketing Blogs

Technorati Tags: Business, Internet, Marketing

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

Top Spenders Most Likely to Visit Shopping Comparison Sites

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): ‘Tis the season for online retail consumer stats. This is a good study from Nielsen//NetRatings. It not only re-emphasizes the old adage that the majority of a retailer’s sales come from a minority of its Customers, but it also contains several new tidbits, including coining a new tagline for these folks (“MVP’s – Most Valuable Purchasers”) as well as providing some insight about how MVP’s arrive at the online retail sites to do their shopping (hint – MVP’s use online comparison shopping tools).

“Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, reported that nearly a fifth of the online buying population, or 18 percent, accounts for nearly half, or 46 percent, of total online spending. These buyers, dubbed “Most Valuable Purchasers” (MVPs) by Nielsen//NetRatings, spend more dollars online and make more purchases on the Internet than the rest of the online buying population.

The Nielsen//NetRatings MegaPanel online retail study segmented online shoppers into four categories based on the amount of their online spending (low or high) and their frequency of purchases (low or high). The MVPs, shoppers who spent the most money online and made the largest number of purchases, comprised 18 percent of the online buyers, driving 46 percent of total online spending (see Table 1). In comparison, those spending the fewest dollars online and making the fewest purchases made up the majority, or 55 percent, of online buyers; this group accounted for 21 percent of online purchases.

“Each retailer needs to analyze its own customer base to identify its respective MVPs and develop targeted marketing programs that will maximize revenue from these shoppers,” said Heather Dougherty, senior retail analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. “Not only are the MVPs valuable based upon sales and number of purchases, they are also inordinately loyal to the retailers that they purchase from.””

Read the entire news release at:
HEAVIEST ONLINE BUYERS REPRESENT 18 PERCENT OF BUYERS, BUT DRIVE 46 PERCENT OF ONLINE SPENDING, ACCORDING TO NIELSEN//NETRATINGS

Technorati Tags: Business, Internet, Marketing

By Robert D. Hof
Businessweek.com

Dave’s Comments (Internet Marketing Course Blog): Just when I got “Black Friday” squared away in my mind (see my last post), “Cyber Monday”, which I THOUGHT I understood, goes up in smoke! Read all about it in this BusinessWeek article posted on their site on November 29th.

“Despite a huge amount of hype, the Monday after Thanksgiving is historically only the 12th-biggest online shopping day of the year

Do a Google search on “Cyber Monday,” and you get as many as 779,000 results. Not a bad haul for a term that was created just a week and a half ago to describe the jump in online shopping activity following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. While Black Friday is the official kickoff of the traditional retail season, the story goes, online retail really takes off the following Monday.

Just one problem: It’s not true, at least for many online retailers. Contrary to what the recent blitz of media coverage implies, Cyber Monday isn’t nearly the biggest online shopping or spending day of the year. It ranks only as the 12th-biggest day historically, according to market researcher comScore Networks. It’s not even the first big day of the season.”

Read the entire article at:
Cyber Monday, Marketing Myth

Technorati Tags: Business, Internet, Marketing