Notes and Thoughts on Grocery 2.0

Most parents rejoice once the kids are off to school again but this usual occurs after the back to school errands are complete. New clothes, shoes, books, binders, pens, lunches, and snacks are just some of the many items parents purchase to get their kids ready to start the new school year. Who’s products are the buying? Well in an ideal world, yours. Companies make an investment when it comes to back to school advertising, it’s almost up there with the holiday season. So where do you start when building your advertising campaign? You have to go to where your target market is. What’s the point of launching newspaper print ads if your target market doesn’t read the paper? Targeting your message directly to your end users will enable success.

So let’s use Mom’s for our example. They are running around the last few weeks of summer getting their kids ready for school. How do you reach them with the products you want them to buy; the Internet. According to eMarketer, “40% of all women in the US who go online - some 35 million people - are mothers with children under 18 at home”. Moms are online everyday; a perfect way to send your message directly to them. The use of the Internet also increases once a child is born, “47% of women say that they go online more often once they have a child”.

Kids likes/dislikes change everyday and your business puts research, time, and money into new products that you know kids will want. Moms may not know what these are but that is where your advertisement comes to save the day and make these moms into Supermoms! Back to school advertising and the Internet has increased immensely, a Platform-A ADlytics Group study found that, “83% of back-to-school consumers are somewhat likely to seek in-store deals based on online promotions”. So get your message out there and be sure you’ve chosen the right media outlet to do so, remember if you’re targeting hearing impaired people it won’t be beneficial to run a radio advertisement

Cheers!
Courtney

In the past couple of years, advertisers have expressed two main concerns about online advertising. Is it measurable? And, does it work for branding? In last week’s post,
Web Metrics 101 , I explained how metrics can be confusing, but do exist and do allow us to measure online advertising’s effectiveness. And, I have been saying for years that online advertising is an effective branding tool. So today, when I opened my inbox, I almost cried for joy upon seeing that ComScore just concluded a study proving it.

According to the study, conducted with pharmaceutical marketing consultancy Evolution Road , driving traffic to a branded website is the most effective form of online pharmaceutical marketing. The results showed an incremental patient adherence rate that was 20 percentage points higher and a new start rate for prospects that was 5 percentage points higher than those who did not visit the website and than the control, respectively.

Online ads improved adherence rates among existing patients, showing a 4-point lift in adherence among patients exposed to an ad and a 9.5-point lift among patients who interacted with an ad.

The study encompassed 32 individual studies, involved more than ten prescription pharmaceutical brands and used the ComScore million-person panel for behavior observation. ComScore executive vice president Bridget O’Toole said “The most effective online marketing tool… is the brand’s Web site… visits to a brand Web site (though) are achieved through the use of a variety of offline and online tactics, such as online banner ads, search and offline advertising… marketers (should) develop fully-integrated campaigns… raise awareness, educate consumers, … (and) drive visitation to a site.”

Exposure to, and, even more so, interaction with banner ads yielded an increase in brand awareness and favorability among current and potential patients. Exposure to an ad significantly impacted both aided and unaided brand awareness and interaction boosted both types of awareness even more.

So, what does this mean for online advertising? Although the study concentrated on pharmaceutical advertising, with ComScore’s endorsement, online advertising should be considered as effective a branding tool, if not more so, than other, more expensive, less targeted traditional media like print and television. Advertisers take note: it’s time to re-think your media buy.

Rachel

Visit ComScore’s Press Center to view the study’s press release.

July 31 2008, Colchester VT: MyWebGrocer has increased the number of new customer orders an average of 16% through its partnership with NetElixir for its participating retail grocers. NetElixir is the Pay Per Click partner that powers MyWebGrocer’s unique retail grocery acquisition program where retailers only pay for new customers that place a new order. This CPA based program takes the complexity and risk out of traditional customer acquisition programs for retail grocers.

“Our team has been working closely with NetElixir over the last year and right out of the gate they improved our internal efforts by 60%. This with their ability to build a dedicated team to support our Grocery CPA program 24-7-365 has given MyWebGrocer a significant advantage to our retailers who are competing against Wal-Mart, Target, and Amazon’s massive PPC efforts.” Explained Alec Newcomb, Vice President of Business Development at MyWebGrocer.

“Our partnership drives significant efficiency in the search advertising management program for online retailers” explains Udayan Bose Founder & CEO of NetElixir. “The domain expertise of MyWebGrocer and search advertising optimization capabilities and technology of NetElixir would combine to generate disproportionate return on advertising dollars for our customers.”

About MyWebGrocer: MyWebGrocer was one of the first to launch online services for retail grocers in 1999. MyWebGrocer increases basket size, acquires new customers, retains current customers, and drives revenue in-store and online business for their clients. MyWebGrocer has the largest grocery advertising network in the country covering 85% of the US, earning their clients direct ad revenue. Some of their clients include Shoprite, Lowes Food Stores, Big Y, Food Lion and 80 other leading grocery chains. For more information please visit www.mywebgrocer.com or call 1-888-662-2284.

About NetElixir: NetElixir, Inc (www.NetElixir.com) is one-stop-shop for all search advertising management needs. NetElixir offers both technology and full-service 24×7x365 management of pay-per-click search marketing campaigns that help online retail marketers generate profitable and predictable returns from their search marketing dollars. NetElixir has helped more than 50 online retailers including NetGrocer, Vermont Teddy Bear, KSwiss, Luggage Online & Carpet One run consistently profitable SEM campaigns, through a combination of proprietary technology and sophisticated processes. For information regarding NetElixir’s search engine marketing solutions please contact Udayan Bose at udayan@netelixir.com or call at 609-356-5112.

July 29 2008, Colchester VT: According to Quantcast, MyWebGrocer’s network is now ranked in the top 2000 most visited sites based on monthly visitors. MyWebGrocer’s network has 956,865 visitors worldwide on a monthly basis.

“We have climbed into the top 2000 in under 3 months.” Explains Tim Kenney MyWebGrocer’s Chief Operations Officer, “Grocery shoppers are rapidly adopting web tools to plan their meals, look for specials, build their shopping lists, and increasingly complete their shopping online. We expect to be in the top 1000 very soon as we expand the network of participating sites and shoppers continue to drive up traffic. The increased website traffic is fueling the expansion of our advertising business. Our ad network offers a unique way to get timely information in front of users focused on grocery shopping. Each month an increasing number of large consumer packaged goods firms are using our network to reach consumers.”

MyWebGrocer’s advertising network is divided into two categories based on where the ads are displayed; the e-commerce side of retail sites, and the grocery chain’s home page. The e-commerce side of the site is specifically reserved for product brands sold at that location; the home page is open to advertising for products not necessarily sold by that chain. Ads on the e-commerce side display a list of items sold by that retail vendor. Ads on the home page can direct the customer to the manufacturer’s website or landing page. MyWebGrocer creates highly targeted advertising campaigns for consumer packaged goods firms and other businesses related to retail grocery.

Becoming one of the top 2000 most visited networks is beneficial for current advertisers on the MyWebGrocer network, including Kellogg’s, Upromise, and Kashi. As more people visit the network, the more exposure these advertisements will receive.

Nowadays, it seems everyone is searching for that one interactive marketing tool that proves to be the most effective? Is it display? Email? SEO? Mobile?

The answer is none of the above.

No single marketing tool, by itself, will yield the best results. Yet marketers continue the hunt for that holy grail of ROI: Wasting time and energy, when the solution is right in front of them. Step out of that one-size-fits-all mentality. Instead of none of the above, focus on all of the above.

To reach consumers on their level, you need to implement 360 degrees of online advertising.

Stop thinking like marketers and think like the consumers we all are. Are we persuaded by the same methods? Do we have the same needs? So far, marketers have only scratched the surface of online marketing possibilities. Use that to your advantage.

Utilize multiple tools to reach consumers.

Display advertising, though considered doomed by many, is an effective tool when used correctly, in the right setting, for the right consumer. In the past month, I have integrated value add display advertisements across our suite of online grocery retailers. The ads are useful and relevant to consumers searching for recipes, browsing weekly specials and creating shopping lists. The result has been astounding: An average click through rate of 0.41 across the network. Display works in the retail setting when providing relevant content to consumers. In less than a month, our retailers have increased customer retention and engagement has skyrocketed.

Harness the power of email marketing and SEO to increase sales, drive traffic and acquire new customers. Retailer emails sent across the MyWebGrocer network generate an average 0.26 click through rate. Email, like display, must be relevant to avoid consumer burn-out. If you don’t have a relevant email, it’s better not to send anything and wait until you do.

And, draw on SEO as a powerful customer acquisition tool. Spend time narrowing your keyword bids to what is most effective for you and test, test, test. A 12% click through rate for SEO, our network’s current performance, is considered very good.

Don’t limit yourself to the interactive tools mentioned here. The goal in implementing 360 degrees of advertising is discovering the right atmosphere in which certain tools perform best, and mixing and matching across your network. There are many tools we use that I have not mentioned, including e-commerce keyword targeting, sponsorship opportunities and merchandising. The key to remember is: to maximize ROI, target consumers in a variety of ways. You will see better results.

Rachel