Connected TV Ads: An Untapped Marketing Opportunity

Connected TVs, sometimes called Smart TVs, are modern televisions directly connected to the Internet and at present are the wild, Wild West in terms of being a new frontier for advertisers. They have a distinct advantage over traditional televisions in that they're interactive, and that is making all the difference for marketing companies.

Video ads are becoming the marketing standard as companies create a value proposition for consumers. Instead of just watching a static, non-interactive commercial like we do when we watch traditional television, video ads are designed to be most effective when viewers interact with them.

For some unexplained reason, however, marketing companies have been slow on the uptake in their video-ad marketing to Smart TV viewers. Odd, if we consider there are more than 24 million American households with connected TVs, and by 2016 that number is projected to exceed 80 million homes.

For marketers looking for new and untapped resources, connected TV viewers could be it. In December 2011, a study conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates showed the following results:
 

•  38 percent of viewers visited a website featured in a connected TV ad
•  36 percent considered purchasing a product or service mentioned in a connected TV ad
•  34 percent went to the Internet to look for a mentioned product or service
•  33 percent of connected TV viewers mentioned the information in featured ads to other people

So, who are connected TV users? By and large they are gamers. Gaming consoles like Sony's PlayStation 3, Nintendo's Wii, and Microsoft's Xbox 360 were the most connected devices. Smart TVs and Internet- connected Blu-ray players are also popular devices.

Based on this information, there's no question that this technology and marketing is still in the "early adopter" phase of development. Early adopters are typically on the leading edge and are more included to try all the bells and whistles just to see how everything works. They're also the key to crafting and shaping what will eventually become the products the general public will embrace when broad acceptance, known as "critical mass" in the industry, occurs.

True, early marketing numbers might be a little skewed because of the enthusiasm and willingness of the early adopters, but this is an opportunity for marketing companies that doesn't come along every day. Setting the early standard with compelling interactive marketing content will become the norm in this medium, and is greatly aided by our desire to access the Internet no matter where we are, or which of our many devices is at our disposal.

With the average connected TV viewer watching more than 12 hours of content per week, marketing companies are in an excellent position to create advertising and marketing baselines that will help future advertising buyers make accurate and informed decisions. Right now it is a truly "uncluttered" marketplace, which means the sky is the limit.

What will the future of connected TVs and Smart TVs look like? No one's certain of that, but can there really be any question that it will be awesome? Interactive ads just make sense, and the time has come for marketing and advertising companies to start shaping the dialogue.

Author Bio: Dwayne Thomas is a marketer and staff writer for cabletv.com, a website that helps you find the best deal on cable TV. He welcomes your feedback on Twitter @DwayneThomas15.

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Four Reasons Why Pinterest May Help Your Business

What is Pinterest and how can it help me grow my business?
This is taken right from the pinterest.com website. "Pinterest is an online pinboard. Organize and share things you love". Pinterest allows people to pin anything on virtually any subject on their virtual pin board. Beyond that it allows users to view what other people have posted on their pinboards. This allows visitors to discover new things about topics that they may be interested in, or discover topics they know little about. Since early in 2011, Pinterest has experienced significant growth and wide acceptance. The difference between Pinterest and other social sites is that Pinterest is much more visual and engaging than other sites, including Facebook and Google +. Users "pin" images and videos onto their pinboard, creating a collection of "pins".

I know what you're thinking. "Not another friggin' social site! Why in the world would I want to get involved with that"? The best way to answer that is to take a look at Pinterest's main assets for marketing.

1. It's aesthetically pleasing. Since it's primarily a site for visual presentations, people go there and stay there for a longer period of time than other social sites. Pinterest have five million users, who average 15 minutes a day on the site.

2. Pinterest has become a referral juggernaut. According to copyblogger.com, Pinterest referred more traffic in January 2012 than "LinkedIn, Google Plus, Reddit, and YouTube - combined. "

3. Pinterest's emphasis on visual content makes it a player for B2C businesses. Businesses that would find Pinterest a great fit include clothes stores, florists, hairstylists, furniture dealers, and other craft oriented enterprises. Showcasing beautiful images or videos of your product on Pinterest is an easy way to leverage the power of images.

4. It is easy to share content on Pinterest. The site prompts you to download a "pinmarklet". The pinmarklet allows the user to pin any content they found on the web to their pinboard. You don't have to copy and paste or switch between browsers and tabs. It is very easy to offer interesting content visually to your customers or visitors on Pinterest.

Pinterest does have drawbacks. Unlike other social marketing sites, Pinterest does not have the capability to produce a dedicated branding page. This creates quite a challenge. How do you create a marketing page without it looking like a marketing page? Because visitors don't always know that the link they clicked through links with a business, they may not be the hot referral you are looking for. To find out, use Google Analytics to tell you the referral path for your prospect. From there, you will be able to determine whether Pinterest referrals are interested customers or inadvertent visitors.

Another drawback can be the audience Pinterest attracts. According to hubspot.com, 83% of Pinterest visitors are females between the ages of 18-34. The types of businesses that might be attractive to this demographic are design, fashion, and home décor. B2B businesses will find it hard to develop an audience on Pinterest.

Pinterest can be a valuable marketing tool for those businesses that cater to retail customers, attract a lot of females and have visually exciting wares. To use Pinterest effectively requires the time and commitment to create visually exciting pinboards. Remember to track your referrals to determine if the referrals from Pinterest are the quality you want. Utilized the right way by the right business, Pinterest can be a enormous asset in your marketing toolbox.

About Author

J.A. Moffitt is the President of Elvin Web Marketing. Elvin Web Marketing is the source for online marketing. Whether you're looking for a high Google page rank, improving your site content, or blog writing, we can help! Call us at 203-882-0171. Visit our webpage at http://elvinwebmarketing.com.

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Merge Your Print And Online Marketing Campaigns Using URL Shorteners

The divide between online and print marketing is becoming more evident. Social media and SEO continue to provide businesses greater reach and insight to their market. This has cast doubt to the future of print products and whether or not they still have a place in your marketing strategy.

Despite their differences, both still serve a purpose in promoting your business. By focusing on online and offline (flyer distribution, direct mail, display marketing) strategies, you get to target more potential customers from different media.

However, instead of holding a separate campaign for both, you can use both at the same time with the help of URL shorteners!

What are URL shorteners?

These are online tools used to condense a website address into a customizable URL that’s easier to remember.

URL shorteners allow you to track the number of people who clicked through your link and the date they visited your page. The concept behind using URL shorteners as marketing tool is simple – the more people visiting your link, the more effective your campaign is!

As a marketing tactic, URL shorteners serve best when incorporated in your offline marketing. Touch base with your website more effectively using print products by indicating the shortened URL of your page or site.

Examples of URL shorteners are bit.ly, TinyURL, and Google URL Shortener, to name a few.

(Source)

Below are steps on how you can implement URL shorteners in your offline and online campaign.

• Set up a custom landing page on your website to your promotions. The page may contain a unique coupon code to be printed out by the visitor. 
• Use a URL shortener to minimize character length of your landing page. Aside from the convenience of typing out a shortened version of your page, you enable to track down any activity they made do with the link. If you set up tracking codes using URL Builder before shortening the site address, you can further do more study with the results of your campaign. Aside from page visits, you can also track transactions, multi-page views, and other data of interest. To access this, however, you must have aGoogle Analytics account.
• Include shortened URL on printed material. If possible, create unique shortened URLs for each group of marketing tools to be handed out. Segment relevant markets in your direct mail campaign and include a unique URL on the print material they will receive. This will help you determine which segment has the most visits to your landing page.
• Analyze data once the campaign is over. As mentioned, the purpose of URL shorteners is to track the number of visits from your print campaign. With this information, you could target the more engaged segments more often with your upcoming campaign to acquire more leads and sales.

Include the shortened URLs on different print materials such as posters, brochures, flyers, and even business cards for increased reach. It would be advisable to use the different URL shortening services to see which among the available sites help you draw more visitors or track more efficiently.

The Author: Christopher Jan Benitez

 

+Christopher Jan Benitez works as an Editorial QA for the PrintRunner Blog, has written a free e-book about direct mail marketing for download, and endorses print brochures as the tool to market your business. http://blog.printrunner.com/ 

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