If you’ve ever been to Quantcast.com, you know the site gives traffic statistics and site user demographics for specific Web sites. A search on jjhill.org shows that our home page is pretty heavily visited by women between the ages of 45 and 54. It also says that a huge percent of visitors have a graduate degree and make between 0 and $30,000 per year. That’s right: librarians. Quantcast also notes that the ethnicity of jjhill.org visitors is off the charts for "Other."

Admittedly, this seems a bit shady. Still, I can’t help but pass along a recent beta addition to Quantcast that lets you build a list of Web sites that attract particular types of visitors. If you’re buying ads online, use this tool to identify targeted sites. If you’re researching a target audience, use the tool to learn more about where that audience spends their attention online.

From quantcast.com, just click the Advanced Search button and sign up for a free account. While I wouldn’t base a business plan solely on Quantcast’s data, it’s an interesting way to while away a Friday afternoon.   

(Source: Read Write Web)

We were very excited to recently receive and install a new version of the Simmons Choices (III) database here at the library. And by “excited,” I of course mean “terrified” – because of all the complicated business databases out there, Simmons is the most complicated. But after poking around in it a bit, it turns out that Simmons is actually more parts awesome than terrifying (although there is some “intimidating” in the mix). You’ll see why it’s so neat in just a minute, but first, some background.

The Simmons Choices III database contains consumer product and brand usage data. You can use it to find characteristics of the people who consume particular types of products, or to find brand market share, state-specific customer research, and statistics on market potential. The database covers all sorts of products and consumer types, and works by combining these characteristics to find what the market looks like where they intersect. So, for example, you can use Simmons to find out how many 18-24 year-olds (characteristic #1) prefer Budweiser (characteristic #2). Data comes from a survey of several thousand people.
 
The top seven ways Simmons can help you do business research:

[More]

Felipe Korzenny is a giant in multicultural marketing, and a good friend of the Hill Library. His research team at Florida State University recently came out with an in-depth report (Multicultural Marketing Equation: Online Technology Ownership) on how five different cultural groups use technology and technology devices. Some findings from the report:

• Emerging minorities are innovative with technology use and highly willing to branch out into using new technologies.
• English-speaking Hispanics are the group most likely to have a blog. Almost 20% currently have a blog and an additional 10% plan to have one within the year.
• Hispanic Spanish-speakers have Web sites (35% of respondents) and create podcasts (15% of respondents) more than any other group. The study draws a connection between these technologies and a culture that places a high value on connectedness.
• Non-Hispanic Whites lag behind in numerous areas, including having or planning to have a personal blog or Web site, and ownership of cell phones, MP3 players, and DVD burners.

As Dr. Korzenny concludes:

“Marketers should take notice of the tremendous swell of ownership in the ranks of emerging minorities. It is clear that as levels of acculturation and income increase among emerging minority groups, they stand out as current and potential leading edge technology purchasers. However, there are cultural differences among each of these minority groups that merit close attention. Marketers need to understand these differences as they relate to new technologies, select groups which have the highest interest in the various innovations, and create campaigns which are culturally appropriate.”

Talk about researching your customers! A recent survey of iPhone users delves deep into the demographic and technologic characteristics of this group of consumers. If you’re researching mobile communications, use this report to learn more about how people use the iPhone, the “most publicized new mobile device in recent memory.”

• Find out why people use the iPhone (reading, but not writing, email is #1)
• Find out who owns an iPhone (over half of users are under 30)
• Find difficulties owners face (displaying Web pages is #1 drawback)

In addition to offering statistics like these, the report highlights several areas of success that can be directly applied to your small business strategy in general.

First, partner up. AT&T (the iPhone's exclusive carrier) has garnered a huge windfall, estimated at $2 billion in revenue per year, directly related to the iPhone’s success. Can you offer your services to, or through, an industry partner? Are there organizations out there whose customers would benefit from your services? Contact them.

Second, use adjacent markets. More than half of people who own iPhones also own iPods, and another 25% use Mac computers. If you develop a new product or service, the first group of people you should target is your existing customers.

Things are looking up for Apple. A recent survey finds that 40% of college students plan to buy a Mac. Undoubtedly this will translate into increased sales of iPods, iPhones, and whatever other products the company comes up with, as well as increased revenue for Apple’s partners. Following Apple’s lead might not be a bad idea for the direction of your business.

(Source: Read Write Web)

Your best friend’s personality is central to how much you like them, how much you look forward to interacting with them, and how you relate to them. We can all agree with that. But cultivating a positive business personality can make your company more attractive, more likeable, and more relatable to your customers, too. According to Rohit Bhargava’s new book “Personality Not Included,”

“Personality is the key element behind your brand and what it stands for, and the story that your products tell to your customers. Every element of your business, from your interactions with your customers to the packaging of your product is an element of your brand personality, and these are the elements that inspire delight or indifference among your customers.”

Mr. Bhargava is the head of the interactive marketing department at Ogilvy Public Relations, a frequent industry speaker, and excellent blogger (Influential Marketing Blog). In support of his book release, Mr. Bhargava put out an open invitation to anyone in the blogosphere to ask him five questions about business personality. Here is our interview:

 

 

Can you define business personality?
I defined business personality in the book as "the unique, authentic and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about."

Could you offer suggestions of something unusual that a small businessperson could do on their Web site to assert their business personality?
Definitely. One big thing is language.  Let's face it, the writing on most small business sites (and large business sites too) just plain sucks.  It's total marketingspeak and does little to demonstrate what a brand stands for or even describe it well.  A small business website with a good description of what they do with personality would stand out. 

What are the two most relevant 2.0 technologies small businesses can use to grow their business or define their personality online?
The first is video.  It might not fit your 2.0 technology standard, but I figured I would mention it anyway as relatively few small business sites are using it, but there really is nothing like using video to bring your brand to life in moving pictures, so to speak. The second relevant web2.0 technology is tagging.  Using the right tagging for content (and submitting it to the right sites too) can help a small business to also stand out and also improve their google ranking at the same time.

How much time should a (time-strapped) small businessperson spend on online marketing activities per week?
This is a tough one to answer because it really depends on your business. If you are running a roofing business, the majority of your work might come through word of mouth referrals and you may be better off creating a really great brochure or calling card that people can give to one another.  Of course, you could do this online too, but it really depends on your audience and business.  In this day and age, though, I don't think any small business can afford to ignore the Internet as a channel - so I would say no less than an hour a week.

What is the most important thing to know about your new book?
That it's worth buying!  No, seriously, the most important thing is that it is a very unique book in its approach because my main intention in writing it was for it to be USEFUL.  To do that, I have lots of stories, I share lots of lists and I have a two part structure where the first part is the theory and the second part is all action guides to help you put the ideas of the book into action.  Hopefully it delivers on the charge to be useful, but you'll have to let me know that!

You can find a listing of all the other interview questions and answers on Mr. Bhargava’s blog, along with a free copy of the introduction to “Personality Not Included.” Thanks for your time and thoughtful answers, Rohit! 

Forrester research, provider of ungodly-expensive market research reports, recently unveiled a free social technology profile tool. If you know the age, location, and sex of your target customer, you can use this tool to figure out how that customer probably uses social technologies. Profiles are broken down into the following six headings:

• Creators – Write blogs or publish video or music online
• Critics – Post reviews or comments on blogs and edit wikis
  
• Collectors – Use RSS feeds and tag online content
• Joiners – Get involved in social network sites like MySpace or Facebook
• Spectators – Read blogs or listen to podcasts
• Inactives – Hate and fear the “Interweb”

If you can figure out how your best customers use the Internet, it’s a short step to figuring out how to better serve those existing customers, or how to best reach out to new ones.

According to a recently released study, 6% of people contribute 50% of clicks to online advertisements. This small group of people does a lot of ad-clicking.

But who are they? The study finds that this 6% tend to be younger, have a household income less than $40,000, and are “more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites.” If this is your target market, then by all means, continue with those ubiquitous motion/flash/video ads. Those Internet surfers who aren’t college students trolling for a free couch, a quick game of Internet poker, or an entry-level job will probably continue to ignore them.

But that isn’t to say that online advertising is a lost cause. Au contraire. There are those other 50% of clicks that aren’t made up of the above 6% of people, and these folks are – theoretically – open to your business.

So how can you reach more people likely to purchase your product or service online?

1. Target your ads. Make sure your ads show up on sites that relate to whatever you’re selling. 
2. Search engine optimize. Help the people actively looking for a product or service to find it through you.
3. Create an easy-to-use Web site. According to a recent study from Jakob Nielsen (called User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly), people are really not very good at navigating sites they’re not used to. Make your site extremely easy to use, so that people know what to do when online ads or a search engine sends them your way.

Easy for me to say, right? For guidance on online marketing, advertising, and search engine optimization, search the free Biz Info Library. Or, if you’re a HillSearch member, try searching the NetLibrary eBooks collection.

Update: Given enough time you can probably figure most of this online marketing/advertising stuff out yourself. Time being the scarce resource it is, however (especially for the small businessperson), you might consider hiring this work out. If you do, check out this SEM Vendor Checklist from SearchEngineWatch.com. It’ll help you ask the right questions of search engine marketing firms to better the chances of getting what you’re hoping for out of the transaction.

Earlier this month, eMarketer released some projections about the podcasting market in the U.S. According to the report, the American audience for podcasts by 2012 will be 65 million. Spending on podcast advertising will grow to $435 million.

Personally, I don’t believe it.

Audio podcasts are clunky. They’re difficult to maneuver. You can’t easily search them, or scan them, or skim through them like you can something in print. If you’re hoping to learn a specific something from a podcast, you more than likely have to sit through the whole thing to get to the point, and when the point comes you probably miss it because you’ve tuned out.

I just don’t see podcasting as an effective sales/business/educational tool. Perhaps for entertainment, and maybe that’s what these statistics refer to, but still… I’d be surprised if they were around in 2012 at all.

Has anyone had any luck with business or educational podcasting? I’d love to be proven wrong.

You’ve probably heard that the Internet is great for making professional connections and finding new business, but you might be wondering how to proceed. If so, don’t miss InsideCRM’s 50 Social Sites That Every Business Needs a Presence On. This article lists tools to “help your company network, advertise, recruit, and more.”

The list is divided into several categories: Social-Bookmarking Sites, Professional-Networking Sites, Social-Media Sites, and Job Sites.

A span of fifty sites, even when they’re neatly organized, is a lot of ground to cover. Can you find time to investigate just one tool in each of these categories?

And has anyone had success, or experienced frustration, in using 2.0 tools for business? Let us know by leaving a comment. We’d love to hear your story!

Update: This morning I came across a report from the Software & Information Industry Association providing the results of a survey of businesses and their thoughts regarding 2.0 technologies. It’s called Business Use of Web 2.0. Of those businesses using 2.0 technologies, almost half have already reached new audiences with them and over half feel that these tools have helped to increase user engagement and loyalty. Check out the report for further data on how many businesses are using these tools, and which ones they’re using. You’ll also find discussions of challenges and issues associated with 2.0-type activities.
Source: InformationToday NewsBreaks 

Could you build a more effective advertising campaign by doing less?

Absolutely. According to a 2006 report studying white space in ads (pdf from the Journal of Consumer Research), having less information in an advertisement is actually preferable.

The study looks at the messages that experienced advertisers think are conveyed by white space in ads, and finds that these messages include prestige, confidence, and stability.

It also investigates the effect that ad size and white space have on brand perception for consumers. For the consumers surveyed, more white space equals a greater perception of brand quality and company leadership.

Think about this study the next time you’re placing a magazine, newspaper, or even yellow page ad. Can more “nothing” lead to something?

(And if you follow the above link to this report, it’s okay to skip past the introductory section to page five, where survey results are given.)

Source: Get to the Point – Customer Behavior