In my morning reading, I found this study about barriers to getting people to buy online advertising. Studies like this are always interesting because they make you look at things in a way that you would not normally look at them. For example, I would have thought by now that lack of talent and agency capabilities would no longer be an issue for online advertising. Apparently, they are still very big issues.

Some of the statistics on my firms don’t spend more in online advertising:

• 52% insufficient metrics to measure impact
• 41% Insufficient in-house capabilities
• 33% Difficulty of convincing upper management
• 24% Limited reach of digital tools
• 18% insufficient capabilities at agency

Read the whole study:

http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.san&s=76322&Nid=39299&p=912351

NetElixir, Inc., an industry pioneer in paid search solutions, today announced beta availability for the new LXR Solo pay-per-click (PPC) management platform. Unveiled earlier this week at the Shop.org 2007 Annual Summit, LXR Solo is the industry’s first simple, affordable, and effective solution for mid-sized retailers who want to self-manage their PPC campaigns.

Designed to simplify search marketers’ lives, LXR Solo is a user-friendly, integrated dashboard where marketers can easily set up, monitor and optimize their Google and Yahoo paid search campaigns, managing them in literally minutes a day by seamlessly leveraging NetElixir’s highly successful campaign management technologies.

“Simplicity is the key to making paid search work profitably and effectively,” said Udayan Bose, CEO of NetElixir. “PPC management has become too difficult, too time consuming, too costly. The other tools we’ve seen in the marketplace only add to the complexity.”

“When you are able to filter out the noise and focus only on critical factors, the resulting productivity gains are amazing,” Bose continued. “This is something we have experienced firsthand in our PPC management services business and have further proven through the agency partners who use our technology to manage hundreds of PPC accounts. We’re excited to now be able offer small and mid-sized retailers access to the same powerful technology, allowing them to experience search the way it should be: simple and effective.”

Beta Applications Now Being Accepted
Through the LXR Solo beta program, NetElixir will offer qualified retailers the opportunity to participate in a one month free trial of LXR Solo. The trial period runs from October 15 to November 15, 2007. Interested parties can find out more and apply at the online shop : www.netelixir.com. LXR Solo is expected to be available to the general public by December 2007.

Internet marketing company, 9th sphere, launched a Social Media Marketing service to assist companies to use online social media in the right way. There is a growing appeal in social networking websites, like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and technologies like blogs, video, wikies, and feeds.  At these Websites looking good is important.  To help with that, you should visit a dentist in Manchester.  In a recent study conducted by Forrester Research of 4,500 adults and 4,500 youths, 22% of adults read blogs monthly and 60% of young consumers use social networking sites weekly. Just last month, MySpace launched a Canadian version, and in one month about 5.9 million Canadians spent an average of 83 minutes each on MySpace, said Bryan Segal of comScore Canada Inc.

Many companies are aimlessly launching blogs and postings on social networking sites, hoping to benefit from the movement and be part of the trend. Without a clear understanding of the implications, issues, management, and maintenance requirements for social technologies, it’s best to be cautious. Managing these types of relationships may be an elaborate undertaking and needs to be handled with care.

9th sphere’s Social Media Marketing ( http://www.9thsphere.com/services_social_marketing.html ) service is aimed at assisting companies in entering the social scene to properly engage others in interaction with a company’s brand. Strategically knowing how to post, how and where to write, and how to respond, will affect positive results. Not understanding how social networking can assist your company and using it for strictly advertising purposes, is a big mistake, according to Marketing Director Ezra Silverton. Companies need to treat this experience as a collaboration between company and prospect/client/user - as an electronic discussion forum to inform, educate and pool resources.

Existing clients have found a good fit for social media marketing, one that can compliment other internet marketing initiatives utilizing search engine optimization or search engine marketing services.

In a recent “Social Network Practitioner Consensus Survey”, two-thirds of U.S businesses were reportedly employing social networking websites for personal and professional use. About half of the respondents were using the websites to connect with staff members, and also nearly half were connecting to prospects, according to eMarketing.com.

At the end of the day, a company can truly benefit from the experience of social networking, regardless the nature of the business, and more notably, perhaps gain a competitive advantage with their audience.

Halifax-based email marketing company Mailworkz today announced its achievement of 150 per cent sales growth in May. The company increased its total customer base by an average of 23 per cent per month from January 2007 to May 2007, resulting in the sharp increase in sales. In January, Mailworkz launched a focused marketing campaign to promote Zebratracks, the company’s new self-service email marketing suite.

“Zebratracks is rapidly gaining market share, with a remarkable 150 per cent increase in sales, which is more than 10 times the industry growth rate,” said Lesley Fegarty, Mailworkz’ sales manager. “With Mailworkz’ solid brand, strong reputation in the opt-in email marketing industry, and steadily increasing roster of customers, the future looks bright.”  Some might say the future is as bright as new dental veneers.

In addition to this significant sales growth, Mailworkz was recently named one of the top five email marketing companies in North America by Topseos. The company has expanded its client list specifically in the areas of education, real estate, marketing and software sales.

The Zebratracks web-based email campaign solution includes the features required by businesses to manage, maintain and build email relationships with customers. The self-service platform allows both new marketers and seasoned professionals to use Zebratracks’ wizards and templates to create and send email campaigns in minutes.

Zebratracks is a new and integral component of the Mailworkz solution set that features a range of other email marketing software including Broadcast, email marketing desktop software; Eztrackz, an online marketing and click-fraud tracking service; and Blacklist Monitor, a blacklist IP tracking service.

AfricaYou.Com is a new website that at first look would seem like the oldest kind of website: advertising online. Far from this first concept, AfricaYou.Com delivers in Cape Verde a new way of thinking about Internet. It is needed to remember that in Africa Internet is not like in USA or Europe, where it is a service like water or eletricity.

The AfricaYou.Com organization, besides developing the AfricaYou.Com website, also joins EAWebz Informatica on providing services to get the people of Cape Verde used to enjoy Internet as USA or Europe people does.

Earlier this week, AfricaYou.Com starts a Internet Access store, with VoIP and Fast Wireless Internet at the middle of Sucupira Market, that is a tipical african market like people outside africa see in movies. Now it is possible to read your mails with your notebook or talk to your relatives all around the world in a Africn Market in Africa.

This is the main target of the AfricaYou.Com project: Changing the way how people in Africa use Internet, to really get the Internet in Africa as it should be.