Anne's SherpaBlog: New Data -- Consumers zapping cookies weekly

If you're an online ad media buyer, an e-retailer concerned with conversion data, or anyone else who analyzes site stats for a living, unique visitor counts are a critical metric.

However, various adware-zapping programs are putting your stats in danger. Greg Harmon of Belden Associates, who's run readership surveys for more than 40 US newspaper sites, told me he began to wonder why nearly every single site's log files only showed three average visits per user per month.

However, according to nearly 70,000 survey answers, on average readers visit a particular newspaper site 24 times per month. If true, the discrepancy meant only 20% of the uniques the log files reported were actually uniques. The rest were repeat visitors who mysteriously appeared to be as newbies.

People switching between work and home computers accounted for about 25% of the discrepancy... not enough to be the main answer.

So, 60 days ago Greg decided to add two questions to surveys he was running for three newspapers -- one in Virginia, one in Illinois, and one in California. Figuring that adware-stopper downloads are now probably in the hundreds of millions, he asked survey takers how often they cleared their cookies.

Of 3,500 answers about 40% said they cleared cookies at least once a week. And, these weren't geeks. The median age was 40, and 2/3 were women.

Greg is putting together a PDF with some initial data on this. It will be ready Monday, and told me you can get it by emailing him at gharmon@beldenassociates.com

I also called up David Barlin over at I/PRO who conducts site traffic audits. He told me he agrees, you should never rely on site log counts to determine true uniques, especially if you're a media buyer fretting about reach and frequency. I/PRO has developed an algorithm to run against reported site stats to determine true traffic. Interesting...

So, annoyingly, the world's most measurable advertising medium is now, thanks to increased cookie-wiping, harder to measure remotely accurately.

Useful links related to this Blog:

I/PRO & BPA Int'l info on the new Agencies for Interactive Audits program:
http://www.ipro.com/pdf/agencies_launch.pdf

Interesting article in Editor & Publisher on this topic:
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/columns/
newspaper_2point0_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000492257

Belden Associates
http://www.beldenassociates.com

Permanent link to this Blog column on our site:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2678

MarketingSherpa's new Web Analytics Buyer's Guide (hey, I had to slip in a little shameless self-promotion):
http://sherpastore.com/store/page.cfm/2146


...Thanks for your support,

Anne

Anne Holland - Publisher
MarketingSherpa

P.S. As always, our Case Studies and articles are open access for about 10 days. Then they go into SherpaLibrary where you can research for a small fee. The links always remain the same.
http://www.SherpaStore.com

CASE STUDIES

#2. How Pitney Bowes Targeted C-Level Execs in its Successful Re-branding Campaign

Forget getting past the clutter -- try getting your message past all the doorkeepers and into the hands and minds of C-level executives at the biggest companies in America. It's not remotely easy.

In fact, Pitney Bowes' own VP Research estimated even with a great campaign, the re-branding campaign would take at least two years to sink in.

Instead, it only took eight months. Find out how:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2676
(Open access until May 1st)

#3. Rich Media vs Standard Gifs: Air New Zealand's Online Ad Test Results

Speed Demon -- that's what we call Air New Zealand's US Internet Manager Dina Louie. On Monday, January 26, she was told to launch her first geo-targeted campaign... in just one week. Oh, and she couldn't use existing creative.

Her resulting campaign achieved an average .07% click with a .8% conversion rate to ticket buying. Interestingly, the standard revolving gif banners sometimes outperformed rich media...

If you've ever had to whip an online ad campaign out in the nick of time, you'll appreciate this Case Study. Includes lots of creative samples:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2674
(Open access until April 30th)

PRACTICAL KNOW-HOW

#4. Text-Only Email Design Pitfalls & Guidelines: More Critical Than Ever (Especially for AOL Mailers)

Arrgh! Harbor Freight, the biggest tool retailer in the US, had more than 300,000 AOL names on its house list. Not one of these eager tool customers received the Harbor Freights' weekly alerts they'd requested. Why? AOL's filters decided they didn't like the HTML format the messages were in.

Marketer Martin Vrieze switched to text-only, and voila! his messages got through, and his sales went up by 20 percentage points within 30 days.

If you suspect your HTML isn't getting through (B-to-B emailers to the corporate world also have this problem) you should test text-only to your non-opens. But, first read this article to avoid design pitfalls we've seen too many mailers fall into:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2677
(Open access until May 2nd)

#5. 5 Specific Ways Sub Sites are "Leaving Money on the Table"

Could your subscription service be more profitable? According to SubscriptionConnection head Joe Meth, who gets unhappy emails from other sites' subscription customers every day, most online publishers are leaving money on the table in at least one of five specific ways.

Find out which common mistakes may be slowing your revenues down:
http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2673
(Open access until April 29th)

#6. Virgin Mobile's Research on Six Critical Attributes of 15-24 Year-Olds & How to Market to Them

Over the past two years, Virgin Mobile has cracked America's intensely competitive wireless market by relentlessly researching and targeting one specific demographic -- youth aged 15-24.

We got Marketing Manager Marcy Roth to reveal six demographic attributes she's discovered about the youth marketplace, including:

    Attribute #1. They're into personalization.
    Attribute #4. They're the household CTOs.
    Attribute #6. They know they're being marketed to.

You'll also hear how Virgin Mobile used these insights to create a wireless service that 1,750,000 kids find irresistible:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2672
(Open access until April 29th)

#7. How to Smooth the Bumps in Your High-tech Marketing Career

Are there ways to avoid being laid off? What can you do when your CEO adores an agency that's all wrong for your goals? What are ad agencies looking for in a new hire?

We asked longtime marketer Brian Chertok to reveal what he's learned about handling the realities of a tech marketing career:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2675
(Open access = permanent)

#8. Scripting Tips for Audio News Releases (Sample Included

Want to get your news on the radio? You'll increase your chances with an audio news release. It's just like a press release, only instead of sending news, you send a timed-script and a link to an MP3 audio file. That way on-air personalities can either read your news to listeners or segue into your audio clip interview. Here are more details:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2671
(Open access until April 26th)

#9. Fame Briefs: "This is Broken" - Seeks Bad Design

This week's briefs include links to 11 different awards you can nominate your campaigns for, a speaking gig in New York, and a site seeking examples of really bad design, online and off:
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2632
(Open access = permanent)

#10. Help Wanteds: 14 New Jobs + 3 Great Seekers

This week's new postings include positions at Burlington Coat Factory, QVC, Benjamin Moore, Epson America, and VNU Business Media. Plus, learn how to post your own opening (complimentary service).
http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2522
(Open access = permanent)

#11. New Book Contest: Web Analytics Demystified

Are you too busy to read through (or perhaps a bit intimidated by) the stack of reports you get from your Web site's reporting system? There's a wonderful new book to help you.

Written in plain English with lots of examples, 'Web Analytics Demystified' by Eric Peterson explains how to use your site's existing tools (no matter what you're using) to find ways to improve your site's sales, conversion rates, brand impact, or leads generated.

Analytics guru Jim Sterne likes this new book so much he wrote a forward to it that's burbling with enthusiasm. We think you'll like it too.

We're giving away five copies in our contest -- here's how to enter your name (takes just 30 seconds):
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=93070279812
(Contest ends 4/29/04, midnight ET)