In a shortly to be released study by B2B, web marketers, web developers, videographers and supporting technologists may want to consider preparing for a busy 2008. Some hilights:

60.1% of all marketers plan to increase their 2008 budgets.
79.1% plan to increase their online budgets (last year was 75.6%)
Web Site Development will be increased says 74.0% of marketers.
Email Marketing will increase says 70.1%
Search Engine Marketing (SEO) will be increased by 64.3%
Other increases include video (39.5%), web casting (39.1%) and social media (26.2%)

source

I also think that 2008 will be a huge year for analytics, and for those who know how to utilize them. Skilled, science-based marketing seems to me like the smartest and lowest risk type of investment for people still bedazzled by Web 2.0 orgies. I’m hoping that 2008 will turn focus back to the business, in particular the small business, which was relatively neglected in terms of innovation for 2007.

The Sacramento Regional Transit District (RT) operates 97 bus routes and 36.87 miles of light rail covering a 418 square-mile service area. Buses and light rail run 365 days a year using 76 light rail vehicles, 254 buses powered by compressed natural gas (CNG) and 17 shuttle vans. Riders can now use Google Transit to plan their mass transit routes.

While the SRTD already had a route planning system, Google Transit offers directions on Google Maps, making for a very simple way to get around.

....Annual ridership has steadily increased on both the bus and light rail systems from 14 million passengers in 1987 to more than 30 million passengers in FY 2005. Weekday light rail ridership averages about 43,600, which accounts for approximately 40% of the total system ridership. Bus weekday ridership has reached an average of 67,000 passengers per day…..

See also the Friends of the Light Rail and Transit site.

According to the New York Times:

“As part of what Wal-Mart is calling its “Customer Contact Reduction” program, by next week, Walmart.com, the company’s online arm, will no longer give customers a toll-free phone number to call–or any phone number, for that matter–if they have a question.

Instead, they will have to rely solely on the Wal-Mart Web site as their guide to the solution for whatever problem they might have, whether it is a question about a credit card charge or the status of an online order.”

Now, they can move their support centers anywhere in the world without getting middle America upset.. because emails and help files have no accent. Mr. Sam Walton might frown on this. But Sam Walton knew a good deal when he saw it.

Some CRM solutions that are entirely web-based can save a company $20-25 per customer interaction. And if these people are already using the Wal-Mart website to order items, this is not a huge leap.

Postscript:

Seth Godin focuses instead on a system where efficiency (i.e. customer buy or repeat buy rate) is the reward offered to successful operators.

I’d focus on building a system that measures [sales rate before call] vs. [sales rate after call]. If the sales rate goes up, give the call center person a raise. It’s that simple.

I’m trying to envision how one could set this up for customer service organizations.  Sales call centers, yes, but service oriented businesses?  Now we’re thinking long-tail.  We’re talking relationships. You would need some rather sophisticated operators to think in terms of the long tail, but if the philosophy was drilled in from day one, you’d get service centers that acted a lot like brand welcoming committees, who are there to improve your brand BY WAY OF fixing problems.  THAT sounds good.

Dell’s laying off 10% of its workforce.�

Since I have an office full of them, I guess that means I’ll be chatting it up with India more often about Dell Computers� - loudly, clearly, repeating, again, loudly.�

Or I guess I could go to my local� Wal-Mart and chat it up about Dell computers, loudly, clearly, repeating, again, loudly.

My attitude about blogrolls is changing.?

I try to refer to lots of other folks in my posts and provide lots of follow-friendly traffic to people web-wide.? I will continue to do it.? But soul searching is going on.? I’ve cleared out my blogroll.? ? So if your link was removed, you might look around and see if there was any returned links from posts or your blogroll in the past six months.? Then again, many of those I removed won’t care.?

I recently had the change to make a suggestion to a multi-billion dollar media company for an advisor on social media/search trends in a conference with their CEO and a few other key executives in the room.? The person I almost mentioned had recently IM’d? me that I had been “giving them lame pitches” for a blogroll? link.? ? I had said to them that they gave my blog “no love” when I had repeatedly scooped them on news insights.? Not one mention was given to the write-ups I did, even as they nearly copied my work.? I withheld the recommendation because that kind of elitism gets under my skin… ah… they would have blown me off anyhow.? …I’m just a yokel from Kentucky - gotta remember that!

Anyhow…New attention going to:

Seth Godin will be heading to the top, as he continually impresses me.? ? He’s been on my blog since day one.
Guy Kawasaki lots of smart stuff.
Search Engine Land will be there because I respect some of the writers.
Shoemoney is there because he’s authentic.
Marketing Pilgrim? has become consistantly good.
Darren Rowse has done a nice job over at Problogger? so he’s going on the roll.? I’ve become a regular.
I’ve been really enjoying the posts from Stuntdubl, especially? when he does lists. :-)

Note:? I use RSS Bandit and Gooogle Reader for reading blogs.? I have around 400ish in the OPML now, sorted pretty well around best, average, and “on probation.”

Those who are in the blogroll that had a reciprocal link - you are still in there.? THANK YOU for that.

Posted by Scott Clark @ 9:46 pm | Make a Comment  

Is this Ask.com’s big chance?

Filed under: Changes Online

May
4
2007

I’m thinking based on sources of news that a Yahoo! and Microsoft Merger is going to happen in some form. But they have a long, long way to go in order to make an impact on Google, but at least they’d not be competing against each other. See the Wall Street Journal article on cooperative talks. I’m hearing numbers such as $50B. With a B.

So, if they do, what would happen to Adcenter and Yahoo Search Marketing? What about Yahoo Small Business Partnership?

But a big question to ask as well is how would this affect Ask’s future? I think it opens up a lot of room for innovation from Ask - and that is what they’re about. I also think there is room for 3 players in the search world. Perhaps it would offer up some breathing room while Yahoo! and Microsoft figure out how to work together? If MS/Y are busy trying to figure out where all the wires go, Ask could bring its mobile, local, contextual, and other technologies forward a few levels.

They’ll be distracted for a while, and Ask has never been so focused. Greg Ott also posted hints about things abuzz at Ask in “The Algorithm Is On The Move” and Ask is rolling out its contextual advertising setup in the next month. Gosh I hope it’s good. I see a window opening. Or Breaking. Time will tell.

Posted by Scott Clark @ 12:23 pm | Comment (1)  

« Previous Entries