The campaign focused on remodeling a Mommy Blogger’s kitchen using Rubbermaid products.  The big take away for me is the goal set for this campaign — the expectations were 250 coupon downloads and 500 links into the Mommy Blogger’s posts on Rubbermaid.  Those goals where exceeded by almost 1000 coupon downloads and 2500 backlinks.

I’ve dabbled in measuring SocNet campaigns by the number of coupons downloaded and still haven’t cracked it.  The numbers always seem too low to justify the campaign — but the numbers I’ve seen are in line with Rubbermaid’s campaign.  Which tells me my expectations are too high AND coupon downloads are not a great measure of the campaign’s success.

There has been a lot of discussion about measuring SocNet campaigns and just as we have seen with display ads I assume the debate will never be conclusively concluded.  Call me old school but I want definitive measures that show a connection to sales and justify the spend to management.  I doubt that 1000 coupon’s justified this campaign spend — so our quest for a meaningful measurement continues.

Thoughts on meaningful measures:

• Can we measure the amount of “brand buzz” over time.  So we benchmark the amount of SocNet chatter before, during, and after the campaign and set an index level of chatter we want to maintain.
• Can we drive consumers into the store from a SocNet campaign?  First, it’s a mistake to think of campaigns in terms of their tactics.  We don’t have “SocNet campaigns”.  We have Consumer Activation campaigns that use SocNet as one tactic.  To drive consumers we need to have surround sound campaigns that are amplified through SocNet.

• Display / Banner ads: You can work with a blogger ad network such as Federated Media to get your display ads on specific blogs or blogs that focus on specific topics.
• Pay per Post:  This is where you pay the Blogger to post your marketing message.  Izea is one firm that facilitates this approach.  Be careful here — think about the quality of the blogger before getting involved with pay-per-post.
• Blogger Outreach:  This is where you or your agency has a relationship with top blogs in a specific category.  For some categories, such as Mommy Bloggers, there are firms that manage this kind of outreach.  The bloggers get products to review, content for their site, coupons, contests and other things that add value to their blog in return for them blogging about your product and service.

Some thoughts on marketing through Bloggers:

• If you’re a direct marketer converting eyes into dollars then take a look at pay-per-post.  Other wise think twice about this approach.
• Know what blogs your messaging will be displayed on.  There are very few top tier blogs in any catagory and a lot of bottom feeders.
• Difficult to scale.  There will be a limited number of blogs generating traffic that targets your consumer.
• If you’re buying key words through Google you are advertising on blogs.  The ads on this site are Google adsense ads (click on one!)

Measuring ROI

Depends on the tactic.  If you are buying display ads all of the display ad ROI measurements apply. If you are paying per post and converting those clicks to sales you have a direct ROI.  If you are doing Blogger Outreach it is a bit more difficult.  I suggest doing the following:

• Use Blogscope.net to measure the buzz around your product or service.  Trend over time to see how your campaign increases the buzz.
• Onlien coupons.  If you are selling a product or service try providing the bloggers with coupons that you can track.  You should be able to track the coupon redemption back to the blogger that provided the coupon.
• Follow up surveys.  See if you can offer a survey to the bloggers readers to measure their product awareness and purchase intent.

The nost interesting thing about blog marketing is that there is a discussion happening right now that most products and services should be involved in.  Bloggers mostly talk about products and services that mean something to them personally or professionally.  For example, I just search Blogscope.net for “High Yield Seeds” — there are 3006 blog posts on the subject.  See if the blogosphere is talking about your industry or brand.  You may be surprised that there is a robust conversation going on.  You should figure out how to be a part of it.  A consistant blogger outreach strategy will allow you to take part in the conversation — and sell more product.

Some definitions you’ll need to know:

Open Rate: When you send an email to a list of addresses not all of recipients will open the email. The percent that do open the email is called the Open Rate. In my experience a 20% to 30% open rate for emails to a house list is considered good.

Unique Click Through from Opens: This is the number of unique recipients that opened your email and that click on a link in your email. I use this number rather than the Click Through Rate from sent emails because it tells you how engaging the email is to those that opened the email.

Types of email lists:
House List: This is a list of email addresses you collect.

3rd Party Lists: You may allow other marketers to send email messages to your list or as part of your regular email message. This is using a 3rd party list to send your emails.

Bought Lists: This is a list of email addresses you purchase from a list company. This is not necessarily spam as the email addresses sold have most likely opted in to receive some sort of marketing emails. However, these email addresses are often gathered through creative means.

Costs:
The most common way to purchase email lists is by a cost per thousand (CPM). Rates vary depending on the quality of the list — I’ve seen prices between $5 per thousand up to $100 per thousand. I’m sure you can get junk lists for less and very qualified lists for more. I’ve also seen email lists be sold on a CPA (cost per activation) basis where you only pay for sales or leads.

ROI on Email
Email is an extremely powerful marketing tool that can show a direct ROI for online sales or lead generation. Your house list is gold and can be nurtured to perform for you time and time again. And it can be a very valuable asset that you can use to barter for 3rd party lists. Bought lists can be lucrative if the list is of quality email addresses and the recipient was not duped into providing their address. Overall, ROI is a simple calculation of the cost to send the email over the sales or leads the email generated.

For email marketing that does not tie directly back to a sale the ROI is more difficult to measure. I suggest identifying what is important to your management and building out surveys that capture that data. For instance your management may identify purchase intent to be a meaningful measurement. If so, survey your house lists on a regular basis to determine how your email marketing is effecting purchase intent.

Thoughts on Email:

• Add value.  Provide information to your list that adds real value.  Go beyond the “buy this” mentality.
• Take care of your lists.  Measure, monitor, and figure out how to grow the list and reduce the churn.
• If you are selling directly you need to use robust behavioral data to tweak out every last sale.
• Be upfront and legit.  We all hate spam.
• Your emails are an extension of all of your other campaigns.  Think strategy at a high level to incorporate all of our online tactics including social networking, user generated content, contests, sampling, and even market research.

CPM (Cost per Thousand). Buying display advertising based on how many times the ad is presented on a web page

CPA (Cost per Acquisition) & CPL (Cost per Lead). Paying advertiser only for a desired outcome like a product purchase or filed out registration form

CPC (Cost per Click). Paying advertiser for each individual click on an ad

Additional terms used:

Impressions: The number of times an ad is displayed on a web site.

View Through: When an individual is exposed to an ad but doesn’t click on it, but later goes to your web site.

ROS (Run of Site): Buying advertising anywhere on a web site as apposed to a specific web page.

CTR (Click Through Rate). Marketers optimize CPM creative to maximize CTR