Entries Tagged 'Marketing' ↓

I subscribe to a feed from Hitwise Intelligence, an “online competitive intelligence” firm that publishes traffic analysis on various topics on a blog. Today I found this post by Heather Hopkins: US: Google Maps Making Inroads Against Leader, Mapquest. I was very surprised to learn that not only is Mapquest still a viable site, but it remains the market leader by quite a big (though shrinking) margin over Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps.

It’s surprising because I assumed that Google’s site had long since become the market leader - which it is with pretty much everyone I know. I haven’t heard of anyone using Mapquest in years - and if you go to the site, all you find is the same barely-usable interface and sketchy, jaggedy maps as always, not to mention almost useless search results and a decided lack of actual mapping features.

There are two pretty clear reminders in this case for anyone who works in online marketing: a) the market leader isn’t necessarily who you (as a specialist) assume it is, and b) a site’s market/traffic leadership doesn’t mean that it is the one to emulate. I guess incumbency status really is important, even on the net.

Sebastien Provencher has written a very good post about the new Facebook advertising opportunities that were announced this week: The Facebook Community is Worried. I was at the Montreal Facebook Camp on Wednesday night and was struck by the fact that no one seemed to have a clear idea on what opportunities might really exist within Facebook, other than for small app developers. There was a lot of noise about “we will go where our customers are, of course” - but from the same folks that spend most of the budgets they have on overwrought flash monstrosities.

I just read that CakeMail is now available for public beta testing. CakeMail is a white label email marketing platform that allows agencies and marketing companies (et al) to better run their clients’ email marketing campaigns.

Alec Saunders reports on his experience with a new Rogers service he tried out - in particular, the basic buying (and returning) experience: Rogers Portable Internet bait and switch. There’s something strange going on when a market leader makes even more elementary mistakes than it did when it built its leadership position. Rogers reminds me of the record companies more than anything else - scrambling frantically in all directions when the road ahead is difficult but clearly marked.

has seemingly not been a hit on campus: Free, Legal and Ignored (from the Wall Street Journal). Sampling only works if it’s a product people want.

AdTension. “My main point here is that we need to get out of the advertiser-centered frame of mind about how markets for information work. We need to start imagining the markeptlace as it exists now, and wants to exist, in the online world. This is a marketplace where customers are participants, and not just consumers. Where they are no longer just a mass of passive ‘eyeballs’.”