Posts filed under 'Niche Marketing'
An unusual email drifted over the transom today:
Please help me and my sister grow our site, My name is Madison and my sister is Morgan we are all star cheerleaders and we asked are dad to start us a web site like Myspace but for cheerleaders and dancers. The site is called Wegatta.com we are hoping that we can make this the biggest web site for cheerleaders and dancers, we started the web site in December and it is doing ok so far, we have about 1689 members mostly cheerleaders.
Can you please help us get the word out about are site? And anyone can join. Wegatta.com is very cool and fun my dad put over 750 games on Wegatta.com for everyone to play and it’s all free.
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May 15th, 2008
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Quick news from the world of pro wrestling: my near-namesake Colin Delaney has weighed in on the Democratic primary, and the results may be a surprise. On the eve of the Pennsylvania primary, Clinton, Obama and McCain will ALL appear on World Wrestling Entertainment’s RAW to make their cases before an audience of five million sports/entertainment fans. Alas, they’ll be on tape, so we won’t see a tag-team deathmatch (which would no doubt be less painful than much of the campaign so far), but that didn’t stop young Mr. Delaney from giving his estimate of the winner: “I don’t even want to venture a guess who would come out on top, probably Hillary. She seems like a scrapper. Yeah, definitely Hillary. She’d probably kick my ass, that’s not saying much, but I’m sure she could.” Watch out, my friend — Obama’s got reach (as long as he doesn’t roll a gutter ball) and I guarantee that John McCain can take a hit and keep on going.
All jokes aside, it’s fascinating to see politics get nichier and nichier. Though as the WWE article points out, RAW is the “number one weekly year round show on cable.” Media fragmentation, anyone?
Update: The Times has the candidates’ wresting videos and other details.
– cpd
April 21st, 2008
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These tips are for an Advocates for Youth/Choice USA online organizing training session on April 16, 2008, and you kids can look at them in greater depth in the relevant Online Politics 101 articles, particularly the ones covering marketing and promotion, websites, blogger relations and search engine optimization. They’re aimed at organizations and campaigns that are on the resource-poor side, since those won’t be able to do much paid promotion, but the basic ideas apply to most sites regardless of scale. See also that enduring classic from November of 2006, How to Build Traffic to a Blog: Ten Tips.
10 Ways to Build Traffic to a Website
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April 15th, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
Political campaigns typically use search advertising primarily for long-term list-building, but with a big chunk of February 5th voters apparently still undecided, shouldn’t targeted search ads be an effective way to reach people who are still making up their minds?
Here’s why: if X percentage of primary voters in a given state haven’t picked a candidate three days out, you can bet that a good chunk of them are naturally going to turn to the internet for information to help make a decision. And since most online quests start at a search engine, search advertising would seem to be a natural way to get to those potential supporters directly and at the moment they’re thinking about voting. Geo-targeting, keyword-targeting and the fact that search ads are pay-per-click makes this strategy cost-attractive — you can concentrate resources on voters in particular states or metropolitan areas, and you only pay when you actually get a voter contact (i.e., when someone clicks).
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January 25th, 2008
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Hidden in a Post article today on the presidential campaigns’ precarious financial shape was this remark:
Ken Mehlman, who helped plan President Bush’s reelection strategy four years ago, said each campaign is trying to isolate demographic groups and geographic areas to target with phone calls and mail.
Think about it: if you’re running out of money, one way to save (besides cutting the press plane) is to microtarget your outreach so that you can get the most out of every dollar. Some candidates are reportedly considering blowing cash on a Superbowl ad, but others will be looking instead at zip code-targeted cable tv buys. What about adding blog ads or geo-targeted search and online display ads? You could do worse than targeting California-based online readers of the major political newspapers, for example.
It’s hard to imagine that campaigns that have raised tens of millions of dollars could be going broke, but that’s apparently one consequence of this tight primary election schedule. Glad that’s working out so well for everybody.
– cpd
January 22nd, 2008
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Cross-posted on techPresident
At last week’s New Organizing Institute/IPDI-sponsored Google presentation on advocacy tools, after looking at Google Ads and answering questions about click fraud, the company’s Elections and Issue Advocacy team touched on a new tool whose potential political significance jumped out at me. More than a year ago, Google snapped up a company that was developing an online interface for buying radio advertising, and despite some skepticism about its usefulness, the product looks to be moving out of beta fairly soon.
You can get a good overview of how the ordering system will work here; note that you can specify stations by location and genre, set your own budget, choose your time of day to run ads and get some reporting after-the-fact. You upload your own ads as mp3s, though the site will help you find a company to build them if necessary. Groovy! Basically, you can run ads across the country from a single interface — you won’t need to work with different ad reps for individual stations or chains of stations. With 1600 AM and FM stations in the network, and the top 10 stations in 24 of the 25 biggest media markets in the country, Google claims the potential to reach essentially 100% of the U.S. population.
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July 10th, 2007
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Hey kids! Getting things back in order after spending the last few days doing very little that resembled work — the gig went fine, the tubing trip was awesome and the mountain biking kicked ass, thanks for asking. A few articles popped over the break that are worth a quick look in the rearview mirror before we move on:
- First, The Observer turns its binoculars across the pond to gaze upon the spectacle that is online video in the American presidential process. Josh is right that the piece frames the issues with some false dichotomies, of the “Sign of the Apocalypse, or just a humble stain remover?” variety, but it has some good quotes and is joined by a nice top-ten presidential videos compilation. Who can forget Rudy in a dress?
- Next, getting into the nuts and bolts of electronic politics, the Post lifts up the hood on the Romney machine to find the candidate’s data cruncher, an expert at political microtargeting. The article is goes into a great deal of detail about how microtargeting works, but is also careful to note that question exists as to whether the tactic is revolutionary or just “putting a very fine point on the obvious.” Bonus art history metaphor: “If television advertising is painting with broad brush strokes, microtargeting is political pointillism.” Thanks for the tip, Dad.
- Moving from one kind of scary to another, Three Worked the Web to Help Terrorists: British Case Reveals How Stolen Credit Card Data Bought Supplies for Operatives. Using email scams to steal credit cards and online poker sites to launder money is apparently the the new face of jihad.
- Don’t worry, the web may save us before it destroys us, as Brazilian tribes plan to use Google Earth to monitor Amazon rainforests for illegal logging and protect their way of life in the process. Critical choice: Internet first, or running water? For more from the Amazon, see Defending the Hidden Tribes. For more unexpected uses of Google Earth, take a look at this new Chinese ballistic missile submarine, coming soon to an ocean near you.
- Finally, let’s glance at a U.S. News and World Report article that manages to contradict its own title. Though called “The Internet: It’s a potent new tool, but no one’s sure how to use it,” it promptly turns around and demonstrates that campaigns sure as hell SOUND like they know how to use the web: “Even Richardson, who lags far behind in polls, has outpaced Dean’s 2004 high-water marks for online supporters and fundraising.”
That should keep you guys busy while I go turn up the A/C — welcome to summer.
– cpd
July 9th, 2007
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Fascinating article in Slate today about the use of political campaign tactics to build demand for Michael Moore’s new film about health care in America, Sicko:
The Weinstein Company, Sicko’s distributor, has hired a Democratic “phone vendor” to contact a select group of potential moviegoers and encourage them to see the film. Phone vendors are usually employed by political campaigns and other interest groups to promote a candidate or a cause. But in this case, they just want you to watch a movie. They’ve already made “tens of thousands” of live calls, with another slew of “robo calls” — recorded messages read by Moore himself — on the way, according to the president of the firm Winning Connections. Callers target known Democratic contributors or activists in New York and Denver, where the film is being released this weekend.
Slicing and dicing political donor lists? That’s crazy talk! As in, fox crazy — the calls apparently cost only 14 cents at most, and they’re aimed at lefty opinion leaders, so each successful call should have a multiplier effect. The film’s being debuted across the country in a steady roll rather than all at once, so the producers (working with Democratic consultant Chris Lehane) are hoping to build a national audience incrementally without having to resort to expensive mass-market tv ads (though I’ve seen some targeted cable ads). Campaign methods spread to commercial marketing! (Though in this case, for a product that definitely has a political edge). What’s next? Negative ads! “Reese’s Pieces — they say they’re an innocent candy, but what do we REALLY know about them? As THIS footage shows, they once shared a room with an illegal alien…”
– cpd
June 27th, 2007
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- Late addition: Community Counts: Real Participation in the Debates. People are stepping up and fixing the problems with YouTube’s debate video process.
- Why MySpace is for freaks and Facebook is for preps. I KNEW I felt out of place on Facebook…Salon’s Machinist blog looks at a new analysis of the two sites’ different demographics.
- Facebook Spam on the Rise — the Changing Face of Email Permission. When friendship isn’t commitment.
- Web 3.0: The Future of Video. “The future of video is professional content with a twist. Interactivity. Targeted to niche audiences, by niche additions.”
- Pro-Romney website dispels Mormon myths. For once, let’s skip the “garment” jokes.
- Bloomberg Announcement Crashes Unity ‘08 Site. Collateral damage is sometimes inevitable in war.
- The Mobile-Phone Primary: Are cell-phone users screwing up Ron Paul’s poll numbers? Slate sez, not so much.
- Forget those new guys, it’s McGovern in ‘72! Via Kevin Reid of IDI.
- Digital Marketing Key to Booze Advertising. A look at niche marketing. You’ll find me in the Busch and PBR demographic.
- Social networks geared for offline success? Another Kevin Reid find. Hey Burt and Ha-Hoa — this guy’s tryin’ to muscle in on your turf.
- An amazing new video-editing program. Online video-editing and hosting.
- PoliticalWire Launches Political News Video Aggregator.
- YouTube dirty tricks and presidential debate Buzz.
- Google to Shut Down Gmail Germany if Bundestag Passes Surveillance Law.
- ‘Great Firewall’ Marks Flickr its Next Victim. Censorship continues to suck.
- Online Branding Takeaways. A Frogloop report from last week’s Internet Advocacy Roundtable.
- What is YOUR Audience Doing Online? Wasting time, looking for love, or something more sinister?
- Estonia Presses Bush for Cyber-Attack Research Center Critical quote: “NATO was designed to counter physical threats and hasn’t yet developed detailed plans for cyber warfare.” Hey kids, how about we get ready to fight the NEXT war instead of the last one?
- Gates Dodges Cyber Attack. Don’t bother calling NATO.
- ‘BONG HiTS 4 JESUS’: Nevermind. Hooray! Schools can crack down on speech — thank god, I was afraid we might teach those little bastards to think for themselves, or something.
- Top 5 stoopid YouTube questions for politicians. Let’s rethink that YouTube presidential debate idea…via ReelPop.
- Ron Paul and Distributed Online Campaigning. The advantages of having a feature-poor website. Hmm, where have we heard this before?
- The Top Consideration When Choosing a Free Blogging Platform. Whether or not chicks dig it, of course.
- A Crisis Communications Primer: 10 Tips for Managing the Interview. Short and clever, with a nice payoff at the end.
– cpd
June 26th, 2007
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Update: Politico.com’s publisher responds. See below.
The recent discussion about Politico.com’s traffic “stickiness” got me thinking about the different strategies behind building a niche audience vs. building a mass audience. What differentiates the two? First and formost, niche audiences are, well, niches — they’re groups of people drawn together by a common interest or set of interests. Because of their concentration, they can be valuable to advertisers trying to reach exactly that niche. Because of their relatively small size, they tend to be manageable, both in terms of the technology required to serve their needs and in terms of the time needed for customer service/reader contact.
Most money-making/popular blogs are niche sites, as are many more traditional online magazines and publications. Display ads (banners, blog ads) on niche sites that host a desirable audience are often carefully targeted to appeal to those exact readers and hence can command more money per ad impression. Sites usually supplement targeted ads with lower-cost run-of-site ads, though, if they have unfilled inventory. Google Ads and other context-sensitive text ads are a special category, since they’re linked to a page’s content and are theoretically always targeted, but the amounts site owners earn can vary immensely depending on the value of their niches and on how “clicky” their readers are.
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April 23rd, 2007
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So, the other night I saw a strange thing while watching cable (no, tragically, psychedelics were not involved) — it was an ad for a cell phone that was clearly intended for older people who were scared of cell phones. The ad itself was aimed at their boomer children, which is a logical audience, since the kids might well want to buy a phone for their parents for their own convenience. I thought it was an interesting niche and mentioned it to my media-obsessed roommate. The other day, he ran across a print ad that gave more detail about the phone. The salient features:
- Big buttons
- Big fonts
- Veeeeeeeery simple functions (the print ad’s headline: “It doesn’t play games, take pictures, or give you the weather)
- Clear, loud sound and a nice soft cushiony bit for your ear
- 24-hour operators who can walk you through any function, including checking your voicemail
- A normal 12-button phone, or an even simpler version that has three buttons — the operator, a number of your choice (no doubt, your kid’s number) and 911.
- The final genius bit is the name: Jitterbug, which is clearly designed to sound fun and also familiar to the over-65 set
Why bring this up on a politics site? First, because it’s a fascinating marketing approach, and second because it’s aimed at a niche that we online warriors often miss. The standard word on mobile marketing is that it works best for younger audiences, but the Jitterbug is a sign that this may not be true for long — soon enough, EVERYONE will have a cell phone. Campaigns, think about this: mobile won’t be an experiment or an afterthought forever.
– cpd
April 13th, 2007
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Mike Connery wrote an article last week for Future Majority (cross-posted on MyDD) that raises some interesting points about the potential of online video to reach niche audiences:
“Cable [tv] buys are smart not just because they are cheap, but because they are targeted and can help you increase the effectiveness of an ad buy. This theory applies even more so to viral video, which will rise from within and appeal to certain online and offline niche communities…So when the next smash viral hit of the cycle emerges, don’t forget that there were a few hundred others that didn’t get noticed, but may have just as much — if not more — of an impact on our democracy and our politics.”
His discussion of the potential of online video to supplement or replace traditional tv advertising really got me thinking about one of the significant traits of Internet video — that watching it is a voluntary act.
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April 2nd, 2007
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Hey guys, the folks over at Squidoo asked me to take a look at using their site, so I just finished creating a “lens” page for online political advocacy. What is Squidoo? A site that simultaneously tries to sort through the mass of information on the web by allowing “experts” to set up overview pages (lenses) on particular topics (kind of like a wiki) while also raising money for charities (lens owners can dedicate the revenue from Google ads on their pages to a select list of nonprofits).
At the moment, I’ve set up the online politics lens to see what kind of traffic it will draw and to experiment with features. Later, we’ll set up an environmentally-themed lens on behalf of my day job (National Environmental Trust) and see how effective IT is. I’ll keep you guys posted about how things go, and in the meantime you might consider setting up your own lenses to see what you can find. Establishing a lens may be a good way to position you or your campaign as a go-to source on your chosen topic.
Hmmm, I wonder if there’s a need for lenses on sloth and beer? Extensive near-lethal experimentation would be required…but I’d try to bear up nobly under the strain.
– cpd
January 4th, 2007
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Writing in Personal Democracy Forum last week, Jerome Armstrong discussed a number of lessons he learned from leading the online arm of Mark Warner’s (once and possibly future?) presidential campaign operation. He raised several good points, from the power of organizing local blog networks to the fragmentation of online media into many niches to the need to combine data that has often been hidden in silos.
Reading his article inspired me to go back to my notes from a similar presentation he participated in at RootsCampDC back on December 2nd, along with several other members of Warner’s web team (see the photo in the PDF article to see who took part). The group brought up a bunch of interesting observations, not all of which made it into Jerome’s article.
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December 24th, 2006
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We made it! The 2006 campaign season is dead (well, mostly), and it’s already time to dig up the bodies and see what they can teach us. Here are some lessons I’ve taken away from the last few months of online political frenzy.
The Internet is Still a Spark, Not a Firestorm
This year, YouTube and online video really came of age: a slew of campaign ads, embarrassing candidate gaffes and satirical commentary pieces ended up on the web and some were seen hundreds of thousands of times. Online video could highlight a candidate’s troubles, provide an outlet for supporters’ creative enthusiasm and even raise the profile of an otherwise obscure campaign.
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November 8th, 2006
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