marketing Archive

SlideRocket, the Flash/Flex-powered web-based presentation creation software, is today announcing a major overhaul of its Marketplace to include new content partners, a brand new services directory, and a a cleaner, portal-style user interface. The Marketplace was launched in November of last year, when SlideRocket came out of beta, as an additional way to earn revenue on top of their software as a service business.

SlideRocket employs a freemium business model, offering a stripped down free version of their very slick presentation software, and paid versions that include additional features like more storage space, versioning, and collaboration. Paid subscriptions are their main source of revenue, and SlideRocket’s Senior Director of Community and Product Marketing Tracy Pizzo Frey tells me that they’re converting free to paid users at an impressive 10-15%.

The Marketplace is a very smart source of additional revenue for SlideRocket. It allows users to purchase assets for their presentations — photography, icons, music, etc. — directly from within SlideRocket, automatically securing the appropriate digital rights. Because the Marketplace is available to both free and paid users, it acts as a way to bring in revenue from free users of the product. According to Frey, SlideRocket has sold “thousands of credits” and is averaging 35 per user. Use is spread evenly across both free and paid customers, so the Marketplace has been successful so far in monetizing use on both ends.

Until today, SlideRocket’s only offered assets from Fotolia (stock photos) and Mimeo (printing services). They’ve added two new partners, PresentationPro (templates, icons) and Andertoons (cartoons), with others on the way, including Fotolia (videos), AudioMicro (stock audio), and Ascender (fonts). In addition, SlideRocket is releasing a services marketplace today, with 11 providers at launch offering design and authoring services to the app’s users.

According to SlideRocket founder and CEO Mitch Grasso the Marketplace, “greatly streamlines the creative process and helps our users save time and money while delivering the best possible presentations.”

It’s also a very smart way to bring in additional revenue and monetize free users.

Josh Catone is the Community Manager at DandyID and the co-founder of Rails Forum.

To extend my thoughts on people vs. content further, let’s consider the opportunities for those in marketing, PR, and advertising who hope yet to realize value by engaging social media. In spite of their differences, one thing these industries have in common is a taste for volume. Their taste for success is a taste for more, and their appetites sated best by high calorie helpings of servings that perform.

That said, we all know that high volume advertising across social media are just *this* far off the bottom of the feed trough. Just ask Scott Rafer of Lookery (here’s Allen Stern’s interview with him, dated but relevant). CPMs are notoriously low on social media because users are disinclined to pay attention to ads whilst they’re busy with friends. But sites like MySpace and Facebook serve up a huge number of pages, and are the equivalent of the outdoor advertising marketplace online.

Richer, more embedded, better targeted (by means of micro-targeting to the user, social graph targeting to the group, or social context targeting to audiences of followers) marketing is a better indicator of the future of online marketing. But as anyone in this space knows, ROI is not yet measurable, as is performance. In order for one-to-one or relationship marketing to make their comeback in the guise of social media marketing, industry and application standards will need to show success. And those successes will need to be evangelized by the social media community as case studies and best practices. The phase of application and service innovation is maturing, and is ready for adoption by those who can see a path to engagement.

And now back to my point on people vs content. It strikes me that there’s a fork in the path to adoption, one that possibly reflects a choice between people or content.

On the People side are those of us heralding the cause of influencers and influencer metrics, supported by social media practices like following and friending. Industry speak on the social graph, on conversation, on feeds, lifestreaming, flow apps, and so on all suggest that marketers should get in with the people doing the talking, by means of course of the talk tools we all use (twitter, friendfeed, etc).

And on the Content side are those of us who champion the visibility and relevance of social media news, supported by social media practices like content rating, digging, aggregation, blogging, posting and commenting. Industry speak on the value add of socializing the web, of user generated content, of conversation around published and wired stories, videos, images, and more all suggest that marketers get in front of the context in which social media content is produced and consumed.

These are possibly just two sides of the same coin. Marketers can approach influencers and through them obtain exposure to more relevant audiences, and by means of more valued and trusted sources. Or marketers can buy exposure in the sites, on the pages, and possibly in the feeds that get the most traction, thereby and presumably reaching those most influential and attentive.

I’ve seen more discussion around influencers and the need for a measure of social impact than I have around their content. This could be that content is covered by web analytics and page rank, search, etc already. Or it could be that social content still awaits robust and reliable sentiment and semantic tools (yes, there are some but social talk is notoriously lacking in the context and meta data that content analysis needs for accuracy).

So I don’t know if the distinction I’m making is material in the end. Current marketing and advertising practices continue to emphasize exposure: messages are placed alongside audiences and their activity. But merely being contiguous to the social isn’t good enough. One wants to be in and of the social. So perhaps the industry still needs its paradigm shift. From being in front of the audience to being in the audience, and from being associated with the consumer to talking with the consumer, attentive both to who she is and what she says.

Adrian Chan is a social media experience expert and analyst. You can follow him on twitter at gravity7.

I’ve written a number of times before about startups who employ the freemium model which brings together a free option plus premium paid upgrades. Most startups give away so much for free that users have no reason to upgrade. Most startups I speak with do little (or no) testing to see just what the right level is to set the free/paid bar at.

Marketing Sherpa posted a case study late last week of a golf supply company that increased their sales 685% by adding a "haggle" button next to the item price. The golf Web site is pretty Web 1.0 in look but the case study is well worth a read. You’ve got to keep testing your pricing plans until you find the sweet spot. It could easily mean the difference between small growth and major paid usage growth.

TEST TEST TEST

The new "Julie" of ConceptShare, Will Pate sent over some info about their new contest today. The contest is to design a tshirt for ConceptShare to use as a promotional giveaway (I am guessing at events, meetups, etc.). Why is this a brilliant move? Simple, it gets people using ConceptShare. And not just anybody, but part of their target audience — designers.

While this tactic won’t work for every Web app, it is something for you to consider as you promote your own Web app – "How can we leverage our platform to market our platform?"

Check out their contest blog post and entry details for more information. Also check out our audio interview with the ConceptShare founders earlier in the year.

For the last month or so, I have been playing reviewing a new tool called Sketchcast. The founder is Patrick Gavin who also has some big successes under his belt with Text Link Ads and Auction Ads. Sketchcast might be the most viral app this year.

It’s simple to explain – you draw things and then you share the things you drew. You can add sound for narration or sound effects. This reminds me of my early days creating stick figure animations for money – oh those were the days :) I don’t want to take away the fun, so go create a Sketchcast and post a link in the comments and I will add it to the collection.

My video review and commentary is embedded below. Check it out because how many times do you hear a writer say "gat" and then draw a "gat" :).

Editor’s note: Text Link Ads is a CN Mixer Sponsor.

Patrick Gavin is one smart marketing guy. Patrick is one of the founders of Text Link Ads and after TLA was acquired by Media Whiz, Patrick joined their team. Most recently, Patrick was co-founder of Auction Ads, an eBay affiliate monetization option and it too was acquired by Media Whiz recently. Media Whiz is a NY-based company located in the financial district of Manhattan.

I first came across Text Link Ads in early February 2005 at the SES Conference in NYC. My buddies Till, Darshan and I were walking around the expo when a sign called out to me. It read, "$100 in free text links" and since I had sold a few text links in the past on my properties, I thought I would go speak with them. They had offerings for both the site publisher and the advertiser. The publisher would make 50% on any ads they sold (net-30!) and the advertiser would receive $100 in free text links (minimum purchase $125). As a publisher, if an advertiser uses a coupon, you would receive the net-after coupon amount.

Till, Darshan and I left and headed for lunch and I kept talking about how smart of an idea this is. They didn’t have tons of publishers or advertisers yet but they had a great infrastructure built with plugins. What does offering new customers $100 off $125 really cost TLA? Let’s take a look:

• Customer orders $125 in ads and pays $25
• Assuming the $125 went to one site, TLA pays the publisher $62.50
• So the net loss for TLA is $37.50
• Most customers order more than the minimum $125 and if they order at least $160, TLA loses nothing and gains a customer and a publisher
• In month two, they are already a profitable customer for TLA – and in the two years I have used TLA, most of the ads have remained for at least a year if not longer

Now let’s take a look at Auction Ads. Auction Ads launched earlier this year and is a very simple way to become an eBay affiliate. They offer lots of options and are geared towards the blogger. They pay 100% of the earned commission from eBay. So how does Auction Ads make money if they pay out 100%? Easy. eBay pays bonuses to their affiliates based on total volume and since all Auction Ads publishers appear as one affiliate to eBay, they make money on the bonuses. And so far the Auction Ads growth has been exponential. I wouldn’t be surprised if they offer programs with other companies in the near future.

Ok so Auction Ads can help me generate revenue from my blog, great. But what makes Auction Ads even smarter than your normal affiliate program? Two things: referrals and bonuses. They offer 5% (just raised from 2%) on anyone who signs up through your Auction Ads ad. For me, this is how I have been able to generate revenue through the program. It hasn’t worked well on CN, a bit better on HTMLC, but way better on the referrals. And last week they announced a $25 bonus to any new publisher. Sounds like they start in the negative, right? Think again! They changed the payout minimum to $50 and so it should be a wash once someone gets to $50 and since the more sales a site makes, the larger a bonus they receive from eBay. Smart!

I share this with you because sometimes the easiest route from A-B is not always the smartest route. Patrick has been able to create two great companies that not only generate revenue for him and Media Whiz but also for his publishers and creates great value for his advertisers. As you create your startups, clear the whiteboard and think about creative ways to generate revenue and also make your publishers and Web site visitors happy and more importantly, loyal.

Editor’s note: Text Link Ads is a Mixer sponsor.

It seems that at least once a week I get into a discussion about "ad blindness". This is when a user basically has horse blinders on and only looks at a specific area and misses any of the advertising slots. A.P. Lawrence defines it as, "Ad blindness is the result of our ability to ignore the predictable."

There are many ways advertisers/publishers have worked to overcome this issue. From changing ad colors and themes to animations and sound, the key is to get the maximum return from an ad campaign. One ad that I think works well to overcome blindness is the Text Link Ads button ad on TechCrunch. What TLA did was create an ad that uses TC's editor's likeness along with copy that focuses on the TC reader. And some of you might remember our Free Advertising Month this past February.

Another interesting example I found today comes from Tim at eMonetized. He has created a way for his readers to create a massive amount of links and visibility to his site in return for a chance at an advertising slot on John Chow's web site.

So here is how it works:

• Tim purchases an ad on John's web site for $500
• Time puts up the button ad stating that he is running a contest for this slot for "four winners"
• To enter the contest, a reply on Tim's web site is worth one entry, and a link from your web site is worth 5 more entries for a maximum of 6 entries
• Four winners will win ONE day of the ad slot on John's web site. That's right, this little detail is left to the end of the entire contest post. Tim believes this should net the winner 300-400 clicks in the one day. I am not sure I buy those figures.

So let's look at the deal here for Tim and John. Tim walks away with great publicity and countless inbound links to his main page and story page. And a juicy link from John's web site. All this for $500. John gets additional publicity because (at least some) of the contest entrants will link back to John's web site as well. So John picks up $500 in ad revenue and potentially more juicy link juice.  Oh yea, and the contest winners get a day on a mega-site, so everyone wins!

I think it's a great marketing idea. While it can only work so many times, it's at least a great boost for Tim. Do you have other examples of this type of marketing? Please share!

Side note: I did link to Tim's site so I guess I get 5 entries into his contest. If I should win, I will donate the space to one of you, my loyal readers.