Marketer's Lab

Bummed By Bing

I was excited to see the new Microsoft Bing search platform ("Decision Engine" in MSFT vernacular).  I envisioned an army of geniuses in Redmond toiling away in their secret labs to create something that would turn the search world on its head.  As a company responsible for pioneering so many technologies I didn't think it was too much to expect something groundbreaking from the Microsoft search platform.   

When I arrived at Bing.com I was hopeful, seeing the new Google-esque interface and the nice little rollovers on the home page image.  This is the kind of thing I was hoping to see, something a little different but still simple and focused.  I plugged in my first search and sat ready to be dazzled.  When the results came back I felt my excitement drain immediately.  I did a few more searches, just to be sure the results would look the same, of course they did.  Wow, Google with a Bing header!  To be fair, the results I received on Bing from a variety of searches were solid, usually relevant, contextually appropriate and easy to find.  If Google hadn't already been delivering this same quality of experience I would probably be a lot more impressed. 

Bing just seems like a Google imitation.  I'm sure the technology under the hood is probably very impressive and if I were an engineer I might marvel more about what MIcrosoft has developed.  I fully understand the primary focus of search must be utility.  But this is Microsoft, a company known for some amazing, industry-changing technologies, staffed by some of the best and brightest in the technology world.  How on earth could they make a big deal about a search experience that for the most part looks and behaves like Google?

What would I have done differently? For starters, I would include a more interesting data visualization strategy.  Look at what they're doing at the New York Times Visualization Lab or at how applications like Grokker can organize and display information.  Data visualization is a hot area right now for a reason, Microsoft could have spiced up their results with something more visually engaging. 

How much work would it have taken to use different text or highlight colors on results pages?  Something as simple as that could have at least made it appear there was some effort to not just duplicate Google.  I do like the little rollover feature on Bing at the right of each search result, but it's hardly a marvel of modern technology or likely to skew my search behavior.  So if anyone from Microsoft is reading this, Bing is OK, but I know you can do better.

The New Online Personalization

The term personalization bothers me a little, maybe because it's one of those terms that's been hijacked by so many marketing technology vendors and used to describe too many disparate features.  Feels like it's been rendered a little vague.  Regardless, the term does still at least convey an idea that's becoming much more important to marketers at companies of any size. 

George Hadjiyanis at Valtira does a great job describing how the approach to personalization has become very multi-dimensional.  I'm going to let this Upshot Studios podcast do most of the talking on this, great information on this rapidly evolving topic.

Test Your Web Site, No Homework Required

If you're not familiar with HubSpot's Website Grader, its a very smart tool that provides a quick assessment of how well your web site is performing on overall marketing effectiveness.  They use an algorithm that includes over 50 different variables to kick out a "grade" for your site.  The whole process is as simple as plugging in your URL, letting the tool do its magic and waiting to receive your site's score on a 1-100 scale. 

Along with the score you receive a nice little profile outlining how your site fared in a number of areas. Included are assessments of Metadata, heading summaries, image summaries, interior page analysis, readability level and even several off-page criteria like domain information, Google PageRank and indexing, inbound links, directory entries and a review of several social media dimensions.   (See a sample report).  If your site does particularly well and you want to brag about it, you can proudly display a website grader badge on your site like the one on the right in this post. 

One of the other features I found to be super useful was the ability to define a handful of competitors and see how well they ranked for keywords, traffic, inbound links and a few other measures.  They also store your report at a personalized URL if you'd like to access the report at a later date. 

Take the test, its quick, easy and provides real value that you can immediately put into action.   

Put Your Marketing on Autopilot

Wow, another marketing superplatform!  The concept of the "Marketing Superplatform" is something I have posted on before and an idea I predict is still very much in its early phases.  I had an opportunity recently to get an overview from another player in this emerging space called OfficeAutopilot.  One of the really interesting things about all the superplatform players is how different their various approaches are.  Some providers are taking the "mash-up" approach of bundling up a variety of marketing tools and providing access via a single portal without a ton of integration across the tools.  Others take a couple of anchor marketing modules such as email and analytics and build additional functionality around that.  There are plenty of other approaches, but OfficeAutopilot gets a hats off for doing something I think is truly exceptional. 

Basically they've built an application that provides a strong suite of functionality for salespeople, and have also built and integrated a ton of innovative features for us marketing types.  Think of it as a great salesforce automation tool with a powerful suite of email, analytics and behavioral targeting functionality.  For me a quick look at their web site demonstrated how clearly they have defined the audiences for their application and how they have approached providing the key elements for each audience.   

All the superplatform applications have way too many features to highlight in a post like this, but OfficeAutopilot seems to have one of the best ranges of features in each area.  Typically these platforms have pretty clear weak spots, either they're something the marketing team would love but the sales team wouldn't be happy with, or the inverse where they provide good sales functionality but don't provide much for marketing.  This is a pretty common complaint with Salesforce.com. (Note-OfficeAutopilot works with Salesforce.com if you need it to). I was told about 70% of their clients use it as a standalone. 

The overview I received was very quick (but very good, thanks Landon) so I was not able to see every trick OfficeAutopilot is capable of, but I came away very impressed by the interface, functionality and integration.  Even with the quick overview, I see them as one of the leading providers in this fast moving space.  Love to get any input on other players anyone is aware of or get any other input on the whole marketing superplatform concept.   

Track Phone Responses Online? Who Knew?

When there’s so much buzz about the latest social media widget or some other killer online marketing application it seems a little retro to be talking about tools for measuring inbound phone responses to marketing programs. That said, even in this age of IM, text and email, people do still pick up the phone to respond to various marketing programs or to get more information after visiting a web site or other destination.  Often most of us have little, if any, meaningful tracking for these kinds of phone responses.  If you’ve ever tried to wade through phone records or gather this information from multiple sources it can be a huge hassle and usually just doesn’t get done.

Enter CallSource. CallSource was founded in 1994, originally doing a lot of work in the automotive and rental housing industries. They now serve a variety of industries, primarily providing marketers the ability to track inbound calls.

Basically they provide the ability to establish local or toll-free phone numbers and through a web interface route and track responses in near-real time.  Their service allows you to understand call volumes by lead source, how/if the call was answered, when the call was placed and the number name and address of the caller. Depending on how you use the numbers, it’s possible to track the performance of different ad types, promotions or other variables. They can also record each call if that’s desired.

CallSource also provides a number of other services, but the call tracking capability seems to be the flagship offering. If you’re looking to get meaningful tracking information about phone responses, CallSource looks like a great solution. More info at www.CallSource.com