57 Channels (And Nothing On) – Marketing Channel Overload It’s headline news when Google changes its algorithm, Facebook announces a location-based service or YouTube videos get added to search results. Marketers can spend the entire day sorting through blog postings on changes in marketing platforms, SEO tricks, SEM strategies, networks to join, new web sites to develop and online groups to monitor. Does any of it really matter? We’re bringing back internet analyst-to-the-stars Greg Sterling to review some of his thoughts from 2010 and re-frame them. Greg will be on the hot seat sorting through the consumer marketing platforms he himself would use to market apartment communities. We’ve asked him to answer whether a particular novelty is useful or a fad, and to try to integrate his thinking into the realities of driving traffic in every season to a B/C portfolio. Greg Sterling, President, Sterling Market Intelligence

1. 57 Channels (And Nothing On): Marketing Channel Overload Greg Sterling Sterling Market Intelligence/Opus Research May 3, 2011

3. Jobs: lawyer, editor, startups, analyst, blogger

4. Coverage: search, directories, “social media,” mobile, multi-channel shopping, SMB advertising, etc.

6. Cast of Black Swan

7. With the Gleeks

9. What’s cool but not worth using?

10. “Must have” vs. “nice to have”

13. Social media

14. MobileSome of these trends were just emerging or speculative. More clarity this year on what’s going to “stick”

16. Social/reputation

17. Mobile

20. Not very savvy

21. Neutral/middle

22. Reasonably savvy

23. Very savvy

24. How ‘Marketing Savvy’ Are You? Self-assessment: “Neutral” and “not savvy” 65% of respondents Source: Opus Research 2/11, n=8,540 US small businesses (drawn from MerchantCircle member database)

25. Stuff That’s Cool but (Maybe) Not Relevant 8.5 million users but probably not your residents They have to download software before they can use it NFC: Someday, but not today

26. Search/SEO: Basic Must Have

27. Search Still Central to User Experience

28. Increasingly so Is Mobile ‘Search’

29. Mobile Search Ads & Click to Call User initiates call on smartphone with a single click

30. PC Search Market Share: March 2011 Source:comScore (4/11)

32. Apartments.com

33. Rent.com

34. Forrent.com

35. Trulia

37. Search Directly for “Archstone Apartments”

38. Place Page for “Archstone Apartments”

39. New Bing Business Portal

40. Online Reputation

41. Reputation Monitoring: Nearly a Must Have

43. Marchex

44. Vendasta/StepRep

45. YellowBot

46. Chatmeter

47. Needium (social lead generation)

48. MyRepMan

49. AmIVisible

50. RatePoint

52. Social Media: It’s Unclean, but Now a Must Have

53. What Do We Mean? Facebook Twitter YouTube (helps with SEO) Flickr Blogging Online reviews Sharing generically Lots of mobile: SoLoMo

54. How Do Customers Find You? Source: AMEX/Network Solutions 2/11 (n=400 US small businesses who did some form of online marketing )

55. Why Have a Facebook Page? Source: AT&T SMB survey, 2011 (n=2,246 US small businesses between 2 and 50 employees)

56. Perceived Benefits of Social Media Source: AT&T SMB survey, 2011 (n=2,246 US small businesses between 2 and 50 employees)

57. Is Facebook for Acquisition or Retention? It can be a great CRM/customer service tool and way to communicate with current (or prospective) tenants

58. Facebook Ads: Local/Demographic Targeting

59. Costs Going Up, Clicks Down Source: WebtrendsFacebook Advertising Report 1/11

60. Mixed Experience with Social Media 66% of SMBs said they updated Facebook at least weekly 63% of SMBs feel it has helped make customers more loyal 56% feel it has taken up more time than they expected 25% of SMBs estimate their investment in social media has made a profit while 15% estimate they have lost money; the remainder (46%) feel they broke even. Often social media has fallen short of expectations (36%) vs. exceeded expectations (9%) Source: Network Solutions, 2011 (n=500 US small businesses)

61. Facebook Most ‘Engaging’ Mobile Site 37 Source: GSMA UK, 12/10

62. Facebook: Sleeping Giant in Mobile FB: 250 million active (daily) mobile users Top iPhone app/Connect for Mobile/single sign on Places/Deals Could extend FB ads to mobile Source: Facebook stats

63. Mobile: Yes, a Must Have

65. You must have a mobile-optimized HTML site

66. Mobile app offers better experience but optional

67. Mobile ads perform well (see also C2C)

68. Right now all about iPhone + Android (forget everything else)

71. Q4 PC shipments: 92 million units42 Source: IDC 1/11

73. 89% of smartphone users have an immediate need when they search for something on mobile phones

74. 75% of mobile users act “within a few hours” of a search

75. 33% to 53% of mobile searches have local intent

76. After local search on mobile: 77% contacted a business, 44% purchased

77. 49% who saw a mobile ad took some sort of action (click, call, website visit, later PC visit, purchase)Source: Nielsen 4/11; Google Mobile Moment Study released 4/11, Microsoft 12/10, Google 2010

79. Browser can render a conventional site

81. Tablets Impacting PC Usage Source: Google/AdMob, March 2011 (n=1,430)

82. People Doing Everything Source: Google/AdMob, March 2011 (n=1,430)

83. Mobile Internet/Search Growing Fast “Mobile search is definitely going to surpass desktop search,” said Scott B. Huffman, who works on mobile search at Google and leads its search evaluation team. “The lines will pass, and I think they’ll pass before anyone thought they would.” Quoted in NY Times 4/25/2011 Source:Performicsn=502 3/11 48

84. Google: Mobile Queries 15% and More Source: Google, March 2011

85. Categories Searched by Smartphone Users Source: Google-Ipsos Q4 2010, n=5,000

86. Top Local-Mobile Categories Restaurants/Bars Banks and ATM locations Hotels/motels Gas stations Mobile phone stores/services Clothing stores Shopping malls Nightclubs Grocery stores Video/DVD sales and rentals Source: Opus Research 10/12 (n=1,003)

87. Mobile Phone the Ubiquitous Second Screen Source: Performics 3/11, Yahoo 4/11

88. Google Mobile Search Share: 95%+ Source: StatCounter 4/11

89. Google Mobile Paid Search Share Source: Efficient Frontier client data, March 2011

90. Mobile Ad Revenue Distribution Source: IDC 11/10

91. Mobile Marketing Happening? Source: Opus Research 2/11, n=8,540 US small businesses (drawn from MerchantCircle member database)

92. PPC Ads in Mobile: Position Matters Source: iCrossing 2/11

94. Response rates that are 5% to 30% better than other AdWordsCTRs in mobile.

95. Phone/location extensions effectively automate these adsSource: Google

96. So What Would I do? Optimize my site(s) for search; use paid search (see Kenshoo CCO) Claim my Place Page, Yelp listing and BBP Use Craigslist diligently Be present in relevant ILS/verticals (organic/ads) Set up a Facebook Page (Twitter) Build a mobile HTML site with listings (consider also for payments and service issues) Track mentions/reputation Consider mobile ads (search, PPCall) In my spare time experiment with other stuff

98. Foursquare and check-in services

99. Daily deals

100. How to integrate all your marketing efforts

101. How to track all your marketing efforts… Ran out of time

102. Questions?