Blog Entries

Customer Engagement Important in the New Economy

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:00:00 +0100

A recent study of 1300 Marketing Directors or above sited that 57% of the respondents said that email marketing will receive the greatest investment in 2009. It's not that other initiatives are not important it's just that email has proven the most valuable way to increase and measure customer engagement.

The most important measurement listed in the survey was &q [...]

Hitting the Spam Button

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0100

There are five best practices before subscribers open your messages to help keep them from hitting the spam button.

1. From Address

Make sure your From address is friendly and recognizable. It should contain the name of your company or well-known personality related to your company.

2. Subject Line

Ensure your subject line is [...]

Doom and Gloom???

christi@ontargetinteractive.com — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 06:00:00 +0100

You may have seen the recent ominous headlines heralding doom for online ad networks. The Wall Street Journal headline reads, "Shakeout Threatens to Thin Out Web-Ad Brokers." Silicon Alley Insider says "Dozens and Dozens of Ad Nets Will Die."

But, what is really being said? Is online advertising on its way out?

Absolutely not.

Big headlines get attention but they're talking about a small, very over crowded marketplace of lo [...]

Targeting In Social Media

christi@ontargetinteractive.com — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:00:00 +0100

It's been a long time coming but the promise of niche targetability is finally reaching the big boys in the social media space. With the launch of myAds from MySpace, I can now target only the very specific audiences I want to reach - based on demographics and interests. And, are you listening because here's the best part??? Pay only when the viewer is int [...]

Why Is Your Email Getting Blocked?

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 06:00:00 +0100

Most marketers believe that spammy looking content is the reason Internet service providers and major corporations block incoming e-mail.

It used to be true that words, like "Free" and "Mortgage", had a noticeable impact on email delivery. But spam filters have gotten smarter and faster.

Driven by cost [...]

Do You Know Where Your Email's Going?

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 06:00:00 +0100

Due to the processes that ISP's are invoking to reduce the amount of SPAM you're probably getting more than half of your email blocked (unless you're using a Tier 1 provider). We can run a test on your email to see what the actual deliverability truly is if interested. One of our clients had a deliverability of 9% meaning that only 9% of their email was g [...]

To Flash Or Not To Flash, Is That the Question?

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:00:00 +0100

It's not Flash or no Flash the answer is using the best of both worlds. Flash has been around for a while now. Whenever we ask clients to give us a list of sites that they like they send us a list of Flash sites. Once we talk to them about some of the challenges they lose their interest a little. There are some industry web sites t [...]

Monitor the Buzz

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 06:00:00 +0100

Social media seems to be one of the hottest buzz words of the day. There are so many people talking about what they like and what they don't like on thousands of blogs on the Internet. It would take thousands of man hours to comb through all the blogs and gather the good and bad information that pertained to your business. Until now.

Ontarget has the ability to search through th [...]

Don't tell me just show me

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 06:00:00 +0100

At Ontarget we have a specific view on job titles. I think everyone wants to feel that they're important. One way of letting people know that you're important is through your job title. Companies spend a great deal of time and money managing job titles. Job titles provide a way to reward someone for their increase in knowledge. [...]

Are You Testing Your Marketing?

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:00:00 +0100

It's important to measure your marketing efforts so you can ensure that each one is worth the investment but also so you can improve the effectiveness of each marketing tactic. Consumers and businesses no longer fit into one major medium so we're not trying to compare everything to find the one marketing tactic we should use. Integrated m [...]

Clicks Are Only Part of the Equation

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Thu, 29 May 2008 06:00:00 +0100

Efforts such as PPC (Pay-Per-Click) and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) have a goal of increasing the number of clicks to your site. However, just because they've landed on your web site doesn't mean that the visitor wants to behave the way you desire them to. How many times have you searched for a specific item just to have the link drop you off at the company's home page. The [...]

The ROI on PPC

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Fri, 23 May 2008 06:00:00 +0100

We're not trying to make a statement for PPC (pay-per-click) over SEO (search engine optimization) in this article. Both are very important and work very well together. This article is about the incredible return on investment you get from a properly implemented and optimized PPC program. I did preface that with a properly implemented and optimized program. Several have tried to do it themselves a [...]

How Much Does A Web Site Cost?

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Thu, 22 May 2008 06:00:00 +0100

This should be a simple question but unfortunately there isn't an answer to this question. When someone asks us this question we try to associate a process that they may be familiar with in order to understand where we're coming from. We tell the the person that it's similar to asking a builder, "how much does a house cost."

Just like the builder needs to know a lot of information about you and your family ( [...]

Is the Cost Worth The Risk?

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Thu, 15 May 2008 06:00:00 +0100

With all the SPAM blockers on the Internet, it's difficult to impossible for a company to communicate with their customers and potential customers using an internal email system. No one wants SPAM in their inbox. The ISP's don't want SPAM filling up their hard drives either. However, the efforts ISP's have taken to reduce this tremendous overhead on their servers blocks a lot of email from unsophisticated email sys [...]

Ontarget - What we believe in

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0100

Ontarget is a marketing agency not an advertising agency. Advertising is part of what we do but markeitng includes much more than just advertising. Marketing includes sales leads, product development, customer service and much more.

Things we believe in:

Give us a dollar we should give a dollar plus in return Ideas, ideas, ideas, ideas. Did I say ideas? Ethics - ours are not negotiable Being a g [...]

Search PPC or SEO

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0100

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is the part of the search results screen that includes the couple of entries at the top as well as the listings down the right side. These placements are based on an auction-like service that sets a specific ranking based on the maximum price the company enters for that keyword. The great part about PPC is that you don't pay anything unless the person [...]

Is Weather Important to Your Sales?

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0100

We can utilize weather conditions at the ZIP code level to promote a specific product or service. We can target by specific temperature, humidity, pollen level, rain, etc.

I don't know how to get more targeted than this. For instance if you own a furnace and air conditioning company, the weather is very important to the level of importance your ad will have on the consumer. We can load a bunch of ZIP codes [...]

Turn Your Marketing Green

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0100

This might sound weird but there are huge movements to move away from printed materials with the biggest one being catalogs. Schools are having contest to see how many catalogs a class can unsubscribe from. Take a look at the video here. There are sites that make it easy for people to unsubscribe from company catalogs.

Direct mail postage costs are going up every year. The best way to combat this issue is to [...]

Who's Your Target Customer?

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0100

Unfortunately, this question rarely comes up from a traditional advertising agency. That's why I started Ontarget and made sure that our classification is a marketing agency. This question is very important and should be asked. Without this understanding you don't know where you should spend your marketing dollars.

If you look at all of your customer transactions you'll have those that range from customers that only purch [...]

Customer Seduction

terry@ontargetinteractive.com — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:00:00 +0100

The days of passing an ad in front of someone seven times to make them purchase are over. With the advent of DVR (Digital Video Recorders) people have made two very important statements. First, I want content when I want it. Second, I want to be able to fast forward through ads. Customers require a more seductive approach to marketing to gain their interest. There will be a day when w [...]