iMedia Connection Blog

Special thank you to Dane Manning for his work in creating this post.
When marketers hear the term “Dayparting,” many think of the standard time frames established in radio and television programming for demographic advertising considerations.  Digital marketers know that dayparting in the online space operates very differently, and is an important budgeting and profit maximization tool for the smallest and largest of search marketing budgets.
As you may know, both of the major search engine marketing platforms (Google Adwords & Microsoft/Yahoo Adcenter) provide an advanced settings feature allowing you to automatically adjust your keyword bids based on the day of week and/or hour of day.  If you aren't taking advantage of this feature, then your ads are showing on all days and at all times (until budget is exhausted), but the reality is they probably don’t need to be.
This post is written to help search marketers, novice to expert, get started on an ad scheduling program that fits best with their business and target customer, and helps maximize digital marketing investment.
Beginner Level – Addressing the Limits of Your Business
Can your website fulfill orders on the weekend?  Do you receive a lot of call volume as a direct result of your web efforts?  If so,... Read more

When sitting around the conference room talking about how your business treats its customers have you considered what the definition really means, and is it accurate? For most businesses you are referring to the consumers who have purchased a product you offer. That is a very common definition; however, what a customer really indicates is you have a relationship with that consumer. After a consumer makes a purchase you can now engage with them via cross-sell, and up sell programs given the information you have about their purchase history. This is really where the definition of a customer has shifted. Technology and digital media has allowed businesses to engage in a relationship with a consumer who has never made a purchase, or even visited your website.
The biggest evidence of this shift comes via the power of social media. Consumers are providing information about themselves, and indicating which brands they ‘like,’ or ‘follow’ via Twitter and Facebook. These new sets of consumers are opting into your brands communication stream. This is an opportunity to engage in a whole new way. The information shared here can demonstrate how your brand feels about protecting... Read more

Think for a second about the fact that the iPad celebrated its second anniversary on 1/27/12. Just two years ago the world had no experience with a functional tablet, and certainly didn’t understand how badly they wanted one.  Now the tablet has become the most quickly adopted technology of all time (Source: Bernstein Research, 10/10).
This is just one example of how the world of digital marketing has fragmented. Various new Web sites, applications and technologies have been infused into our everyday lifestyle. All of these platforms have created new places for consumers to share and consume information. For example, now a consumer can walk into a store and scan a bar code to find ratings, reviews, and the lowest price. A mom watching her favorite TV show can browse the Web from her tablet, and post her comments on that show using a tablet app like TweetDeck, which syndicates her posts across all her social media accounts, including Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.
Because of all these digital touch points and the availability of information at any time, consumers are behaving differently. In just the past year, consumers are using twice as many sources of information prior to making a purchasing decision... Read more

Over the past 2 weeks, the basketball world and even the general population, has been captivated with the unlikely success of Jeremy Lin.  Jeremy Lin is the new point guard for the New York Knicks who has led the team to a 7 game winning streak, set NBA records, and won NBA player of the week.  His success has suddenly transformed the Knicks, and increased interest in the NBA outside of its typical fan base.  As I was scrolling through my twitter feed, it was inundated by #linsanity based tweets.  This got me to thinking about how Lin’s success parallels to some key themes we must work under as digital marketers.
1) Something New and Exciting Is Right Around The Corner
For Jeremy Lin, he had gone undrafted and had been dropped by 3 NBA teams all before joining the Knicks and making this amazing run.  Then, all of a sudden, BOOM – Linsanity is born.  The digital marketing world has been the same way over the past few years.  If it's a new tablet, smart phone, or new social media site, we know that something new is right around the corner that will cause us to adapt.  In this way we... Read more