[Posted by Alexis Karlin
Digital Marketing Specialist, Neolane, Inc.]

On April 13, I had the pleasure of attending a class at Suffolk Law School, “Social Networking Sites: Law, Policy & Practical Strategies.” Although it was a long day, it was an information-packed session which taught me innumerable lessons of value. Here are 5 of the most important to consider as you go about your everyday digital marketing practices:

1.    Know Your Site’s Rights

As U.S. citizens, we are afforded such rights as the Freedom of Speech, which offers few restrictions with the exception of the clause that originated from the famous Sullivan V. NY Times case: Actual malice must be proven before press reports about public figures can be considered to be defamation and libel. Today, the same regulations apply to website content. Nearly all sites have their own set of privacy regulations and are very often privately operated, allowing site owners to make the rules in a sense.

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[Posted by Alexis Karlin
Digital Marketing Specialist, Neolane, Inc.]

Some might say traditional marketing offers straightforward tactics for achieving success. However, as digital marketing has come to the forefront of most marketers’ agendas, keeping up with this evolving trend has become vital for any brand, product, or company to stay afloat. Digital marketing spend has increased by more than 14 percent within just the past year, yet with its ascension has come the downfall of more traditional marketing methods. Traditional advertising spend has, for example, experienced a 161 percent decrease over the past year.

For this reason, digital marketing is threatening to eclipse the following traditional marketing methods in the near future:

Print Advertising

Print advertising has taken one of the largest, if not the largest, hit thanks to the emergence of digital marketing. Print advertising has declined by two-thirds  over the last 20 years, down from more than $60 billion in 1990 to just $20 billion in 2011. The proof is everywhere you go on the Internet: video sites with pre-roll or banner ads, roll-over ads, or even ads on your favorite music streaming sites. These days, the majority of marketers are no longer using print publications for consumer news or entertainment. Instead, they’re being smart with their dollars and targeting media that experiences the most traffic on the web. It should come as no surprise that print advertising has been on the decline for the past 20 years, the same length of time the Internet has risen to become the global powerhouse it now is.

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[Posted by Alexis Karlin, Digital Marketing Specialist, Neolane, Inc. and Mickael Bentz, Product Manager, Neolane]

[Posted by Alexis Karlin
Digital Marketing Specialist, Neolane, Inc.]

When recommending a new marketing strategy or tactic it’s great to have some statistics to support your recommendations. With that in mind, we’ve compiled 25 of the most intriguing digital marketing statistics we could find.  Whether you need to justify your digital marketing investments for executives in your organization, or you are just interested in some good data – these eye catching digital marketing statistics from 2011 and predictions for 2012 should spark your interest!

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[Posted by Alexis Karlin
Digital Marketing Specialist, Neolane, Inc.]

Neolane’s VP of Marketing Kristin Hambelton recently hosted a webinar with guest speaker Shar VanBoskirk, vice president and principal analyst from Forrester Research. The key focus of the webinar was to highlight the benefits of adopting an integrated, customer-centric approach to cross-channel messaging to help marketers overcome the existing marketing campaign management barriers to success. Shar VanBoskirk kicked off the discussion by pointing out that overall interactive marketing spend will near $77 billion by 2016, while email marketing spend will reach 10% between now and 2016.

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[Posted by Alexis Karlin
Digital Marketing Specialist, Neolane, Inc.]

Have you ever walked into a store with the goal of buying something specific, say a few items for a party you are hosting, only to wander aimlessly through the aisles, underwhelmed by the choices and leaving feeling frustrated? This happened to me recently in a well-known clothing retail store. This store didn’t have apparel signage, the shelves were close to bare, and the sales clerks were less than helpful. When I couldn’t find I was looking for, I started thinking about what augmented reality could do to not just keep me in the store but also turn me into an engaged, loyal customer.

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[Posted by Alexis Karlin
Digital Marketing Specialist, Neolane, Inc.]

As Day 1 of Neolane Evolution comes to a close I would like to summarize the day with 10 of the top tweets.  If you are attending tomorrow and would like to live tweet please use the event tag, #NeoEvo.

1. edhadley – @neolane‘s first customer from 10 years ago is at #neoevo today. Impressive.
2. jennymnx – #NeoEvo 4 steps to the Conversational Enterprise from Stephane Dehoche the CEO of @Neolane
3. rwang0 -Marc Parrish, Vice-President of Loyalty & Retention Marketing, Barnesandnoble.com is crushing it on loyalty programs #neoevo #scrm #cmo
4. pierreb01 – Email research : pressure causes unsubscription, manage relevance before you do frequency to avoid opt-out #NeoEvo
5. mickael_b – #NeoEvo Celerity give us really great feedbacks on cross-channel & personalized campaigns they manage
6. jmichel_franco – Pace of change according to @rwang0 : macro conditions, workplace dynamics, tech adaption, business models. #NeoEvo
7. jennymnx – “Personal fulfillment is marketing of the future – creating a place where conversations will be had.” @rwang0 #NeoEvo
8. repackaged – So true. “Trust is the beginning and the foundation of a social relationship” Says @Rwang0 #NeoEvo
9. pierreb01 – Neolane message center : treat transactional messages as marketing messages : clicks of 11% vs 3.8% according to research #neoevo
10. KMHambelton – Disruption is a big theme at #NeoEvo – clients including macmillan discussing how they use @neolane to help

Help send us to Austin! We have submitted two speaking proposals for South by Southwest (SXSW), the insanely popular music, film and interactive conference and festival held in Austin, Texas each year.  On August 15, SXSW organizers opened the 2012 PanelPicker – an online tool developed to offer the community a chance to participate in “reviewing, commenting and voting for those ideas they most want to see become a part of the event.”

Competition is fierce, so we wanted to make it easy for you to find (and vote for!) the Neolane panels from Mathieu Hannouz, and yours truly, Alexis Karlin.  Details follow, thanks in advance for your support!

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[Posted by Alexis Karlin
Digital Marketing Specialist, Neolane, Inc.]

With more than 175 million users, few can argue that Twitter isn’t a valuable resource for tracking everything from consumer sentiment to the latest business trends.  Despite high traffic on this content-rich site, it is often underutilized by sales and business development professionals.  With more users becoming active each day, Twitter can serve as a treasure trove of information.

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[Posted by Alexis Karlin
Digital Marketing Specialist, Neolane, Inc.]

After trying to digest the flood of news stories and blog posts analyzing the Google+ launch yesterday, I wanted to add my perspectives, specifically from the digital marketing vantage point.  For many marketers who are already working diligently to engage and build valuable long-term relationships with customers across multiple social channels, the question about the role Google+ can (or will) play in the mix is clearly one that will take some time to figure out. But let’s start here:  The notion that Google is coming out with a new social network does not shock me.  And not just because the company has been in the news about the incentives it has been giving employees, but also because Google has their hands in virtually everything. After seeing many failed attempts at trying to draw honey out of the pot, I am yet again skeptical. First let’s look back and remember the failed attempts –  Google Health and Google Buzz, for example.

Let’s move on to what I think will help Google+ succeed, and what will make it fail.

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