LIGHTWAVE, Thanksgiving, and the Paul Anthony Bonenfant Memorial Scholarship

In full disclosure, I am being a proud mom today but I also am very proud of Lightwave being in support of the Bonenfant Memorial Scholarship – something I believe in.

My 15-year-old son, Kelly Skelton, has organized a 5K for November 23, 2012 (the day after US Thanksgiving) to run between the towns of Bedford and Billerica Massachusetts in an effort to help raise the last $10,000 needed to make the scholarship a reality.  

Kelly has been working to have other high school peers join him on this day – clearly not the easiest task.   Regardless of peer participation, rain, shine, (hurricane?), or amazing-cannot-miss-Black-Friday-Jordan-basketball-sneaker-deals, Kelly has promised to be running this Bonenfant Memorial Scholarship 5K Fundraiser at 10am on November 23, 2012.

Lightwave will be posting a blog about the 5K activities as well as photos and updates on the support.

Thanksgiving happens to be one of my most favorite holidays.  It is the holiday that aligns with our family’s values and daily traditions, it is the birthday of one of my daughters, and now it is connected to the OSA and Paul Anthony Bonenfant Memorial Scholarship.  Throw in the pumpkin muffins I will be having that morning and it is “everything” this year.

We hope others in our great industry will choose to be connected on such an important event at this wonderful time of the year and support in any way possible.

VTR - I love this stuff!

View-through rates are fascinating to me.

From Wikipedia, the definition of a View-through rate (VTR) is an estimation of the number of impressions viewed during the advertising campaign and estimation of realized advertising contacts.
What does that mean?  To me it means that most marketers that I work with are still being asked to evaluate their digital campaigns by the click-through rate (CTR) that their upper management believes reflects the success of the creative.   Not really the full story on the creative.

CTR is an easy and quick way to evaluate –  high CTR means the creative was success and low means the opposite.  Right?  Done with the spreadsheet and on to the next metric.  Here is what is missing…..web analytic platforms do not track “view-through”.  General metrics cannot show the visitor that came to your website (maybe through search or even better by typing in your URL) from the impression that your impressions really made.

Web analytics track campaign performance using post- “click-through” (CTR).
Some of the best branding campaigns have had low CTRs but high in recall.  
Do not underestimate the value of the “view-through” (VTR)  or the impact of great branding!

Here is a helpful equation:

View-through:
a person views a banner + doesn’t click on the banner + purchases = banner will be contributed to the sale.

Click-through on the other hand:
a person view a banner + click on a banner + purchase an item = banner will be contributed to the sale.

7 Online Video Tips Every B2B Marketer Should Know

Making and distributing good B2B video content takes time.  Planning for video success takes time.  With the rise of video demand and consumption, more marketers are leveraging the power of online video in integrated marketing campaigns, realizing the time is now to make video promotion a top priority.  Here are tips for planning for video success. Enjoy!

7 Online Video Tips Every B2B Marketer Should Know


1. Always Include URL In A Video Description – This first tip is so simple but so many businesses don’t do it. Most video sharing sites including YouTube, allow the first 30 characters of a video description to be an active URL. Not only does it make it easy to generate leads back to your site from videos, but this links also count in Google’s PageRank system. Meaning if you publish a lot of video and put links in each of them your organic search ranking in Google will be improved.

2. When Blogging A Video Include A Text Summary – This is a tactic that may add a little more time to getting your video published, but is completely worth it. Adding text with video is a valuable inbound marketing opportunity.

3. Three Short Videos Are Better Than one Long Video – People have short attention spans when it comes to the web. As marketers providing content it is important that we understand this. Online videos should be short, ideally around 3 minutes, or even shorter. If you have a 10 minute interview, then break it up into smaller interviews. Besides improving the chances that more people will watch it, it also provides the opportunity to focus headlines that fit with different messages within the video.

4. YouTube Can’t Be Ignored – More than 90 percent of the videos watched online are watched on YouTube. While Youtube may not have the best looking video player, it holds the audience. Many B2B corporations use proprietary video players for their web sites, while this isn’t a bad thing, video must still be distributed through other targeted vehicles.

5. Use A Multi-Uploader Service To Ease Distribution – Uploading online video, especially if it is high quality or HD, takes a significant amount of time. Because of this, the thought of uploading a video to 10 or 15 sharing sites might seem daunting. This is where services that upload to multiple services at once come in handy. A service like Tubmogul will allow you to upload a video once to multiple sites and can additionally provide good analytic information. Like any other type of online content, distribution is critical.

6. The Smartest Person Isn’t Always The Best For Video – Being interesting on video is not as much about knowledge as it is tone and personality. When selecting employees or partners for B2B video don’t automatically select the smartest person. Think about who is the best at explaining things clearly and doing so in a compelling manner. These people are your video stars, not company experts.

7. Brand Video For Viewing Across The Web – It is easy to forget that people watch video all across the web, since video is embeddable. Don’t assume that you don’t have to brand your videos because people will be watching it on your web site or blog. Including brief branded intro and outro to B2B videos will make sure that whereever they are watched, they will be connected to to the brand and company.

Lightwave Digital Magazine ahead of its time

Recent data, from multiple sources, shows that one-fifth of American adults report they have read an e-book in the past year, a number that is on the rise year after year.

The definition of that content includes magazines, journals, and news articles.  The definition of an e-book includes tablet computer, laptop computer, smartphone/mobile device.

Lightwave went to its all-digital format three and a half years ago, driven by the unique needs of its readers.  I can always remember the birth of the all-digital magazine product as it happened the same month of the birth of my daughter, Erin.

The journey that brought Lightwave  to that point (before other PennWell publications were embracing digital over print publications and made us a bit of a pioneer here) was driven by our audience.   At the time, I felt like I needed to “catch up” quickly with their needs and felt less competent about our new all-digital magazine product than I did about my newborn.  But I must say that both simultaneous journeys have been educational and amazing.

The catalyst for the audience requesting this was efficiency.  It makes sense.  Lightwave readers are engaged with the publication for its highly technical and in-depth content.  Most articles reference multiple ancillary sources of information from other Lightwave issues to content on the web, in video etc.  The reader finds the electronic version of that content, with immediate links to each reference, much more efficient than needing to have back print issues and website navigation for each.  Through  readership surveys, we have included the audience in our journey to make the strongest magazine product and by doing so we have learned a great deal about the unique needs of this group.

For my position here, providing consultative solutions to marketers across our industry, the Lightwave rapport with its audience is invaluable.   I am so thankful be on this team with such an engaged and brilliant audience.

I look at my daughter and her reindeer collection (we have no idea why that is her passion) and other favorite things that make her who she is and wonder what exciting things are ahead for her.  It is interesting to try to wonder what exciting things are ahead for Lightwave and all of us working together in this industry, too!

Welcome to Lightwave’s new Marketing Light

Welcome to Lightwave’s new Marketing Light area, which will include blogs, videos, presentation library, and tweets, all designed to be a resource to the marketers needs in this great industry.  My role at Lightwave is to provide consultation to the business development and marketing strategy managers I work with and help them successfully achieve their objectives with our unique audience.

It is my job to be an expert on the Lightwave audience, from their job functions and purchasing powers to their specific interests and use of marketing and advertising materials.  

Additionally,  it is my job to be a digital media expert and keep up (as well as I possibly can!) with the constant changing trends and metrics in digital media and advertising.

Marry the two and I hope to shine some “LIGHT” that is beneficial here in this forum!