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Oct
30
Brian Bowman speaking at ad:tech NYC next week
Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Tradeshows | Leave a Comment
Brian Bowman, Reply!’s Chief Marketing Officer, is speaking at Ad:Tech NYC. The session is entitled, “Is Lead Gen 1.0 Dead? Transforming Lead Generation.”
There is a multi-billion-dollar opportunity to provide solutions to businesses that need to speak with online consumers to deliver their product or service. Many of the largest vertical markets require personal contact, either face-to-face or by phone: automotive, real estate, mortgage, insurance, education, travel, legal, home improvement.
- What is the future of lead generation?
- How will exchanges impact the industry?
- Has a shift occurred from quantity to quality?
- What are the best ways to drive local, targeted advertising?
- Are brand advertisers driving up media costs?
- Learn the “inside secrets” necessary to help businesses and brands profitably acquire customers online.
Reply.com and leading experts discuss how lead gen is transforming from quantity to quality, and how Lead Generation 2.0 offers greater controls and new revenue opportunities. Listen as the experts elaborate on their take on the industry.
MODERATOR: Brian Bowman, Chief Marketing Officer, Reply.com
- Bill Todd, Senior VP Sales,
- Matt Wise, President and CEO, Q Interactive
- Leigh McMillan, Senior VP, Marketing and Communications, Marchex
- Jay Weintraub, Founder, LeadsCon
- Ross Shanken, Executive VP, Sales, Targus
Oct
30
$600 or $300 – What Is Your Cost Of Sales?
Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Autos, Economy, Online Marketing | 2 Comments
At Digital Dealer, the keynote address had an interesting stat: cost to sell a car with offline advertising is $600, while cost to sell a car with online advertising is $300. I thought Cory Mosley should have just put up that one slide and asked the audience the following question, “Why are car dealers still advertising offline?” To be honest, I don’t get it. If a business could consistently achieve a 50% reduction in the cost-of-sale, wouldn’t they rapidly shift their ad spend from offline to online?
Then I read an article at DrivingSales.com on managing advertising waste.To me, the article is about measuring the impact of advertising. Do more of what works, and immediately stop what isn’t working. Most importantly, only invest in advertising if you can measure the impact. It’s no secret, the automotive industry is suffering as the economic downturn accelerates and people delay big-ticket purchases. Perhaps car dealers are seeking better controls, more flexibility, more measurable ROI—or just don’t believe that online really works.
Here is my challenge to all service-based businesses (not just car dealers): for one month, let’s say November or December, stop all offline advertising and shift your entire advertising budget to online. It doesn’t matter if you are a car dealer advertising in the local classifieds/TV/Radio, or a Real Estate Agent advertising with postcards and grocery store shopping carts; see what happens to your phone calls, walk-in visits, cost-of-sale, and close rates when you shift ad spend online. Any takers?
Oct
28
LinkedIN Launches Applications
Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Online Marketing, Social Media | Leave a Comment
LinkedIn Applications launched tonight. Think of it as an application framework similar to the social platforms launched by Facebook, MySpace but focused on business applications. Everything must be pre-approved by LinkedIN before going live – nice touch to maintain quality and a professional spin.
I find it a solid addition to your business profile by enabling you to share with your business network and help get out your messaging, blogs and presentations. In LinkedIN-style, the applications added to your homepage allow you to control who gets access to what information.
I personally like the WordPress application. It allows you to easily integrate your blog feed directly into your linkedin business profile. LinkedIN has great SEO and this integration provides another opportunity to quickly get out your blog posts or press releases to your core business network.
SlideShare presentations allows you to share presentations directly on LinkedIN. This is a simple way to get out your business development message or sale pushes. This also creates an easy way for small businesses to share their knowledge in their area of focus.
Oct
21
Yahoo Cutting 1,400 Jobs in 2008
Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Online Marketing | 1 Comment
As expected, Yahoo on Tuesday announced plans to reduce by “at least” 10% by the end of 2008 to save $400 million. Yahoo is working to cope with the economy that has delivered net income of $54.3 million for the quarter, down 64% from the $151.3 million it earned during the same period a year ago. It’s the second time in nine months that Yahoo has conducted mass layoffs. The company is currently sitting near a 5 1/2-year low.
According to BusinessWeek.com the justice department may render a decision on the proposed ad deal between Google & Yahoo. “In a letter to Justice Department, the Association of National Advertisers warned that the partnership would leave advertisers with fewer options for placing online ads, raise the cost of online advertising and further cement Google’s control over the search advertising market.”
Based on Reply!’s analysis, the cost to advertise on Yahoo will most likely increase 11% if the deal goes through.
Oct
17
Zillow Cuts 25%, Redfin Cuts 20%, House Starts Lowest Since 1991
Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Economy, Real Estate | Leave a Comment
According to Inman News, Zillow.com accounced today that it is laying off 25% of it’s workforce in anticipation of a prolonged recession. According to Rich Barton, Zillow’s chairman and CEO, they are a young, unprofitable company. He said the company’s revenues do not yet cover the expenses. As a business partner of Zillow, we are hopeful this difficult decision helps lead them to profitability.
Additionally, Redfin, another Washington-based company, announced a reduction in force of 20%. Redin offers an alternative solution to listing and transacting your property. To make matters worse, the New York Times, reported today that housing starts are at the slowest pace since 1991 and “applications for building permits, considered a sign of future activity, fell sharply in September, dropping 8.3 percent to an annual rate of 786,000 units, the weakest level since November 1981.” There is a glass half full point of view here, as painful as these slow dows are, it appears the massive glut of real estate inventory finally has a chance of being cleared out.
Oct
16
Real Estate Tools For Agents and Consumers
Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Real Estate | 1 Comment
Mashable produced another interesting list which I expanded, as they were missing some key sites. Hope you enjoy.
Real Estate Agent Tools
ActiveRain.com – A real estate agent social network
AgentBoost.com – You listings for a property you plan to sell and agents have five days to bid for your listing.
AgentScoreboard.com – Read about agents in your local area and the experiences other property owners have had with them.
ConnectingNeighbors.com – Become an exclusive neighborhood expert in your target market. Build lasting relationships with neighbors in your key markets.
Homethinking.com – A site allowing people to rate realtors. It gives you an average of how much they get for homes and the most common types of properties they sell.
IncredibleAgents.com – Look up real estate agents all over the United States and either leave a review about them or research one you are looking into.
RealtyBaron.com – Enter information about your property and allow the agents to bid for your listing by lowering their sales commission.
Appraisal Tools
Cyberhomes.com - a rock-solid, consumer-oriented home valuation service from Fidelity National Financial (Reply! uses this techology).
Eppraisal.com – Eppraisal pulls public records for 120 million homes and combines it with other data to find an approximate value for your home.
HomePredict.com – Track how the market in your area is performing and try to predict where it is going so you can set the value of your house when you attempt to sell it.
Reply.com - You’ll receive a both a free online home valuation and an evaluation from expert real estate agents in your area.
Zillow.com – The original web 2.0 home valuation and API provider (Reply! uses this techology).
FOR SALE BY OWNER TOOLS
Banzza.com – Offers listing abilities for professionals as well as owners trying to sell their own homes in Canada.
BidSell.com – This site will let you list your own property for free and also provides you with a free Web page to build about your listing.
ChoiceA.com – List your property for free and have it syndicated to multiple sites. Also provides you with documents and advice needed for selling your home.
eBay Real Estate Listings – Since you can sell just about anything on eBay, why not go ahead and sell your house, or any other piece of property you happen to own.
FindMyRoof.com – Free listings for properties you have for rent or sale, giving you full management over your listings.
Fizber.com – Fizber offers free listings for home owners and lets you submit your classified ad to 80 listings sites.
ForSaleByOwner.com – Does charge listing fees between $89 and $899, but offers legal forms and phone support for owners listing their homes for sale.
Fuzzbo.com – Assisting those in the United Kingdom wishing to sell their home without an agent, saving themselves the agent fees.
GlobalHouseMarket.com – Sellers from all over the world can list their homes for sale, but primarily directed to buyers in the UK as all prices are listed in Pounds.
HomeMaxima.com – You can list properties for free, have your agents list, or post the property you want to sell and let agents bid for your business.
HouseSpin.com – Create a free listing for your house and then advertise it wherever you choose.
Pycasa.com – A Google maps mashup that helps you search for homes that are for sale by owner, and gives you an idea of the area they are located in.
Webdigs.com – Webdigs charges a flat fee of $3000 on homes sold through their service, which can save a seller thousands of dollars over going through the usual agents.
Zillow.com – Find the value of your home as well as list it for sale through their site.
Oct
16
AdBrite Lays Off 40% Of Staff
Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Ad Networks, Online Marketing | Leave a Comment
As reported by Techcrunch, AdBrite has laid off 40% of its staff including two executives. This Sequoia-backed startup must have taken the “Sequoia warning” seriously – cut, cut now, get profitable or die. According to the AdBrite CEO, Iggy Fanlo, the company is now cash-flow positive and profitable. According to Comscore, AdBrite is a top-five ad network and the mantra ”the Internet’s Ad Marketplace”.
While fundamentally different from Reply!’s Lead Marketplace, AdBrite is a marketplace for the exchange of text ads, banners and full page ads. They represent inventory from some interesting sites like Car and Driver, Road and Track and in real estate Hotpads.com.
To me, this an evidence that display media has and will continue to experience downward pressures until someone can figure out how to remove advertising waste from the system or enable the controls offered by search marketing (SEM).
Oct
16
18 Tools to Track Car & Fuel Maintenance
Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Autos | Leave a Comment
Here are 18 interesting sites to help with car & fuel maintenance. Original article on Mashable. By the way, this has nothing to do with lead generation but I thought you would enjoy.
-
- DriverSide.com – DriverSide can help you find a car and maintain it once it’s yours. The site provides news about recalls, when to get your car serviced, helps you find out how much parts cost, and they will even help you sell it. Covers pretty much the entire life cycle of an automobile.
- Ownersite.com – Ownersite is a subscription plan service that helps you keep track of your car’s maintenance, costs and reminders of when you next need service.
- RepairPal.com – RepairPal assists you with getting estimates for repairs, finding well reviewed shops and keeping track of your car’s maintenance.
- ServiceBeacon.com – Keep track of your car’s maintenance schedule, receive email reminders and schedule appointments with your dealer online.
- TheAutoLog.com – Set up a profile for your car, track its maintenance history and display it for others to see.
- TheCarTracker.com – Track your car’s maintenance, as well as modifications and costs that you have incurred.
- YourGarageOnline.com – Keep track of your car’s information, repair history and easily see when you need to go in for your next check up.
- Fuelly.com – Fuelly allows you to enter data on your vehicle before you start tracking it, then you can compare how you are doing with other owners of the same model. You can also enter data from their iPhone site, participate in forums, see how much you have spent over time and more.
- MPGTune.com – Track your MPG, your annual fuel cost, see the top mileage of other users with the same car and more.
- MyMilemarker.com – Enter anytime you gas up via their website, phone or Twitter, and My Mile marker will give you reports on your gas mileage.
- AccuFuel – Tracks your fuel usage over a number of years and allows you to switch to other units of measurement besides gallons if the need arises.
- FuelGauge – Customizable fuel consumption iPhone app that allows you to set volume measurement, currency, enter historical data and more.
- Car Care – An iPhone application that allows you to track fuel economy and reminds you of regular maintenance requirements.
- GasHog – An iPhone and iPod Touch application for keeping track of your gas mileage that supports multiple vehicles and exporting data amongst other features.
- Gasmate – An app just for tracking your gas mileage over time.
- iPhoneMiles.com – An iPhone site that allows you to keep track of your miles easily instead of on slips of paper.
- Miles.Dynadel.com – iPhone optimized site to keep track of the fuel efficiency of your car.
- GarageSeek.com – Finding a reliable and honest auto repair garage can be tough, but GarageSeek attempts to provide you with reviews of garages throughout all of North America.
Oct
16
Digital Dealer Wrap Up
Posted by Brian Bowman, CMO, Reply.com
Filed Under Autos, Lead Generation, Lead Marketplace, Tradeshows | Leave a Comment
Reply! had a great time at the Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition in Dallas TX, last week. As you can see from the pictures, the booth was well attended and the Dallas Maverick Dancers brought excitement and energy to the booth. Congrats to Richard Rikess from Cobalt for winning the official, signed Nowitzki jersey.
Our presentation on “Is Auto Lead Generation Dead?” was well received. With so much advertising waste, few in the audience were surprised that lead generation is rapidly moving towards a lead exchange and marketplace. 
Clearly, lead generation has evolved and the days of no controls, fixed prices, and locked contracts are quickly fading. Several audience members shared their frustration at having to purchase leads without any understanding of quality, and that led them to frequently switch between lead providers.
Oct
1
Reply! and the Dallas Mavericks Dancers…
Posted by Reply! Public Relations
Filed Under Autos, Reply! News, Tradeshows | Leave a Comment
Bet we got your attention with that title…
Reply! will be attending the 5th Digital Dealer Conference & Exposition next week in Dallas, Texas. 
We will have a strong presence at the show and will be demoing our lead marketplace.
If you plan on attending the show, please swing by our booth and try to attend Brian Bowman’s session, “Is Auto Lead Generation Dead?” He will share the inside secrets that cause unprofitable online customer acquisition, and layout the reasons dealers frequently switch between third-party providers. Whether you are interested in driving clicks to your web site or leads to your Internet department, this is a must-attend session.
That’s right, but that’s not all… we are thrilled to announce that the Official Dallas Mavericks Dancers will join us, sign photographs, and help give away a signed Dallas Mavericks jersey!