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Chatalytics: The Be Greeted Blog

Live Chat for BusinessesMarch 17 2009

There is no doubt that live chat works to capture business leads and increase sales. Executives from both consumer and BtoB businesses trumpet the success they’ve had implementing live chat to increase conversion rates on their lead generation campaigns.

One notable evangelist is IBM’s Sandy Carter who has embraced social media and brought IBM along for the ride.

About live chat she says:

“…IBM uses pre-determined “qualifications” to popup an online chat. In just the first 3 months of operation, IBM has seen over2,845 chats with new customers, resulting in 182 validated leads and is nowextending the online chat to Germany, China and Japan”

The “pre-determined qualifications” she mentions are what we refer to as business rules: setting dynamic messaging based on the context of the user’s visit. Look for an upcoming post about how to use business rules and automation to maximize chat lead capture results. Other well-known companies using chat for business leads are Dell, Cisco, Orvis, Golfsmith and Rackspace.

In fact, Joel Granoff, our CEO was an advisor to a recent MarketingProfs study which indicated 22% of all BtoB marketers are considering

Proactive Live Chat Keeps Visitors From Walking AwayDecember 23 2008

Dave Evans, of Digital Voodoo, recently focused his ClickZ column on measurements and how they can be used to to tune campaigns.

Dave wrote the following about Be Greeted.

How do you save a potential customer who’s about to abandon ship? Conversion Sciences’ Brian Massey reminded me of Be Greeted, an application that facilitates chat with customers. His clients use BeGreeted to offer a chat with potential customers who’ve spent a longer-than-normal amount of time on a given page. Think of this as the digital equivalent of walking over to a customer and politely asking, “Can I help you?” Want to dig deeper? Take a look at a recent Conversion Rate Experts post on 14 free tools that can help you understand why potential customers abandon your site.

Dave went on to write about Be Greeted customer, Bazaarvoice.

One of my favorite add-on ratings platforms is Bazaarvoice’s Ratings and Reviews platform. Turnkey, comprehensive, and in widespread use across the top 100 online retailers, Ratings and Reviews is a great platform for many applications. Outside of turnkey platforms, there are rating-and-review modules

66.5% of Marketers Will Increase Online Spending in 2009December 9 2008

BtoB Magazine’s survey of “2009 Marketing Priorities and Plans” was just released. Their survey of B2B marketing executives indicated 66.5% will increase online spending in the coming year.

MediaPost’s Online Media Daily also reported on several recent analyst forecasts, one from GroupM and the other ZenithOptimedia.

“GroupM projects online’s share of total ad spending will rise to 13%, while ZenithOptimedia forecasts it will climb to 12.1% from 10.3% in 2008.”

Not surprisingly, 2009 marketing spend is being allocated to marketing tactics that are able to be measured against results.

“Internet advertising continues to grow rapidly as advertisers turn to it for its innovation and accountability, which is particularly important in a recession when every line of a budget must be justified,” ZenithOptimedia wrote in its report.

The BtoB survey asked marketers which online tactics they plan to spend more on in 2009.

• Topping the list is e-mail marketing, cited by 68.3% of respondents, fol

Proactive Live Chat: The Ultimate “Below The Line” Marketing ToolNovember 28 2008

Randall Rothenberg, made a simple yet powerful observation. He is President & CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and recently wrote in their blog a post titled The “Line” on Internet Display Advertising. He began,

When the Interactive Advertising Bureau Internet Advertising Revenue Report came in for the second quarter of 2008, I took one quick look at the figures compiled by the PriceWaterhouseCoopers accounting firm and immediately said (first to myself, and then to anyone who cared to listen), “It’s a normal recession trend: Above-the-line dollars are moving below-the-line.”

Let me repeat the punch line to emphasize his point:

“It’s a normal recession trend: Above-the-line dollars are moving below-the-line.”

I was compelled to comment. Below is my post on the IAB web site in entirety.

There’s below the line and there’s BELOW the line.

My marketing career began in an era when “the line” also served as a demarcation of class; the glamour of Madison avenue advertising agencies often stood in stark contrast to their less sophisticated co

Lead Generation Key To Success During RecessionNovember 27 2008

Digital Response Media a UK-based agency, posted recent data on the importance of online lead generation. Here are couple of quick excerpts from their website.

Online lead generation ‘to see above-average growth’

Tuesday, 25 November 2008

Online lead generation will be one of the areas of advertising that will see above-average growth over the next two years, a new report has predicted.

According to Collins Stewart’s latest Global Internet report, lead generation, search, email and online video will all surpass average industry growth rates in the next two years.

Lead generation in particular will see worldwide revenue growth of 20 per cent to almost $2.5 billion (£1.7 billion) this year, 15 per cent in 2009 and 23 per cent in 2010, Collins Stewart said.

It also stated that it is cutting its forecast for the overall global advertising sector, which will expand by 10.9 per cent in 2009 instead of the 19.7 per cent previously predicted by the company.

An E-consultancy study published earlier this year showed that two-thirds of UK marketers believed search was the most cost-effective form of online lead generation for their organisations.

Lead generation ‘key in recession’

Thursday, 13 November 2008

Internet marketers will need to focus on