eMarketer Predicts 88 Million Americans Will Redeem Online Coupons in 2011

About 50 percent of all adult Internet users in the United States, roughly 88 million people, “will have redeemed an online coupon or code for use either online or offline" by the end of 2011, eMarketer predicts.

And eMarketer sees only continued growth in the coming years. 88 million online coupon redeemers will become nearly 100 million by 2013, eMarketer projects.

“Consumer brands are accustomed to promoting their products in stores and in newspaper inserts,” says Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst. “But as more shoppers make purchase decisions online before taking a shopping trip, brands are following them onto the internet.

eMarketer Predicts 88 Million Americans Will Redeem Online Coupons This Year

How Much Content Is Needed For Content Marketing?

"Buyers and influencers of high consideration B2B technology solutions typically use about three distinct content types during the awareness, the consideration, and the purchase phases of the buying process, a total of nine pieces," says Forrester Research analyst Daniel Klein.

But there's more: you are likely to have a minimum of three to four key buying influences for any moderately complex solution. "That means you’ll need to ensure that you’re applying the 3x3 to each buyer and influencer," says Klein. See http://blogs.forrester.com/daniel_klein/11-05-30-the_right_ratio_for_your_content_marketing_strategy_guiding_principle_number_three.

Does that mean any brand has to create 27 to 36 different content pieces? Actually, no, and the reason is the existence of the Internet. Buyers and influencing parties typically find 70 percent of the content that they consume on their own, says Klein.

All brands will create some of their specific content, but no brand should expect to create most of the content potential buyers will use. Also, "look for reuse or shared content," says Klein. That's the basic principle behind content curation: you don't have to create all the useful content, but you can aggregate and point to it.

Also, 3:1:1 is the simple but powerful ratio that should guide your content strategy, says Klein. Buyers and influencers of high consideration solutions find 70 percent of the content they consume on their own, 15 percent of the content that they consume is typically sent to them by marketers and the remaining 15 percent is delivered to them by sales (or an indirect sales channel.

The 70 percent of the content that they find on their own can take many forms. They find it via a search query, come across it while reading an online article, seek it out by coming to your website and through other means as well. Because this percent is so great, you can’t possibly control everything they find, but you can still help them find the content. That's what content curation is about.

How Much Content Is Needed For Content Marketing?

eBay "retail-as-a-service"

Online commerce will be sold as a cloud-based service if eBay creates a new "cloud commerce" platform-as-a-service for retailers, complete with an app-store fed by web developers. The company has bought shopping engine specialist Magento, and eBay already bought X.Commerce, an open-source platform group. The shopping giant had already owned 49 per cent of Magento, after it invested $22.5 million in March 2010.

eBay buy signals retail-as-a-service cloud

Verizon Personalizes Broadband, Video Packages

With a maturing market, service providers often find themselves facing different marketing challenges than in a younger, faster-growing market.

Though it has been emphasizing triple-play packages for some time, Time Warner Cable now will devote new effort to "broadband only" single-play customers, in part because most video customers seem unwilling to change providers just to get broadband services from a new provider.

Likewise, Verizon now is offering packaging with more variety for its triple-play prospects and customers as well, essentially offering end users to emphasize either broadband or video, rather than having to buy linear packages that essentially offer a "good, better, best" approach that assumes all customers value video and broadband equally.

In other words, a consumer really wanting the best broadband, but less interested in video variety, can buy a package built that way. Likewise, a consumer that wants the maximum video variety but is less concerned about broadband speed can buy that way as well.

It's hard to tell what the recurring revenue impact will be, but the customer churn should be lower. Verizon’s broadband packages increase by $5 for each 10 Mbps increase in speeds, while video packages increase by $10 as they step up from about 200 channel to nearly 400 channels.

"Choice" long has been one of the most-powerful marketing concepts. "Personalized" has likewise become key. Verizon seems to be wanting to reflect those values in its packaging.

Verizon’s Bundle Builder

Mobile Will Need to Become an "App Platform"

For European mobile operators, the next phase of business development will be about mobile service as a platform for web and other applications, displacing a more-recent phase where success hinged on new data revenues, smart phones, reducing operating costs and raising average revenue per user, says Declan Lonergan, Yankee Group analyst.

Clearly gone is the period where success could be built around text messaging, voice revenue and minutes of use.

Some executives rightly will be concerned, if only because the next phase of growth will depend on the ability to create a new revenue platform based on access and other elements of mobile service that can be sold to business partners, if not directly to end users.

Mobile Will Need to Become an "App Platform"

Apple iMessage Will Act Like BlackBerry Messenger

Apple's new iMessage service will act in a manner similar to BlackBerry Messenger. Depending on your point of view, that is a major alternative to carrier-provided text messaging, or not a factor. iMessages will be sent using the standard data connection, and could replace a text message, so long as the recipient also is on an iOS device.

So iPhone owners who are able to send iMessages to the people they most often text with might find the feature quite useful. Such users might be able to pay text messaging plans that save them money. Others will simply find they don't want to think about "how" to send a message. Also, lots of users are on unlimited texting plans in any case, so the "savings" actually aren't there.

Apple Attacked Mobile Carriers Today, But Also Gave Them A Gift

Apple's iOS 5: No More Syncing to a PC

With iOS 5, Apple finally has moved device set-up and updates away from the need to connect to a PC to accomplish such tasks. One assumes that eventually will happen with iPads as well.

Apple also has integrated Twitter, providing a single sign-on for Twitter use on the phone, and with any app you download, it will just ask you for Twitter credential permission.

There’s no need to re login. The practical advantages are that photos, maps, YouTube videos, web content and location details can be sent directly from inside the applications.

Twitter photos and @usernames can be autopulled into the phone’s contacts.

Apple's PC-Free iOS 5 Coming This Fall