Microsoft search engines haven’t been known as a bastion of PPC success in the past, but we have five words that point to why it may be worth looking at in the future:

1. Volume
One of Microsoft’s search engine marketing problems in the past was pure volume – advertisers looking to drive big traffic numbers turned to Google and Yahoo!, as Microsoft just didn’t attract enough users to make the time of creating and testing ads worthwhile.  With Bing pushing Yahoo! out of the number two ranking in their first week, and a massive advertising campaign in mid-swign, search volume looks to be on the rise.

2. Content
Google’s content network changed they way marketers reached buyers by targeting ads to page content.  Well, Microsoft’s own content network is now out of beta with a few fancy tools even Google doesn’t have.  This allows all advertisers, including small companies, to take advantage of targeted searching from Microsoft.  Who knew?

3. Focus
Similar to Google, Bing allows users to search based on topics: images, videos, shopping, news, travel, etc.  Bing supplies and endless list of more targeted search links, which continually funnel users into more targeted areas.  Bing was designed to move advertisers closer to those they are selling to, which, when combined with the content network, can only mean good things for ROI.

4.Interaction
Don’t underestimate the time users spend on Bing, as we noted earlier this week.  By design, Bing allows users to watch videos, scroll through and look at photography, etc.  All this extra time opens exposure for users to be targeted by ads that become increasingly relevant to them as they flow down the Bing portal in search of their content.

5. Cashback
One thing Bing has that Google doesn’t is Bing Cashback.  Attached to paid advertisements from companies taking part in the program, Bing is sure to attract users looking to save some extra cash in these financially shaky times.  And this will only grow as new users come to Bing out of curiousity and wind up discovering a program that pays them back.  This “rewards program” style of searching makes Bing the user search engine of choice while creating the behavior to look  in the paid search area first.  Pssstt…. these are both good things for all marketers.

Will Bing change the world of PPC?  History says probably not, but the new search engine certainly has a few upsides that could help deliver strong ROI for those who choose to get their feet wet.

What would it mean to Nascar to have Ms. Patrick line up each week with the likes of Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon, current three-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and a host of other well-known drivers and personalities? Well, some sports pundits believe it could bring in $50 million in fresh sponsorship money, not to mention the ripple effect her popularity would have on TV ratings and at-track attendance.

There is no doubt NASCAR has been hit hard by the recession.  By wooing the female, open-wheel racing star to a men’s sport, NASCAR is opening their historic playbook to fit their changing audience needs.  What is that need?  Freshness – a new story to tell, a new audience to bring to the sport, new sponsors to fund the teams, and TV viewers to tune in.

Some think the Car of Tomorrow has hurt the sport, so what better to bring it back to prominence than the story of the ultimate underdog?

With NASCAR willing to seriously look at introducing their audience to a new type of race car driver, despite generations of doing things the same way, what opportunities do you have in your industry to take a fresh look at your old commodities?

Is there a new audience to tap?  Is there a modification to the positioning of your product to make?   Take a fresh look at each area of the business, and in going to work on your business with your end user needs in mind, you provide yourself at least the opportunity to discover new solutions to get you over the hump.

Danica to Nascar: What It Could Mean for League, Sponsors

We’ve covered a lot on recently on the benefits and use of twitter, facebook and YouTube, as it is important to understand the value these types of outlets can provide to your business.  From a marketing standpoint, being able to reach 1,000’s of prospective hand-raising guests with relevant content on a daily basis – for little to no cost – is unprecedented.  The better we can shape how these methods of communication can assist you and your business goals, the closer we can help get you to moving the needle in making social media go to work for you.

A large number of sports organizations have social media accounts, but very few actually provide engaging content. Here are 5 suggestions for how sports teams can ramp up their social media use:

1. Be engaging. Several NBA teams have Twitter presences but don’t participate in conversation with their followers. Use @replies on Twitter and comments on Facebook to actually jump into discussions with fans.

2. Provide information and fun anecdotes about your club and personnel that fans cannot get elsewhere.

3. Leave stats updates for your website and third-party sports news services, unless one of your players logs off-the-chart numbers that warrant repeating. Social media should be more about providing fans personal information, and less about repeating numbers they hear on SportsCenter.

4. Respect the history and people who made your club popular. If a fan or former employee provides information about which you were previously unaware, post it with credit.

5. Maintain an active presence on social media sites during your sport’s off season in order to build year-round interest.

How the NBA is Using Social Media.

With penny’s being pinched due to this blasted recession, it will be the innovators, those that take and hit on risks, that gain market share.  Carl’s Jr. wasn’t a household name where I come from (we had good, old fashioned Hardees).  But with a solid and smart internet campaign, that may change…

Justine Ezarik might not be a household name, but the 25-year-old has a cable TV-size audience. The only difference: Ezarik’s audience is on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks to Google, she’s also now part of Carl’s Jr.’s effort rolling out this week to sell the Portobello Mushroom Six-Dollar Burger to young men. The search-engine giant drafted Ezarik and eight other popular YouTube creators to participate in an ad campaign for the fast-food chain on the video-sharing site. They were commissioned to put their own spin on the CKE Restaurants brand’s infamous Paris Hilton-eating-a-burger commercial by showing how they would eat theirs.

Carl’s Jr. Makes New Kind of Network Buy

Or, if you do jump off the Bing portal, you can search, click through “refine” links automatically loaded by Bing based on your keywords, and land on a deeper, more targeted page.

This is having an interesting impact web analytics. From changes in bounce rates and page views, Bing is showing the capability of changing the industry.

This means that companies will have to become more familiar with engagement versus page views to understand the length of time someone watches a video or time spent on the site – and businesses will have to pay more attention to the quality rather than the quantity of page views.

Bing Throws Web Analytics for a Loop – MarketingVOX.

The idea of marketing to inspire follows our continuing conversation of commodity v. product.  The North Face isn’t selling you coats.  They sell you the access to your dreams that their gear provides.

The next time you write ad copy about your new shiny thing or event, think more about the impact that thing will have on your customer’s life, the benefit of that impact, and the importance of that benefit – then speak to that place.  You’ll go much further than a conversation about polyester fills would take you.

We hold ourselves to higher standards. Consumers want to aspire to be in that special place. In an ad, you don’t want to show someone walking to class in a fleece, they want to be inspired. The mountains and the outdoors in general are an inspiring place. The goal is to show people the ultimate thing that you could or would do in that specific gear. Show people the brand and product in its purest form; in the environment it was designed to thrive in. That inspiration to “never stop exploring” is what The North Face was founded on and we will continue to enable people to do just that

Interview with Nate Bosshard, Action Sports Brand Manager for The North Face: Part 1

Interview with Nate Bosshard, Action Sports Brand Manager for The North Face: Part 2

The story looks at health clinics that, in the face of rising costs and pending reform, are refocusing their efforts on the needs of their patients despite the status quo.  Rather than starting with a focus on the typical urgent care assembly line-style service we’ve all come to know and love, churning out patients as timely and cost-efficiently as possible, these clinics are approaching heath care from atypical angles.  Patients calling doctors on their cell phones?  Monthly service fees?

The point here isn’t about the health care industry.  It’s about your business.  Your guests.  How are their needs changing, and how can you look at the product/service you provide, not the commodity that you sell, and realign it to better fit your market’s needs?

Mr. Martin said he spent $40 for the resulting prescription but the rest was covered by a monthly fee he pays Dr. Sacks. “A weekend visit to the E.R. would have easily cost $1,000,” he said.

Dr. Sacks charges patients a direct monthly fee of $54 to $129 based on age, and she doesn’t take insurance. Her office calls its philosophy “direct practice” because it’s a direct contract between doctor and patient. But she advises patients to obtain insurance plans to cover large, unexpected health costs like those to treat cancer or a heart attack.

If All Doctors Had More Time to Listen – NYTimes.com.

Social networking growing as an online marketing tool

YouTube leads pack as online video views set record – Bizjournals.com

Search Engine Watch

YouTube leads pack as online video views set record Bizjournals.com, NC Americans watched a record 16.8 billion online videos in April, with YouTube hosting four of every 10 videos viewed over the Internet. Internet traffic tracking firm comScore says online video watching grew by 16 percent from March to April. … 152 Million US Internet Users Watched 16.8 Billion Online Videos … Search Engine Watch Americans Viewed a Record 16.8 Billion Videos Online in April … PR Newswire (press release) YouTube drives video viewing to record month Computerworld