iGoogle for Marketersby Rob Stokes

CEO Quirk eMarketing

What is iGoogle?

Google’s personalised home page

• Users customise the content of their page

• More than 30 000 gadgets to choose from

• Millions of unique users every day

A fun video…

Gadgets?

Also known as widgets, badges, modules, webjits, capsules, snippets, flakes and plug-ins

On iGoogle, they are called Gadgets

Gadgets are like small web pages which can be embedded on other pages

They can consist of HTML, Javascript, CSS, Flash, Silverlight, etc.

Basically anything possible in a web page is possible in a gadget

Gadgets are easy to develop and share!

What’s really cool about this?

You can write once, run anywhere

Anyone can take your gadget and embed it in their site or iGoogle page along with your brand message

Quick fact:

1997, Trivia Blitz was the first widely syndicated widget. It was a Java game applet built by uproar.com as a mechanism to drive traffic to their site

So why use gadget technology?

Because they use standard web technologies

Scalable

Cross platform

Free hosting and bandwidth

Gadgets can be used in many places

So why are you here?

We want to introduce you to the world of gadgets from a marketing perspective

Why should you be thinking about gadgets?

Masses of eyeballs and interactions for your brand!

Some gadgets get millions of page views each day

Engaging your customer online is no longer restricted to your website

Your brand now needs to be on their turf in a way which suits them

What’s the most commonly viewed page on the internet?

Now 1 in 5 US visitors to Google are seeing this:

iGoogle is Google’s fastest growing service!

iGoogle is not only a marketing tool, it is also useful to marketers

It offers instant dashboard capabilities

Many third party marketing applications have iGoogle gadgets

You can even get the gadgets to interact with each other to form a full application

So what makes a good gadget?

Much like any customer engagement tactic, it must deliver timely and relevant value to the user

Provide useful information or services

Extend functionality or information already provided by a web property. I.e. BrandsEye.com

It should localised wherever possible

I.e. SA Weather Vs. Weather

Use iGoogle yourself and consider

• Which gadgets grab your attention

• Which gadgets do you keep installed

• Which gadgets inspire you

South Africa’s most popular gadgets

News gadgets:

• News24

• SABC News

• CNN

• Sports News

• Mail and Guardian

• IOL

Useful gadgets:

• Gmail

• Currency Converter

• Date/Time/Clock

• Dictionary

• Calendar

• To do list

Fun gadgets:

• Famous quotes

• NASA Image of the day

• Facebook!

• Daily Joke

• South African Slang

Lets see some of them in action…

Things to consider when developing gadgets

Relevance

Stickiness

Functionality

Usability

Design

Make your content locally relevant

But also offer multiple languages through your gadget

Keep your content FRESH – update at least daily!

Be fun – style counts!

Be a good citizen – don’t ask for too much info and respect the info users give you

Above all ask yourself the question…

“What will make my gadget remarkable?”

Marketing your gadget

Firstly make sure its remarkable!

Then syndicate it on your website or blog with an “add to Google” button

Also submit your gadget to Google and other third party directories

How do you rank well in the gadget directory?

Like the main search engine, the results are algorithmic

Factors in this formula include:

•Gadget popularity

•The amount of time users keep the gadget

•Metadata provided by author

•Personalisation (user specific) factors

You can set the following metadata so make sure its keyword optimised

•Title

•Description

•Author

•Author email

•Screenshot

•Thumbnail (make sure its enticing!)

•Directory Title

Other marketing considerations:

Size: if its too big, users will delete and that will hurt your ranking

Test: speed and functionality – users will delete gadgets that are slow or broken

Choose the right category – Google will auto assign one if you don’t specify

•News

•Tools

•Communications

•Fun and Games

•Finance

•Sports

•Lifestyle

•Technology

•Politics

You can even aggregate gadgets and offer a full iGoogle tab as a service to your customers

Measuring Performance

Weekly page views are displayed in the directory

You can also use Google Analytics or most decent analytics packages

Gadget ads

A rich and interactive new ad format using the same technology as iGoogle gadgets.

Once again, they are like mini versions of your website in any Adsense ad size

Can incorporate live data feeds to increase relevance and value

Ability to reach over 75% of unique internet users in more than 20 languages in over 100 countries

Different targeting options: contextual, site, geographic, demographic

Priced on a CPM or Adwords auction CPC model >NO campaign charges!

No serving or hosting costs!

Full analytics and interaction reporting

A great gadget ad example:

“Using Gadget ads has led to additional conversions at a significantly lower CPA”

Bettina Feil, Marketing Manager, Lastminute.de

A few more examples…

Lets get practical….!

Some final notes…

Wits gadget competition: (UCT Vs. Wits)

Will the students beat the pros?

Entries in by 31st October

iGoogle Version 2 incorporates the Open Social API so you can make your gadgets social…!

Editors picks: email us ->gadgets@quirk.biz

Thank You