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Interactive Marketing:
Web Widgets - Engaging Audiences, Building Brand Awareness and Driving Web Site Traffic
Web widgets are getting a lot of attention these days. That is not surprising because they are growing fast in popularity, they are being transformed from consumer gadgets into powerful social media advertising delivery systems, and they are embraced by many large web properties, ranging from Google, Yahoo, Facebook, CBS to the New York Times.
Web Widgets
Widgets are small, interactive applications or tools, such as a video game, a calculator, a live sports updater, stock market quotes or a currency conversion calculator that run in tiny windows on the computer desktop, in a web page or on a mobile device. This article primarily focuses on web widgets that enrich web pages with useful information, functionality and are often quite a lot of fun.
Web widgets are also known as gadgets (Microsoft and Google) and applications (Facebook), modules, snippets and plug-ins. Widgets can be written in HTML, but also in JavaScript, other scripting languages and Flash, which runs within the web page when the web page is activated, enabling users to display personal or third-party content and services without actually moving to another web site.
Web widgets can easily be plugged into personal Web sites, blogs and social network profile pages, but also on web sites and blogs of professional organizations and companies, without requiring additional compilation, and they are distributed through a potentially vast number of web sites. Most Web widgets are available for free, though they often carry embedded links, logos or advertising that promote the widget publisher.
Web widgets are growing quickly in popularity because they complement and enhance the social networking or blogging environment of their users. Unlike pop-ups, their existence within a users' online experience is completely controlled by the users themselves.
To maintain staying power on a Web or blog page, Web widgets need to be fed with new content almost daily or weekly, e.g., through an RSS feed to keep the widget fresh and attractive.
Web Widget Applications
Web widgets can be divided by the way they are actually used. There are self-expression widgets, like photo galleries, games or video tools that allow users to create their own consumer media solutions. Other widget types include: revenue-generating widgets that pass leads or sales transactions on to ecommerce web sites; and site enhancement and productivity widgets that add functionality to a web site such as a news feed, a currency converter or an instant messaging application.
The idea of the Web widget is to create web applications and tools that people want and to push them out through the social web, so people can use them however they choose. Once Web widgets have been installed onto personal Web sites, blogs or social network profile pages, they tend to live on longer than traditional ads - not necessarily because users care about the brand or advertising, but because they like the interactive feature they downloaded the Web widget for.
While web users primarily use Web widgets to enhance their personal web experiences, or the web experiences of the visitors to their personal site, blog, or personal profile pages, corporations can also use Web widgets to improve the “stickiness” of their web sites.
Web Widget Marketing
Up until now, the focus of most Web widgets has been focused on gaining brand visibility, but there is a new trend towards creating revenue-generating widgets. Revenue-generating widgets allow bloggers, web site owners and other online publishers to post shopping-related content to their sites and make money by passing leads or sales transactions onto the creators or publishers of the widget. In the next three years, widgets can potentially change ecommerce and online advertising as we know it today.
Good examples of successful web widgets are Flickr’s “badge” tool that let friends of web users know when they’ve uploaded new snapshots and Nimbus, Gannett’s weather widget, accessible through the Tennessean newspaper (Click the banner at the very top of the home page). A gallery of sample web widgets is listed here.
Web Widget Distribution
Web widgets can be distributed in various ways. To achieve the widest distribution among consumers, they must be free. Something for any widget maker to consider is its relationship with the major platforms like MySpace, Facebook, and iGoogle, because these sites presently have a monopoly on the personal pages within which consumers embed widgets.
Another way to get a Web widget noticed and distributed around the web is to register the widget with a widget distribution company such as Musestorm, Widgetbox, Snipperoo web widget distribution market place and Clearspring.
Marketing Benefits
Web widgets are pure examples of pull marketing that is initiated by the target audience, compared with push marketing driven by marketers. They should be considered part of an overall online marketing strategy like email newsletters, paid search advertising and RSS feeds.
The marketing benefits of Web widgets are primarily in their brand awareness building and web traffic generation capabilities for the widget publishers’ business and web site. They can take the form of:
Brand visibility. Web widgets that are running on thousands of the web pages, social networking profile pages or blogs, and include the widget publishers’ company name or logo are building free brand awareness.
Direct web site traffic. Web widgets are generating direct traffic to the widget publishers’ web site from links that are pointing back to the web site. The click-through rates on advertising Web widgets have been reported to be up to 5 times higher than comparable banner or Adsense ads.
Search engine optimization. Web widgets provide a search engine optimization benefit when they are added to hundreds or thousands of Web sites. Through the back links they generate from an embedded link on the widget, the widget publishers’ web site gets a boost in search engine search results.
End User or Consumer Benefits
For the consumers or end-users who are implementing Web widgets on their personal home pages, blogs and social media profile pages, there are various benefits:
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Enhanced web site functionality. |
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Improved web site stickiness. |
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Web site or blog monetization through ecommerce Web widgets, which allow site owners to make money on shopping-related content or sales transactions, or by passing leads on to, e.g., Amazon.com, eBay or other affiliate partners. |
Requirements for Success
For Web widgets to become successful end-user tools or advertising vehicles and leverage the new social capabilities of the Web, they need to have the following characteristics:
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The Web widgets' functionality and content must be unique and compelling enough to persuade people to install it on their home pages, blogs or social network profile pages. |
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Web widgets must comply with the characteristics of the audience that they are aimed at. In other words, they must take into consideration the behavioral patterns of the end-user or the consumer, including their online usage habits, their site visitation patterns, the content they share, and the information they seek. |
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The Web widget must fit into its target user environment. For instance, a mobile Web widget must be simple and adapt to the usability limitations of the device, e.g., simple user interface, lightweight results and direct access. |
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Web widgets should be directly connected to the widget creators' Web site through an embedded link that can be followed by the search engine crawlers. That way, if someone wants more information, they can click through from the Web widget to the web site. The back links also help improve the rankings of the web site in the organic search engine results at major search engines. |
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The Web widget code format (HTML, Javascript, Flash, other scripting languages) must be chosen carefully and based on the target destination environment of the widget. |
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Porting a Web widget to multiple platforms, such as the Web and Facebook, extends the widgets' reach to a wider audience. Companies like Musestorm, Widgetbox, Snipperoo, AOL Aimpages, Gigya, Clearspring and others can facilitate widget distribution. |
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A Web widget must provide new and fresh content on a regular basis so the users can actually use the widget effectively and improve the widgets' staying power. |
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Company, brand name or logo must be included in the Web widget to build brand awareness, but more importantly, the Web widget must be associated with the service or product that is provided by the widget publisher. |
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Web widgets must be easy to install and use. Users should be able to use the Web widget within three clicks or less with minimal or no data entry. |
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Upcoming Speaking Engagements
Friday, September 14, 2007
128 Business Expo 2007
The Weston Waltham-Boston Hotel
70 Third Avenue
Waltham, MA
Louise Rijk presents:
“Blogging and Podcasting For Business“
More Details...
Monday, November 12, 2007
BizActions Conference 2007
Hilton Old Town
Alexandria, VA
Louise Rijk presents:
Email, Social Media and Search in the Overall Marketing Mix
More Details...
Recent Presentations
495/Metrowest Business Expo - Pre-Expo Keynote (Video)
“The Rise of the Internet as a Mass Advertising Medium”
Click here to play the video.
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| AMPTalk, our monthly audio podcast show on Internet Marketing is jam-packed with interviews and commentary on a wide-range of topics ranging from paid search advertising, ecommerce web site building, social media marketing and online media buying. |
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