I had the pleasure of receiving a retail industry e-newsletter from ICSC SmartBrief. It contained sponsorship banner ads from three competing companies, each offering retailers a solution for selecting better store locations. I’ll grade the three campaigns.

 Nielsen

• Offer: Plan sites with precision. Call Claritas today
• Landing page: Graphics match the banner ad, providing continuity. There’s a single offer in a secondary column to register to download an article. The main column contains lots of content and links that open new windows with more information on the solution.

Klein’s take: The ad carries both the Nielsen and Claritas brand, so that’s confusing. Which company are we working with here? The call-to-action on the ad is to pick up the phone, although if you click on the ad you go to a landing page on the Claritas Web site.

Matching the look and feel of the banner ad to the landing page is a plus, and the landing page is specific to the ad. The many links on the landing page may or may not help conversions. Some visitors will convert by registering for the article, while others will meander about the site clicking on the links; if they do come back to register, they’ll likely be more qualified for having accessed more content and stayed on the site longer.

Grade: B+

ESRI

• Offer: Find out how Business Analyst products can help you. Learn more.
• Landing Page: Graphics match the banner ad about retail sites, providing continuity. But the landing page is just a regular product page on the ESRI Web site.  There’s an offer near the top to request a complimentary copy of GIS Best Practices; again no mention of retail store locations.

Klein’s take: While the graphics on the landing page refer to retail store locations, the copy on the page is geared around a product suite and makes no direct mention of retail site selection until you scroll to the bottom. Not good. The offer of ‘Best Practices’ stands at the top of a secondary column, but again has no mention of retail store locations. It might help generate a few leads from the motivated visitor.  On the positive side, the landing page has a tracking url so ESRI can measure clicks and conversions from the campaign.

Grade: C

Pitney Bowes MapInfo

• Offer: Try the free demo today (the product is AnySite Online).
• Landing Page: A product page that makes no reference to the offer of a free demo until you scroll to the bottom of the page. No visual continuity because the graphics of the ad don’t match the graphics of the landing page.

Klein’s take: The landing page is not really a landing page, but a product Web page.  You have to scroll down to locate the text link that offers the free demo offer. I can see visitors land on the page, scan for a few seconds, then leave because they didn’t immediately find the demo offer. I also wonder if a free trial version of the online software is an appropriate offer at such an early stage in the sales & marketing cycle.

Grade: C-

• Would you rather get an ‘A’ on your lead generation campaigns? Contact Klein: You’ll always get the ‘A’ team.