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Laura Thieme

Bizresearch President – 10 years - 2007

Fisher College of Business Lecturer on Search Marketing

OSU Russian Studies Grad – 1993

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1st July 2007

30 Days In An Electric Car? 2 replies

Is It Possible - to Survive/Drive 30 Days in an Electric Car?
And Why Would I Want To?

A week ago, on a Saturday morning, I decided to blog about my desire to test drive electric cars for 30 days.  By Monday morning, I had two companies calling my office asking me for details.  I am likely moving forward with both companies in various ways.  I’ve been asked by both companies and others, why I would want to do this?  What’s in for me, for them, and others?

Personally, I’m interested in electric cars, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and alternative modes of transport.  Gas went up to $3.18 a gallon, or thereabouts this week, which was timely as I was driving to Mackinac Island for the Bizresearch Search N Spa event preparation (in August), which is about 450 miles each way from Worthington, Ohio.  It’s also timely as this is peak time for driving vacations.  It’s the week of the 4th of July.  No better time to up the gas prices, right?  I think gas prices are going to have to peak more, unfortunately, for people to strongly consider alternative fuels, or decide to drive an electric or plug-in hybrid.  But quite frankly, all of us are hearing more about electrics, hybrids and plug-in hybrids, if we’re tuned into the environment, global warming, and the news. 

Curiosity as stated above, environmental awareness and civic stewardship is a main driver in this initiative.  I’m a search marketing agency exec, so marketing & PR is the other key driver for all parties involved.  I don’t blog for the sake of blogging, I blog for the sake of educating others and to get my thoughts on “paper”.  I like to see incoming links and reviews from other environmentalists, TreeHugger, search marketers and others who are curious about electric cars or any other topic I choose to cover.  I want to increase awareness about social media, PR and search, and how these mediums can drive traffic and sales for all involved.

Most people, including myself, have noted that blogs drive traffic, but as of yet, are not great in terms of sales or revenue builders.  I do web analytics, and speak at the major search engine marketing conferences on this topic.  I spoke in New York about blog analytics, at the SES conference in April, and talked about how we used three different web analytics programs (NetTracker, Google Analytics, and ClickTracks Pro) to see whether or not people were staying on our site, or progressing to leads as a result of coming to our site, via a blog entry.

Typically, myself and others are saying that blogs do not convert people to sales.  Therefore, for those who’ve asked, if you’re wanting traffic numbers on blogs, that’s not a good indicator of sales potential.   Blog traffic and sales do not typically match expectations.  The conversion rate and actually, bounce rate, might be high for a blog entry.   But my goal here is not just to drive traffic, I’m working on increasing awareness, using social media as one medium to document my work, but actually coordinating everything offline with my PR agency, news media, local contacts, government and chamber execs, and environmentalists.

I plan to coordinate the 30-day event with all my solid contacts in the areas stated above to create a story that people want to know about - not just environmentalists.  I think people need to know about the value of an electric car but its limitations as well.  People appreciate knowing benefits and limitations before they buy. 

Here are my goals:

*Bizresearch is a full-service search engine marketing agency, serving clients with services such as a Competitor Market Assessment & Online Marketing Strategy ($20-$65k), paid search services (approximately 10% of ad spend or retainer), organic search (retainer), and web analytics services.   The fees assessed our potential green marketing agencies are not a main “driver” of Bizresearch’s revenue.  However, they do cover our expenses and marketing initiatives as stated in the blog entry below.

2 Responses to “30 Days In An Electric Car?”

  1. » 30 Days in An Electric Car? - Bizresearch - Search Marketing Blog says:
    July 1st, 2007 at 10:36 pm

    […] So why would I want to drive for 30 days in an electric car?  Learn more about this green marketing initiative at […]

  2. Anonymous says:
    April 28th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    It’s been almost a year. Don’t see any info.

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