This company's loyalty program is paying off, boosted by consumer generated publishing.

Sheryl Biesman is Internet Marketing Manager for Pharmavite, manufacturer of Nature Made® vitamins and minerals, SAM-e, Nature’s Resource® herbal products, Optimize™ fiber/calcium beverages, and other supplements designed to promote health.

Biesman develops and executes annual Internet marketing plans, negotiates and manages strategic partnerships with existing and new eretailers that are developing Web sites, evaluates feasibility and develops strategy for Pharmavite’s own Internet business, creates, executes and analyzes promotional campaigns, relationship marketing events, and merchandising strategies to determine correct marketing mix and oversees all customer relationship marketing (CRM) efforts executed via email marketing to the internal database, including creative development, list segmentation and deployment.

iMediaConnection: What was your biggest online "win" this year, and how did you sell it throughout the company?

Biesman: We saw increased repeat purchasing behavior that we can only attribute to our loyalty program that is offered on our Web site.

iMediaConnection: How has your job changed this year?

Biesman: I have been recently integrated into our Nature Made brand group where I am overseeing promotions. This will enable us to run consistent promotions across both online and offline media.

iMediaConnection: What surprised you in the online world this year?

Biesman: The increase in advertising prices and the lack of availability of inventory in certain places where I advertised last year with no problem.

iMediaConnection: How do you determine your marketing mix -- and how has the role of online in it changed?

Biesman: I like to try small tests in many different places and then I measure the results by looking at the various metrics we use to determine success.

iMediaConnection: What haven't you brought into the marketing mix yet that you want to try?

Biesman: At one time, I was spending a large percentage of my budget on search, but I've cut that back in the last 12 months because it wasn't performing as well as some other types of advertising. I'd like to revisit it again in 2005.

iMediaConnection: Are you using consultants, software, agencies or other tools to help with search engine  marketing?

Biesman: Not right now, but we've had several discussions with agencies and may move forward with one in 2005.

iMediaConnection: What do we need to be doing as an industry to help you make interactive marketing a bigger piece of your marketing pie?

Biesman: The one way this could potentially happen is if we were able to prove beyond a question of a doubt that the money we're spending online is driving significant sales to our customers' bricks-and-mortar stores.

iMediaConnection: Are you being affected by any consumer-generated marketing (CGM) -- blogs, user groups, etc.? Are you using any blogs or other social networking tools to market?

Biesman: Yes, our loyalty program and our online promotions are often discussed in user groups. We see small spikes in traffic on the days that someone posts something about us or a link to our site. We are not currently spending money to market this way, however. It happens organically.

iMediaConnection: Does anything still frustrate you about what online can or can't do?

Biesman: The lack of consistent reporting and, to an extent, consistent sized ad units. Although we're a lot closer now than we were a while back with both, I still have difficulty comparing our software reporting with those from the sites where I advertise. On the subject of ad units, I still get requests for odd-sized units, or in some cases, the dimensions are the same, but the maximum file size is different.

iMediaConnection: What blogs do you read?

Biesman: None on a regular basis. I've tried, but haven't been able to jump on the blog band wagon. Just seems to take up too much time. I much prefer daily newsletters that are pushed to me and that I can glance through quickly and then delete.

iMediaConnection: What are your daily "must-see" Web sites and why?

Biesman: I have everything I could ever want set up on "My Yahoo," which is my home page, and I've got the Google search field on my browser's toolbar. I'm on those two sites through the day. Others that I visit regularly are those that I've got partnerships with including: Amazon, Drugstore.com, Walgreens.com, CVS.com, etc.

iMediaConnection: What are you reading these days, other than iMediaConnection.com, of course?

Biesman: Daily Candy, Internet.com Daily, IAB SmartBrief, eMarketer Daily, VentureWire Professional, Dr. Weil Daily Tip, KenRadio Daily Tech News.