Why?

 

Well, it is frequently said that social media marketing has been a great added quality to traditional SEO done on your web site. Yet, it does not replace a good SEO work.

 

Knowing a few secrets about social media and social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, you will have the opportunity to take advantage of including your web site in a viral market through the “buzz” that can be created. Additionally, you can actually create a conversation with your target audience.

 

But, first you have to define who your target audience exactly is, then you have to look into what is being looked up in search engines, and finally plan how your website can provide your target market the useful information they need.

 

Now, generate some buzz and traffic!

 

It can help you to build credibility and improve your reputation or image in the market. In addition, through your participation in social media marketing and your social networks it may increase the sales of your products and services directly or indirectly.

 

But, of course, it’s not the same for every kind of business model! The more dependent you are on the traffic or ad impressions your site has, social media marketing could be more important and powerful for your business.

If not, you should!

Online Video may be an interesting way to implement your online marketing campaign and may strengthen your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) too. Why?

Well, in first place Google Universal Search has upgraded its searches, so they work with Organic SEO techniques. Searches can be narrowed down through different criteria and enabling users to choose different views with, Web sites, forums, videos, reviews or images. Therefore, now more than ever Online Marketing gives businesses a chance to do better in search engines.

Additionally, it is important to know that early this year 72% of US Internet users watched video clips monthly which makes video bigger than blogging or social networking, said the study “The Global Web Index”  from Trendstream and conducted by Lightspeed Research.

How to start?

• Define your target audience.
• Define your objectives.
• Think about that your target audience wants to watch.
• Include videos in your Web site that respond to those steps.
• Produce and broadcast online video blogs related to your Web site, your business, your products in a creative way with an embedding code.

Keep in mind that Nielsen Online reported that there were almost 117 million US online video viewers in April 2009. Proportionally online video is as used as network TV in the US!

What are some of the benefits?

• Videos reach larger audiences in an entertaining way.
• The video are easier to share.
• The video can be embedded and posted on weblogs, Web sites, social networking sites, among others increasing the buzz.
• The video viewers may find subjects of their interest in them and become potential customers.

The team of Weboart can offers website design and SEO techniques to ensure that you get good ranking in search engines and increase the traffic to your Web sites. Our belief that our customers should have reliable support from us, is taking us to the next level of reliability in result-oriented service. If you need any help, just call us today at 1-800-932-2580.

Source:
How People Share Online Video

Global Web Index

In this scenario, Search Engine Marketing not only is a great way to promote your Website and your online business, but it can also help you generate more clicks! SEM is an advertising and marketing strategy on the Internet with the aim to increase your business’ or products’ visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). Some important aspects of the campaign are: pay-per-click, pay for inclusion, banners and directories to increase the PR (Page Ranking) of your Website. So, more and more companies are adopting this marketing and ad strategy to produce measurable results.

According to a survey conducted by Forrester Research, 8% of the online retailers that plan to spend more on marketing for remainder of this year will invest in SEM. Is that your situation? Here, the main objective is to increase the traffic of your website through the analysis of your prospects and competitors. That will help you gain customers and increase your sales as well!

Here you can find some key tactics to maximize your marketing investment in SEM:

• First, create the data set for the campaign and make sure that you integrate your SEM strategy with your email data and other communication tools that you use for your business.
• Build specific strategies for each individual segment.
• Then, it’s essential to optimize the landing page or home page content to match your visitors’ preferences.
• Customize the content of your Website and your ads, based on the search queries.
• By the way, generally, natural SEO (search engine optimization) is the most effective means of SEM available and it much longer lasting.
• Remember the importance of measuring your search engine campaign results to optimize your performance.

Source:

5 Strategies for Maximizing Search and Email Marketing

1) Have a solid knowledge of your business’ fundamentals. This means knowing not only your projections, but also your realities. How are your numbers doing? Take a view on your monthly incomes and expenses. Improve your measurement tactics in order to know where you are standing. It is also important to build a contingency plan in case things take a turn for the worse. If you take time to do this, you will definitely be prepared for other critical situations.

2) Increase your sales by giving discounts. You can offer a special deal to your best customers for future repeat purchases. It is a great way for clients to be committed to your company. For instance, you can give them an online coupon or code for their online shopping.

3) Build a marketing plan. Sometimes tough times can be an opportunity to promote yourself and your products. Analyze if this is the right time for you to show what you are doing. And if it’s not, come up with creative ideas to do the best in your marketing budget and increase your ROI. Try implementing some online marketing strategies!

4) Analyze your cash flow. It’s vital to create and monitor your cash flow with your accountant. It’ll keep your business from going under.

5) Develop strategies and action plans. Organize regular meetings with your team to talk over your course of action and think it through strategically. Are you carrying out actions and strategies in the digital world? Propose strategies and ideas to go through the crisis. Communication is essential and even more in times of economic crisis. Motivate your team, and together you will find a way out!

In summary, the crisis could also be an opportunity. Consider the current context as a challenge for your business. Consolidate your statistics and measurement tactics to know where you are standing. And keep in mind that here teamwork is really important. So, listen to other people’s ideas and build solid action plans and strategies.

Sources:

• How the financial crisis affects small business
  
• Tips for small businesses to survive the financial crisis

As you know, mobile devices are constantly increasing their functionalities; they’re now more like a handheld computer than a wireless telephone and worldwide cellulars are reaching up to 4 billion subscriptions.  People don’t basically need to be at home or work to be in touch with the Internet world. Internet is now everywhere: on the subway, the bus, at the airport or even at the cinema. There is an increasing need of the customers to be online all day long checking their emails or reading the news; due to our informatics lifestyle combined with sophisticated little wanders. As a consequence of this technological advance, online businesses are also affected. How can you take advantage of the benefits of Mobile Marketing strategies?

The most important thing to point out is that Mobile Marketing allows you to have a direct, constant and personal contact with your current customers and prospects. In addition, we can also mention these advantages:

1) Cost-effective: Mobile Marketing campaigns allows you to reach a wider audience without a big effort. They’re easy to create and execute, you will be able to enter to the cell phone market without spending a fortune. As there’s no need to pay for printing, air time or postage, the investment risk is really low. Moreover, you can integrate and mix new ways of advertisement with your existing ones in order to boost your brand communication!

2) Immediacy: Mobile marketing campaigns are created and executed easily. You can deliver your customized message within a few seconds, and in most of the cases the users will get and read it as fast as you send it. No need to wait or negotiate room for advertising!

3) Interactivity and effectiveness: It allows having a more effective two-way communication channel. You can easy choose your target demographically and geographically and be pretty sure they will receive your message just the way you sent it. Additionally, it’s believed that mobile messages have a higher rate of response than the ones you send to customer’s direct emails.

4) Measurable results: You can easily determine your Return on Investment (ROI) by analyzing your numbers of visits and messages which have been answered, as well as downloads, page visits, customer opt-ins and other methods.

5) Domino effect: If you get to create an emotion in the receiver, he or she will want to transmit it. That’s free publicity for you. When someone gets a text message, he or she has the impression of being the only one getting it. Then, if receivers think it’s worth it, they will talk to friends and family about it. So make it worth it! Be creativity because not all the Mobile devices have the same possibilities.

6) Memorable Content: Mobile advertising is all about the message content. The user will usually remember what he or she reads; but beware of lettering, data hierarchy and legibility. Enhance your content with presents to your users; ringtones, useful information or anything you know your possible customer will appreciate.

Being highly interactive, easy to operate, measurable, personalized and inexpensive; Mobile Marketing is getting popular among new marketing strategies and best practices, but it must be point out that it can also be dangerous when overused. You should be smart with the time and frequency of your messages. You should find equilibrium between being in touch with your customers in a personalized way and avoid the fact of annoying them. If you are too invasive, then your Mobile Marketing Campaign may fail.

So now that you know, think of your client as the lovely girl at the bar and don’t let her go without getting her number!

Let us bring you up-to-date on what is happening. Read some of these news!

Mobile Texting Opportunities

Nokia and Intel to Pair Up on Mobile Devices

Microsoft’s Operating System For Mobiles Faces A Tough Fight

New Dell Mobile Devices A Dubious Prospect

Event-based mobile marketing is an ‘undeniable trend’, says MMA

Sources

Rodnay, N. (2009, Apr 27).  Mobile Marketing Overview.

MMA. (2009, July 1). U.S. Consumer best Practices Guidelines V 4.0 – PDF doc

Arimaan Global Consulting (2008) Influence of mobile technology in business growth - PDF doc

Segan, Sascha (2009, July 2). The Top 5 Mobile Products of the Past 5 Years

It’s clear that Email marketingstill is a rewarding technique that can help you increase your sales and achieve success for your ecommerce business. Its simple usage, cost-effective nature and worldwide access have made it really popular. Email marketing campaigns have high potential to deliver your product information and therefore sell your products!

Still, there is some stuff you should know in order to avoid mistakes and evade hurting your business.

Do’s

• Generate interest by producing targeted content. Plan what you want to say and sell! Reflect your concern for your costumers’ needs and demands. Then, you will raise your chances of getting understood and raise your sales!
• Offer something that is really worth it. If your emails are pointless, your prospects will stop reading them. For instance you can provide a discount coupon, free shipping promotion codes, an invitation to participate to a contest, among others. Remember that being creative is crucial for your marketing success!
• Ask for feedback. It is always important to make your costumer feel that you care about their thoughts, opinions, suggestions and concerns. By receiving feedback from your current customers and prospects, you will be able to improve your campaigns and fulfill customers’ expectations.
• Reply your emails within 24 hours. Some prospects may want to obtain further information about your product or services before buying them. Never forget to reply these emails within 24 hours otherwise you can look inconsiderate and unprofessional. And, many people can just drop the purchase!

Don’ts

• Don’t request too much information. Keep always focus on obtaining email addresses instead of getting extra information such as an age, name and location. If you ask for too much information, many people could refuse filling in their information.
• Don’t send too many emails to subscribers. If you send an excessive amount of emails to your contacts, they will probably get annoyed soon and your emails will be deleted without being read.
• Don’t refuse a unsubscription request. A common annoying mistake is to refuse the request of being removed from your email list. By doing this, you will not only damage your e-commerce business’ image, but you will also lead people to simply block you. You can even get banned as SPAM!

All the tips mentioned above will help your e-commerce business! You can definitely build a good email marketing strategy by following them. So go ahead and take advantage of them!

Sources:

• eCommerce Email Marketing Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make
• Email Marketing Tips

Yes, you’re right! There is no doubt that cell phones are one of the most personal ways to interact with your consumers. And here, you can implement short code marketing, which is a marketing text message sent through a Common Short Code (CSC).

CSCs are those short numeric codes to which text messages can be sent from your cell phone.

As we can see on TV, short codes are even changing the way we engage with traditional media. Participation and interaction are present more than ever via SMS text messaging.  Viewers can participate in prize draws, vote for contestants, play at home or get further information about their favorite TV program. But, how can companies take advantage of it as well!?

Marketers can use common short codes in a variety of ways. For instance, you can:

• Send information, news and promotions to your current customers, prospects or subscribers
• Use direct SMS purchasing to order products
• Provide special offers through text and multimedia messaging
• Offer mobile coupons as text message codes that can be used at stores or e-commerce sites
• Send bar code coupons using multimedia messaging that can be scanned as a traditional paper coupon
• Launch a reward program and allows consumers to collect unique codes found on products and then enter the codes over their mobile phone on the go. Then, they can redeem points for rewards
• Allow customers and prospects to request information, coupons and samples over text messaging
• Allow customers to download applications and games, among others

How does it work?

Do you want to get a short code? First, you have to apply and pay an annual fee to the Common Short Code Administration (CSCA). Then, it leases a five- or six-digit phone number. Common Short codes can be either random digit codes, selected codes, or your favorite “vanity” codes (9326278, “W-E-B-O-A-R-T”).

How effective are Short Code campaigns?

It seems that subscribers are getting used to interact with brands in the same way as they do with their friends and family. About 16% of text messengers in the U.S receive some form of ad text message every month. From this group, 45% said that they responded to them.

Did you know that all the US mobile subscribers now send and receive more text messages in a month than regular phone calls, according to a research done by The Nielsen Company?

Between 2006 and 2008 text messaging has increased from 65 monthly text messages up to 357.

Though teenagers represent the group that sends more text messages, other age groups also shows how this trend keeps growing. Adults from age between 35 and 44 years old send around 236 text messages per month!

In summary, the CSCs revolution keeps growing among members of different age groups and nationalities. Reach almost every mobile consumer by adding a Common Short Code!

Sources:

• Common Short Code Administration
• The Nielsen Company. The Short Code Marketing Opportunity

From April to June 2009, many businesses have increased their online ad investment. 5.4 billion was spent on online ads, which means that more than 5% of Internet advertising spending in the U.S. was cut in the second quarter of the year, according to according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers quarterly report. Despite these numbers, online ads are one of the least affected advertising sectors.

In contrast, it is said that online advertising is growing and will globally expand by about 10% this year, according to a report from the international agency ZenithOptimedia. Moreover, Online Advertising Set to Grow During Recession stipulates that online ad spending for this year will be around 30 billion dollars. On 2008, 23.4 billion were invested in online ad in the US. It is predicted that online marketing spending will have risen up to 51.1 billion by 2012. In summary, the current crisis is turning to be a window of growth opportunities for online businesses. Let’ see why!

Nowadays, businesses may focus their marketing strategies towards the online scenario. It is said that crisis can be an opportunity too! You know… every cloud has a silver lining! And fortunately “online ads work”, states a research by ComScore. It was found that search generates a raise in offline sales per consumer exposure than display.

Search advertising dominated the Internet advertising market share, with a 45 percent last year. Interestingly, online video advertising had a 123 percent annual growth, which means that it was from $324 million in 2007 to $724 million in 2008, reported the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

For that reason, we recommend that you should try focusing on online advertising as one of your mains part of your marketing strategy. You don’t have anything to lose; online advertising is cost-effective and can be targeted to your audience. So, small businesses can compete with the big ones as they all have the same opportunities. By the way, do you know where do you find your customers?  If your customers are in the Net, you should spend some of your budget trying to reach them and calling to action! You can attract current customers and prospects with an innovative and creative online advertising campaign.

Moreover, online advertising allows having more efficient results and measuring your success. Even a small advertisement can have a strong impact as it can reach audiences all across the world. No matter how small is your business, you can build a global image, become tremendously popular and generate word-of-mouth.

Did you know that 22% of word-of-mouth conversations are sparked directly by advertising? This was revealed by a study co-authored by Ed Keller of the Keller Fay group who is one of the biggest proponents of word-of-mouth marketing.

In a nutshell, we can say that online advertising is the best way to undergo and escape from the shadows of recession. If you are creative, it will help you increase your popularity and achieve effective and measurable control spending. Don’t forget that creativity, innovation and uniqueness are key factors in order to generate some buzz!

Sources:

Search drives global online spending despite recession

Online advertisement set to grow during recession

Online advertisement spending will keep growing

IAB Reports Internet Advertising Grew 10 Percent Last Year; Outpacing TV

Internet ad spending continues slide

A Forrester Consulting study commissioned by ExactTarget found that only 37% of marketers said that they actually do.

But, do you?

There are a few things that you should know before sending marketing messages.

• Adapt the message to your customers. Ensure that you are sending the right message to them!
• Use the right channel. How to choose it? Customers’ opinions about permission marketing are constantly changing. Nowadays they prefer either e-mails or text messages. But, not direct mail.
• Ask your customers how they would rather be contacted! Everybody doesn’t think the same way.
• Provide an explicit opt-ins. Do not include customers to your mailing list unless an explicit step is taken.
• Unsolicited messages are unacceptable for the majority of customers.
• The majority of Facebook users who are fans of a brand don’t allow companies to send them information through this channel.
• Even though Internet users’ are using social networking sites for written communication, they aren’t very open to receive marketing messages through them.

You’ll be more successful if you are aware of your consumer preferences and behaviors. Remember that their permission is crucial!

Did you know that two-thirds of US households use coupons, according to a recent research by Experian (a global leader provider of information, analytical tools to help you manage the risk and reward of commercial and financial decisions)?

In addition, the number of people using online coupons has grown 46% in the last three years. Moreover, Experian reported that 80% of online coupon mailings had higher transaction-to-click rates and transaction rates than non-coupon campaigns.

So, if you are willing to attract more customers, you should definitely consider a coupon campaign. Using coupons for your e-mail marketing can help you increase your popularity and sales. How can e-merchants improve their coupon strategies?  Well, let’s see!

• Urgency. If your coupons are open-ended and they don’t have an expiration date, then they won’t be a motivation for your customer. Indicating a specific period of time on which they can obtain the benefit is of crucial importance… if you really want to catch their attention.

• General or specific? You have to think if you want your coupons to be personalized. This strategy may help you build an exclusive and unique approach with your target audience. But, personal ties will make your business spend a lot of time. For that reason, you should consider forward to a friend coupons. You will be able to reach a wider audience. You can be general, specific or both depending on the occasion!

• Timing is important. If you send too many coupons, then your customers will always be expecting an offer. Throw them out on special occasion, a few times a year.

Okay, so these are some important tips you should have in mind when you implement an e-coupon marketing strategy. Everyone is taking care of their wallet, so look after and satisfy your customer’s needs.

Sources:

E-coupons Part 2: Best practices

Coupons Boost E-Mail Open Rate