photo credit: Sean MacEntee

An marketing expert insisted this week that to conduct a truly successful internet marketing campaign businesses need to carry out adequate research and acquire customer knowledge.

Chartered Institute of Marketing head of marketing and communications Ray Jones said that firms must get to know their target audience as well as the products and services they are most likely to buy – possibly by focusing their research “on existing customers – who they are and what they buy most of.”

He added that online marketing campaigns which concentrate on their company’s most popular products could see the highest success rates.

Mr Jones went on to stress the vital importance of social media in the world of internet marketing, especially when it comes to customer feedback.

“Through social media, your customers and potential customers are taking serious buying advice from total strangers, so you had better address any feedback quickly,” he said.

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Proof of the onward march of the online marketing sector can surely be found in this week’s announcement of Iran’s second International Online Marketing Conference, to take place in Tehran on 2-3 February 2012.

Hosted by Kaspid Ltd and the Business Golden Way Holding Corporation, the conference is taking place at the IRIB International Conference Center (IICC), with internet marketing experts and business leaders from around the world scheduled to speak.

“In this conference, the world’s senior online marketing professors will share their newest, relevant achievements with the other participants of the conference,” said Hubert Sepidnam, director of Kaspid Ltd.

Delegates are promised up to date seminars on the latest developments concerning the localisation of online marketing strategies, web-based business models, internet direct marketing, the role of social media and its effect on brand recognition, online marketing analysis tools, search engine optimisation (SEO), and content optimisation.

Even seemingly closed societies such as Iran are no match for the immense value and efficiency of online marketing, it would seem.

photo credit: Sn00ze92

Bookmakers William Hill revealed this week that the chief marketing officer of its online marketing team in Tel Aviv has resigned and other senior members of the team are facing disciplinary action following a walkout by staff in the Israeli capital, in Manila and in Bulgaria.

The company confirmed reports of both the online marketing walkout and the staff repercussions in a statement today to the Regulatory News Service. The Sun newspaper reported that some 180 workers at William Hill’s Tel Aviv office walked out on

About 180 employees walked out of the Tel Aviv office on Sunday over concerns that the bookies was was seeking to transfer its online marketing functions to the UK or Gibraltar. The news caused William Hill’s share prices to fall at the London stock exchange.

“The vast majority of employees of the marketing team in Tel Aviv have good working relationships with the business and with colleagues across William Hill Online,” the company said today. “William Hill Online is committed to its sales and online marketing operation in Tel Aviv and contrary to media reports has no intention of relocating this operation.”

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True technological innovation is a perfect blend of art and science

The products that Apple produced under Steve Jobs leadership included some of the most desirable objects of the 21^st century – the iPod, the iPhone and most recently the iPad. In every instance the aesthetics of these much sought-after gizmos has been at least on par with their technological prowess. The iPod wasn’t the world’s first MP3 player, but it was the first one the whole world truly desired.

The customer isn’t always right!

A well-established belief within the business community was that the best way to discover what customers really want is to ask them. Still to this day focus groups permeate every industry in an effort to gain a competitive advantage. Jobs went completely against the grain on this, creating products that nobody even knew they wanted until they had one – the iPad being the perfect case in point – but customers soon realised they couldn’t imagine living without them!

Failure is nothing to be afraid of

Steve Jobs suffered a very public humiliation and embarrassment back in 1985, when he was fired by the man that he himself had picked as his successor at Apple. However, rather than disappear with his tail between his legs, Jobs picked himself up, brushed himself off and with great dignity and composure fought his way back to the top, eventually returning as Apple CEO in 2000.

Connecting the dots

The now famous ‘Stanford’ speech that Steve Jobs gave in 2005 has been the source of many oft-quoted pearls of wisdom. One such example is the idea of joining the dots from your past as you try to plan ahead for the future. To quote the man himself: “Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” Wise words indeed.

Don’t ignore that little voice in your head – it’s there for a reason

When someone is given the title of ‘visionary’ by some of his most successful rivals and peers, it usually means he’s earned it. Steve Jobs earned that title because he listened to the voice in his head, he made plans with it, and stuck those plans –his plans. History proves he was right to do so.

High expectations yield successful results

It was well-documented that Steve Jobs was very passionate in every aspect of business, and expected extremely high standards of himself and everyone around him. He was known to be a difficult man to work for. A control freak, a perfectionist, call him what you will, Jobs gave his all because he wanted and expected everyone else to do the same, but the successes he achieved speak for themselves.

It’s more important to be successful than to be right

Although it’s clear that Steve Jobs had great vision, high expectations and a strong sense of sticking to his guns against established wisdom, he could also show great humility. After being fired by Apple, Jobs said in a subsequent interview: “Don’t care about being right, care about succeeding.” He was acutely aware that there has to be a point where you step back and look at the reality of a situation to ask whether you have become blinded by your own self-importance. We can all learn from that!

To be the best, hire the best 

While Steve Jobs was most certainly the face of Apple for the last ten years, there is no doubt that the people around him have contributed a huge amount to the success of the company. Jobs hired some of the most talented people in the technology industry, who have not necessarily been given the credit they deserve in the shadow of their charismatic leader. However, Jobs certainly recognised their talent, and Apple’s strong stock price since he left as CEO proves that traders know the company has been left in safe hands.

Through hard work and determination, anything is possible

The fact that Steve Jobs returned to the company he originally founded when it was just weeks away from bankruptcy and led it into a new century with such an incredible sense of vision, is testament to the fact that anything really is possible if you work hard enough at it.

The quote to remember him by

Since the passing of Steve Jobs, tributes have been paid throughout the business and technology industry and even by world leaders, including Barack Obama. On Twitter, there was an outpouring of tributes from across the world, many that included just one simple quote, which for a lot of people is a simple attribution of Jobs enthusiastic approach to life as one of the greatest innovators of our time; “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”

A recent report has seemingly confirmed what online marketing experts have been predicting for some time – the overtaking of TV advertising with internet advertising and marketing initiatives.

The report, published at the weekend by PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the Internet Advertising Bureau, showed that the total spend for online marketing leapt by 14 per cent in the first six months of 2011, coming to a grand total of £2.3 billion and pushing internet advertising’s share of the market up to 27 per cent.

Advertisers spent a whopping £45 million on viral videos, noting that 2.3 billion of these vids are watched every month – which is twice as much as was spent last year. As a whole, display advertising online increased its spend by 18.5 per cent year-on-year to a total of £510 million and a 23 per cent market share.

Financial institutions were the biggest spenders when it came to making the switch to online marketing, followed by supermarket chains Tesco and M&S, car giant Ford and BSkyB.

photo credit: Sean MacEntee

A recent study revealed that the primary online marketing portal for businesses remains their corporate or company website, despite the rise of internet marketing campaigns on social media.

The survey, by tech firm Demandbase and the Focus business network found that only personal referrals and recommendations from satisfied customers trump online marketing initiatives based on company websites when it comes to producing sales. Researchers found that such sites were seven times as effective at generating leads as social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Furthermore, almost 25 per cent of respondents admitted the most sales leads came from their website, followed by 14 per cent who selected email marketing campaigns. Online advertising came next, and social media scooped only 3 per cent of respondents’ recommendations.

Demandbase chief executive Chris Golec commented: “Despite its increasing influence, it’s important to keep in mind that no business sale is made without the buyer going to the corporate website first.”