photo credit: Henriksent

Online marketing is a constantly developing field of expertise, with innovations emerging weekly – but no development has been quite significant over the past year than the rise of mobile devices. With more people than ever before owning smartphones and tablets, mobile devices are fast becoming the most important factor among internet marketing experts, who all advise that optimising a website for mobile traffic is the priority for 2012.

Because smartphones and tablets such as the iPhone and iPad have a full browsing ability, unlike the previous generation of mobile phones, they can still navigate a “normal” webpage without too much difficulty. Nevertheless, they still benefit from a more mobile-friendly site – and this is especially true for commercial sites. From an online marketing perspective, increased mobile traffic leads to more sales and conversions, as nowadays an ever-increasing amount of online transactions are being conducted via mobile devices.

Search engine giant Google has confirmed once again that mobile queries reached a peak the week before Christmas last year – the same as in 2010 – which indicates that mobile users are making the most of their devices for the busiest shopping period of the year. With this in mind, retailers need to be offering internet marketing campaigns that target mobile devices and use adverts specially enhanced for these devices. They could even consider separate campaigns for mobile consumption with tweaked messages and offers – such as discounts for customers that place orders or make purchaes via their smartphones or tablets.

A report published last year by tech research company Gartner estimated that mobile traffic will overtake traffic from desktop and laptop computers by 2013 across the globe. With this “deadline” looming, any company or organisation that relies on its online presence should be optimising their sites for mobile traffic, if they have not already done so. The research also showed an underlying trend that is more worrying: many online marketing professionals had not woken up to this sea change in internet behaviour and did not trust users of mobile devices to register with their sites or make online purchases – although all the evidence points the opposite way.

Fortunately, good online marketing companies are perfectly placed to assist clients with the process of mobile traffic optimisation, and can offer both advice and technical expertise.

Make sure that your website is not left behind in the mobile revolution!

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

photo credit: thomaswanhoff

Online marketing will continue to evolve in 2012 – that is the one thing that all commentators can agree on. The sector is still busily growing, and such a technology-driven sector cannot help but change pretty fast, considering the ongoing innovations in IT and media.

While the general thrust of marketing strategies remains the same as it ever has, internet marketing is different because it marries tried and tested attitudes to marketing and advertising with the frantic world of online technology, and all the constant upgrades and developments that it entails.

This means that next year will inevitably see new online marketing techniques emerge and a new focus on existing methods.

One such technique which has already mushroomed in importance in 2011 is mobile optimised merchandising, thanks to the vast increase in the number of consumers with smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. This trend is only set to continue and accelerate next year, and so the online marketing team that ensure their company’s or clients’ websites are optimised for use by these devices will be able to hit the ground running on New Year’s Day. Another wise move by any online marketing enterprise wishing to take advantage of the mobile devices revolution is to sell clients subscription services where appropriate, whereby customers can subscribe to a regular newsletter, special offers, vouchers – or whatever best suits their business.

We all know that regularly updated site content – especially on blogs – is essential when it comes to maintaining your position in the search rankings, but fewer companies are yet aware of the vast potential for consumer interest in the field of video content, although online marketing experts have been pushing video content for several years now. Next year video content is set to greatly increase its internet marketing potential, as more and more people watch online videos via their tablets or smartphones. When videos combine product information with genuine entertainment, then their power to attract new customers and strengthen relationships with existing ones is incalculable. With social media sites such as Facebook and Google+ making it easier to embed video than ever before, 2012 will really be the year that video goes viral!

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

photo credit: steve p2008

Retail analysts have identified a terrific online marketing opportunity during this year’s Christmas period – a massive internet spending spree by UK consumers over the next 14 days.

Forecasters at IMRG said that Britons are gearing up to spend an incredible £186.4 million online on Christmas Day alone, a 12 per cent increase compared to the same day last year. Consumers will also spend nearly double what they spent in 2010 on Boxing Day, IMRG added, with a predicted haul of £367.8 million.

Part of this is down to a huge online marketing push by many retailers, who have been heavily promoting sales and special offers and letting customers know that pre-Christmas stocks are running out fast in their internet advertising campaigns, making sure that pre-orders and sales come in earlier than the previous year.

The company’s chief marketing and communications officer David Smith said: “Although shopping on Christmas Day might not appear to quite be in the Christmas spirit, it is worth considering that many of these sales could actually be associated with popular gifts people have received, such as downloadable content for MP3 players and Kindles.”

Mr Smith noted that last Christmas Day had already seen a 26 per cent increase in online spending, making the idea of a 12 per cent increase this year even more impressive.

The IMRG report underlines the importance of having an effective online marketing strategy in place that takes into account not only the run-up to Christmas, but the Christmas holidays themselves. At this time, new gifts – especially technology such as media players and computers – often create their own demand for accessories, software, peripherals, DVDs and CDs.

Portable devices such as smartphones and iPads are going to be very popular gift choices this Christmas, only adding to the importance of these mobile devices in the world of online marketing. Recently, search giant Google published research which showed that more mobile devices were being used to make Christmas gift enquiries than ever before, with the technology being used for more than half of all searches for store locations, special offers and last-minute gift ideas, compared to desktops and traditional laptop computers.

Given this growing trend, it is imperative that online marketing professionals make it a priority to emphasise mobile devices in their campaigns, especially those hoping to capitalise on this year’s Christmas season.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

photo credit: mikecogh

New research published this week by comScore has revealed a leap in the amount of online marketing campaigns using video.

The data showed that almost two thirds of people watching videos online saw adverts during the clips – equating to more than 21 million Britons. Among these, the key online marketing demographic of 15-24-year-olds were most likely to see video adverts, and 70 per cent viewed at least one a month.

Google sites are leading the way with video content in online marketing, according to comScore. In July, a massive 158.1 million internet users accessed video content on Google sites, the company said.

Its director of marketing solutions Mike Shaw commented: “This indicates an opportunity for advertisers looking for ways to efficiently target younger audiences. These audiences are likely to carry these behaviours with them as they mature, underscoring the future potential for video and mobile advertising.”

Mr Shaw predicted that penetration of this market was only likely to grow as “more advertisers incorporate video as an integral part of their marketing strategy.”

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

photo credit: whatleydude

The UK Parliament is turning its scrutiny on internet advertising, following concerns about personal privacy sparked by the News of the World phone hacking scandal.

MPs want to investigate the data security and privacy issues surrounding online marketing efforts which identify appropriate individuals for advertising via their web surfing habits, such as their searches on Google or their activities on social networking sites like Facebook.

Some 13 MPs are calling for a so-called “internet bill of rights,” giving users more safeguards over their online privacy.

The difficulty for the politicians is that while users would like to see less personal information held by third parties, they also enjoy the benefits that personally tailored online marketing can bring, according to online advertising industry journal Campaignlive.

Online marketing professionals are now likely to lobby MPs, pointing out that internet advertising already gives users the choice of opting out of various kinds of adverts and pay per click initiatives.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

photo credit: n-re-k

Until now, there have been two very distinct strands to online marketing, informed by the two giants of their fields – Google and Facebook.

The search engine giant has always been the undisputed ruler of the SEO marketing world, with Yahoo and Bing coming a clear second, while Facebook – along with Twitter – have been instrumental in pushing social media to the forefront of all successful online marketing strategies.

Now everything is likely to change again as the two strands come together, thanks to the launch of Google’s very own social network, Google+.

Google+ has already been the victim of its own success, going over capacity within two days of its launch and necessitating a temporary halt until it could recalibrate its systems.

Experts are saying that Google+ could herald a new dawn for online marketing, bridging the gap between such business-orientated networks, such as LinkedIn, and the more casual friends networks like Facebook.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

A new report has predicted that online marketing is set to make the internet advertising soar over the next few years – with the market in Britain alone being worth an impressive £17.7 billion by 2015.

The study, by accountancy giant PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said that the rapid growth in the number of digital channels devoted to online marketing was responsible for the rise and rise of the sector, with internet advertising on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter plus classified advertising online fast catching up with the more established form of online marketing – search marketing on platforms such as Google and Yahoo.

PwC also said that the only sector of the UK economy likely to achieve double digit growth by 2015 would be internet advertising, making it the wisest bet for companies hoping to combine marketing efficiency with value for money.

PwC head of entertainment and media Phil Stokes commented: “Product placement, sophisticated social media campaigns and internet advertising are all becoming part of truly multimedia campaigns for advertisers who are themselves increasingly involved in a dynamic conversation with their customers.”

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

photo credit: pedrog78

As people across the world settled down to watch the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, online marketing and social network sites such as Google, Facebook and Twitter saw huge amounts of users scrambling to their keyboards to make their thoughts and opinions known.

With the ‘Royal Wedding’ topic trending for many days before on Twitter alone, the interest in the royal marriage was made quite clear, with many internet marketing and online advertising sites taking advantage of the popular occasion to boost their own profiles in the process.

It has since been reported by Google, owners of internet video hosting site YouTube, that the live online stream of the wedding has broken all previous records, with a massive 400 million viewers tuning in to watch the ceremony live, compared to the previous record of 70 million for the inauguration of Barack Obama as US President in 2009.

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

photo credit: angela n.

In the ever competitive and evolving world of online marketing, the inception of searh engine Google’s new ‘Panda’ update has seen a number of previous front-runners in the UK Technology news site business drop down in the search engine’s rankings quite dramatically.

Designed to streamline internet advertising, Google’s Panda system has been created with the sole purpose of downgrading the rankings of sites that plagiarise content from other web pages. However, not all online marketing and internet advertising sites will be affected, with many, including Google’s own YouTube and other popular websites such as Vimeo, The Mirror and The Independent seeing a projected rise in their rankings.

Having now been rolled out to all English language countries and with further expansion in the pipeline, this new scheme will see some major demotions for previously highly ranked online advertising sites, including predicted 99 per cent-plus losses for sites such as moneypage.com and pricedash.com, with ebay.co.uk and techcrunch.com seeing estimated rises of 40 per cent or more in international rankings (statistics from elevatelocal.co.uk).

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.

Search engine giant Yahoo! Is on the verge of unveiling a new tool which could be of great benefit for companies seeking to improve sales through online marketing.

The forthcoming Yahoo! Search Direct tool aims to bring the search engine up to par with arch-rival Google, with features such as the ability to predict what a search query will be as it is typed and to instantly list results for these predictions.

Internet advertising will also get a boost from a pop-up feature, which displays a box on the screen containing content that Yahoo! believes will be relevant for the user.

The search engine’s head of search and marketplaces Shashi Seth said that items to be included in this Search Direct box could include video adverts or graphic ads – which will be of great interest to anyone planning Pay Per Click or Paid Search internet marketing campaigns.

Mr Seth went on to promise more revelations from Yahoo!, saying: “Over the course of the next couple of months you’re probably going to see some of these ideas at play.”

Dan Coysh

Daniel has been a freelance journalist and providing SEO Copywriting services for over three years now at Online Media Direct, after eight years as reporter and news editor for a national newspaper. He has provided SEO news content for a number of sites and on several occasions has completely rewritten a website’s text – both in the public and private sectors.