Archive for the ‘online advertising’ tag
EU Cookies Directive Threatens Effectiveness of Online Marketing
photo credit: Veganbaking.net
Online marketing professionals have warned that a forthcoming European Union directive could hamper the effectiveness of internet advertising campaigns, due to the restrictions it will place on the use of web cookies.
Although the directive does not ban the use of cookies, it requires brands and marketing companies to obtain consumers informed consent before they can use them on their websites or for online advertising.
In a survey by affilinet, just 12 per cent of marketing professionals thought that they could successfully engage their customer base without tracking web site visits through the use of cookies on mobile devices and computers. Last year, this believe was shared by 35 per cent of respondents – showing how many have woken up to the invaluable online marketing role played by cookies.
Researchers warned that the cookie directive, which comes into effect next May, could lead to companies spending less money on internet advertising because its restrictions make it harder to measure their adverts’ effectiveness.
Company Sites Outstrip Facebook and Twitter for Online Marketing
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.”
Social Media Day Prompts Fresh Look at its Place in Online Marketing
photo credit: Sean MacEntee
The end of last month saw online concerns mark Social Media Day, with a great many companies taking a fresh look at how the juggernaut that is social media impacts on their internet advertising and online marketing strategies.
It has been a truism of the past two years that social media such as Facebook and Twitter is the place to be when it comes to the future of online marketing, and there is no sign that the engine is slowing down, with Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter advertising more important than ever. It is no longer a happy luxury, it is an essential part of any internet marketing drive.
The inclusion of social media in such a strategy should never be an addition, or an afterthought. It should be integrated into the overall plan and complement other aspects of online marketing, such as mail outs, SEO marketing and Google Analytics.
With almost half of all businesses using social media as an integral part of their marketing strategy, the lessons for the future are clear.
Facebook and Amazon Create the Future of E-Commerce
The future of online marketing is likely to be e-commerce – at least that is what online retail giant Amazon and social networking phenomenon Facebook seem to think.
Facebook has already pioneered the use of “virtual shopfronts,” whereby businesses and entrepeneurs set up their own fan pages with links to their online shops. However, the website is also at the forefront of the move towards working closely with off-network stores, presenting even more opportunities for smart online marketing and internet advertising initiatives.
Amazon and Facebook have worked in partnership for a while now, and the beta version is showing great promise and popularity. What makes this of particular interest to online marketing professionals is the enhanced capacity for recommendations. Already very important for online businesses, adding Facebook’s social and consumer information to another business’s internet marketing strategy helps fine-tune recommendations and boosts sales and conversions.
The social information also creates more reasons for customers to buy goods and services, thanks to integration of information about birthdays, weddings and other celebrations into a customer’s profile. Amazon and Facebook are leading the way, where smart online marketing professionals are only bound to follow.
UK Small Businesses Failing to Harness Potential of Online Marketing
The Centre for Economic Business Research have just released a new set of statistics claiming that UK based small businesses are losing out on significant amounts of income, due to a lack of proactive online marketing.
The statistics, released as part of a nationwide survey, show that smaller companies yield only 2.4 per cent of yearly incomes when employing less than 50 workers, when compared to a larger businesses of 250 or more employees, yielding incomes of around 19 per cent.
When questioned as to why they had not considered online marketing to promote their products, 33 per cent of the smaller companies in question claimed that internet marketing was not seen as a beneficial investment to their business due mainly to the size of their operations – despite the increasing popularity of online advertising over more traditional and expensive forms, such as print and television.
Knowthenet.org.uk, a non-profit information resource for small business owners funded the survey, with director Phil Kingsland noting that “while small businesses are beginning to make considerable amounts of money online, many don’t yet see its full potential.”
Online Marketing Royal Wedding Bonanza
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.
Google’s Panda Update Sends Shockwaves Across the Search Rankings
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).
