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A New Year Guide to Launching Your First Online Marketing Campaign

Dan Coysh — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 16:16:01 +0000

With the New Year upon us, many businesses – especially brand new small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – may well be looking at the whole concept of online marketing for the first time. Although they may already have an online presence such as a website or a profile on a social network such as Facebook, this is far short of the massive potential for new business and increased profits that the world of internet marketing can offer. Here, then, is a guide to getting the New Year off to a flying start with a basic plan for an initial online marketing campaign:

Consider Your Goals. A business owner needs to work out exactly what an online marketing campaign is intended to achieve. These goals are often the same as a traditional marketing campaign’s – generating new leads, increasing your revenue stream and boosting customer service.
Draw up a rounded strategy. Planning is essential for the success of any campaign, from the business to the military! Good online marketing companies will discuss what resources and tactics are available, and which fit your business model and will help you to achieve your goals. Make use of them.
Learn on the job. Don’t just leave it to the professionals – learn the basics involved in internet marketing yourself, so you are better placed to track the success of the campaign and offer suggestions. One move might be to learn the rudiments of blogging, or social media such as Facebook and Twitter in order to make a personal contribution.
Draw up measurable objectives. Without proper benchmarks for success, you won’t know whether your campaign is working, or working to its full potential. A few benchmarks for success, such as a set number of new customers registered online over a period of time, or new followers on your Facebook fan page will help you and your online marketing consultants to tweak the campaign to make it even more effective.
Ensure you have a realistic budget. Although resources will never be infinite, sadly, it is worth making a sufficient investment to fund an effective online marketing campaign and to hire a competitively-priced company. There will also be ongoing costs associated with websites, for example, such as keeping content properly updated, upgrading the site’s features as new technology (such as flash animations) comes into play, and routine, day-today site maintenance.

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.

Online Marketing New Year’s Resolutions

Dan Coysh — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:27:11 +0000

photo credit: Sirsnapsalot

With out Christmas List to Santa safely in the post, let’s take a look ahead to 2012, with a couple of New Year’s resolutions aimed at ensuring online marketing success over the next 12 months:

Improving your online marketing profile via social media has to be a big component of the New Year – if not the biggest. Get those fan pages up and running on Facebook and your account ready to roll on Twitter, along with messages urging customers to “Like” or “Follow” your brand.

Try to look up customers who were once frequent sights on your email listings but who have gone quiet in 2011. Many may be pleased to hear from you and as long as you are not seen to be pestering them, re-engagement efforts can improve your internet marketing successes.

As with all New Year’s resolutions, too many will cause you to lose your focus and willpower – so just bear these in mind for now, and OMD will keep suggesting other routes to online marketing success during the Christmas period – and beyond!

Dan Coysh

Company Sites Outstrip Facebook and Twitter for Online Marketing

Dan Coysh — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:57:00 +0000

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.”

Dan Coysh

Is Facebook Killing Websites?

Ian Crawford — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:04:05 +0000

photo credit: Asthma Helper

In the last 18 months there has been a huge surge in both the popularity and reach of social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and now Google+. So how do businesses go about marketing a commercial website when everyone is spending all their time on social sites? Some businesses have taken themselves lock, stock and barrel over to Facebook in order to ride this social media wave.

But while social media channels are a perfect source of web traffic because they allow a high level of targeted marketing, a good business website is still an essential part of online marketing. A customer that finds you on Twitter, Facebook and suchlike will invariably expect to find a smart-looking website showcasing your products and services in all their pixelated glory.

SEO is NOT dead, inbound links are still crucial, and on-page SEO can’t be overlooked just because you signed up to every social channel available! Abandoning your website for a social platform may seem savvy in the present social media surge, but remember that ‘your’ Facebook real estate is still owned by someone else.

The key to a successful online marketing campaign is to treat your website as your core online presence, and use social media to promote, sell and communicate with customers. It’s your website and you own it – don’t be afraid to shout it from the heady heights of Twitter Towers and Castle Facebook.

Ian Crawford

Creative copywriter and editor with extensive experience of being a SEO Content writer, also doing article writing, brochure writing and blog writing and commenting. Currently freelance writing on a wide variety of subjects for client websites and print materials

Twitter’s Online Marketing Possibilities Largely Untapped

Dan Coysh — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:52:12 +0000

Virgin Media Business urged retailers and other commercial companies to up their game and focus more online marketing efforts on Twitter.

Research carried out by Virgin found that too many businesses are failing to capitalise on the unique internet advertising potential of micro-blogging sites such as Twitter, and their close relatives – social networks such as Facebook. According to researchers, just 9 per cent of firms used Twitter for online marketing and only a third used social media.
“Since its founding, Twitter has changed the way we shop and engage with brands and, as such, has become a fantastic tool for customer engagement,” Virgin Media Business customer service director Phil Stewart commented.

The Centre for Retail Research director Joshua Bamfield admitted that “it is probably true that the smaller stores have not got on this bandwagon yet,” but added that this “may simply reflect the fact that they’re very busy, they don’t have the skills and they don’t see why they should bother.”

Sales figures seem to show, however, that those who do “bother” will ultimately reap the online marketing rewards.

Dan Coysh

Social Media Day Prompts Fresh Look at its Place in Online Marketing

Dan Coysh — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 16:55:59 +0000

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.

Dan Coysh

Online Marketing to Go from Strength to Strength Over Next Five Years

Dan Coysh — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:36:25 +0000

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

Promoted Tweets – a New Online Marketing Opportunity

Dan Coysh — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 13:13:54 +0000

photo credit: Guilherme Neto

Online marketing professionals need to be aware of the latest innovation from micro-blogging site Twitter – Prompted Tweets.

These are a unique form of internet advertising that only Twitter can boast. Whereas previously commercial enterprises needed Twitter users to follow their account, Promoted Tweets allow messages to reach a far wider audience.

Firstly a Tweet is sent to a brand’s followers, and when it is paid for as a Promoted Tweet it appears as content in search results, rather than alongside the results.

As Promoted Tweets are only paid for via Cost-per-Engagement (CPE), a company will only pay when Twitter users Retweet, replies to, select or adds the Tweet to their favourites. A Retweet of the Promoted Tweet is free of charge, thus potentially adding great reach and power to any Twitter-based online marketing campaign.

Skilled internet marketing professionals should have no problem devising Promoted Tweets that are memorable and witty enough to be seen by many, many different users.

Dan Coysh

Online Marketing Revenues Reach Record High

Dan Coysh — Thu, 12 May 2011 12:41:44 +0000

photo credit: wwarby

A report recently released by the Interactive Advertising Bureau has shown that revenues from online marketing and internet advertising reached a record high during the first quarter of this year.

The effectiveness of online marketing through various internet-based services such as parcel deliveries and the use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter has seen a rise of 50 per cent when matched against the very same figures for the first three months of 2010.

These new figures not only show the continued popularity and growth of online marketing when compared to more traditional forms of advertising, but also highlight the number of retailers now looking to online marketing to push their products as the use of digital media grows ever more popular.

Paul Fisher, chief executive of IAB Australia, said that “online video advertising continues to grow strongly, up 47 per cent on first quarter 2010, which reflects the continued adoption of this format by advertisers looking to enhance or replace their TV schedules.”

Dan Coysh

Online Marketing Royal Wedding Bonanza

Dan Coysh — Thu, 05 May 2011 11:42:21 +0000

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.