Digital Marketing Archives - Page 4 of 5

Social Display Spending To Increase in 2012

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Andrew

More and more people are going on social networks. In fact, Facebook wins one in every five page views, and accounts for nine percent of all visits online.

Those are huge numbers, and the steadily increasing amount of people on Facebook, means more advertising dollars will be spent on the social-networking site in 2012.

According to eMarketer, 59% of marketers are planning on increasing social media advertising in 2012, compared to 31% planning on increasing on ad networks and exchanges.

eMarketer also estimates that US online display advertising will grow an astonishing 24.1% this year to $15.4 billion.

This is good news for small businesses everywhere. Social network advertising and display targeting can be narrowed down to pinpoint only those people who might be interested in your product or service.

The Internet gives you the ability to appear larger than you are, and give you advertising scale you might otherwise not be able to afford.

Digital and Mobile Ad Budgets Rising

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Andrew

In a recent survey from research company Warc, digital and mobile ad budgets are growing, while TV, radio and press budgets are shrinking.

The budget sentiments are based on a system of 0-100, where anything over 50 is generally improving, and below 50 is generally declining.

Digital and mobile received scores of 78.9 and 71.2, respectively. TV received a score of 48.8, Radio a score of 42.1 and Press a score of 36.1.

Now is a great time to be spending more on digital and mobile. More and more people are accessing the Internet from desktops and mobile devices, and those numbers are only going to grow.

Search Engine Use Continues to Grow

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Andrew

More than half of adult search engine users make searches at least once a day. That represents a 54% increase from 35% in 2004. This represents a huge increase in the number of people that use search engines to find information.

These numbers come from a new report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Search engine use has never been higher. Daily use is highest among 18-29 and 30-49 year-olds (60%), college graduates (70%), and people with household incomes of more than $75k (68%).

Search engines are also seen as reliable sources of information, while almost three-quarters of users say that most of the information they find is accurate and trustworthy.

So what does all this mean for small business marketing? Well, it means that if you aren’t in the search results, you need to be. Search engines are being used more frequently than ever to find information, and users see them as a reliable and trustworthy way to find what they’re looking for.

One way to get in the top of the search results is with search targeting. Also known as paid search, search targeting gets your ads into the top of the search results page, resulting in increased visibility and clicks.

Another way to show up in search results is to optimize your Google Places page. Create a unique Google Places page that provides information for people to find your business.

Another way to get better results in the local search rankings is to use a business directory service to get more citations of your business. A service such as Local AdsUpNow gets your business listed in almost 150 directories, giving your business increased presence and authority in Google’s eyes.

It’s not too late to get in the search results. Contact us today to get started with search targeting or Google Places Optimization.

Email and Paid Search Garner High ROI Ratings

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Andrew

New data from digital marketing firm eConsultancy says Paid Search and Email Marketing are two of the best options for high-ROI campaigns.

The data comes from a survey of marketing professionals around the globe, where they rated their satisfaction with various marketing channels.

In the report, 70% rated email marketing as either excellent (23%) or good (47%). Also, 56% of the respondents stated that paid search campaigns offered ROI figures that were either excellent (14%) or good (44%).

This is great news for small businesses. Email and Search Targeting are easy to implement into a marketing plan and, as the data shows, offer great results.

Another place that made large strides was mobile. In this survey, 41% of marketers said mobile gave them excellent or good return on their investment. This is an increase of 23% compared with the data from 2008.

Maybe your business hasn’t implemented these marketing plans, or maybe you’ve tried and it hasn’t worked out very well. Regardless of your past situation, we guarantee we can help you with your local marketing plan.

The Goldilocks Rule of Digital Marketing

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Andrew

Chances are you’ve read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. If you haven’t, go find it online somewhere and then come back.

Okay, so now that we’re all on the same page, why do I bring up Goldilocks and the Three Bears? It’s simple: when Goldilocks broke into the bears’ house, she ate the porridge that was “just right.” Not the porridge that was too hot or too cold, but just the right amount.

This is also true of your customers. If you do too little digital marketing and advertising, they won’t remember you, but if you do too much, they’ll get annoyed and purposely not do business with you because of your annoying ads.

A new survey released from Upstream says that 20% of Americans would stop using a brand’s product or service if they received too much advertising. That’s a lot of people. Can you afford to lose 20% of your customers?

We are constantly checking our campaigns to make sure they don’t show up too frequently. For example, our Retargeting campaigns are designed and fine-tuned so they only show our client’s ads 10-15 times over a month. Studies have shown that’s the optimal balance between not enough and too much exposure.

Don’t let this fear of the Goldilocks rule stop you from doing advertising, as you won’t even have any customers if you don’t do any marketing and advertising. Instead, do your best to strike the right balance between too much and not enough, because, unlike the three bears, we want Goldilocks to eat that porridge.

Global Ad Spending to Rise 4.9% in 2012

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Andrew

Global ad spending is set to rise almost 5% this year to reach a total of $465.5 billion according to new numbers from research firm Strategy Analytics.

The total U.S. spending rate is set to grow 2.7%, up from .6% in 2011. Global online spending is predicted to grow the fastest, by 12.8% to $83.2 billion – meaning 18% of total ad spend.

Online ad spending is still leading the way, though growth has slowed due to the growing maturity of online spending. In 2011, Internet media revenue grew by 21.4%, but is set to only grow 10.9% in 2012.

Despite the slowdown in growth, digital advertising is set to increase its share of the global ad market from 15.9% in 2011 to 21.2% in 2014.

So what do we know from these numbers? Well, for starters, digital advertising is growing rapidly, and is eroding TV’s 40% global share of all advertising dollars. These numbers represent important trends that you must acknowledge as a small business owner. Gone are the days where creating a radio or TV ad was enough; now, you need to be invested in social marketing, banner advertising, search optimization and have a killer website.

So who is going to help you wade through these treacherous waters? Well, that’s why we’re here. We’ve created hundreds of digital marketing campaigns, and we’ve successfully increased sales and revenue for all our clients.

If you have any other questions about what we do or ways we can help out your business, let us know in the comments or contact us on our website.

Does Your Website Promote Conversions?

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Andrew

How much of your web traffic do you convert? The chances are, not very much. In fact, most small business’ websites achieve only a 2% conversion rate. That means 98% of your web traffic is leaving without taking any action.

So why does this happen? Consumer behavior has changed. With the introduction of the search engine, consumers shop around before making any purchase decision.

This means that you might get a lot of web traffic, but if all your traffic does is poke around your website for a few minutes and leave, your website isn’t doing you any good.

A conversion is either a sale (hard conversion), or a lead (soft conversion). To maximize your conversions, you need to alter your website to promote both types of conversions.

Examples of ways to promote hard conversions would be a feature where users could buy online. That way, for those visitors that are ready to purchase, they have the option right in front of them.

The only problem with promoting hard conversion is that barely any of your website visitors are ready to make a purchase. Thus, trying to convince your traffic to buy right away isn’t very successful.

Soft conversions are a better way to convert your users. Because a soft conversion usually consists of only contact information, your website users will be more willing to give out their information, allowing you to contact them later.

Examples of a soft conversion would be an offer to join a mail list, or using a conversion driver to give a special to your website visitors.

Also, because they are willing to fill in their contact information, soft conversions are further down the purchase funnel than the average website visitor, as they are already considering your product or service.

Your website can’t be a passive page. The Internet is dynamic; use the ability to change deals on the fly and host mini-sites with your special offers to help increase conversions.

Check out our mini-sites and conversion drivers today and see how to use your existing traffic to create more leads.

Online Listings Bring New Opportunities to Local Businesses

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Andrew

I consult a search engine about local businesses almost every day. You probably do, too. If I’m looking for the nearest bank branch, gas station or restaurant, I type it into Google Maps on my iPhone and away we go.

Research from eMarketer confirms my personal anecdote. They found that more than 70% of consumers check an online source before going to a local business or restaurant.

That’s a huge number. If you don’t put a lot of stock in your online presence, then you should.

Out of that 70% of people, 43% said they visited Google to find out information about a business. By far and away that was the most popular way of discovering new business. In a distant second place, with 30% of the vote, was yellowpages.com.

This tells us that the majority of consumers look for local businesses in the same spots, meaning it’s fairly easy to get noticed.

One of the easiest ways to appear prominently to searchers is to optimize your Google Places listing, and appear in hundreds of online directories with Local AdsUpNow. These two things alone will get you exposure to 73% of the consumers who search online for local businesses.

If you have any questions, sound off in the comments, or contact us for a free digital marketing consultation.

An infographic On the History of Google Places

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Andrew

Fellow Local Search Marketer David Mihm put together an infographic showing the history of Google Places changes over the last few years.

If nothing else, this graph shows the importance of diligence when creating a Google Places listing. It’s not something that you can just set up and forget about – it requires maintenance.

Get a Better Google Places Rank with Local AdsUpNow

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Andrew

More than 3 billion searches for local goods or services take place every month. That’s a huge number, and it’s only getting bigger.

We’ve talked on this blog before about Google Places optimization and some of the ways to get your business listing higher in Google. One of the things we mentioned was using business directories to get what are called “citations.”

Citations are mentions of your business name on the Internet. So why is it important to have so many citations? Well search engines think it’s important, that’s why.