Archive for the ‘Internet Marketing Fundamentals’ Category

Measuring Online Marketing Effectiveness

Monday, May 24th, 2010

In a recent survey by Omniture, marketers stated that marketing cost, order size, and conversion rate were most important in measuring marketing effectiveness. However, measuring visits, page views, and click-throughs were easier to accurately measure. Therefore, click-through continues to lead as the top metric used in measuring online marketing success.

Similar measurement problems existed in mobile, social, and video channels. Overall, 80% of respondents stated that it was important to measure ROI from online activities, but only 31% could effectively do so. Respondents indicated that having a talented staff with expertise was necessary to effectively measure marketing effectiveness. However, lack of budget is indicated as the top reason they lacked the talent they needed.

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Posted in Conversion Optimization, Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Internet Marketing News, Social Media Networking | No Comments »

Start-up Success

Monday, April 26th, 2010

Perhaps the most ambitious campaign of start-ups, Y Combinator is a hybrid venture capital fund and business school that invests in, advises, and literally, feeds 40 or so early-stage businesses a year. Paul Graham, it’s fearless and optimistic leader, supplements his nominally sized investments of under $25,000 with lots of smart advice, technical help, and sense of community. The model has produced 145 companies to date, a few sizable acquisitions, and copycat funds in cities across the country and around the world.

For all the pain of nurturing a start-up, Graham believes that founding a company is the most efficient way to create wealth — for investors, for founders, for society at large. “There’s this classic pattern that has happened over and over again throughout history in which something is made one at a time, very expensively and unreliably by hand, and then someone comes along and figures out how to make large numbers of them cheaply and reliably,” Graham says. “We’re pulling this kind of transformation with venture funding. We’re mass-producing the start-up.”

Graham is something of a folk hero to a generation of ambitious techies, who debate his essays, read his books, and pitch him start-ups by the hundreds. His philosophies are simple: founders should live as cheaply as possible so that they can first become cash-flow positive. Wealth will follow.

Indeed, there’s something exhilarating about Graham’s optimism, especially at a time when so many once-great companies are sitting on the verge of bankruptcy. Graham believes, deeply, that start-ups are the answer to the world’s problems; that they are easy to make if you are determined enough and cheap enough; and that it’s getting a lot easier to start one.

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Social Media Measurability

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

One of the most important facets of online marketing is measurability. Datran Media’s recent “4th Annual Marketing & Media Survey” found that measuring and understanding audiences was a priority for the majority of respondents since it could increase brand awareness, performance or revenues. However, producing hard metrics in social media advertising remains difficult. Increased site traffic is generally the leading metric used to measure social media success, but by itself does not justify heavier investment in social media.

“For the few marketers who do attempt to apply quantitative measures to their social marketing efforts, the metrics they use are not terribly sophisticated,” noted eMarketer CEO and co-founder Geoff Ramsey in the eMarketer Insight Brief “Seven Guidelines for Achieving Social Media ROI.” “Most marketers today do not invest sufficient time, effort or money on social media measurement.”

Datran’s respondents, with about 72% having Facebook and Twitter profiles—were most likely to track all their online campaigns based on clicks, conversions and impressions. A gap exists, however, between finding and monitoring appropriate metrics and actually quantifying the results in a meaningful way. To remedy this, marketers must connect business goals, such as increased sales and leads, to social metrics before they can quantify social media return.

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Posted in Conversion Optimization, Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Social Media Networking | No Comments »

What causes consumers to search online?

Monday, March 15th, 2010

The one thing that makes social media marketing so attractive lies in four words: word-of-mouth marketing. This is one of the most effective and credible forms of marketing a product or service and is the reason why so many companies feel the need to have a presence on many social networking sites. However, these social media users prefer a different type of interaction to help them inspire or prompt an online search…

According to a recent survey, conducted by BIGresearch for the Retail Advertising & Marketing Association (RAMA), they found that in-person, face-to-face communication was a social media users’ top reason to start an online search for a specific product or service.

The study revealed that social media users were even more influenced by face-to-face word-of-mouth than an average adult’ opinion found online.

This preference of face-to-face communication held across all age groups within the survey, and the only difference among any age group was that 18- to 34-year-olds were more likely to search online because of something they had seen on cable television, which was a smaller force among older users.

The study also demonstrated that online communities, such as MySpace and Facebook, influenced less than one-quarter of social media users to search for a product or service which is still a notable percentage. When it came to gender differences, men were marginally more likely than women to report such an influence from a social networking site and age had an even larger effect. Among the 18-to-34 group, nearly three in 10 searched because of social networks, compared with less than 20% of 35- to 54-year-olds and 15.3% of those 55 and older.

More than 71% of the respondents communicated about a service, product or brand in person after an online search, compared with only 21.6% who spread the word via sites such as MySpace or Facebook. Not all digital communication was shunned, however; about one-half used e-mail to tell others what they had found.

Social media users are particularly attractive to marketers because they are more likely to both look for and give purchase advice than the general population. Word-of-moth marketing continues to be one of the most valuable marketing tools available to companies so they should be focusing a lot, but not all of, of time in the online arena, especially in social media.

Information Provided By: eMarketer
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

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Posted in Behavioral Marketing, Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Internet Marketing News, SEO | No Comments »

Astounding Facebook Stats

Thursday, February 11th, 2010

Happy Birthday Facebook! On February 4, 2010 Facebook officially turned 6 years old. Facebook is used world-wide and has become the platform for internet networking with over 400 million users and more than 900 employees.

Quick Facebook facts:

1. The average user spends about 55 minutes a day on Facebook- this is equal to over 8% of their day.

2. Facebook is now able to be viewed in 65 different languages.

3. 30% of Facebook users are from/in Europe.

4. Every day 35 million users update their status and 20 million become fans of pages. (There are 1.6 million fan pages, by the way).

5. Of the 1.6 million fan pages, 700,000 are local businesses.

6. 2.5 billion Photos are uploaded every month by users.

7. Each month 3.5 million events are created.

Did we mention that now users don’t have to wait until they get home to log onto Facebook? The Facebook mobile application is supported by three phones: Blackberry, iPhone, and the new Android. Facebook mobile has 100 million monthly users and is still growing.

Facebook is dominating the networking game on all levels; especially for marketers. People can directly advertise to their target market via Facebook using pay per click. You can use Facebook as a tool that will post your ad on the pages of those people you select to target- a marketers dream come true. No wonder Facebook is a billion dollar company.

WebitMD knows the value and importance of marketing via social networks like Facebook. It is crucial that businesses, especially local businesses, take advantage of getting their name out to members of their community and using Facebook pages to reach people is the fastest way. WebiMD specialized in social media marketing among the other services we offer.

Information provided by: mashable.com
Written by: Samantha J Stephan

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Posted in About WebitMD - Internet Marketing San Diego, Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Social Media Networking, Web Development | No Comments »

Social Media Use at Work is a Liability

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Have you ever considered the effects of social media use your employees are engaging in during business hours? According to the “Social Networks vs. Management?” report from employment services firm Manpower, they claim that although social network networking sites can be utilized as an effective marketing tool for your business, it is just as big of a liability.

Lower productivity, security problems, and reputation issues are huge threats to the success of any company and these happen to be the end result of increased social media networking performed by employees during and after business hours.

The graph below demonstrates how many companies have a formal policy for employee use of external social networking sites worldwide. Only one-fifth of the companies that were surveyed in Manpower’s report even have a policy that concerns social media use. It seems that the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific business worlds are leading the pack with setting policies about social media use during business hours.

Among the companies that did have one of these policies, around 63% of them claimed that it was pretty effective in fighting off the lost productivity social media use encourages.

The loss of productivity in the workplace is one major concern of the use of social media. However, one must not forget about the effects of social networking and how it could potentially negatively effect the reputation of your company. Currently in the U.S., 8% of the companies surveyed in Manpower’s report confessed that social media did in fact have a negative effect on their overall reputation.

I personally believe that limiting the use of social media in the workplace is a great way to increase productivity of one’s employees. I also would want to encourage my employees to either promote a positive outlook on their company or even become unaffiliated with it altogether in order to keep the overall reputation of a company’s brand free from harm online through these sites.

Information Provided By: eMarketer, Manpower
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

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Posted in Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Internet Marketing News, Marketing, Social Media Networking | No Comments »

Is SEO Dying?

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

It was bound to happen- some person writing about the death of SEO. There are a few reasons for this speculation, try searching for “is seo dead.”

Reasons why people think SEO is dying are as follows:

First, people do not really know what SEO is. Even among marketers, people continue to believe that SEO is the “process of tricking search engines to rank a site for search queries for which it isn’t one of the better matches. With this viewpoint, it’s easy to see why people would want to conclude that SEO is a dying medium. Google and Microsoft make billions of dollars in revenue from their search engines, and protecting that revenue stream is a critical activity for them.”

If people are not using SEO correctly, they will ruin the search engine system. This is why Google has invested so much in WebSpam. When consumers receive poor search results they become dissatisfied and turn to different search engines.

Second, other people believe that social media will soon replace SEO. “These people argue that inbound links are an elitist system of voting for Web sites (you have to own a Web site to vote), and that social media will provide a much broader array of signals, because anyone with an Internet connection can sign up for a social media service and start making their opinions known. Further, they argue, more people will rely on social media for opinions on things because people love to learn from the experience of others.”

Social media sites have not been adopted broadly across the population, making the data lumpy and inconsistent- and it is easily spammed. In creating an account, no real investment is needed; all you have to do is sign up and begin posting your opinions and thoughts.

Authority is another issue here. We can assume those with tens of thousands of followers on Twitter have some authority on a topic, but the most they can offer is their own opinions. “Someone with a Web site has made a significant investment in building that site, and here the stamp of authority is likewise relatively easy to measure. However, it’s much more meaningful to receive an authoritative link than an authoritative Tweet.”

So is SEO dying?

“Not a chance. Defined properly, but still somewhat narrowly, SEO is the practice of helping publishers bring new traffic and customers to their Web site, by building and promoting high quality Web sites using technology that the search engines can parse. That need isn’t going away anytime soon.”

Make the most out of available opportunities. For example, Microsoft’s Bing. SEO can and will evolve with the changing times. The advent of universal search resulted in some changes, and created new opportunities for SEOs. The rising prominence of local search did as well. Increasing personalization will create yet more opportunities.

“For the SEO professional, staying abreast of the changing market environment is part of the price of being in this business. While change is constant, publishers use SEO as a means for obtaining new customers from search engines. As long as search is around, there will be a need for people who know how to make that happen.”

Information provided by: searchenginewatch.com
Written by: Samantha J Stephan

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Posted in Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Internet Marketing News, Marketing, SEO, Social Media Networking, Web Development | No Comments »

Women Responding to Brands via Social Web on the Rise!

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

According to the new edition of the SheSpeaks “Annual Social Media Study”, social networking profile penetration of women climbed from 58% in 2008 to 86% in 2009.

Along with this increase, there was also an increase in brand-related activities on social media sites of female internet users. The study shows that 80% of female users said that they had become a fan of a product or a brand on one of their social media networking profiles. In additon, 72% of female users had learned about a new product or brand, or joined a group about one.

Twitter has become the least-likely alternative to finding out about products or services via social networking sites compared to the rest, the study also demonstrates.

Also, according to the study:
One half of female internet users had bought a product because of a social media network, adding to the overall growth of purchasing with the influence of social networking sites and blogs over the last year.
Women have also been more receptive to social network advertising, where 2% in 2008 said that they look at the banner ads and click-through them which has increased to 9% in 2009.

Women seem to be responding to social network advertising and brand awareness more-so now than ever, so it is important to target them as best as possible. According to Aliza Freud, the founder and CEO of SheSpeaks, “Last year our members were going online primarily to research purchases, but now they are looking to social media to help them research, guide and facilitate every kind of transaction, from social exchanges to purchases. Women have become more comfortable using social media, and for marketers, the overall growth and habitual use of social media represents opportunities to reach and engage women of all ages, and influence their purchase decisions.”

Information Provided By: eMarketer
Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

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Posted in Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Starting Up, Web Development | No Comments »

Does Your Website Make Sense?

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

It is surprising that even today website owners haven’t discovered how to make their sites user friendly. People like aesthetically pleasing sites that cater to them: the customer.

Here is a short checklist of dos and don’ts for anyone working on the internet to sell their product or service.

  • In the space “above the fold,” state what the site is aiming to achieve. The area above the fold is the section that is seen without scrolling down. This space should be used to tell the consumer what you do exactly. Why does your site exist? This should be clear to the audience in one quick glance. “You can’t solve someone’s problem if they can’t even figure out what it is that you do.”
  • Use large fonts and plenty of white space. “This is a no brainer. You want your website to be read by as many people as possible so don’t use tiny fonts, don’t use clever fonts, just keep it simple, double spaced and big. You wouldn’t whisper your sales pitch to a potential customer in real life, so don’t do it online.”
  • Keep it simple- not too fancy. Text comes first to graphics; the words on the page are primary. “Graphics should only be used to enhance the presentation of text and never hinder or distract the visitor from what they are supposed to do at your website – read it!”
  • Use headings, bolds, and lists. Unfortunately, people today are getting lazier and lazier. People don’t want to read your five paragraph essay on your product or service. They want to see bullet points, lists of benefits and get information as quickly and painlessly as possible.
  • If you aren’t as technologically advances graphic wise as you’d like to be, just use one nice text-based page. “You can have tremendous success online by using a webpage that is just a simple letter format. Follow the rules above and tell your story using just words. If you can’t do website design yourself or can’t afford it, you can keep things simple and still have a very effective message. It won’t be pretty, but like I said, pretty doesn’t sell – the words do.”

Information provided by: entrepreneurs-journey.com

Written by: Samantha J Stephan

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Posted in Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Marketing, Starting Up, Web Development | No Comments »

Blog Integration: WordPress is King!

Monday, January 11th, 2010

There are a lot of different blog content management systems to choose from when looking for one to use on your website and each platform has its advantages and disadvantages over the others. When it comes to searching for the best blog platform, there is one system that stands out from the rest. The system that provides all-around excellence and most ease of use is WordPress and it blows the other systems out of the water for good reasons.

The advantages of WordPress are:

  • Yeah, It’s FREE.
  • The WordPress interface is easy to learn, use, and to install! You don’t need to be an experienced web designer to integrate and use the software.
  • It is entirely Open Source! Open Source is a philosophy of software distribution that allows anyone to read and modify the program’s source code. Because anyone can modify the source code, improvements, implementations of new specific features, and customization occur rapidly and efficiently. You could even use the blog platform as your website’s platform and no one would ever know.
  • Integration of plugins and themes are seamless and widely available. WordPress offers more of a variety of plugins and themes than other blog systems. We like options!
  • It offers easier organization of your content pages. WordPress does not limit the amount of pages you can have or how to organize them. Rather it is up to you what kind of navigation pages you would like, what categories to fit them in, and where you would like them to be placed on your site. It is entirely up to you and WordPress does not limit your capabilities.
  • The back-end GUI is neatly organized and uses large fonts. The back-end graphical user interface is a type of user interface that allows the blog’s manager to interact with programs in more ways that typing such as computers, hand-held devices, and many more. Having the GUI as neat as possible and clear to read will save you time and energy.
  • It is driven using a SQL Database. The Structured Query Language is a database designed for maintaining and saving data rather than having to re-write the data completely. This language allows you to keep the format of the pages you have already made, and use them over and over again, rather than having to rebuild anything from scratch like you have to with other blog systems.
  • SEO is just good on WordPress than it is on other blog platforms. Google spiders crawl WordPress sites like they would any other blog and rank them accordingly.

For these reasons, and probably many more, WordPress is king! Blog integration and use on your website should be seamless, easy to use, and timely and WordPress is the program that offers these the best, at least in our opinion!

Information Provided By: Entrepreneurs-Journey

Blog Post Written By: Kent Seiders

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Posted in Internet Marketing Fundamentals | No Comments »

What is the Google Honeymoon?

Monday, December 21st, 2009

When a new website is initially released on the internet, Google may give it a high rank in the Google search index. Usually this is between 24 and 48 hours after production. On average, the page will rank particularly high, then it will drop back to whatever is normal for the website.

One theory, calling this period the “honeymoon,” suggests that Google initially ranks new pages high, so that it can collect data on how relevant the page is for particular keywords. “If during the honeymoon your pages are clicked often and the visitor hangs around for a while (doesn’t click back and choose another option from the search results) then your drop after the honeymoon isn’t significant. The logic being that your page offers a good answer to the question being asked. If your page doesn’t get many clicks or people don’t stay around then after the honeymoon you can expect your page to drop further in the index.”

It is always exciting to see your website rank well on Google’s search index, but keep in mind that once a few weeks have passed, the site may drop back to its real position.

Information Provided by: Entrepreneurs-journey.com

Written by: Samantha J. Stephan

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Posted in Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Marketing, SEO, Starting Up, Web Development | No Comments »

What is PageRank?

Friday, December 18th, 2009

Curiosity about getting your page to the top of the Google search is not rocket science; in fact, Google even offers a PageRank tool that can be downloaded for free. If you are running a website or Internet business then PageRank is a vital tool to measure how much traffic you are really getting.

Google is known for providing the best results on internet searches. This is because of PageRank’s ability to determine the value of a website for any given search term or keyword phrase. “This value is determined by how websites link together with the more popular (and theoretically better) sites receiving more links. It’s these incoming links that help the site have a high PageRank value and thus display higher up in search results.”

Here is a brief description of PageRank, written by the Google team:

“PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important.”

Important, high-quality sites receive a higher PageRank, which Google remembers each time it conducts a search. Of course, important pages mean nothing to you if they don’t match your query. So, Google combines PageRank with sophisticated text-matching techniques to find pages that are both important and relevant to your search. Google goes far beyond the number of times a term appears on a page and examines all aspects of the page’s content (and the content of the pages linking to it) to determine if it’s a good match for your query.”

An important key note to understand is that it is a combination of variables that determine how well your site performs on Google. These are the most important variables to worry about:

  • Incoming links to your site.
  • The relevancy (to your site’s theme) of the pages linking to your site and the PageRank of these pages.
  • The keywords that other sites use to link to your site.
  • The keywords on your website in particular in places like page titles and headlines.

Not all of the above points are controllable, but some are, like keywords in headlines. The bottom line to PageRank is that all these variables listed determine how high your site shows up in the search engine results. Therefore it is important to utilize this information for your competitive advantage- no matter how tech-savvy you are.

Information Provided By: Entrepreneurs-journey.com

Written By: Samantha J. Stephan

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Posted in Internet Marketing Fundamentals, Link Building, Marketing, SEO, Starting Up, Web Development | 2 Comments »