St Louis Web Marketing

Posts Tagged ‘internet marketing’

Just as Google is currently dominating desktop computers, Apple’s iAd will work to dominate the mobile world. Weeks before its scheduled launch on July 1^st, Apple has already taken more than $60m in bookings for its new iAd mobile Web marketing platform.

The service – which will offer advertising inside mobile apps, initially on the iPhone and iPod Touch – promises to combine the emotion of TV advertising with the interactivity of internet advertising. Apple says the deals it has already secured represent almost half of the total forecasted mobile ad spend in the US for the second half of 2010.

Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said: “iAd offers advertisers the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web, and offers users a new way to explore ads without being hijacked out of their favorite apps. iAds will reach millions of iPhone and iPod Touch users, a highly desirable demographic for advertisers, and provide developers [with] a new way to earn money so they can continue developing free and low-cost applications.”

Apple, which launched the fourth generation of the iPhone yesterday, has attracted brands including Unilever, AT&T, Best Buy, Campbell Soup, Chanel, Citi, Nissan, Walt Disney and Turner Broadcasting.

The new mobile advertising platform is designed to allow web developers to create in-app advertising. Currently anyone who clicks on an advert in a downloadable app is bounced out of it and on to the advertiser’s webpage. A Web development can keep 60% of all the revenue that is made through the use of iAd and Apple will get the rest.

The mobile advertising market represents a massive revenue stream, and the $60 million stat only reinforces the potential takeway that Apple could pocket from their move into the arena.

Do you think these big name advertisers are making the right move? 

 

What motivates visitors to take action on my website?

Although this seems like a simple question, the answer is not always obvious or easy to define. Many website owners receive a significant amount of visitors to their websites; however, driving visitors to your website is only half of the online success equation. Turning these visitors into customers and having the motivation to answer the question above, are both equally essential to improving your online performance.Website testing can help you answer these questions and improve your website to increase traffic and conversion. Even though A/B Testing is an ongoing process, but when managed properly it will help you realize a greater return on investment.

A/B Testing Case Study

Issue:  The King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort is a luxury Georgia resort located on St. Simons Island. The resort receives a large amount of traffic to its website from its search engine optimization and paid search efforts, however, it was seeing a large number of visitors bounce from the home page. Analysis of the site’s Google Analytics statistics showed that the special offer that appeared on the home page was not receiving a large number of clicks (see image below). Knowing that this area of the home page should be great real estate for capturing the attention of potential customers, we decided to run a test to determine the type of message that should be presented in that area, which in turn would lead to a lower bounce rate.

Action: The Net Impact worked with The King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort to develop an A/B Google Website Optimizer Test (an easy-to-use tool for testing site content that delivers actionable results) that uses creative variations of the home page. The test ran the original home page, hosting the special offer, against a new variation that provided links to pages which were most popular with visitors. The pages were chosen based on the revenue they generated. The two variations were run against each other in order to determine which message received the greatest amount of interaction. Due to the high volume of traffic on the site, enough data to determine the winner of each test was collected within 2-3 days of the Optimizer test launch. The Net Impact then implemented the changes to the website to reflect the winning home page layout.

Results: The results of the Google Optimizer test showed that the new variation resulted in a 281% increase in clicks from that area of the home page. As a result, the overall bounce rate of the home page decreased by 6.22% during the testing period. Since the implementation of the results of the Google Optimizer tests, The King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort home page has continued to see a decrease in bounces.

Until recently,  companies and PR Firms wrote press releases in a very uniform fashion designed for the eyes of the traditional journalist. But the evolution of online public relations has created an entirely new approach to the writing and distributing process of press releases.

Press release optimization is becoming an increasingly popular form of marketing. Just as optimizing your web site is vital to boost search rankings, so is creating an optimized press release. Internet news aggregators direct visitors to news sources in the same way that search engines direct visitors to web sites. Therefore, it is more effective for a press release to be optimized, and The Net Impact press release services will make your news visible to your target audience.

“Something like 25,000 press releases have been sent to me, resulting in no stories,” writes David Meerman Scott in his bestseller The New Rules of Marketing & PR. “Instead, I think about a subject that I want to cover in a column or an article, and I check out what I can find on blogs and through search engines.”

The purpose behind most online public relations efforts is to increase overall online exposure, which will in turn direct more people to visit your targeted website.  Increased online exposure can lead to greater brand development, a stronger relationship with your public, increased interest from the media, more connections with potential partners and increased lead generation causing greater revenue.

Any topic that will be of interest to prospects, the media and potential partners (such as a new product launch, industry news, events, community activities, etc…) can be used to construct a press release that is search engine optimized and distributed online. Then, distributing optimized press release via newswires has the power to directly reach millions of Internet users, generate inbound links to your website and raise search engine visibility of your website.

Most newswire services offer you an exact report on how many people accessed your optimized release. This is an essential tool in gauging your reads and impressions.  In addition, through other analytical tools, such as Google Analytics, you can determine when someone follows a link to your targeted website through your optimized press release.

Now that online news sites such as Yahoo News and Google News contain such an abundance of press release content and RSS feeds, it is easy to syndicate news. An optimized press release can get you a page one SERP result for your relevant keywords in the search engines, news engines and news websites. So we see that press releases are not only an effective tool for distributing content to the media and consumers, they are easily syndicated creating an excellent opportunity to attract organic traffic and incoming links.

 A well written online press release has the ability to:

1.) Capture the attention of editors, journalists and bloggers looking for compelling topics for news stories

2.) Live on the web indefinitely. Press Releases are  published to various websites and blogs, giving your content a long shelf life as the content is never deleted creating enduring links.

3.) Create conversation on social networks.The press release link will be shared indefinitely through social media marketing, such as Twitter and Facebook

4.) Be viewed by new prospects – your target audience.

*As a result of all of these activities, hyperlinks will generate that will point back to the release creator’s targeted web site.

 If online press releases sound like something your company should be doing but you do not know the right approach,  have the time or the resources, Contact The Net Impact to help you begin your online public relations effort in an organized manner. The Net Impact’s public relations services include press release copy-writing and press release submission through third party online platforms.. We can help you implement a successful public relations strategy into your overall marketing plan.

From dipping their toes into the water with a low-investment campaign to diving off the cliff, today many nonprofits are actively exploring social media. But a common problem many non-profits face is that they blindly leap into social media without implementing a strategy. Without a well created strategy, there is no way to measure your online efforts. This leaves the non-profits at a loss to justify their investment of time, money and resources, or reap valuable insights to improve their efforts. Whether you measure social media success based on how many new volunteers you recruit, the number of sponsorships or donations, the dialogue shared among your online community, or the influx in web traffic, fans and followers, it is vital to measure your results against clear marketing objectives, just as you would with any Internet marketing campaign.

When starting a social media campaign for you non-profit, remember: a simple, yet powerful mission and message can take a campaign far. Non-profits on social networking sites should set goals, update consistently, become a part of the conversation, build community and create value. Without a clear vision and well thought out strategy, it is difficult to encourage an audience to participate. If the time and energy are strategically spent to create a social community, others will help spread your message and your desired results will come.

The social media space provides the non-profit sector with the opportunity to connect and collaborate quickly and inexpensively, and without the help of big company sponsorships. Many non-profits are leveraging social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to connect with their supporters online by crowdsourcing ideas, providing feedback and monitoring conversations regarding their organization.

According to Stacey  Monk, Founder and CEO of Epic Change, “Social media is making change possible. With social media, we’re able to hear totally new voices, who might not have had access to mainstream channels, which represents a real shift in power, and where change can originate.”

Recenlty The Net impact, an online interactive agency, teamed with St. Louis based non-profit, the Karla Smith Foundation to help build online aware for their campaign event with BringChange2Mind, a non-profit superheaded by award-winning actress Glenn Close that works to combat the stigma of mental illness. KSF and BringChange2Mind combined forces to host an unprecedented mental health awareness and anti-stigma event, “Change a Mind, Change a Life”, in St. Louis, Missouri.

The Karla Smith Foundation was in need of a strategy to build online buzz around the event and direct traffic to the event website. To quickly and effectively generate awareness around the campaign, The Net Impact worked closely with the Karla Smith Foundation to create the website, www.changeamind.org, for the highly anticipated event. In order to direct traffic to the website and create online awareness, The Net Impact implemented a social media marketing strategy for the campaign, which included a strong presence on Twitter and Facebook. The KSF social networking sites were updated daily with exciting news regarding the event, such as notices of upcoming media appearances, videos and pictures, and sponsorship information. The KSF Facebook and Twitter continued to see steady growth in fans and followers as well an increase in the level of fan engagement in the weeks leading up to the event.

As a result of the social media marketing campaign, KSF was provided with the opportunity to share valuable information with their existing community, increase interest around their event, catch the attention of local media, build their brand awareness and attract new fans and followers to get involved with their organization. Most importantly, the KSF Facebook page now serves as a platform for their online community to share personal experiences and give valuable feedback in real time.

In conclusion, while many non-profits still have a long way to go, the integration of social media in their marketing efforts can help these organizations meet and exceed many different goals. Social  media is a platform that allows people to participate in a conversation about what they think, feel and care about, making social media and excellent space for the non-profit sector to continue to explore.

If you think online social networking is solely for the younger demographic, think again. Thanks to new social networking sites that enable professionals in a wide variety of industries, such as marketing, finance and even medicine, to build meaningful business relationships, social media is now flourishing in the business world.

The Institute for Corporate Productivity recently held a survey and found 65% of business professionals are connecting to social networking websites. Business executives also have turned to online forums, email lists and message boards to sound off on information related to their industries. Of those respondents who do not currently utilize social networks, the top reason (37%) is simply that they don’t know what networks to use. The majority of respondents (59%) said they would likely use social networks if they knew that such use would assist their professional development (31% say they already do), and a full 77% would welcome using them if they though the networks could aid organizational efficiency.

Millions of professionals already turn to broad-based networking sites like LinkedIn to swap job details and contact information, often for job seeking purposes. Recently, LinkedIn reached 43 million active users, with the average age of its members being 41 years. With the growing use of social networking by business professionals, there is a growing number of social networking sites popping up that focus on business users and meeting their needs, that go beyond the broad-based networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. There are also many niche social networking sites for specific industries, such as legal and medical.

For example: When radiation oncologist Michael Tomblyn recently saw a 21-year-old patient whose eye was protruding from its socket, he turned to his fellow physicians for help. Dozens of doctors offered suggestions, HIV-associated lymphoma or a cocaine-associated sinus problem, eventually steering him toward the correct answer: rhabdomyosarcoma, a fast-growing cancer most often observed in young children. Surprisingly, this diagnosis didn’t take place in a doctor’s lounge. It happened on Sermo.com, the largest online physician community in the US, where practicing US physicians collaborate on difficult cases and exchange observations about drugs, devices and clinical issues., which Dr. Tomblyn and 25,000 doctors like him visit regularly to consult with colleagues specializing in areas from dermatology to psychiatry.

Sermo.com is just one of many targeted social networking sites for professionals. Another example is, Nexly.com, a web-based community designed for the B2B marketplace that provides access to tools and information businesses need in order to better connect. While community tools, like LinkedIn are useful for recruiting purposes, Tom Carlock, CEO of Nexly saw the need for a community created specifically for finding service providers. Nexly.com was created to simplify the process in finding qualified outsourcing services that will results in better buying results.

Nexly is currently in the Beta testing process, and on February 16, 2010, they held a focus group at The Net Impact’s office, in order to validate assumptions and biases in the Beta phase.Check out TNI’s Interview with CEO of Nexly.com, Tim Carlock, on TNI’s YouTube Channel!

Even in the midst of the social media revolution, the behaviors and networking needs of business professionals have not changed, the media simply has. In other words, business professionals are meeting age-old networking needs in new ways. Given the new functions, features and real-time access of social media, social networks have transformed the way  professionals establish and maintain their business relationships.

As more and more business professionals turn to social networks to meet their business objectives, we can only expect to see more targeted social networking sites for professionals continue to pop up on the web. While nothing replaces the quality of face-to-face meetings, social media is a new way to initiate and build relationships and thus, continue to grow one’s professional network.

Do you have any other social networking sites for business that you use?Which one has worked the best for your business?

Original Post at:  www.blog.thenetimpact.com

You’ve done your research and you know that it’s time for you to integrate social media into your marketing campaign. You’ve got your whole team on board and excited for the new changes, except for that one person. That person is probably a little old fashioned, probably one of those that claimed the internet is just a fad. That person is probably very passionate about their job and doesn’t feel comfortable taking a risk like social media without some proof that it will benefit the company. That person may have some questions that you don’t have the answers to. Here are the answers to some common questions and concerns that an anti-social media employee may have.
How are we even going to get followers?
Adding links from your webpage and to your email template, asking your viewers to “Follow us on Twitter”, “Become a Fan on Facebook”, and “Subscribe to our Blog” is an easy way to let the people that you are already in contact with know they can keep in touch on a more casual level by adding you to their social network.  This will not only increase your number of fans, but it will increase the quality of fans. Also, Facebook’s news feed feature allows friends of followers to see that your company has a  fan page. The more friends your followers have, the more people that are being exposed to your fan page.

Being a part social networking communities increases your brand’s exposure through each outlet. Someone may first come across your blog, which directs them to your site, where they can become a friend on Facebook, and they can then receive a coupon to use in store.

What if someone posts something negative about our company?
Negativity can be out there whether or not you take part in social media. However, by supplying the outlet for negative comments, you are providing a secure and manageable space. You are able to respond to a negative remark and turn it to a positive. It has been proven that negative publicity that has not been addressed tends to remain negative and spread like wildfire. Negative comments that are addressed and mended quickly are appreciated and make for great publicity. Here is a great example of a negative comment turned into a positive.

Without social media, this great publicity would have never been seen and maybe the Zappos would have never been able to address this person complaint in the first place.
There are more questions and concerns that “that person” may have. Check back for Part 2 as I discuss how to quantify exposure and how to create your campaign if you have a brick and mortar store rather than online purchases.

Will the growing popularity of social media sites end the need for a website?

Absolutely not. The real time attribute of social media is something that your website can not contribute to the online community. However, your website still offers so much more than any social site can match. The Net Impact, a web marketing company in St. Louis, agrees that social media is an important enhancement to online presence, but not the sole contributor.

“Think of social networks as a friendly gateway to your company website or microsite. Seeding your site with social networks spreads content far and wide through search engines, as well as through contacts who are already a part of your social networking communities – places where rapport has already been established. People tend to share their experiences, good or bad, with their social networking communities – people they have built a connection with. So find out where your audience’s conversations are taking place and establish a strong presence. When social media sites are operated effectively they have the power to steer your audience to your website, resonate with your visitors, humanize your brand and deliver content to the masses in the click of a mouse.”

Social media is what brings the online community full circle. Linking your facebook posts to Twitter, your YouTube videos to Facebook, your RSS Feed to microsites, and so on. The key is that all of these should ultimately link back to your website and drive desirable traffic. Social Media is important, very important, but without a website your brand would be running around in circles. Social media is growing rapidly, but your website shouldn’t be going anywhere.

I am one of the few and lucky graduates of Spring 2009 that actually received my degree and got a job in my field within three months of graduation. “Advertising, so you write commercials and stuff?” is often a response when I tell people the industry I belong to.  I usually laugh, because that is a common stereotype for those of us in advertising and marketing. Honestly, it is those stereotypes that lead me to choose my major in the first place. While, I didn’t learn how to write funny commercials in class, I will say that I did not learn how to do what I am doing now either.

I am a web marketing account manager for an internet marketing firm.  Search engine optimization, social media, and Google Analytics are apart of my daily vocabulary at my new job, but I never heard one of those terms during my four years at an accredited University.  Schools are still teaching students about the ancient traditional media and are not training pupils on internet marketing or even mentioning the growing technology. Perhaps it is because it is a new genre that professors do not even understand, but in my opinion it needs to become a part of the curriculum sooner than later.

Having a degree no longer sets you apart from the eager job seekers, but knowledge and experience sure does. And in an industry that is constantly growing, employers are looking for those who know more than then they do. If Universities really want to stand out for their marketing programs, they should really begin teaching about internet marketing, search engine marketing, and social media. Soon enough they will realize that traditional media is yesterday’s medium, and internet marketing is the advertising of the future. Schools, students, and the industry are sure to benefit from these changes. At least until something else comes along…