Vol. III Issue 1

This month we examine - and challenge - some popular online marketing trends and take a closer look at Google's pay-per-click advertising program.

Googling Your Way To Increased Sales

The Internet is an essential vehicle for today’s marketer. The Interactive Advertising Bureau reports that interactive advertising spending experienced a 25 percent growth rate in 2007. Search marketing is an important segment of interactive spending and for good reason: 85 percent of all Internet users rely on search engines to locate Web sites. Where a company’s Web site listing falls in Google, Yahoo or MSN keyword search results can be crucial to generating leads and sales, introducing products and services and influencing opinion. To boost the chances of getting toward the top of search results, many look to search engine optimization (SEO) and paid search or pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns.

Over the course of several months, SEO can generate higher rankings within keyword searches, so think of SEO for the long term and for your core messages – keywords with a longer shelf life. PPC can place a company’s Web site listing near the top within hours, so think of PPC as a shorter-term campaign.

As the term implies, PPC advertisers pay each time their listing is clicked. The click cost depends on the market demand for the word. (For instance, “lose weight” costs more per click than “low fat diet”.) So be prepared to spend to keep a listing “active”.  To keep your budget on track, PPC campaigns can be managed 24/7 via the Web.
PPC campaigns can help:

• Generate Leads and Sales – Listings containing a price point, a brand name and a place to buy are a good start to getting Web site visitors to your “buy” page. The price point can be changed at will. One offer can also be tested against another offer.

• Introduce New Products and Services – For the launch, a listing clicking to directly to the new product page on your Web site might also contain a benefit and branding message. Provide enough information to extend the time visitors spend on your Web site learning about the new offering.

• Manage Information and Influence Opinion – Should an issue bubble to the surface that could impact your organization, a paid listing clicking to an informational page on your Web site will help counter negative messages, educate and put the news in context.

• Get on the Radar – Many companies buy keyword listings until the SEO campaign brings desired results.

• Test the Waters – The immediacy of PPC feedback means you can try a variety of offers to tweak your message and maximize effectiveness.

When your prospective clients or customers are searching the Internet, utilize SEO and PPC to be sure they find you.

Three Evolving Online Marketing Trends

Businesses will need to avoid getting run over by the marketing trend bandwagons they may have jumped on in 2007. Here are three marketing trends to monitor in 2008:

What’s the ROI on Your Avatar?
Social media marketing seems all the rage, and for some, it is, but marketing through the likes of MySpace, Facebook and Second Life deserves a closer look. These three venues boast 170 million users combined, where people are spending considerable time. But, consider this.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey indicates that working Americans over 18 spend more than 20 hours a day sleeping, working, eating, watching television and managing their homes. Add to this shopping, exercise, talking on the phone and other miscellaneous errands and you’re left with about 60-90 minutes of leisure time - and this is for people with no children!

So, how much of that remaining time is spent on email, surfing the web, blogging, watching YouTube, updating your wiki, podcasting and primping your avatar in Second Life? Oh, and then there’s time for reading and getting together with family and friends, right? The emergence of social media marketing is truly important, but in 2008, the hype of rushing to have a presence in these venues will be tempered by the reality of what they actually provide to the markets you are trying to reach.

Get Mobile Now
In 2008, the emerging under-the-radar trend will be organizations that move to add a mobile version of their Web content. According to m:metrics, more than 62% of smart phone users visit Google, which means nearly two thirds of smart phone users surf the Web. Why should this matter to you? Because by 2012, more than 1.1 billion people will use mobile broadband services around the world, according to Jupiter Research. What’s your mobile presence like? Hint: visit your own Web site with a smart phone and see.

Expertise In Vogue
Why do many schools not allow sourcing from Wikipedia, a top-ten web property? With the rise of wikis, blogs and the ease of creating Web sites, “amateur experts” dominate the new media landscape. And while access to this community of knowledge is great, it raises the very real question of what is considered valid and accurate. Are we reading someone’s opinion? Did someone just copy and paste this info from a blog? Where are those stats really coming from? Look for 2008 to spark the need for real expertise, not only in discerning what information is valid, but also to combat misinformation and develop accurate content that readers, colleagues and clients can depend on.

Best regards,

Peter Rush, Chairman & CEO

www.kellenPR.com 

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