Online Clarity

Online Word-of-mouth

What is your business’s main online marketing objective – to increase awareness or improve acquisition? The answer to this question will determine whether the focus of your online strategy lies in online advertising or word-of-mouth marketing.

But first, what’s the difference between the two? Online promotions and advertising does an excellent job in increasing a consumer’s awareness of a business’s product or service to a limited audience. However, if it’s acquisition that is important to your business, then nothing is quite as successful as a carefully targeted word-of-mouth campaign. Personal referrals and recommendations are far more influential when it comes to a consumer’s purchasing decision making process.

While it’s important to realise that you can’t force consumers to speak about your brand, you can strategically create something unique as a part of your brand’s off- and online marketing campaign. It is having an understanding that plants a “This is different. I want to share this with the people I know.” seed in the consumer’s mind.

Businesses today succeed mostly because of the relationships they build with their customers. Word-of-mouth or viral marketing allows businesses to create an environment that stages a unique beginning to this relationship. Instead of falsely advocating a brand, businesses can now rely on starting to communicate with current and potential customers in a more natural fashion.

Viral marketing can be tailored to specific brand goals too. Whether it’s to create a buzz about a product launch that ultimately leads to a new lead or a direct call-to-action promotion, viral marketing gives marketers a creative way to meet these objectives in a way that reaches a wider audience when compared to ordinary online advertising presents. To succeed in this, though, is to come up with an idea. And that’s where all the fun lies; in coming up with an idea that your competitors have missed out on.

Competitor and Demographic Analysis

As a professional online marketing strategist who consults with many corporate companies in the area of online marketing and media, I am pedantic about the importance of competitor and demographic analysis. But what is this?

Briefly, competitor analysis involves the careful assessment of current and potential competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. The main process involves determining who your main competitors are and profiling them and what media plans, both traditional and digital, these competitors are making use of to penetrate the market. Demographic analysis determines who your key customers are and what benefits they expect from your product and subsequently from your online exposure to them.

While many small businesses can’t afford the services of a professional research firm, I tend to insist that research be carried out in this manner when working with bigger brands. Smaller companies can conduct their own market research by recruiting a college student but many often find that the insight that gets delivered far outweighs the expense of a professional market research company. In my opinion, this information cannot be priced. The word “invaluable” comes to mind.

With this information on hand, I begin a crucial part of the online marketing strategy; I analyse the information to determine current industry market share, marketing strategies, and, most importantly, to identify the business’s competition's strengths and weaknesses.

To have a competitive advantage over your competitors and to improve your online marketing efforts you need to understand your customer’s needs and exploit your competitors and industry weaknesses. Your competitors might not like you, but your clients, online users and investors will.

Online Marketing Defined

As an online consultant specialising in online marketing, I am often asked “what is online marketing?” This post is geared towards trying to answer that question.

The main focus of online digital marketing is building brands online. How we do it is through the aid of various techniques and methods that have been proven to provide a positive return on investment. Gone are the days where banner advertising and search engine submissions made up these methods. Internet marketers are employing more sophisticated techniques that deliver cost-effective distribution, personalisation, and higher response and tracking rates.

Unlike traditional media such as television, radio and print, online marketing focuses on delivering content in a innovative fashion to a carefully researched target market that will help build awareness of a brand or business in more personal fashion using internet technology as a backbone. Online Marketing includes banner ads, pay per click advertising, opt-in or permission based email marketing, search engine marketing including search engine optimisation, blog marketing, viral marketing (word of mouth), RSS (really simple syndication) marketing, affiliate marketing, and article or press release marketing.

The aim of any good online marketing campaign should be to close the loop of other communication channels such as telemarketing, advertising, promotions, and direct-mail. Furthermore, online marketing can include a focus on other aspects of managing a brand or business other than sales. This includes information sharing, customer service and public relations.

Eight Stages to a Successful Email Campaign

Email marketing is one of the most effective methods of advertising online. This is for many reasons, including its cost effectiveness, highly targeted and customisable mechanics, and its statistical measurability.

It is important to have an email newsletter strategy in place; one that is consistent with your brand’s online strategy and can be relied upon by users. An email strategy should include clearly defined processes that focus on the planning and creative execution for the campaign, as well its deployment and tracking.

There are eight stages that have been defined for a successful email campaign.

1. Strategic Planning: what do we want to accomplish and why?
2. Database Management: managing user segmentation and a targeted, permission-based database.
3. Creative Execution: visual design and layout together with the content and copywriting of same.
4. Personalisation: email customisation with targeted content and advertising for each individual.
5. Campaign Integration: web site, viral campaigns and on- and offline competitions.
6. Deployment
7. Metrics: the measurement of delivery and open rates, conversions, clickthrough rate, unsubscribes, forward to a friend, return of investment.
8. Analysis and strategic output: devise next campaign with metric information on hand as a blueprint.

Next time I write about email marketing I’ll concentrate on what makes email marketing such a gem; its metrics and how to use its data going forward.

Some Basics in Online Strategy

The aim of a business online strategy is to improve a business’s flow of communication, create a compelling online experience for users, and to build relationships with customers and improve loyalty.

To get this right, you need a deep understanding of what drives your business. What are your business’s goals and objective? How is your brand currently projected in the marketplace? Furthermore, what trends are happening in your industry? These are some of the questions that will help in identifying opportunities that will take your business forward, online.

Online marketing takes time and effort to customise and get right. What makes it hugely exciting is that, unlike traditional media, online media allows for the easy molding of a solution to a particular business.

Having said this, any sound business however does not follow media hype. The same applies to online media. Sometimes online marketing does not fit in with a business’s overall picture; all mechanics that a business uses must point to the same, predetermined goal. It is through a thorough examination of your business, its competitors, and its customers that, together with a specialist, you are able to define your online strategy.

Who’s Your Target Audience?

Deciding how to reach your business’s target audience online is perhaps one of the most important points that need to be examined once a decision has been made to incorporate online into the business’s media mix. Things that need to be considered include the customer’s geography, their surfing habits, and the different digital vehicles to use to target your audience.

The needs of your target audiences are fundamental to online success. What are their preferences, their habits, and, most importantly, their expectations? Answers to these questions form the important foundation to the rest of your online strategy.

The aim of any online venture should be to craft highly-relevant and mission-driven solutions that are delivered in an intuitive and visually gratifying fashion. Get that right and your audience will thank you.

Do Not Disregard Response-Driven Copy

Once users have landed on your webpage, they need motivation to stay on your site. Users expect navigational help on each page. This is done through enticing them with interesting and relevant content, which becomes even more important when you want them to divulge personal information, such as credit card numbers and email addresses.

However, once you've hooked them in and they're happy, the next thing is to direct them to a desired action. Copy that purely talks about facts and benefits isn't enough; there needs to be calls to actions - not in the navigation bar, but in the copy itself.

It is believed that people are more likely to click on links within the copy than those in the navigation. If you want them to make contact or visit an order or subscription form, tell them so. If you want them to read more about a service, check out the FAQ section, or read some testimonials from happy customers/subscribers, include these in the body copy with strategically placed text links directing them there.

The old saying of "ask and you shall receive" proves itself here.

Can your business make use of Podcasting?

Taking advantage of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) technologies, podcasting is a method of publishing audio and video files on the Net. Unlike a simple download or real-time audio streaming, podcasting allows users to opt-in (subscribe) to the podcast’s feed. This means that each time the podcast gets updated users will automatically receive the updated file ready for listening on their portable MP3 players or computers.

Businesses today have a wide choice of methods at which to use podcasts as part of their online marketing and CRM mix. Some ideas that businesses could make use of include:

• Prominent business or brand leaders could distribute speeches and talks regarding their areas of expertise, or commentary on the latest industry news.
• Important customers could be pushed information that strengthens their loyalty and continues the business’s CRM efforts.
• Financial institutions could use podcasts to distribute the day’s/week’s market performance.
• Audio lectures are one way that educational institutions can make use of podcasts.
• Companies holding seminars or conferences can make the podcast of the conference available to non attendees.
• A new and exciting way of using podcasts is to have it compliment a business’s traditional eNewsletter by means of an audio newsletter.

Some of the companies who have recently tapped into podcasting include:

• Virgin Atlantic has a podcast offering audio travel guides to its destinations. Do I foresee our airline companies following suit?
• Maybelline has launched a podcast that shares with users make-up advice.
• Eurostar started a podcast that shares information on London in Dutch, presented by a well-known radio presenter. This is something that local travel companies could easily tap into.
• A "new marketing podcast, “Across the Sound”, was recently launched by marketing guru Joseph Jaffe and will be released to subscribers weekly.
• A Dallas-based chain of liquor stores, Centennial Fine Wine & Spirits, became the first retail wine company to offer podcasts in North America. Their first podcast was an interview explaining "How to find the right wine".
• Nestlé’s animal food brand, Purina, has a podcast that focuses on Animal Advice.

As you can see, there are so many different ways your businesses can make use of podcasting. All that’s needed is a good, original concept that ties in well with your business’s current marketing undertakings.

What is blogging?

Everyone is talking about it. You’ve heard about it in meetings, some of your friends are doing it, and a lot of companies are tapping into its benefits. Blogging is without question becoming the most popular way of publishing a website. And it couldn’t be easier.

In a nutshell, blogging involves writing regular commentary usually in conversational style on news, events and opinions, and sharing with readers content that is pertinent to that author’s interests. The manner in which the content is published is simple and doesn’t require the author to have an intrinsic understanding of technology thanks to innovative blogging platforms and hosting services such as Moveable Type and Blogger. New content is typically added by means of filling in a form and clicking on a submit button.

A blog post can contain text, images, multimedia, and links to other websites. Each blog post has its own unique URL and the author can enable comments from his readers, allowing a dialogue between blogger and reader. As with websites, various types of blogs exist that centre on various interests. Some of the most popular are political, personal, business, and science blogs.

Many businesses are tapping into this form of publishing content on the Net and, most importantly, serving its customers. The interactive, intimate nature of a blog allows for businesses to maintain a relationship with its customers thus facilitating the elimination of a faceless company. A blog not only allows a business to showcase its expertise and work, but also allows for commentary on things related to the business and of interest to the customer. A blog further allows companies to report on industry-related events, trade shows and conferences.

We are only starting to see the South African market becoming aware of this highly advantageous medium. With time, I am sure that many businesses will follow their international counterparts in realising the importance blogging has in their overall digital marketing plan.

Adding value

Adding value to a website actually means keeping visitors 'glued' to your site. A common term used by web savvy folk is “stickiness”. A 'sticky' website not only attracts visitors to it but also keeps them on the website for as long as possible.

Product prices or company profiles can be found everywhere on the Net. To stand out from the crowd you need something that is useful and convenient to your target market. A utility or tool of sorts. Perhaps a regularly updated dialogue with your visitors. An invaluable resource that teaches people something they don’t already know. How about an interactive feature that allows them to communicate or express themselves with the outside world?

Over the coming weeks I will be discussing various ways of adding value to your site with the aim of attracting new and return traffic.

How Do Search Engines Work? Part 2

Continuing from my previous post, I’ll continue to try and explain how Search Engines work.

The Performing Search Engine

At the end of the day a search engine is nothing more than a software program designed to sift through billions of pages recorded in its index to find matches to a search query and rank them in an order that it believes is most relevant. Quite a mouthful.

You’re probably wondering how search engines go about determining relevancy, especially when confronted with hundreds of millions of web pages to sort through, right? Quite simply, each search engine has developed a set of rules and mathematical equations, known as an algorithm, which it uses to set the order of its rankings.

Exactly how a particular search engine's algorithm works is a closely-kept secret, but some general rules are clear that are often used to increase a website's ranking performance. This is referred to as search engine optimisation.

In a nutshell, search engines use on and off page copy to group related pages into vertical themes. If we take a page relating to the entertainment industry, these themes or groups could be music entertainment, movie entertainment, movie star entertainment, etc. Each theme has common words and phrases that best describe the pages the group contains. Some pages may belong to more than one group. For instance, a page relating to movie profits could belong to both financial and entertainment groups.

The SERP (or Search Engine Results Page)

After applying this algorithm to their index of sites, a search engine comes up with a list of the most relevant results according to the search conducted.

To simplify an otherwise complex process – and believe me, it’s complex - , when a user enters a search query, the search engine analyses and searches its index for the web pages it considers relevant to the query. Once it has a shortlist of the relevant pages, it further calculates what order they are presented to the user in, based on further algorithmic factors. These could be a user's location and possibly even their search history.
This algorithm differs between the different engines, which is why different search engines may produce different results for the same query. Each search engine has its niche. It is however not uncommon for a user to use more than one search engine at a time. This further demonstrates the importance for website owners to be indexed and ranked well on all search engines, and not just concentrating on one search engine, such as Google.

Conclusion

The aim of a search engine is to deliver appropriate, relevant, information-rich sites that will satisfy users, first time round. It’s a very exciting challenge and one that sees knew developments from the Search Engines. All you need to worry about though is making your site as informative, engaging, accessible and usable as possible. The rest will happen naturally.

How Do Search Engines Work? Part 1

I’m breaking this post into two. My aims is to shed some uncertainty you may have about search engines and in order to do so, I’d like to keep it simple. After all, if you want to benefit from being listed on search engines, you'd better know how they work in the simplest manner possible.

Think of the Number Three

Crawler-based search engines are made up of three major elements: the spider, the index, and the software. Each has its own function and together they produce what we have come to trust (or distrust) on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages).

The Crawling Spider

Also known as a web crawler or robot, a search engine spider is an automated program that reads web pages and follows any links, preferably text based, to other pages within the site. This is often referred to as a site being "spidered" or "crawled". There are three very active spiders on the Net. Their names are Googlebot (Google), Slurp (Yahoo!) and MSNBot (MSN Search).

Spiders start their journeys with a list of page URLs that have previously been added to their index (database). As the spider visits these pages, crawling the code and content, it adds new pages (links) that it finds on the page to its index. As such, one could refer to a spider as feeding an evolving index, which is discussed below.

Search engine spiders return to the sites in its index on a regular basis, scanning for any changes. How often the spider returns is up to the search engines to decide. Website owners do have some control in how often a spider visits their site though by making use of a robot.txt file. Search engines first look for this file before crawling a page further. So, if for instance you didn’t want a page on your site to be indexed and listed on the Search Engines, then you would edit the robot.txt file.

The Growing Index

An index is like a giant catalogue or inventory of websites containing a copy of every web page and file that the spider finds. If a web page changes, this catalogue is updated with the new information. To give you an idea of the size of these indexes, the latest figure released by Google is over 8 billion pages.

It sometimes takes a while for new pages or changes that the spider finds to be added to its index. Thus, a web page may have been "spidered" but not yet "indexed." Until a page is indexed - added to the index - spidered pages will not be available to those searching with the search engine.