Advertising your business on Google is a fast way to grow traffic to your website, blog, online store and ecommerce venture.

Google Adwords campaigns can be used to drive people to landing pages where you can capture emails and customer data that can be used for email marketing.

Ranking in the number one position in search results can be the major difference between success and failure for online stores.

Earning the right to rank high in organic Google’s search results and be on the first page of Google for key words or phrases can take months and years of  content creation, promotion and link building!

So how do you fast track getting found online? Paid “Search Engine Marketing” can be your catalyst to fast track your organic digital marketing and Google is the king of this domain.

How Much Does Google Make from Advertising?

Google makes most of its revenue from online digital advertising.

In fact, Google’s earnings from advertising this year will exceed $32 billion in revenue.

So How do you advertise on Google and how does the Google Adwords auction work?

More Reading:

• 20 Stunning Social Media Statistics Plus Infographic
• 30 Terrific Twitter Facts and Figures
• 50 Awesome YouTube Facts and Figures
• 50 Amazing Facts and Figures About Google
• StumbleUpon Drives More Traffic than Facebook or Twitter – Plus INFOGRAPHIC

Image by ConnorTreacy

Marketers, CMO’s and business owners have so many digital marketing options to promote their brand and make ideas spread that it can make their head spin.

Do you advertise on Facebook, start a blog, jump onto Twitter, produce a viral video or optimise your website for search engines?

Social media marketing is sometimes seen as free but in essence nothing is for free.

Writing a blog post takes time and participating on Facebook and Twitter diverts resources away from other tasks and this all comes at a cost. Developing a marketing strategy for your business or blog can start to look extremely complex and soon that marketing plan is only half done and still sitting in your to-do list tray.

So how do you obtain perspective and context amongst the digital marketing noise and options?

The “Simple” Digital Marketing Landscape

Sometimes its worth standing back and seeing the digital marketing landscape in its simplicity is the best place to start.

Daniel Goodall from Nokia segmented his marketing options initially into three components.

Research from Forrester further explains the differences, advantages and challenges of these three which is summarized below.

1. Owned Media

A channel a brand owns. This could be your website, blog, Facebook page or Twitter account

This is where you are building a long term on-line asset and relationship with existing and potential customers that continues to build the more you invest. Investing in this is often overlooked because it doesn’t produce immediate benefits.

The Benefits

• Control
• Cost efficiency
• Longevity
• Versatility
• Niche audiences

The Challenges

• No guarantees
• Company communication not trusted
• Takes time to scale

2. Bought Media

This is where you pay to participate. This could be display ads on Facebook or paid search on Google. This media can be treated as a catalyst that feeds owned and creates earned media

The Benefits

• Immediacy
• Scale
• Control

The Challenges

• Clutter
• Declining response rates
• Poor credibility

3. Earned Media

Customers respond to your marketing and become the channel (crowd sourced marketing). This can be word of mouth (WOM), buzz and viral. This is where you listen and respond and stoke the fires. This is often the result of a well executed and well coordinated owned and paid media.

The Benefits

• Most credible
• Key role in most sales
• Transparent and has longevity

The Challenges

• No control
• Can be negative
• It has global scale
• Harder to measure

They all have their advantages and challenges and which you use will come down to goals and asking some questions.

Which is the Best Marketing Media for Your Brand?

This will come down to your goals. If you have objectives that require immediate results then bought media is your best option. If you have time and you want to build a long term asset that will keep producing sales and enquiries then earned media will be your best option. If you want keep costs down and have time to invest in building your on-line assets then your owned media channels are where you should be investing your time and dollars.

The optimum approach is to combine all three to provide a synergistic approach that is greater than the sum of its parts.

Takeaways

Create a Hub and Spoke Model of Owned Media

The hubs you own such as your blog or website should be where you publish and optimize for sharing. Treat your rented social media channels as extensions of your home base where you can engage  on the social networks where your audience hangs out and distribute your content and ideas. Do not give up or hand over your on-line assets into a Facebook only  approach. Remember you are on Facebook or Twitter under their terms and  conditions and you are only renting the asset and you are there at the Landlord’s mercy and sufferance.

Invest in the Future

Earned media takes time but the benefits over time can be extremely valuable. Engaging with your target market so the crowd leverage’s your brand for you, will create an on-line brand asset that money can’t buy. Videos going viral and Tweets being shared can spread your brand like wildfire and Google backs that up by indexing it on their servers to be found on-line for perpetuity (or as long as the electricity is on!)

Make Paid Media your Catalyst

Paid media’s role is not dead but evolving and should be treated as the catalyst to produce immediate results and gain access to audience at scale. Paid media can create awareness for your owned media that can accelerate your marketing. Paid media can start the fire!

Where are you investing your time, resources and money? Owned, Paid or Earned?

More reading

• Earned Media May Be Efficient, but It’s Far From Free
• Earning your Media
• Thoughts on Paid + Earned

Image by nudevinyl

There is a continuing disconnect with people’s personal use of the internet and how they then apply digital marketing to promote their business.

The company CEO will use Google for researching and buying a new car but when it comes to optimizing his web site for ranking high in Google he struggles to see the value and perceives that building a website is all he needs to do to be “found online” and generate mountains of cash.

The Company With A Feeble Digital IQ

Only the other day I heard about the owner of a company who had recently won a business award  and when they came to present it they mentioned that everything was great about his business except they were surprised that he didn’t even have a website!

This disconnect between time spent on media and use of media for marketing becomes quite apparent when you look at the hard data and becomes apparent that organisations are lagging the consumer.

Companies Media Marketing Dollars Are Being Wasted

JP Morgan research shows that only 7% of media is consumed through our newspapers, yet corporate America is allocating 20% of its media dollars to traditional  newspaper marketing (this is a bad forward leading indicator for shareholders of newspapers).

Looking at the Internet figures it reveals that only 12% of media marketing spend is allocated to online media but 26% of media time is spent online. If we dig a little deeper on the numbers it is even more damning. If you are under 40 and earning over $50,000, media consumption increases to over 50% for the internet. In essence corporations are spending  much more on media where the consumer is no longer hanging out and is somewhere else.

Note:For more on this and the trends and impact on digital competence check out Scott Galloway’s presentation

The reality is that we are still transitioning from the traditional TV industrial complex into a knowledge economy that is continuing to disrupt traditional business models and the advertising monoliths and corporate CEO’s are still struggling to adapt to the digital economy.

In fact you could say that their Digital IQ is in some cases severely challenged!

Scott has come up with  an interesting take on how you can measure companies Digital IQ and here are the 5 categories.

The 5 Digital IQ Categories

Category One:

Category Two:

Category Three:

Category Four:

Category Five:

Brands With A High Digital Marketing IQ Sell More

The commercial reality is that the top categories are outperforming their peers in sales according to NYU Stern.

• Brands ranked as “Gifted” or above demonstrate a 6% advantage over brands ranked “Average” or below
• Brands categorized as “Challenged” or “Feeble” saw sales decline 12% or greater

So what is your companies Digital Marketing IQ and what are you doing about it?

YouTube is serving up more than 200 million videos daily to smartphones and other internet linked mobile devices according to a recent news announcement.

YouTube is a great way to introduce your company to your market, entertain and interview people in your industry amongst many other uses which are only limited by your imagination.

What is great about online video?

1. Viewed worldwide
2. It can train and inform people while you sleep 24/7
3. Viewed while on the go from an Apple iPhone or iPad
4. It has the potential to go viral

It is not hard to do but because a lot of people are not familiar with YouTube and are not comfortable due to their “fear of the unknown”.

This fear prevents us doing many things, so to get ahead in life we often have to overcome our fears to take ourselves and our companies to the next level.

Here are the 8 essential steps to start promoting yourself on YouTube

1. Video Camera – this can even be a video on your smart phone, your webcam or a video camcorder. I have used a simple high definition flip cam that costs only a couple of hundred dollars to record some of my videos. Also I prefer to use a tripod and you can buy them  starting from $50.

2. Prepare A Simple Script

This where you prepare a simple script with major points to prompt you using your text entry as a guide and just cover the main points and try and  keep it to 2-3 minutes if possible. (Interviews are quite often longer at 5-10 minutes)

3. Rehearse – this will help you with your presentation and also ensure you don’t go too long and will reveal some things you may need to fine tune in your presentation (like”ums” and “aahs”)

4. Record & Present – remember to have some fun

5. Create a YouTube account

Creating an account is as simple as just filling in a form on YouTube as displayed below and then verifying your email address after creating a password. The you are ready to upload.

Here is the link to start creating your own corporate or personal account.

6. Upload Your Video to YouTube

Once you have created your account

1. Connect your video camera to your laptop or desktop and upload the file to your computer.
2. Click on the Yellow upload button which will prompt you to select your video file from your computer you have just transferred over from the camera and then the process of uploading that file from your computer to YouTube will commence

Note: High Definition video files of 15 minutes will take you up to several hours depending on the speed  of of  your ADSL/Broadband link so don’t expect it to be done in a matter of a few minutes. YouTube now allows high definition videos of up to 15 minutes and 2 GB in siz.e

7. Optimize Your YouTube Channel

Once you have started to upload your video Google will prompt you to add information about your video and I would recommend that you do this at this stage rather than later as you may forget.

• Headline / Title
• Brief description
• Tags (that means keywords that people might use to search for a video like yours
• Add a URL that will link to your website or blog.

You will find this when you select “My Videos” under the name of your account in the top right corner and then select “edit” from the video you are optimizing to add the core elements I have listed above.

Notes: Make your headline / title compelling and enticing to get people to watch the video and also add a URL linking to your website (or a link of your choice) at the beginning or end of the video description, followed by a sentence or two about your video. You want to be linking people to your other web site properties.

Click here if you want to view a video interview I recently uploaded as displayed above.

8. Promote Your Video

Promote your video the same way you would any piece of great content including

• Embed the video in a blog post.
• Tweet a link to that blog post on Twitter.
• Embed a YouTube video on your Facebook Page.
• Embed it in your website if you have one.
• You can automatically post an update to Facebook or Twitter and other Social media channels when you enable this feature on YouTube (see the bottom of the image in section 6 showing the  ”AutoShare” feature)

Note: If you are using YouTube to host your video, slowly people will subscribe to your channel as you create more content. With a large subscriber base, you will get more views on your videos.

For more information on how to use Twitter to promote your video check out “Twitter Tip: How To Get Targeted Niche Followers”

So I would encourage you to use YouTube for your personal or corporate brand to start educating,informing and maybe even entertaining 24 hours a day globally while you are sleeping.

So are you using YouTube? I Look forward to hearing your experiences with online video.

In the past marketing was easy. You advertised in the yellow pages, you sent letters and catalogs using direct mail, cold called and you placed ads in trade magazines and local newspapers.

If you were a larger company you used television, radio and national newspapers. It was known, comfortable and expensive.

The arrival of an increasingly digital economy and new media is chipping away at the familiar and known and replacing it with marketing platforms, channels and tactics that didn’t exist 5 or 10 years ago that companies and marketers are still trying to get their heads around.

The ageing “baby boomer” CEO’s and senior management are afraid to embrace it because it is new and scary.

The “Scary” New Media

We now have Facebook, YouTube, Blogs, Twitter, email and search engine marketing and they all reach out to different demographics and markets. Musicians trying to get a break and get a record or DVD deal in the past had to engage an agent to help to secure a record deal with a music label. They then waited and prayed that the agent and the record company would work on their behalf. Their future was in some else’s  hands.  Today they are going direct to the market themselves without those intermediaries in between them and their audience making their own YouTube video and going to straight to the market themselves. This web trend is called “Dis-Intermediation”

A Musician’s Case Study

An example of this trend is Kate Leahy who with a budget of $20 and with some creativity and hard work made a YouTube video from her bedroom in outback Australia and marketed herself to the world (without an agent or a record label) and ended up touring Europe for 4 months and performing at shows across 4 countries only 3 months after producing her video “The Life Raft“. Kate made a stop-motion video using over 900 compiled photos that  took her an entire month to produce but it was done on time and she didn’t go over her budget but she had control and she was able to do it herself.  If you are passionate and committed you can achieve amazing things.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Insightful and Revealing Cost Saving Comment

The cost of lead acquisition is also another reason to use the new digital media for marketing as it reduces the cost of those sales leads. A recent comment on the article “The World Is Hanging Up” by the Johan the marketing manager for the telecommunications company Telefonix.co.uk in the UK revealed that after tracking and counting the cost of acquiring sales leads that Web and Organic new media marketing was the most cost effective lead generator.

• Exhibitions cost per lead  - 1,500 pounds
• Telemarketing cost per lead – 900 pounds
• Pay Per Click cost per lead – 150 pounds
• Web/Organic cost per lead – 30 pounds

The Survey Results

So where is the smart money being spent by the top companies to make the best use of their marketing budget? StrongMail have released the results of a survey of 925 marketing and business leaders showing that the top 4 investments companies are making in marketing are

1. Email marketing is the top area of investment growth (65%)
2. Social Media (57%)
3. Search (SEO & PPC) at 41%.
4. Mobile comes in at 4th at 35% and you will continue to see mobile marketing continuing to grow strongly in the future as smartphones and high speed wireless networks and apps continue to grow strongly.

So this is where the smart money is going. Where are you spending your marketing dollars?

Image by Truthout.org

Are you forgetting to market your website and online store to billions of people on a platform that is growing faster than the web itself? The mobile internet is a trend that cannot be ignored.

The Apple iPad is the fastest selling technology product in history and it is projected by 2015 that over 10 billion mobile devices that are web enabled will be in the hands and pockets of people around the world according to Morgan Stanley Research.

The drivers of this growth are the spread of 3G networks (which allow you to surf the web and download data) and intuitive smart phones like the Apple iPhone.

Global 3G network penetration is expected to hit 21% this year globally and have reached penetration levels of 46% in the USA. In Western Europe the penetration is 54% and the worlds leading market is Japan with a penetration coverage of  96%.  Japan is where the U.S.  and the world looks to find its mobile roadmap for the future.

Finally, mobile e-commerce is ramping up faster than online e-commerce, now making up 4% of total retail sales. In certain categories, such as computers, consumer electronics, music, movies, tickets, video games and books, online sales account for between 45% and 20% of the total retail market. Japan’s Rakuten shows how the mobile share of e-commerce is growing as well, from 10% of e-commerce in 2006 to nearly 20% now!

At our digital agency Infinity we have just designed and developed an iPhone app for one of our customers that will enable them to take advantage of having their online store on their customers mobile so they can buy easily anywhere, anytime . They are the first of what will be many Magento iPhone apps that will place two of his online stores Toys Paradise and Games Paradise on people’s iPhones

Here are the apps ready to download if you want to check them out on your iPhone or iPad.

1. Toys Paradise
2. Games Paradise

So here are 5 way to get your app out there and people buying your products from their Apple iPhone

1. Tweet about it – Let your customers know that you just released an app and where they can download it
2. Post a link on social networking sites such as Facebook or Myspace
3. Talk about it  – “Have an iPhone? Download my iPhone App!”
4. Email it out to your customers and embed the link in your email ready for them to just to click and download.
5. Have the download link on your website and Blog (make sure your blog is mobile optimized for viewing)

Mobile according to Morgan Stanley will be a “Share Gain Accelerator“. So are you ready to increase your market share or are you sitting back and waiting for your competitor to go to market first?

So what are some other ways to market your company’s iPhone app?

Facebook has been recently discovered by retailers as a valuable marketing tool that allows them to engage with their customers. Two years ago it was a website for college students to connect, it is now a 800 pound marketing gorilla with 600 million users and is used to promote specials deals, find out what customers like and drive traffic to companies “Bricks” and “Clicks” stores.

Facebook is also one of the lowest cost digital marketing channels to target your particular customer demographic in comparison to Google adwords (with data from Commscore as reported in the Wall Street Journal) revealing that

“In September 24% of all online display ads in the U.S. appeared on Facebook—more than twice as many as any other publisher. Yet Facebook is far from capturing a quarter of the wallets of major marketers. The company accounts for just 9.5% of the spending on display ads in the U.S., according to research firm eMarketer Inc”

This indicates that Facebook is vigorously chasing online digital marketing spend to take market share from Google and other digital marketing channels and at this stage appears to be a bargain with the above numbers indicating that on average other banner ads are 252% more expensive.

We have certainly found that using Facebook banner ads that drive traffic to a landing page is very cost effective and very targeted.

Many B2C companies have large numbers of Fans on their Facebook page with some companies having millions of fans (The 10 most popular company Facebook pages) with Coca Cola with over 20  million fans and Starbucks with more than 18 million. (Source: Insidefacebook.com).

But what are these Facebook fans worth?

According to a study by Syncapse each Fan is worth $136.38.

This number though should not be taken on face value, according to the CEO of Syncapse Mike Scissons

“We are not saying that if Facebook didn’t exist the fans wouldn’t still be worth that much, and that the value would disappear. We are trying to show marketers what the value of that audience represents to the company vs. a lot of traditional tactics… The sum of the [report] really talks about the overall value that the Facebook-specific audience brings to the company.”
Syncapse Value of a Facebook Fan
According to Syncapse the major takeaways are:

Marketing is moving from analog to digital and many well established companies have not woken up to this and are still persisting with what was the “tried and true” but is now becoming the expensive and ineffective.

There are essentially 3 elements that have emerged in the last decade that have brought us to this generational shift that I mentioned in a previous post.

1. Social media
2. Mobile devices enabled with wireless broadband
3. Google and other search engines continual evolution

Companies will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on the public foyer to their building to ensure that the few potential clients that visit every day will be wowed by the bricks and mortar grand portal edifice to their head office.

They will then baulk, bitch and complain at spending even $20,000 on a website that  is their digital portal for their business to the world that will have thousands of  visitors a day.

This “digital disconnect”  is costing traditional companies with baby boomer management millions of dollars a year.

This digital tipping point is making the website the most  important portal and front door to your customers in a world where a digital optimized presence is not a luxury but a necessity, it enables potential customers to find you, engage with your brand and then buy your goods and services.

The challenge is that once brands have the website designed and developed they need to optimize and promote their website to those potential clients to let them know that their brand exists (you need to keep in mind that nearly 90% of all buying decisions start with an online search).

I would like to list the top 10 essential activities that should be considered part of your marketing strategy roadmap that are becoming vital in a digital world and are quite often ignored by a generation of management that grew up in the age of the TV industrial complex and telemarketing.

1. Search Engine Optimization (also known as SEO)

This is an essential element that needs to be invested in so that when customers put in a phrase into the search engine that your company will be found for some essential phrases on page one of Google. (research shows that nearly 90% of all click throughs from a Google search come from being on the first page of Google). This also known as organic search which is actually 75% of all click throughs on Google when people do an online search.

2. Search Engine Marketing (Google Adwords setup and campaign)

This is advertising on Google using keywords and phrases that result in 25% of all click throughs on Google search results and can fast track clients finding your website though it does involve paying Google for the privilege.

3. Blog

This is the interactive component of your website where you can regularly publish content including videos, images, text, PDF’s, Podcasts and receive comments and start to engage with your marketplace on an interactive basis. The blog is your social media home base that can position your company as an expert and thought leader in its industry .

4. Email Marketing

Email is an essential part of your digital marketing strategies that should not be neglected and can be integrated with your other media to provide and information channel to keep your customers informed, educated and up to date with your industry. Email subscriber acquisition is the cornerstone of this essential digital building block that should be integrated into you CRM database.

5. Social Media (Publishing, Promotion & Engagement)

Social media enables you to promote and publish your content to different channels where your target audience is hanging out such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. It also allows you to listen and receive feedback from your customers so you can understand their problems and then provide solutions that can provide answers and modify your products and services to meet those needs. Social media requires you to to “Think like a Publisher”.

6. Social Media Marketing

Paid and targeted advertising can be placed on social media channels such as Facebook from as little as a $1 a day that is capped and can be geographically and demographically targeted in ways that a Google Adwords cannot and is much more cost effective .

7. Online Video

YouTube is not just about entertainment, in fact it can be and is used by companies for educating and informing your clients and potential customers. Online shops such as Zappos are publishing 2 minute online videos displaying product reviews for their online store that can increase conversion rates by up to 30%.

8. Website Optimized for Viewing on a Mobile Smartphone

Ebay recently reported that nearly 10% of its online purchases are happening from mobile platforms. This fast emerging trend needs to included in your planning.

9. Mobile Apps

iPhone, iPad and Smart Phone apps are rapidly transforming the way we read and interact online. Applications are different from just a mobile version of your website that can actually provide an experience for your customers that adds value to their online experience and position your brand as a solution for your customers challenges. Ebay’s latest figures are revealing that up to 10% of online buying is being done from a a mobile device.

10. Analytics and Tools

There are tools that allow you measure your digital performance and monitor your brands buzz online. Google Analytics along with other applications allow you to monitor your website and blogs traffic that can help you modify your web activities.

This all might seem overwhelming but you can take it one step at a time according to your business goals and budgetary limitations but don’t neglect it because your competitor isn’t and your optimized web presence is now an essential part of our digital world, not an optional extra.

Image by Stuck in Customs

Social media marketing is changing the marketing landscape so fast that companies are struggling to adapt their strategies and tactics. What worked in 2001 or even last year is becoming less and less effective.

Planning to publish a PR article in six months with traditional print media could mean completely missing the marketing window of opportunity. Booking bus or outdoor advertising  takes time you might not have and not be able to measure.

So what are some key elements you need to keep in mind to market on a social web?

1. Share

Think sharing. What do people want to share?  Then publish and promote it. This starts with a shareable and compelling headline.

2. Go Real Time

Social media marketing involves publishing in real time, not next week or next month and topical posts and tweets will help you catch the trend and viral wave. It also means you need to respond in real time to complaints, issues and inquiries. The days of publishing 3 months or 6 months in advance are fast disappearing as the market may have changed in that time and people want their information now!

3. Educate – Don’t Sell

People no longer want to be “sold to”. Social marketing is about informing and solving peoples problems with answers and information, whether that be from your blog, links in your tweets or updates and information on Facebook.

4. Entertain – Don’t Market

We live in an information age that discards the bland and embraces the “WOW”. Facebook pages and updates that entertain, with competitions, humor or the unexpected are the links that will be shared.

5. Go Multichannel

Mono channel is not enough these days, whether that be email marketing or niche magazine advertiseming. You need to be on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Blogs as a minimum. Social Media can provide you with the channels to be ubiquitous (everywhere) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

6. Give Information Away For Free

Free gets shared, it doesn’t mean that you give everything away but enough to build trust and spread your content to the global village so that when you do publish that ebook or hardcover they will buy it because they know you and love your unique content.

7. Think Multimedia

Text on its own doesn’t cut it anymore, you need to provide information in ways that meets different peoples expectations and wants. You need to provide content in different media. Gen Y loves video, Baby Boomers like email and text. Find out what type of media your audience wants and give it to them. The broadband high speed web is now a a multimedia experience.

8. Think Like a Publisher

The days of  just sending emails with a special offer or a brochure to a letter box are fast disappearing. Consumers are now researching your company on the web with Google searches  on the web and they are looking for online published informative content that provides answers and solutions. The types of online publications you should be planning are resources  such as eBooks, Podcasts, video tutorials and PDF’s just to name a few.

9. Target Your Niche

Tribes and fans find you and share you to their community. On Twitter you need to follow leaders and people in your niche so that when you tweet they will retweet you to their followers who will have similar interests. Facebook marketing can target demographics including roles, interests and geography.

10. Show Your Passion

Remember social marketing involves passion as if you are not passionate and motivated about your niche it will show. You cannot fake passion and a passionate publisher will shine through and be shared.

11. Listen

Remember listen to your audience and they will tell you what they want, what solutions they need for their problems and then provide it. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Blog comments will reveal a wealth of information about your target market.

12. Engage

After listening to your market you then are ready to start communicating in real time with messaging systems that they are comfortable with whether that be Twitter, Facebook or email.

Is there anything else I have missed? I look forward to your thoughts.

Image by toprankonlinemarketing