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Archive for April 30, 2010

bikram | April 30, 2010
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With rising web Usage in the U.S., eBay and AOL are climbing up fast

Surprisingly with the increasing web browsing habit among Americans during March 2010, it’s the ebay and AOL who are enjoying maximum share of the cake. Recent observation of The Nielsen Company has brought this fact in notice of all.

March 2010 witnessed 57 internet sessions during the month among the Americans, 7.6% more than 53 the previous month. Remarkably the average number of domains visited per person increased by 7.2% and the average number of web pages visited per person also sharply increased by 4.1%. Research further unveiled that average PC time per person increased by 5.9%, amount of time spent viewing average web page sharply rose by 1.2%. Most interestingly number of active internet users accelerated by 3.3%. Such growth rate in such small time span has been truly phenomenal.

In contrary to February 2010, when six of the top ten parent companies missed audience share and all lost average time spent on their websites, March 2010 brought in a gasp of all relief to all; as nine of the top ten companies witnessed major growth in both the segments.

ebay and AOL reaped in maximum benefits. The online auction retail giant ebay topped in both unique audience (5.8%) and time spent on website (12%) growth rate. ebay cherished a unique audience of 66.3 million users who spent an average of 1 hour, 26 minutes and 8 seconds on the website. It secured 8th position in terms of audience size. Fifth ranked AOL LLC followed ebay with an audience growth rate of 5.1% and 8.1 time spent on website growth, with an audience of 85.1 million users spending 2 hours, 14minutes and 38 seconds on average everyday.

Leaders ranked between first to fourth rank, enjoying the largest monthly audience and maximum times spent on the website are – Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Facebook.

 

nielsen-us-parent-companies-mar-10-apr-2010

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bikram | April 30, 2010
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What makes you kick out your Digital Ad Agency?

Under the cover of superfluous blanket of pretention the bottom of crude reality bares the fact that hardly a handful of integrated marketing agencies are up to the mark, offering exactly what they claim to be expert in. The recent initial survey results of integrated marketing agencies by Andrew Ballenthin, president of SolSolutions recently unveiled this truth. The objective of the endeavor was to find out where the integrated marketing agencies are in their own application of social media as part of digital media services. It showed even less than 15% had integrated their own digital marketing practices into their website to a significant degree. Reasons are many.

First thing can be simple lack of capabilities can make you fire an agency. Informal survey of MarketingVOX reveals many other reasons –

When you find your hired agency can’t simply meet your requirements, instead prefer to argue and make you believe in what they have to say, ditch you on the eleventh hour just before going live, unavailable most of the time, carelessly lose all valuable data – you have real valid reasons to dismiss them. Moral of the story is incompetence and unprofessionalism can’t fetch bread and butter to anyone for very long.

Your listed agency can be smacked down when it’s measured in terms of ROI and metrics. The ideal agency is supposed to enhance the brand, not just the bottom line. When your digital marketing agency doesn’t give much insight of the audience but confines itself within measuring campaign performance by clicks and impressions your agency has actually touched upon stagnation and inefficiency. Good understanding of audience insights, content delivery and measurement of audience engagement are the factors which keep you ahead. A tangible business outcome is most essential, whether in terms of greater brand awareness, demand enhancement, audience captivation or something else.

One more vital reason which can actually make you shoot your agency is when their digital offering stands alone, completely unrelated to its brand image, brand positioning communicated through other forms of medium. Ideally a classic full service agency should become digitally inclusive agency, with people specialized in their own domains.

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bikram | April 26, 2010
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Landing Page – Why the F#@!~ Should You Care?

Everyone talks about landing pages. They go all the way to Tokyo to tell you how you should create a landing page for your PPC ad or any other form of ads, and how their system — themes, software, etc., etc., — will help you get the best possible landing page in the gazillions of galaxies. Why they are after making such a tall claims?

Well, not all claims are false, nor everyone is out there to rip you off. Indeed there are many, but not all. A landing page is important for your business, and once you are done with reading this article, you will know why. Having said that, I must tell you that everyone who claims to offer the best landing page system in the whole universe is not telling you the truth. There is nothing like “THE BEST” landing page or landing page system.

The conversion rate of landing page differs from category to category. No single landing page will work for all.

So inspiring, so nicely written, but why do you need a landing page, after all?

Why on the earth you should care for a landing page?

There are two distinct benefits of a landing page, which I am going to discuss below.

Landing page, as the name suggest, is the page where visitors will end up being once he or she clicks on the advertisement. Among one of the goals of the landing page, one goal is to build on the promise made by the advertisement. As you know, a PPC or a banner ad or a whatever ad instill interest in the customers, and it is the job of the landing page to capitalize on it by converting the visitors into customers.

Landing page also work as a bridge between the ad and the sales page, which captures e-mail addresses of the visitors through an opt-in form. These e-mail addresses are then used to establish relationship with the consumers before offering them a product.

These two are quite important goals which cannot be reached without a landing page.

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bikram | April 25, 2010
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Marketers and Social Media Marketing Tool Use Cycle

In a study conducted by SocialMediaExaminer.com it was found that Marketers as a whole prefer twitter (88%) over Facebook (87%) as a marketing tool. The study also suggested that blogs have fallen down from second most-preferred marketing tool in 2009 to number fourth position in 2010, even below LinkedIn. (Read it here).

The study further delved deeper to reveal social media tool usage by marketers at different point in their lives, and it found that the use of social marketing tools vary from newbie marketers to marketers who have some experience.

Social media usage of newbie marketer

In terms of social media usage, the behavior of marketers who is just starting out is a little different from the behavior of all marketers in general. In this group, Facebook is the most used medium. 80% of newbie marketers said Facebook is their first choice, followed by Twitter which 71% marketers use. LinkedIn is used by 67% new marketers, whereas only 43% marketers use blogging as a tool. And other social media marketing tools have not reached critical mass. See image for details.

How-new-marketer-use-social-tools-apr-2010

Social media usage of marketer with some experience

Online Marketers who have some experience of using social media marketing tools follow the industry trend, the usage only differ in the volume term. 92% of marketers in this group said they prefer Twitter, whereas, 88% showed loyalty to Facebook. Rest of the data was almost similar to the industry trend. See image for details.How-marketer-with-some-experience-use-social-tools-apr-2010

 

Social media usage of marketing veterans

Twitter is a preferred tool by almost all the marketers who is in business for more than a couple of years. 96% of respondents falling in this group said they love Twitter, whereas, 91% showed their affection for Facebook. LinkedIn and blogs are also used profusely by this group. LinkedIn is used by 89% of marketing veterans, and blogs are used by 86% of marketing veterans. Even video is used by 61% marketers. See image for detail.

How-vetran-marketer-use-social-tools-apr-2010

The data suggests that the more experience a social media marketers acquire the more closer it goes to twitter, blogs, and video marketing.

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bikram | April 24, 2010
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Learn to Make High-Converting Landing Page for PPC Ads in 30 Minutes

PPC ads are like display windows in front of your store that attracts and pulls visitors to your website where you hope your visitor to perform desired action. But at times visitors do not do what you want them to do because the landing page that you constructed was not good. It was not the kind your visitor expected it to be when he clicked on the PPC ad. For you this means doom. Not anymore. In this article, I will tell you how to make a landing page that converts like crazy.

Landing page that converts like crazy makeover tips

  • Your landing page should be in sync with your PPC ad. Your landing page should continue the theme you set in the PPC ad.
  • Never send visitor to a generic page like home page. This is a surefire way to lose money on your PPC campaign.
  • Do not confuse your visitors. Make it clear at the onset about what you want him to do. Decide before hand what action you want your visitor to take once on the landing page. Focus on one action per landing page.
  • Do not put too many links on your landing page. Links are distraction, and each link works like a road that will take visitors out of the action zone. You will not want your visitor to click the links and leave the landing page. If you have to put links then put it in the footer, and if links are important than put it on thank-you page.
  • Include call to action, and make it obscenely prominent. Do not hide it in the content. Tell the readers about the action you desire from them.
  • Add meaningful call to action. Do not go for easy ones like “add to cart,” “buy now,” “click here,” and “try now,” etc. Use a call to action button that reduces risk in trying.
  • Add USP (unique selling proposition) in your landing page. Tell your visitors why your company is in the unique position to solve the problem your visitor has. Tell them how you are better than other competitors.
  • Make the copy on the landing page easily scannable. Highlight the important stuffs on the page so that people can get the gist even while scanning.
  • Build credibility. Add testimonials, details of your experience, and full contact information, so that your visitors know who is behind the product they are interested in.
  • Must add privacy policy, product reviews, meaningful awards, guarantee, trust seal, certifications, and secure server indicator, etc., on the landing page. This will build trust, and tell the visitors that it is okey to conduct business with you.
  • Do not use a template design that has been overly used for landing page. Design also matters a great deal in decision making. Research says half of the consumers (46%) judge the landing page on the basis of its design. Do not go for a landing page design that is not current. Old design tells the visitors that your offer and product has aged.

Follow these tips and you will get a landing page that converts like crazy.

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bikram | April 24, 2010
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How to Make Most of the Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is gaining ground on the Internet. More and more people are joining it, and attempting to make it big on the Internet, but not everyone is tasting success. Why? Well, reasons could be anything from choosing wrong niche or product to marketing it in the wrong medium. My goal for this article is to tell you how to avoid mistakes and make it big in Affiliate marketing.

Make a list

This is the first thing you need to have to make it big on the Internet. As they say, money is in the list. The bigger your list is the better results you will get. The result will also depend on how nicely targeted your list is to the niche you are working in, so do not just go for size, care about quality as well.

Chose the Niche you love

There are plenty of niches out there, and many of them are performing well, but you are not positioned to explore each one of them. Do not go for the ones that you do not feel comfortable working in. The niche where you can add value should be chosen, as you will be writing about it.

Choose high-performing products

Do not offer to sale the product that doesn’t give you good commission, but more importantly it should have higher conversion rate and EPC (earning per click).

See the landing page

Before you commit to any product, do not forget to see the landing page to understand how it looks. A good landing page with proper conversion will work better on the Internet.

Create a bonus

If you are offering a high-ticket item to your list then make sure, you are giving them an attractive bonus for buying from you. Do not offer just any bonus for the heck of it. Offer the one that is really meaningful.

Review the product

You can also write an honest review of the product you are selling. Do not go bombastic about the benefits of the product even if it is flawed. This is a certain way to lose people.

Send out mailers

Send multiple mailers to your list: during prelaunch, during launch, and couple of mails explaining the bonus and saying it will end soon.

These are the essential steps of affiliate marketing. Follow these and you will indeed make it big in affiliate marketing.

Category: Business | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
bikram | April 24, 2010
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Can You Say Which One is the Most Used Social Media Marketing Tool?

Well, it is nobody’s guess, and it is not Facebook. Twitter is the most used social media marketing tool, as found in the survey by SocialMediaExaminer.com in the “2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report”.

The responses to the question asked in the survey found that 88% of marketers use twitter for marketing, and at number two is Facebook, which is used by 87% of the marketers for marketing. The third-most used marketing tool is LinkedIn, which is number one of online professional networking platform. LinkedIn is used by 78% people, and blogs are used by 70% marketers as marketing tool followed by YouTube and other video sites — 46% markets use these services for marketing.

In the 2009 version of the survey, Facebook was at number four place with 77% marketers using it for marketing, and blog was at number two position with 79% of markets using it for marketing.

The survey also reported that small business owners are more inclined towards using LinkedIn for marketing, and men use YouTube and other video sites more for marketing than men do. To give you the number 51.2% men said they use video sites, whereas only 42.6% women marketers said they use YouTube and other video sites for marketing. See image for detail.

socialmediaexaminer-commonly-used-tools-apr-2010

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bikram | April 21, 2010
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3 Things You Should Consider When Buying a PPC Ad

Not everyone wants to use SEO, as it takes months before it starts delivering results. And those who need immediate result use Pay per Click (PPC) campaign. The process of buying a PPC ad may sound simple — choose a keyword, create a killing ad, make a bid, and run the campaign — but it is not simple, and in this, one mistake will burn a very deep, dark black hole in your pocket. Hence, pay close attention to the things I am going to discuss here.

All PPC engines are not equal

In the heading, I was tempted to add some are more equal than others, but decided to leave it out because adding it would have falsified the claim heading makes.

No two PPC engine are the same. They function differently, their target audiences are different, they have different search volumes, and they convert differently. You need to find what kind of keywords or campaign works well on the PPC engine you are considering. For example, home stuff works well on MSN and tech goodies converts well on Google.

Special attention to Keyword selection

Keyword selection is the key behind high-converting ads, and low-cost ad spots on PPC engines. It is commonly believed the longer the searched phrase will be, the better it will convert, and cheaper it will come to you. Longer searched phrase has a better name. It is called long tail keyword.

One word keyword does not convert well. On the other hand, long tail keywords, brand names, etc. converts really well.

Use negative keywords

It is easier to lose money on a PPC campaign than to make some, and it becomes particularly easy if you are not excluding negative keywords from your campaign. By keeping unnecessary keywords and keywords that do not convert, you are opening a channel through which all you money will go down in the drain.

There are some keywords that could easily be dumped into the list of negative keywords for whatever campaign you are running. Words are free, illegal download, torrent, etc., are in almost all cases could be classified as negative keywords.

Study how negative keywords work in different search engines, and use it accordingly.

Keep these in mind when creating a PPC campaign. It will help you increase conversion.

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bikram | April 20, 2010
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Future Looks Promising for Advertising Industry

According to an estimation done by Magna, advertising expenditure in the United States is expected to grow by 3.5% through 2015. This year, the US advertising industry is expected to touch $164.5 billion mark — it includes Olympics and election spending as well.

The sectors that will witness maximum growth are: Internet, local, and national television. In the estimation done by the company

  • Internet will grow by 12.8% fueled by search that will grow by 16.8%.
  • Advertising expenditure on local television is expected to grow by 16.2%, and
  • Advertising budget for television as a whole will grow by 10.2%.

The picture may look rosy for the industry, but not everyone is going to benefit from this. As the prediction goes, the print media will continue its freefall despite the growth. As estimated

  • Advertising budget for the newspaper will slip by another 11%.
  • Local paper will slide down by 10%, and
  • Magazine will witness another 6.9% decline.

Could it be an indication of text’s losing battle against the visual and auditory appeal of videos? As on the Internet as well, it is the video that is the new black. Seeing the growing consumption of multimedia content, written words run the risk of going down in the dark alleys of oblivion.

Why Video is gaining, and text is losing ground?

The nature of both the media could be at the center of this shift. To understand the difference we need to understand both the mediums.

Print: Print (and reading in general) is an active medium that requires exclusive attention from the audience. This is time consuming.

Multimedia: On the other hand, multimedia content (audio and video) does not require exclusive attention. It can be consumed while doing other works. And given the multi-tasking nature of the twenty-first century man and woman, this appears to be time saving — and we all appears to overlook the diminished understanding of the subject caused by our multi-tasking addiction. That is the reason behind meteoric rise of multimedia content consumption.

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bikram | April 20, 2010
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Research Shows Teens Love Texting More Than Calling

According to a research conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, it was found that the US teens prefer text over cell phone calling for daily communication with their friends. Cell-phone calling was at number two in the research.

88% of total teen cell phone users and 72% of all the teens in the United States use their cell phone to send text message — it is a sharp rise of 21% in the number of teen texters in the last 3 plus years, which was 51% in 2006. And 54% of the US teens are daily texters, I.e., they send text messages daily. In recent years, the cell phone penetration among teens (12 to 17 year olds) has also increase from 45% in 2004 to 72% in 2010.

Teen Texting data

Among all the US teens who send at least one occasional text message to their friends:

  • 50% sends more than 50 text messages a day, or 1,500 text messages a month.
  • 1 in every 3 sends more than 100 text messages per day, or 3,000 text messages a month.
  • 15% of teens who indulge in sending text messages, sends 200 texts a day, or more than 6,000 text messages a month.
  • Boys typically receive 30 text messages in a day, whereas, girls receive 80 text messages every day.
  • On an average, teenagers between 12-13 years of age send and receive 20 text messages every day.
  • On an average, teenagers between 14-17 years of age send and receive 60 text messages every day.
  • On an average, girls between 14-17 years of age send 100 or more text messages every day, or 3,000 text messages a month.

Teenagers’ love for texting is evident from the above data, but to get more detail, see the image below.

Category: Technology | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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