Marketing vs TV Advertising

 
Till recently, online marketers considered the television content as a major rival. The question was ‘TV or not TV?’ However, the scenario has undergone a sea change in the past few years and it is estimated that spending on Internet ads will take over investments on TV ads in the US in another 10 years.
 
Top market research organisation Nielsen reports that the typical American watched 4 hours and 34 minutes of TV every day during 2006-2007, signifying an increase of 36 minutes every day from a decade earlier. And it is estimated that the TV advertising budget will be around $75.4 billion in 2012, moving up from $67.8 billion in 2007, denoting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of only 2.1 per cent.
 
On the other hand, spending on online advertising is anticipated to escalate at 19.2 per cent annually till 2012 and, as I mentioned earlier, will surpass TV advertising budget in the US in the next decade.
 
According to a recent study on TV watching trends, people will continue to watch more TV content in the future, but they will gain access to and watch it in different techniques than they have done before. It is also being forecast that by 2012 at least one-fourth of the TV content viewed daily will be moved on to the Web or mobile devices on people’s demand.
 
In fact, the consumers are already flooded with new methods like video-on-demand, digital video recorders, the broadband Web and 3G mobile phones to gain access to and watch TV. Going by the crucial TV and the Internet usage standards, the number of Internet users in the US is fast catching up on the volume of TV viewers.
 
According to experts, by 2012 around 190 million Internet users in the US will be regular viewers of online videos and with the increase of broadband facilities in households, online video content creation will become more specialised.  
 
The experts further forecast the presence of VOD facility in 60 per cent of TV homes and say that 40 per cent of them will possess DVR service in the US by 2012. These unique facilities will enable the consumers to be in command over the TV content they wish to watch or ignore. Although these does not mean an end for the customary televising or do away with the usual 30-second advertisement breaks, it calls for an urgent need to make TV advertising more progressive.
 
It is pertinent to note here that the conventional TV broadcasters and advertisers do not have enough time to set things in motion to re-invent themselves and their firms to take advantage of the benefits of the latest technological changes.

John Singh
www.macquarieit.com
www.johnsingh.com

The fundamental building block of successful online marketing is keyword research. Unless you can identify what it is your customers – or potential customers – are searching for online and the words and phrases they use to describe the products or services they are looking for, there is little chance that you will be able to optimize the flow of web traffic to your site – or the site’s revenue.

Search engine optimization, or SEO, has aptly been described as a mixture of art and science. With the introduction of a new, more detailed key word research tool from the world’s leading search engine, Google, there has now been a decided shift to the science end of the spectrum – at least when it comes to identifying the key words you can focus on to drive web traffic to your site.

Google Adwords’ New Keyword Tool

Google Adwords, the pay-per-click advertising side of Google, recently introduced a new and improved Keyword Tool in July 2008. Where the key word research tools SEO professionals had formerly relied upon to gauge the web traffic associated with a particular search query – tools such as Wordtracker, a paid-subscription service, and Overture’s Keyword Tool – provided good approximations of web traffic for a particular word or phrase, Google Adwords new and improved Keyword Tool, provides a great analytic breakdown of the approximate search volume for keywords across the Internet’s dominant search engine.

Unlike the Keyword Tool formerly offered by Google, which showed only a rough approximation of traffic flow based on a series of green bar graphs, the new Google Adwords tool offers much more quantified numbers and trends for specified and suggested keywords.

Generating Keyword Ideas

Google’s new Keyword Tool offers two ways of generating keyword ideas and suggestions. Firstly, by entering descriptive keywords or phrases in its search box, Keyword Tool will show the keywords and keyword phrases associated with your descriptive word or phrase (and their synonyms). The list of associated keywords and phrases, with detailed metrics about the search volumes for these associated terms, will allow you to quickly identify which profitable keywords you have not targeted.

Secondly, Keyword Tool allows you to enter a specific website address into the search box. Keyword Tool then analyzes the keywords that Google associates with that website’s URL. This website content function of Keyword Tools provides two very valuable streams of information. It gives you valuable insight into what keywords your competition is focusing on and highlights keywords and keyword phrases you may not have otherwise identified. Moreover, by entering your own website’s URL addresses in the search box, it allows you to see the keywords that Google itself identifies as being related to the content on your web page. In many instances you may find that Google views and interprets your page in a much different way than you do. Difficulties in ranking a page may be quickly diagnosed and corrected to the extent that Google is seeing your page as being associated with keywords you have not intentionally focused on. Thus, Keyword Tools functions as a quick diagnostic tool that allows insight into the way your site, and its individual pages, is viewed and ranked.

Researching Search Volumes

The new Keyword Tool from Google Adwords also provides detailed metrics for each keyword or keyword phrase it identifies or suggests. Keyword Tools displays both the approximate search volume for the current month, but the approximate average search volume per month as well. Other valuable metrics include search volume trends. If the product you are marketing is seasonal by nature – for example you prepare tax returns, or distribute children’s Halloween costumes – Google will show you month-by-month the rise and fall in numbers of search queries for your particular keywords, as well as indicate which month the highest volume of search queries for each keyword appeared. (Not surprisingly, searches for children’s Halloween costume flatline throughout the year only to jump in September and peak in October.)

Google’s Keyword Tool is specifically designed to assist paid advertisers target the keywords they wish to purchase for sponsored links. Yet its usefulness to organic SEO is obvious. Even the estimated “cost-per-click” information available through Keyword Tool gives organic search SEOs vital information about the popularity, or perceived popularity, of keyword terms.

Value of Keyword Tools to SEOs

For most SEO purposes, the new and improved will function nicely alongside (and may even replace to a large degree) Wordtracker and Overture, although for niche marketing purposes the two programs that were formerly the preferred tools of experienced SEOs may continue to dominate. However, for many online marketing purposes the new tool from Google, which was formerly highly resistant to broadly disclosing the metrics of its search numbers, may prove to be a one-stop keyword research shopping experience. Much will depend, of course, on how “approximate” the reported approximate search volumes are. To the extent that reported search volumes accurately track web traffic on the search engine that handles approximately 80% of all search queries, Keyword Tool may prove to be a one-stop shop for online marketers.

Creating a website that would represent the company to the online community is difficult; however, even more difficult is making sure your site is seen on the rankings and making sure you maintain your Ad campaigns with the search engines. Although many people are familiar with online marketing, only very few are able to achieve the results they want. The key now is to do the right move from the very beginning.

When you’ve already created a website to represent your company, you have to exert some effort and make sure it gets noticed by the search engines. Your first approach would have to be finding a company who does an all around site optimization service. This company must have the capacity to do all the necessary stages your website has to go through to get to the rankings.

First is the keyword research. The very basic of all search engine optimization projects always involves keyword research. This is the part where you get to choose the keywords you want to use for your optimization. Some SEO companies handle this process themselves and just show you a list of the keywords they’ll be using for your site’s optimization while some companies would want to get reference from you, the business owner. Since you know the business more than the SEO companies do, you have the right to get involved in this stage. Clarify areas about your marketing approach to your chosen SEO company so they will have a better idea how to start picking the right keywords for you, or even make you choose yourself instead. You can also try and get yourself some outside help from keyword research tools in the market that could do a better research for you if you’re not too satisfied or convinced with a simple keyword research. You can try using advanced keyword research tools or competitor tracking tools and know what your competitors are using to market their business online and see if you can use them on your own.

Second part is the content creation. Content creation is where your keywords are translated into website text contents. SEO companies have copywriters who do this and make sure that your keywords are integrated properly on the contents of the website. As the site owner you also have to check the way the contents are written. Again, look at it in a business’ standpoint, make sure it contains the right words that properly promote your business.

Third is the website submission. Once you go live with the search engines, everything you do with your website is monitored and will be manipulated on a third party basis by the search engines. At this stage, the search engines are now in control of putting your website on their rankings. What you and your SEO company can do is continually check and add more back links to help your website get noticed.

If you prefer the to rank high in organic rankings among major search engines you should be aware that here, number is the game. It is important for search engines that you have a numbered history on the net and numerous backlinks to high ranking sites because this shows that sites that link to you patronize you. Then again, if you’re vying for a high spot in sponsored links or the Pay-per-click rankings, you should be ready to prepare a certain budget for your advertisement. Most high profile companies take risk in this area, spending lots of money on keywords research and SEO to get the best possible search engine position for their site. So if you decide to push for this type of campaign, be prepared to deal with the cost and the competition.

It is now time for you to get out there, in the world of online marketing. Are you prepared to get in the zone?

Time has changed. With more people going online, online marketing is a  must. What are different ways to achieve this? I’ll share some of them below: 

Placing advertisements on Google

Adwords help your products reach  target audience. Adwords effective advertising can boost sales and best of all, hits can be tracked. It’s important to target right keywords. Take thelp from Google Support for account creation. Create an account and learn adwords free at Adwords Learning Centre. Remember, it’s necessary to get good grasp of this marketing engine, else you might end up spending money in vain. Google definitely is one of the best search engines, but if you can spend more,then do so at Microsoft adcenter; which works on same concept as Google Adwords. Social networks such as Facebook has started similar concept. 

Shopping engines ( Google Product Search, Kelkoo, Ciao, Idealo, pricerunner ): 

Advertise your products on Google product search. Google offers a way to reach your customers free. So, if you wish traffic to your website, then create a feed of your products and advertise it on Google product search. Other shopping engines such as Kelkoo, Ciao, Idealo, Pricerunner would charge you on pay per click basis. You can advertise products free and would only pay if your product generate clicks. Remember you are paying for clicks here and how well clicks convert to sales, depend on lots of factors such as price, description , image quality , etc. Always create a feed that provides maximum information to user. The better the feed, more are the chances to convert a searcher to buyer. 

Ebay: 

This is another way to generate sales. I do a lot of shopping from ebay. You can always tell how good is a shop by looking at positive feedbacks awarded to the shop. I am a computer junkie and buy lot of things from Spotonuk. The customer service is brilliant, positive feedback is 100%, which is why I included them in my article. What I meant here is that customer service can act as a key tool to keep exisitng customers on their toes. Moreover, Ebay has started pay per click system that means you can generate sales by bidding your item on top of others. Ebay also allows e-mail marketing and you don’t have to buy any system to do it, it’s all included. 

Recession doesn’t mean you should drop your marketing plans. It means people are more careful in spending money. Online activities will not only increase sales, it will increase brand awareness and would bring back the lost business.

If you’re a small business owner struggling to survive online, you’ve probably figured out by now that Internet business involves more than simply building a website and making sales. The trouble with online marketing is that you’re no longer just competing with other businesses in your geographical area. Now, you’re competing with the whole world — a daunting prospect, however you look at it.

The good news is that your customer base is far larger than it once was. Even if you have average site design and non-competitive prices, you’re liable to get a few customers here and there. But nobody starts a business just to get by. We all want to make a profit. Most of us would even love to get rich. Yet by simply putting up a website and waiting for customers to find their way to you, you’ll get nowhere fast.

In other words, to survive and get ahead in online business, you can’t just sit in your tiny corner of the Internet, waiting for people to initiate a conversation with you. The Internet is a vast, interconnected system of social networks and communities based around dynamic content. If your marketing budget doesn’t allow you to break into these systems through eye-catching advertisements, then you have to take the high road instead.

I call it the “high road” for a reason. Today’s Web-savvy consumers despise flashy, intrusive advertising. There’s no quicker way to encourage negative associations with your company name than to plaster it across a banner ad, or to have it pop-up in flashing fonts on the screen of an unsuspecting Web surfer. These heavy-handed marketing tactics will only sink your online business.

The key to earning your future customers’ respect is not to hit them over the head with shallow self-endorsements, but rather to use pre-existing content structures to generate a crescendoing buzz around your business.

Whether your business sells solid goods or useful services, there is undoubtedly a Web community centered around your field. There are blogs, journals, and online magazines that relate directly to your area of expertise, and, as someone with a passion for your field of work, you probably follow these on a regular basis.

Who generates this content? For a piece of content to be genuinely useful, it must be written by a person who knows all the ins and outs of the subject matter. In other words, the people who generate Web content are not a special class of cyber-writers; they’re professionals like you, who do nothing more than set fingers to keyboard and write about what they know.

Meanwhile, who are the readers of this content? Not everyone reading the same content that you read are small business owners like yourself. In fact, the vast majority of them are interested observers looking to learn something new — or, more importantly, the vast majority of them are potential customers. Though they may not realize it as they’re reading the content, they’re learning what to buy, where to buy, and how to buy. By not being one of the experts who generates content, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to speak to your customer base.

So, maybe you should try to generate some Web content. Actually, on second thought, you simply must generate Web content, and you should start as soon as possible. The survival of your online business depends upon it.

To generate content might sound difficult, but in reality, you only have to set fingers to keyboard and start typing. If you’re writing about something you know — which you will be — then the content will flow out of you. And if you’re a smart business owner who deserves a large share of your market, then your content will inevitably be useful and informative to your future customers.

Once you have some articles, find an article marketing service. These are inexpensive, and easy to locate through any search engine. Sign up for one of these services, and they’ll help you polish and distribute your content. Take their advice, and soon you’ll be building site traffic, earning higher search engine rankings, and making greater profits.