Online Marketing for Local Business
Posts tagged web marketing
More Social Statistics – 101
14 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
As social networks grow and mature, new data has begun to surface that show the behaviors and preferences of its users that could prove invaluable to businesses in the future.
Business owners and marketing professionals are of course quite interested to learn more about how consumers on Facebook and other social media become motivated to connect with companies and brands, and their preferences in interacting with organizations.
Some of the latest statistics:
Many users of social media initially displayed a resistance to connecting directly with businesses from their personal pages, in effect showing a desire to keep “business separate from pleasure”, or their personal lives. A fear of being inundated with advertising pitches surely helped shape this mentality. However, new research shows that 43% of Facebook users now “Like” at least one brand or official company page, and this number is rapidly growing.
Of these, 38% of consumers “Like” a company on Facebook so they can publicly display their brand affiliation to friends. This new trend is being called “Social Badging”, and can be a very powerful motivation for affiliation. These users want to display their connection to brands and organizations that they believe represent them, their personal beliefs, are “cutting edge”, say something unique or valuable about them.
42% become fans so that they can receive special discounts and promotions. Many companies have begun to offer Social-specific sales and announcements, which can give their followers the sense that they are part of an intimate online community…even if they are one of tens of thousands of followers; and that they have the privilege of being included in exclusive, “members-only” specials.
35% say they follow companies and brands to stay current about the organization’s activities, public initiatives, or new products. Once again, the ability to connect with your brand’s following directly when announcing new initiatives, events, products and services can be a quite effective method to roll out your new marketing programs, sales and specials.
Only 23% of respondents said they follow brands on Twitter. Twitter has become more of a “news aggregator” for many users; a large number of new Twitter users have sent fewer than 20 personal tweets, but instead are using the service to gather news and opinions on brands, products and stay up-to-date on cultural trends in general.
Purchasing Content: More Effective Than Web Advertising?
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
You have probably heard many sources online, including Hat Trick Associates, talk about the future of the Internet and how vital web content has become to the search engines and your SEO efforts of your website. Ideally, you want new content on your site every single time the Google crawler or one of the other large engines index your website. So a common question we hear from clients is, what is more effective for growing my website and doing more business in the future: Using my online marketing budget on advertising, or using those same resources to create more fresh content?
The answer may surprise you! Here are more vital web content-related statistics:
- More than 8 out of 10 Internet users look on search engines first to find information on the products or services they want to buy
- Up to 86% of searchers will ignore paid listings, or other advertising they know has been purchased as opposed to organic results
- On the flip side, 64% of the top natural (organic) listings will get click thrus
The reasons are fairly simple – people typically want to feel as if they have “discovered” the solution to their problem – the product, service or brand that they need – on their own. Which is why natural search results convert 35% higher than Pay Per Click campaigns! That’s a significant difference.
That doesn’t mean that web advertising should have no place in your marketing mix. But how many folks spend thousands upon thousands of their marketing dollars on Pay Per Click or Pay Per Impression campaigns, and then spend very little, or even nothing whatsoever, on their ongoing content? The answer is: many more than who actually should! And that is certainly a business mistake.
Do You Even Need a Website?? (Yes. But not as much as before…)
15 years
by admin
in Uncategorized
It was recently announced that many popular search engines, including industry leader Google, are beginning to use content from social media in their search results.
The newest service to be added to organic results is Facebook. As of now only business accounts (or “Fan Pages”) are being indexed, not regular user pages. For now, that is.
Often times these real-time results are prominently featured on the first page of results. This has the potential to change web marketing strategy, as these accounts begin to compete with well established (and far more $ $ expensive) traditional websites.
Which brings me to an article I recently read, one that questioned the need to even have a website anymore. The author was being provocative; no one is advocating abandonment of your website in 2010. But just the fact that the topic came up is interesting.
The concept of a new business or brand operating w/o a standard home page at all – taking advantage of social media accounts and using other tactics like email marketing – is a completely new one.
By adding the content produced by these accounts to organic search results, the engines are taking this idea and moving it one step closer to reality. And making it all the more important that your organization get “on board” and create your own accounts, too.