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Digital Marketing…It’s IMPORTANT!

By Cheryl | Posted in Marketing | January 24, 2012 – 4:15 pm

Digital Marketing is making a vast impact on the world, with digital content being consumed on a daily basis through mobile phones, laptops and desktop computers… there’s no escaping it!

This type of media is set to be the future of marketing, taking over more traditional forms. As for companies who have not yet recognised the growth in digital marketing they need to adapt their marketing strategies fast!

So why do they need to adapt these strategies if they have worked successfully so far? Digital methods of marketing and communication are faster, more practical, and streamlined so there’s no surprise in the popularity of digital marketing. It offers just as much potential to marketers as it does consumers.

Forms of Digital Marketing

Websites and SEO content

Blogs

Internet banner ads

Online video content

Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising

Email marketing

Social media marketing (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)

Mobile marketing (SMS, MMS, etc.)

So, why digital marketing?

Digital marketing is much cheaper than your traditional methods of marketing such as brochures, leaflets, flyers etc. Marketing campaigns sent out through email or the use of social media can reach a wider audience at a fraction of the price for TV and radio advertising.

The main advantage of using digital marketing is the ease of tracking and measuring the success of your campaign. Instead of conducting expensive customer research, you can view customer response rates and measure the success of your campaign in real-time. It’s quick and easy and enables you to plan more effectively for your next campaign.

The average person is said to spend 39 hours online each month, that’s 468 hours a year! And it’s clear that marketers are taking full advantage of this…

Companies that aren’t up to speed with digital marketing will soon have to pull over and hand over the keys!

MAS North West – Event

By Cheryl | Posted in Marketing, News | October 17, 2011 – 2:39 pm

MAS North West will be holding another one of their great events on Thursday 20th October, discussing ways your business can improve its sales, marketing and web strategies.

The seminar, which will be held at the Suites Hotel in Knowsley, will run between 9:00am-4:00pm and feature guest speakers from a number of different sectors.

Our very own Managing Director, Judith O’Brien, will be on hand to discuss digital marketing and how it can help your business.

MAS has proved a great success since it was launched in 2002, helping UK manufacturers to share knowledge and improve productivity. Past events have proved successful for all participants, with many enjoying networking time at the end of the presentations. We hope to see you there!

Event : Improving Your Sales, Marketing and Web Strategy

Venue : Suites Hotel, Knowsley
Date : 20th October 2011
Time : 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

For more information and a full events schedule, visit http://www.mas-nw.co.uk/events

Should you be blogging?

By Cheryl | Posted in Marketing | May 23, 2011 – 12:47 pm

A lot of people struggle to find the time to write blogs, but could it help your business if you do?

These days blogs are not something you can afford to ignore; it’s free advertising for your business, so why would you let that pass you by?

Blogs can be used to sell your products and services, or for you to share your views on topical subjects.

Topical blogs are a great conversation starter and you are likely to receive a lot of exposure as a result of covering a wide variety of interests. Even though you are not directly selling your services, people are still visiting your website and are likely to view other pages.

How should you write your blogs?

Always try to keep your blogs simple and to a suitable length. The majority of people will be put off by long and overcomplicated text, so just remember the audience you are writing for.

Search ranking

Many people are under the impression that you need to pay to receive hits; this is not true. Organic SEO has proved time and time again that it works. This is especially true for smaller businesses that don’t have the money to compete against multi-million pound corporations.

Companies are conscious of their search ranking, so what better way to make sure you stay up there than frequently uploading fresh content. The addition of content on a regular basis can help you maintain a high placement on the major search engines as your site will be crawled more, leading to the most recent content being picked up more often.

If you blog, you should be looking to be receiving some inbound links to your site; this is good for your SEO as it sends positive signals to the search engines about your websites importance.

Any optimisation is good optimisation, and images are no exception. Although it may seem like a small thing, re-naming any pictures with your keywords will also help.

Blogs are a great and FREE way to drive people to your website.

Social

You can’t speak about the marketing and advertising world without mentioning social networking, and blogs give you a great platform to connect with people.

Social networking is all about communicating and sharing. Posting your blogs on sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn allows people to leave comments and involve themselves in discussions. This is also one of the best ways to increase traffic to your website.

The great thing is that no matter what type of blog you go for, there’s always an audience. A lot of users aim their more general blogs to the Facebook and Twitter crowd, while business blogs go down well on LinkedIn.

Will blogs improve your profit?

As everyone knows, hits don’t equal sales. Blogs aren’t a guarantee to improve profit, but how will you know if you don’t try? If you have the product or service they want, they’ll buy it. If not, they may continue to read you blog and pass the link on to a friend, who in-turn may pass it on to someone else.

It’s true you have to invest time and effort in to blogs, but if it drives extra traffic to your site isn’t it worth it?

Are UK retailers not responsive enough on social networking sites?

By Cheryl | Posted in Internet, Marketing, Social networking | May 13, 2011 – 12:44 pm

Econsultancy conducted a survey last month looking in to the behaviours of companies on social networking sites.

Key sites such as Facebook and Twitter were measured to show how companies responded to questions and comments from customers.

Twitter

Statistics show that 20 of the top 25 retailers had an account on Twitter, with a reported average of 69,000 followers.
Despite the researchers actively engaging with the brand and asking questions, none of the retailers followed them back. This means customers can’t get in touch to provide details to help get their problem sorted out, or to move the discussion to another channel.
Only 25% of retailers with a Twitter account responded to a question directed at them.
While 20% responded to negative comments which had been directed at them, compared with 10% that replied to positive ones.
For those that replied the average response time was 94 minutes, which isn’t bad. By comparison email response times were 10 hours on average, which says a lot about the quality of email service.

Facebook

Fewer (72%) of the 25 retailers had a Facebook page, but the average number of fans was higher, at 258,000.
Retailers responded to questions more promptly on Facebook, an average response time of 78 minutes, while 88% gave a helpful answer.
When it came to responding to positive or negative comments, the figures were different. Just 17% responded to a positive comment on their wall, taking an average of 112 minutes to respond. Just 11% of brands responded to a negative comment left on the wall.

So, why don’t companies feel the need to engage with customers via social sites?

If businesses aren’t generating sales out of social networking, they are less likely to take valuable time out of their day to comment.

Is that the right way to think though? Social networking isn’t something that you should think of purely for sales; it’s about maintaining relationships with your customers.

Sometimes it’s worth outsourcing the service; this way you are not ignoring customers, but your also not using up valuable internal resources.

The report also revealed that only 52% of retailers have a blog on their website and 12% a YouTube channel.

Companies are using social networking as a way to bombard people with marketing, when in reality it should be looked at as free advertising. Millions of people around the world use these services and a simple comment can help provide a positive image for your company; for this to happen though, communications must be mutual.

Advertising – When is it too much?

By Cheryl | Posted in Marketing, Twitter at 12 | March 28, 2011 – 11:58 am

Advertisements are supposed to grab people’s attention, but how far is too far when it comes to your advertising exploits.

Every day we see adverts – be it on buildings, transport, magazines or TV, but where should the line be drawn.

One of the main ways to advertise is on the internet; what is going to garner more attention than the web which billions of people around the world use daily? However, it seems as though advertisers are taking it a step too far these days.

For years we have been overrun with advertisements from the minute we go on to a website, that it seems we now have blinkers to the whole thing. This is exactly the reason why companies now feel the need to use flashy banners that come flying from the side, follow us down the page as we scroll, or even expand to cover the screen as our mouse glides over it. There is no such thing as being discreet anymore, but do they actually work?

Advertising only works when it is done correctly and in the right space. Maybe people aren’t clicking on your ad for a reason, but more often that not, using flashing images to get your word across usually won’t help your cause.

What a lot of people don’t realise is that pop-ups can damage a companies reputation. The majority of people don’t trust businesses that use that kind of invasive advertisement to promote their products and services, and you run the risk of giving your company with a negative image.

Advertising in the right way can be done through products such as Google AdWords. Although is comes at a cost, results can be monitored, making it easy for you to see what is working for your business and what is not. Most importantly is poses no threat to your companies reputation.

Always remember potential customers will judge you on first impressions, so make sure you paint your business in the best light, especially when it comes to advertising.

Online advertising 2011

By Cheryl | Posted in Marketing, Twitter at 12 | March 14, 2011 – 1:03 pm

Online advertising looks set to take another rise again next year after the UK saw a 7% growth in 2010. Around £3.98 billion was spent by advertisers compared to £3.54 spent in 2009 and estimates for next year put it at a 4.9% rise.

What is Online Advertising?

Online advertising is promotion for business using the internet. Examples of this can include banners, email marketing, social networking ads and search engines. One major benefit of online advertising over more traditional methods is that ads can be immediately published rather than waiting for the release of actual publications and such.

Since 2009 online advertising has overtaken both television and print advertising to become the biggest output for many companies. These days a lot of magazines can be viewed online so the need for companies to advertise in a physical magazine is a lot lower and in a world of iPad’s and mobile phones, it looks like online advertisements are on the up.

Advertise on me

Sites such as Facebook have contributed to the increase of online ads with many companies taking up the opportunity to display their adverts on some of the most used site around the world.

Google and other search engines are another great way for businesses to get their brands noticed as small ads can be viewed next to search results which are viewed by millions a day.

Emarketer have released figures showing the billions that will be spent on Online Advertising in the UK.

2009 – £3.5
2010 – £3.79
2011 – £3.98
2012 – £4.33
2013 – £4.59
2014 – £4.84

2011 – The Year of Mobile Advertising

By Cheryl | Posted in Android, Apple, Internet, Marketing, Mobile, Social networking | February 21, 2011 – 12:55 pm

According to vast amounts of research posted on the net, Mobile Advertising is going to be big business this year.

2010 saw an influx of Smartphone’s hitting the market and it is now estimated that 70% of the world’s population owns a mobile phone (some people even have more than one!).

The success of mobile internet can be somewhat contributed to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It is claimed that over 25% (more than 100 million) users access Facebook from their mobile making it’s an advertiser’s paradise.

The most commonly used type of mobile advertisements includes web banners and SMS, with gaming and music videos also proving popular. Many advertisers have jumped on this type of media as mobile phones outnumber TV sets and PC users, allowing them greater views and higher revenue.

The mobile market is ideal for companies wanting to expand their brand. What better way is there to publicise and communicate with customers than through a device they use everyday?

Mobile advertising continues to grow every quarter and was worth £28.6m in 2010. The market has come about quickly considering there wasn’t a huge demand for it a few years ago; showing how much emphasis there is on Smartphone’s and the ability for users to access data on the go.

Although it’s not just Smartphones that have shaped the market, tablets such as the Apple iPad, have set the benchmark for the coming years.

It is likely that mobile video advertising will be one of the main marketing trends this year and could be worth the big investment for companies. It is proven that visual marketing is more successful, so it’s not hard to imagine how lucrative a full screen video advertisement on a mobile phone would be.

The world of mobile advertisements opens up a whole new world for developers and businesses alike; the question is, how long will it be before businesses rely on mobile advertising more than internet advertising?

Digital Marketing – A social world

By Cheryl | Posted in Marketing, PR, Twitter at 12 | January 19, 2011 – 1:03 pm

Digital Marketing is all about getting your brand seen, heard, and most importantly talked about, so how will 2011 shape up for businesses gearing up for a new year of advertising?

Internet, mobile, television and radio is the favoured way for businesses to get their brand noticed these days but some people don’t understand how they can make digital marketing work for them.

One of the most successful ways of advertising in 2010 was through the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Everyday millions of people log in to these sites and even though it’s a very crowded space, it can also prove very successful.

The problem comes when people fail to fully understand how they can make social networking work for them and have no sort of strategy in place. Although it may seem like such a simple thing, many people end up with meaningless posts with a lack of structure, resulting in them causing their brand more harm than good.

It’s important to know what you want to get out of social networking; is it something you want to use to promote your products or is your aim to build relationships with others? These are the questions that need to be asked before you start your online marketing adventure.

Marketing starts at home

A lot of companies have got so caught up in the social networking scene that they forget to keep their own site up to date and looking good. People will judge you on the look and feel of your site so it is extremely important to make sure it is updated regularly and has the basic functionality users now expect. Your website is as much a part of your marketing strategy as any other online advertising you do.

Is Digital Marketing the way forward?

Recent surveys have shown that companies are likely to increase their digital marketing spend this year as they aim to grow their online presence.

Although digital marketing is currently the “it thing” you should never abandon traditional marketing. Closing avenues isn’t the way to get your brand out there and even though something might be more popular it doesn’t always guarantee you success.

As a business you should always aim to get your brand seen everywhere, whether it’s at the back of a newspaper or a customised profile on Twitter. Everything counts.

Ever wondered what it is like to be a musician or film producer?

By Nicola | Posted in Marketing, Twitter at 12 | October 13, 2010 – 12:02 pm

Imagine what it must be like to release your next film or song to the world and then have to sit with your fingers crossed hoping that the public like what you’ve been working on…

I personally think it would be scary stuff but boffins (sorry, highly intelligent researchers working for search firm Yahoo) believe they have one way of predicting the future.

They have decided to put the magic 8 ball back in their top draw in the office as they now claim that web search terms are a good predictor of the success of films, songs and video games even weeks ahead of release.

And they are not the only ones as a similar study conducted back in April this year showed that the number of mentions of a film on social networking site Twitter could predict its opening box-office take.

So, how did this prove this theory?

Earlier this month, a specific team of know-it-alls compared the total number of searches containing a given term, such as the title of a soon-to-be released film, determining how much that number correlated with the film’s success on release.

They decided to carry out the same process with all of the songs that were currently on the US’ popular Billboard 100 music chart and also with the up to the minute video games that had been released.

And guess what?

Their theory proved correct as in all three cases, the correlations were classed as ‘strong’. If the specific song, game or film was one of the top searched terms, it was a good enough predictor of its future success – even as much as six weeks ahead of time – impressive ey?

Study co-author Jake Hofman said: “In principle, these companies are sitting on their ability to predict consumer behaviour that could be used for their own benefit, or sold – the interesting question is whether this data should be restricted.

“In life, it’s not so interesting sometimes to predict the future, but to know what to do once you know what the future will look like.”

Wonder if they can predict tomorrow night’s lottery numbers….

Tagged: Film, Twitter |

How can email marketing benefit you?

By Cheryl | Posted in Marketing, Services, Twitter at 12 | September 28, 2010 – 12:02 pm

You’ve got mail! There’s no Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan in sight, but email marketing can be just as powerful on your (computer) screens…

Email marketing is a useful form of marketing, using email campaigns to communicate your message to a large audience. A lot of businesses find it beneficial compared to other marketing mediums because the cost is less and it can be delivered to a large audience in a instant.

Also, targeting individual groups is a lot easier; what you would send to one group you wouldn’t send to another, using an automated system makes it easier to organise your contact lists and target them for different campaigns.

How could Email Marketing benefit your business?

Everything can be tracked from unsubscribes, soft bounces, hard bounces and click-throughs.

Return in investment is high, only second to search engine optimization and paid placement.

You can directly target people who have opted to receive emails from you, therefore you know that the subject is of interest.

Over half of internet users check or send e-mail everyday so your advertising is more than likely going to be noticed.

You can add links back to your site or products directly from the email, meaning more hits to your website, hopefully leading to more business.

Email Marketing doesn’t have to be hard and if you’ve got the right software behind you, it can be as easy as a few clicks and send!

It just so happens we offer this service (the coincidence eh!). For more information visit http://www.quadronation.com/marketing/email-marketing.php

Tagged: E-mail marketing |

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