That's right. The world of online marketing has the advantage that everything is measurable.
Try and calculate how many people see a print advertising on a bus. That's hard. Now try and calculate how many people engage with the product or service from the ad on the bus as a result of having seen that specific ad. Also very hard.
In online marketing it's a different game. By using technology correctly, you can know precisely how many people saw your ad and also where on the internet they saw the ad. If the ad was clicked, you can know how long an individual spent on the website you sent him/her to, what other items on the website the individual engaged with and very importantly, you can know if the ad converted for you (ie. the individual bought something or performed another actionable task). In short, you can measure the return on investment (ROI) of your online marketing efforts and therefore take decisions based on facts rather than assumptions. From here it is a matter of measuring performance.
Your only goal is the success of the website you create, do you consider that many web designers don't focus enough on the optimization of the website performance? And how can we measure the Search Engine Optimization?
The first part of the answer needs some pre-explanation in order to make sense. It might be a bit long, but it is important.
If you look at web design companies in Luxembourg, you will see that most have their origins in print. They created (and still do) absolutely fantastic designs and illustrations. Then came the internet in the late 1990s and early 2000. The print design and illustration companies in Luxembourg sent their staff back to school to learn how to design websites in order to enter the (at the time) lucrative business of designing websites. Many businesses in Luxembourg went out and got themselves a website for which they paid serious money. The sites looked great to the eye, but when it came to functionality and (especially) user-friendliness the sites failed in a big way.
This of course results in the website visitors (the ones that are suppose to give the site owner a return on investment) falling back on the large international sites that are 100% optimized in every sense of the word, and convert there. Now the .lu site owner is understandingly left frustrated and unwilling to put in further investments for the website. Hearing 'my website is like a business card to me' from business owners is not rare. I believe what business owners want to answer is 'my website is a revenue source for my business', but can't as they would then lie.
Years pass, and in the meantime the web designers have learned that functionality and user friendliness is key to having a successful website. They have learned how to integrate this properly with their web design skills and in theory they should have full order books. The reality is that they don't. This is because they have lost credibility with their customers as these never saw a return on their investment.
The (few) business owners that do decide to go ahead with a site re-design, pump in another investment and get a site that is looking good, user friendly and has the needed functionality for this day and age. Perfect in theory. But it is not. The evolution of the web has gone past most web designers (again).
Today the web is saturated with websites that look good, are user friendly and have excellent functionality. They are like beer at the Oktoberfest. What it is about today, is standing out from the competition by generating targeted traffic to a website with the above criteria that converts. This can be done offline, but also via online channels such as: - Paid and non-paid search engine traffic (google, yahoo, bing, etc) - Social media (facebook, youtube, twitter, myspace, etc) - Referring sites (review sites, business partner sites, etc)
To use the above channels successfully is pretty much a science in itself. It cannot be learned at an intensive 5 day course two hours away from Luxembourg. In order to be on the forefront, constant education and real-life testing around the subject is needed. To give you a pre-taste, google changed the algorithm that decides what site is ranked where in the search results several hundred times last year. Creating a facebook ‘page' for your business and ask all employes to reach out to their facebook friends and ‘like' the page will not cut it either. It is a continuos process that requires thought through actions and investments (time and money).
I know your question is 'do you consider that many web designers don't focus enough on the optimization of the website performance?', but in order for my answer to make sense, it is essential to understand the above. So here is my answer:
Yes, the vast majority of web designers in Luxembourg do not focus enough on the optimization of a website. Not because they don't want to, but because they don't understand it well enough.
There are of course also companies in Luxembourg that perform great web work. Before you hire a company to do web work for you, make sure you ask them for references. Don't take their word for it. Call the reference and ask them how their experience was.
The second question 'how can we measure search engine optimization?' has a much shorter answer. Simply claim your site with google webmaster tools at www.google.com/webmasters and look at the ‘search query' report. I also strongly encourage you to read the 'organic search engine keyword' report from google analytics. In case you do not have a google analytics account for your website, just register for one at www.google.com/analytics.
As an online-marketing specialist, how can e-marketing support an advertising campaign on another media? And could e-marketing, by the end, replace a traditional advertising campaign?
Online marketing is a very strong way to support your campaigns in other types of media. We have seen this ourselves with clients abroad where we measured significant increases in conversions during the time television campaigns were running in parallel with online ads. The statistics are there to prove it.
Not everybody manages to remember or write down the website address from a tv or radio ad, but if you place highly targeted online advertising, you are able to reach the targeted prospects via the online channel. If the person has seen or heard about you in other media channels, you will have added integrity that will increase the likelihood of conversion.
The key here is measurement. Website analytics tools such as google analytics allows you to measure the traffic on your website in a pretty detailed manner. If your ads in tv, radio and/or print refer to your website, you are able to segment the traffic on the website and thereby measure the return on investment (ROI) on your offline campaigns. It gets pretty technical.
You ask if e-marketing can replace traditional advertising. I don't think you can look at it like that. It is definitely product and service specific. Not all products sell well online and not all products and services sell well offline. I think it is about finding the right marketing mix for your business. The only way to find out is by measuring, measuring and measuring. If a campaign delivers a ROI you need to pursue it and if it doesn't, change it until it does.
In a world where internet is supposed to be essential, can we perform without online marketing? And what possible development could we consider for this new way of communication?
Look at the online marketing activities in Luxembourg. Many of the strongest companies do not pursue any online marketing, yet they still dominate in their market. Therefore I feel confident saying that online marketing is not essential for a business to succeed at present.
Let me turn the question around: Is online marketing a way for a business to strengthen their market position? Absolutely.
People are spending much of their time online. Be that at work or at home. As marketers, it is therefore natural that we should use this platform to reach out to current and potential customers. Here is the real benefit of online: Unlike traditional media sources like print, tv and radio, online allows highly targeted advertising on any budget as well as two-way communication. This means that you can reach your target audience and learn from your current and potential customers what they want from you, what you do well and what you need to do better. You might think that people choose your product or service because of 'X' - but through this medium you can find out that your customers actually choose you because of 'Y'. This is priceless information if your business is in it for the long term success. On the other hand, if you are a business that sells a bad product or service, online can be your downfall. People are talking badly about your product or service online either way - like it or not. You can choose to ignore the bad talk, but then it is just a matter of time until it will catch up with you. If you continue to sell a product or service that people dislike, you should not be in business anyway. If you don't join the conversation online and find out what people want from your business, your competitors will and then make your customer transfer bit by bit.
So what developments will we see in Luxembourg in terms of online marketing? I think we will see more businesses strengthening their online presence and voice through their websites, but certainly also on platforms such as facebook. When they see the positive effects that can have on their business, they will extend their online marketing activities into 'payable' items such as website traffic generation through channels such as paid advertisement.
Pay Per Click? The concept is rather interesting, but does the internet user pay really attention to it? And between all the popup, how can he make the difference? How can we make the insert notable?
I remember when I started getting seriously involved with online marketing in early 2000. I asked myself the exact same question. Do people really click on these ads? I think the best answer to this question can be found in the revenues of large online businesses such as facebook and google.
Google's income from pay per click ads in 2009 was nearly 23 billion USD (or 97% of their total income) while Facebook's pay per click income in 2009 was estimated at around 350 million USD. Think about it, that is a lot of clicks. So yes - users pay very close attention to pay per click ads on the internet.
I think the reason that ad clicks has dramatically increased since the beginning of the internet is because of the quality of the ads. Back in the days, the ads shown online were sold at flat fees to the highest bidding advertiser. As a result the rate at which people clicked on the ads (CTR) was very low. Today this has changed. The ads shown are relating to the content on the page and set to match geography and demographics of the website visitor, thus resulting in higher CTR. In addition, ads are not sold at flat fees, but at 'per click' and/or 'per thousand impressions' prices. In Luxembourg some of the high traffic sites still sell their advertising space on a flat fee basis. If you decide to advertise there, make sure you measure the traffic that comes through closely.
Because today's technology allow advertisers to target their ads better and at their own budget, large barriers of entry to online advertising has been removed. A small business with a limited advertising budget can now compete with large established companies that have millions in their advertising budgets. That is serious business potential.
That brings me to the last part of your question. Simply having an add because the advertising platform allows you to, does not mean that your business will benefit from it. Your ad needs to get the user's attention. Again, the technology available is your bread and butter. The best way to get your ad noticed, is to create several different ads by varying the text and/or image in the ad and then setting the advertising network such as google and facebook to rotate between the different ads. The ad networks collects the data for you and via reports you can see which one of the different ads create the most attention (ie. gets clicked the most). This is highly valuable data to a business, as it tells you which ad version people like the most.
How can you get the right strategy setup to make newsletters a source of income for your business?
Newsletter marketing has proven to be a highly profitable method of advertising if used correctly.
Think about it, you reach people straight at their email inbox which they know and trust. Trust is the keyword here. If you abuse people's trust you are running a big risk. Gaining trust is already hard, but re-gaining trust after you lost it is much harder. So in order to successfully use email advertising you must have a clear strategy.
Before even talking about sending out email newsletters and the content/layout of them, we must talk about email delivery. Your email newsletter is not of much value to anyone if it lands in people's spam filters. They will never be read. To ensure the email newsletters get delivered to the destination inbox, you can use various online services that ensure the delivery of your emails. The reason they can guarantee the delivery of the emails, is because in order for your email newsletter even to be sent, the owners of the email addresses in question must confirm that he/she agrees to receive emails from you.
True, this means that you cannot take the email list with a few thousand addresses from your collaboration partner and just start sending them emails as well. And you shouldn't - the people on that list has never asked to receive emails from you. For the records: if you do it anyway, you are sending out spam emails.
There is still a way to reach the people on the list talked about above. Ask your collaboration partner (who actually owns the list) to add a link to your email newsletter subscription page next time he/she sends out an email newsletter. Like this it is now up to people themselves to be added to your mailing list. If they decide to add themselves, you have their trust (at least for now) and you can build something from there.
Concerning the email newsletter content and layout, there are a few things you need to be careful with. Here are some important things you should make sure of. Do: - write a catchy subject - keep the email message relatively short - not overuse graphics - not only look for a sale - make dedicated destination page(s) for your links in the mail - track email delivery and click-through rate
The successful content and layout of your newsletter is often industry and demographic dependent. You will simply have to try different kinds of approaches and see which ones benefits you the most. The main importance for newsletter marketing is the people you send it to. Always ask yourself: 'will this benefit the reader?'. If you are not sure it will, re-write your newsletter until you can answer the question positively.
> www.online-marketing.luPublié le 17 janvier 2011
