Copyright © 2010 Internet Marketing 2010-07-30T07:29:58+0100 2010-07-30T07:29:58+0100 http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. http://www.i-com.net/blog/ http://i-com.net/images/icom-net.gif http://www.i-com.net/blog/ Leading Manchester SEO, SEM and web design agency blog. I-COM International blogmaster at i-com dot net Internet Marketing Internet Marketing en SEO, SEM, Web Design, Web Development 1440 http://www.i-com.net/blog/do-screaming-bus-stops-sales-367/ From time to time, an annoying advert or jingle can be beneficial for a brand, but it's an extremely fine line between an endearingly irritating, yet catchy song ('we buy any car, we buy any car...') and something so bad it makes everyone hate your product. If anyone's seen the advertisement currently festooned across a certain Cross Street bus stop, just outside Boots, they know what I'm talking about. The advert that seems to periodically scream its brand name; or perhaps it senses when people are looking at it? Either way it's a horrendous idea.Imagine - for this advert to have been approved, several things must (perhaps in some parallel universe where logic is inverted) have happened: An employee of the firm responsible for this monstrosity has come up with the idea, and been sufficiently impressed with their advertising nouse to forward it to their manager. The manager has said to their employee, "You know what, you might be on to something there." The manager and the employee have pitched their idea to the client, who shall remain nameless, and the client has said, "Good idea guys, let's do it!" The whole motley crew has paid ridiculous sums of money to have the advert installed in bus stops. They've all sat back and felt satisfied. And what have they achieved? Everyone (surely) hates the advert, hates the product and will probably avoid it in shops for the rest of their life. Whilst this obnoxious advertisement does make people take notice, it doesn't make them take notice in anything like a good way. Both the brand name and the actual nature of the product have come second to the 'concept', and are subsequently difficult to make out - I am still unsure exactly what the advert is for.This kind of advertising, believe it or not, is actually founded on a sensible idea. Make your advertising slightly annoying, slightly obnoxious, and people will take notice. They may not like it at first, but it will quickly become a talking point (see: this blog post, although I haven't mentioned the brand itself) - it's the adage: "any publicity is good publicity."The problem is, when a company produces a small-minded interpretation of the aforementioned idea, all they achieve is mass annoyance and subsequent brand-death. And if anyone thinks these bus stop adverts are a good idea, please, please explain to me why using the comments box, and I'll try and get my head round it. Internet Marketing 2010-06-29 08:39:18 http://www.i-com.net/blog/do-screaming-bus-stops-sales-367/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/christmas-online-shopping-stats-a-round-up-301/ Christmas may seem like a distant memory now, with the only reminder of the festive period being that solitary mince pie left in the cupboard (they just dont taste the same when its not Christmas); but from an online perspective, there are some interesting results that are worthy of comment. A plethora of stats for online shopping in the UK in the run-up to Christmas have been released over the past couple of weeks. Those of particular interest include:  Cyber Monday (7th December) remained the biggest shopping day of the year, with the peak being 3 million being spent online in the UK in one hour between 13:00 and 14:00 The average order placed online was up by 94% this Christmas, compared to the same period in 2008 The number of goods that are purchased per transaction has also increased significantly, from 2.7 items in 2007 to 3.7 per order in 2009 132 million worth of purchases were made on Christmas Day, an increase of 29% on the previous year (eDigitalResearch) All of the indications from these stats are that peoples shopping habits are changing.  But is this shift a natural process, or are retailers being more savvy in their marketing and actively influencing shoppers behaviour in the direction of online? I certainly noticed that the larger retailers were much more on the ball this time around. For the six weeks leading up to Christmas, I came to expect at least five email messages in my personal email inbox every day from retailers promoting online Christmas offers and products.  (I would suspect that the free delivery over X offers as promoted in such emails had an influence in raising the average order value.  I was sucked into this on at least three occasions in the run up to Christmas!!)I have blogged previously about Marks and Spencers and how their online marketing efforts and social media campaigns are setting the standards for other leading retailers. In the run up to Xmas, there was a further noticeable step up by Marks and Spencers and their contemporaries in terms of their social media usage using Twitter and Facebook to keep customers informed about everything from their deals of the day, to last delivery dates and even updates on delivery delays due to snowy conditions. And with the likes of @chiconomise and @fashionpixies aggregating all offers from UK retailers and directing traffic to online sales, we are being spoon fed all the info we need to make Christmas shopping online easy peasy.There is little doubt that as the number of mainstream stores offering online shopping has grown, people in the UK are becoming more used to researching and completing online purchases. The fear factor has diminished significantly and the demographic of people making online purchases has undoubtedly broadened; and so long as retailers continue to do the right things and target their customers effectively via a variety of channels, all indications are that the online shopping bug will only continue to take a further hold.And what with all the snow and ice, freezing cold temperatures, and queues snaking around the aisles, there is certainly a lot to be said for Christmas shopping from your sofa <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:Wingdings; panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:2; mso-generic-font-family:auto; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 268435456 0 0 -2147483648 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} @page Section1 {size:595.3pt 841.9pt; margin:72.0pt 90.0pt 72.0pt 90.0pt; mso-header-margin:35.4pt; mso-footer-margin:35.4pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} /* List Definitions */ @list l0 {mso-list-id:950285101; mso-list-type:hybrid; mso-list-template-ids:1404189612 134807553 134807555 134807557 134807553 134807555 134807557 134807553 134807555 134807557;} @list l0:level1 {mso-level-number-format:bullet; mso-level-text:; mso-level-tab-stop:36.0pt; mso-level-number-position:left; text-indent:-18.0pt; font-family:Symbol;} ol {margin-bottom:0cm;} ul {margin-bottom:0cm;} --> Internet Marketing 2010-01-25 09:27:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/christmas-online-shopping-stats-a-round-up-301/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/its-snow-joke-for-online-retailers-292/ Excusing the obvious use of a bad pun, many retailers have seen a 13.5% drop in sales due to the snow and icy weather that is gripping the UK. The weather has also hit online sales with large online retailers such as Amazon unable to provide normal delivery to customers. While large online consumer goods retailers have been hit due to their dependence on postal services, other online retailers have seen a surge in sales, most notably supermarkets. Due to the bad weather and driving conditions, many customers are opting to utilise home delivery services for their weekly grocery shopping; although many supermarkets have struggled to deliver to all their customers. Service websites and gambling sites have also seen a big surge in online sales; for example, Auto Windscreens who have seen a 700% jump in online sales due to drivers booking in cars for repairs while working from home. These mixed fortunes for online and offline retailers suggest a need for many online retailers to have contingency plans in place if they are unable to deliver during periods of bad weather or postal strikes. Possible solutions could be free delivery during periods where delivery is un-available or slower than normal and marketing campaigns on standby that can be tailored to take advantage of these situations or to ensure sales remain constant during any experienced disruption. Internet Marketing 2010-01-12 14:08:19 http://www.i-com.net/blog/its-snow-joke-for-online-retailers-292/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/playing-games-278/ It's the time of year that online shopping goes through the roof, and companies like Amazon, Play, and Toys R Us are rushed off their feet with orders flying over the internet. When a friend of mine was shopping for her kids on PLAY.com she came across something that many consumers need to be made very aware of over the Christmas period, inaccurate pricings of goods. I have taken a screen grab of an example of a product which has been priced incorrectly.  PLAY are offering 'buy 2 for 25' on many of their Nintendo DS games, but would you buy 2 for 25 when 1 is only 9.99? This is clearly a mistake made by PLAY, but it is becoming a common problem. Content uploaded onto websites needs to be proof read and checked before being uploaded to a live site. When Christmas shopping online make sure that your basket has taken into account the offers, that you are getting the right deal and when you are at the checkout that the total is what you expected it to be. Inaccurate information on a webpage can lead to visitors becoming confused and subsequently turning their attention to competitors. This is especially true around the Christmas period when customers want to make sure their gifts arrive on time and for the right price. The Royal Mail has officially said that the last Christmas postal date for letters and packages sent 1st class will be 21st December 2009. Make sure you get your prezzies sent out in time! Internet Marketing 2009-11-30 14:41:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/playing-games-278/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/email-marketing-at-its-most-risible-260/ We've been the target of one of the most badly gauged email marketing campaigns I've seen in a long while today. This morning the blog inbox had the following awaiting me in the "spam folder." Enlarge image in a new window There was a logo for the product and text telling me I'll be a beacon of light. That's nice. What a waste of 10 seconds. Did it spark my interest? Not really. It sparked my laughter. I forwarded it on to a colleague as an example of some of the amusing spam we get. He laughed. Out of idle curiosity he clicked the link and laughed some more.  Then we got on with our day. Just now I got a second email from the same company. It turns out they're an email marketing company offering an email marketing product. How do I know? They sent me this: Enlarge in a new window A few points on this: The first sentence is grammatically incorrect. This makes me think the company is unprofessional. I don't want to be hassled via email by them, if I were interested I'd phone so now I won't be clicking any more links on their spam emails (I won't even be opening them, TBH). We offer email marketing here at I-COM, which these guys would have seen had they looked at our site and chosen to email targeted leads rather than every email address they could scrape. Good email marketers don't email market to businesses that offer the same services being offered in their e-shot. The moral? A decent email marketing campaign needs to give you a genuine reason to click and needs to target the people who might actually care - and it shouldn't be so pushy that it encourages those same people to block you. Internet Marketing 2009-10-29 14:43:06 http://www.i-com.net/blog/email-marketing-at-its-most-risible-260/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/website-testimonials-what-we-can-learn-from-spammers-about-trust-250/ I spend a lot of time asking clients to provide testimonials and telling them to add case studies to their websites. Why? Well, by associating yourself with real people and real actions, it helps your business look trustworthy.It's such a proven tactic that even the pyramid scheme email spammers use it:Take the above screenshot - if you got an email from some random guy named Joel telling you to trust him that he was telling the truth about his marketing genius and his surefire way to make money, well, you'd never believe him. But, if his client Phil goes out of his way to tell you about the scheme, explaining that not only has Joel helped him, but he's also helped all these other people - and he gives you their names - doesn't that add a hint of credibility?Names = real life people = happy customers.Surely providing real stories about how your products or services have benefitted others, backed up with their thoughts on how great you are in their own words is the best form of marketing there is. There is absolutely no substitute for receiving a recommendation from a satisfied customer.So, take it from the spammers - testimonials work. They don't send those emails out to you for fun because they like the idea of filling your junk folder. They do it because it makes them money. Internet Marketing 2009-10-09 08:35:00 http://www.i-com.net/blog/website-testimonials-what-we-can-learn-from-spammers-about-trust-250/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/online-advertising-overtakes-tv-advertising-grows-by-46-in-the-uk-244/ Interesting to see that the IAB and Price Waterhouse Coopers latest report shows that, while overall marketing spend has slid by 16% due to the recession, spend in online marketing grew in the UK by approximately 4.6% to 1.752bn between January and July of this year. For the first time ever, the amount of money companies spend on online advertising has overtaken that spent on TV advertising.This comes as no surprise at all to us here at I-COM. We're seeing the recession accelerate companies' migration of advertising spending from more traditional media to digital technology.It's no wonder that online advertising and marketing has grown even in such difficult times. Growth in online adverts is driven by; Multi-media / Rich Content: Online Video and interaction makes the internet much more engaging E-commerce: People are now taking to the internet to find bargains and discounts, especially in recession Direct Response: Marketeers can measure the success of online advertising much more effectively Cheaper Broadband / WIFI Services: Allow for a much wider audience whom advertisers can provide with richer content More and more clients are coming to us looking to get the best possible Return on Investment for their advertising spend and more importantly, are realising that digital media, particularly search marketing, provides the best possible ROI. Internet Marketing 2009-09-30 09:32:18 http://www.i-com.net/blog/online-advertising-overtakes-tv-advertising-grows-by-46-in-the-uk-244/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/toptrianglecom-secret-of-an-internet-marketing-experts-success-243/ I've just been catching up with my reading of Crains and came across an interesting article entitled "Feed magnate saves skip broker from trash" This article deals with the news coming from the the Administrators of TopTriangle.com, the online skip hire business which was run by Mark Attwood, self proclaimed internet marketing expert. The article says that the insolvency practitioners SFP are investigating allegations that in addition to factors associated with the market downturn, internal fraud may also have contributed to the collapse of the business.The London-based insolvency firm SFP said its forensic team had identified various areas of concern in relation to the company's trading activities before it folded in March with debts of almost 1m.Toptriangle has now been bought out of administration by a company called Perfect Associates in which Mark Attwood holds shares but isn't a director. In the past Mark Attwood has used Toptriangle as an example of how his abilities as an internet marketing expert has driven the business to success. The Crains article seems to suggest that Toptriangle might not have been as successful as Mark Attwood had proclaimed through his blogs and public speaking.According to an estimated statement of affairs, the deficiency to unsecured creditors is in the region of 938,816, with many skip hire companies owned money. SFP said unsecured creditors were unlikely to see any dividend. Internet Marketing 2009-09-29 10:52:40 http://www.i-com.net/blog/toptrianglecom-secret-of-an-internet-marketing-experts-success-243/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/will-free-content-boost-your-business-228/ Manchester City Football Club (MCFC) is currently attracting large amounts of interest due to its new-found wealth. As part of a new market strategy to make the club a global brand they have completely overhauled their website, the cost of which has amounted reportedly to a 2,000,000 investment. The biggest change to their site is the availability of free video content, such as interviews, match highlights and features for which they previously charged. Although it is possible to spend a lot of time discussing the clean design and minimal advertising that the website offers, what has impressed users most is this free video content. With the nature of the current recession, subscription-based services are on the decline as the demise of Irish TV sports broadcast Setanta indicates. Perhaps a large percentage people who previously subscribed to the MCFC video service would have cancelled their subscription due to the current economic downturn as well. This clearly provided MCFC with two options - either stop producing and maintaining their video site as it no long provided a viable revenue stream or provide content free of charge as a branding and customer relationship exercise. Giving something away for free is hardly a new marketing trick, but MCFCs web strategy does raise the question of whether other sites should follow suit?Give something away for free, turn a profit in return During a recession opportunity does still exist and often the businesses that emerge strongest on the other side are those who continued to invest in marketing. Many small business enterprises (SMEs) charge for content; of those companies many have done so in a bid to generate revenue streams other than on-site advertising. Is making content free of charge viable for SMEs? If your business is in the position where your paid content is no longer providing a viable revenue stream, can you afford to make it free? You must also consider if the availability of free content will support your main product offering or service and help build brand awareness, customer relationships or direct revenue generation. If, like MCFC, you are trying to reach a global or national audience and drive more traffic to your site, then free content could offer you a strong chance to capitalize on a whole host of benefits it provides, but only if you go about it the right way and your business is tailored to support it. Many SMEs with a web presence do operate nationwide, or in some cases globally, but few have the free national and international advertising that has helped MCFC to drive visitors to their new site. If you are lucky enough to receive high volumes of traffic, you may find that free content will encourage repeat visitors. Even if this is not the case, the current economic climate may provide you with the right opportunity to strengthen your market position though your on-site content and help you develop a new unique selling point (USP). If you do not currently receive high volumes of site traffic you must decide if your business can support the investment which is needed to promote your new USP either via online marketing channels or traditional media. Whether the recession reaches a low point or we begin to see a return economic growth, there will be many opportunities to capitalize on the reduced marketing of your competitors. How many companies will choose to strengthen their positions by offering services free of charge in bid gain a bigger piece of the pie post-recession? Internet Marketing 2009-08-19 11:03:14 http://www.i-com.net/blog/will-free-content-boost-your-business-228/ http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-to-look-for-in-an-internet-marketing-expert-211/ At a recent seminar I attended I was asked what the qualities that someone should display who goes under the title of "Internet Marketing Expert."In my opinion a true internet marketing expert should be able to: Demonstrate an understanding of the current position and objectives of the business and sector they are going to work in. Write a cohesive Internet Marketing Strategy to achieve those objectives. Demonstrate that they can and have implemented SEO strategies to gain higher Search Engine Listings Understand how Social Media Marketing can be utilised in the Internet Marketing Plan Explain and demonstrate where they have utilised online reputation management strategies to improve Search Engine listings, Internet Real Estate and promoting of the brand, product or individual. Demonstrate where they have used copywriting to achieve high conversions and usability not just search engine listings. Demonstrate how the utilisation of article and blog submission has helped one of their clients to gain a) New Clients and b) Internet Real Estate Clearly discuss the importance of link profiles and off site search engine optimisation. If they can provide examples of where they've done all these things you truly have an Internet Marketing Expert in front of you. Unfortunately our industry is plagued by a lot of self publicists and individuals that see the internet as a way to make a quick buck. Our advice to you is make sure you check them out before you spend any money; speak to the people that they have worked with and get personal recommendations, don't be satisfied with on-site testimonials or videos - make sure you pick up the phone and speak to someone. If they are a true internet marketing expert they will have proven, tried and tested techniques, but also an individual plan for your business! The process of employing an Internet Marketing Expert should go from initial consultation, through to strategic planning and effective implementation that brings measurable results. Good luck and I hope this has helped you to start thinking about the questions you should be asking prior to employing the services of an Internet Marketing Expert! Internet Marketing 2009-07-30 12:33:15 http://www.i-com.net/blog/what-to-look-for-in-an-internet-marketing-expert-211/