Archive for Marketing News
Local to Take Lead on Online Ad Spend
Posted by: | CommentsFrom: eMarketer
Focusing on lead generation
Beginning this year, Piper Jaffray sees local online advertising spending outpacing the national spend in the US.
In 2008, national and local spending levels were equal. But while the research firm projects a drop in national online ad spending for 2009, local is expected to increase by 5%.
Over the next five years, Piper Jaffray predicts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9% for local online ad dollars, compared with 4% for national Internet spending.
Borrell Associates, on the other hand, forecasts only a 2.9% CAGR for local online ad spending over the next five years. Borrell puts spending at $16.4 billion in 2013, compared with $19.18 billion for Piper Jaffray.
While Borrell believes the local online market is approaching saturation, Piper Jaffray indicates in its report that small businesses will begin to catch up with consumers online, bringing significant growth to the local online sector and moving local dollars from offline to the Web.
Piper Jaffray considers lead generation the primary goal of local advertising, and suggests that mobile presents a major opportunity on that front. With online search the preferred method to find local business info, and consumers highly connected to their mobile phones, especially during the weekends, the research firm predicts huge growth in mobile search spending through 2012.
“Local lead gen companies will play a key role in bringing small businesses into mobile advertising,” according to the report. “Small businesses need to understand that mobile can be as valuable a channel as online and lead gen players be the educators.”
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Google’s new 7 box – 10 box loses 3 listings making it even more competitive
Posted by: | CommentsBIG NEWS it seems that Google is making room for it’s new local business ads by taking 3 local business listings off of the 10-box and reducing it to a 7-box. This makes it more competitive now to get into the top spots in Google’s local business results. The display is less cluttered and cleaner looking but once again limits valuable real estate and ups the ante on ranking.
Do you know how to optimize your Google Local Business listing to get into the new 7 box?
Google 10 box now 7 box
New Google Listing Ads – Google’s New Way To Advertise For Local Businesses
Posted by: | CommentsMountain View, California — Attempting to win over its rival Yahoo’s local ad unit model, Google has finally introduced a more novel and simplified version of short ad unit for local businesses called Local Listing Ads.
These Local Listing Ads are configured to display when users search for a business in its local area and will contain only basic information about a business, such as contact info and a link. The units will appear on Google.com in local results at the top of the results page, and in Google Maps. The new ads will be displayed at the top of a search results page when users conduct a geographic search for a category related to an advertiser’s business.
“Once you select a standard category that best describes your business, Google determines the cost that ensures the ad is seen by the highest number of people looking for businesses like yours in your location.”
Google spokesperson Deanna Yick declined to comment as to how much the ads will cost, since Google will be testing prices for each location and category to find the best balance between cost and return for the advertiser.
According to Google, more than 80% of people look to Google for local information, and this is the best way to make your listing stand out. The ads are targeted only to people who are near your business.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Local Search is tricky explained by Danny Sullivan
Posted by: | CommentsLocal Search can be very tricky and not accurate at all. Businesses need to claim their local listings and make sure they are correct. Here is a funny story that Danny Sullivan “Godfather of Search” recently told about his issues with Local Search.
Have you claimed your local business?
What questions do you have about Local Search?
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Offline retailers are loosing to Online ecommerce stores in the search results
Posted by: | CommentsOffline Traditional Brick-and-Mortar retailers are loosing to Online ecommerce stores in the search results
Online retailers represent over 30% of the search listings from a typical online retail search on a major search engine, while brick-and-mortar stores only show up in searches 12% of the time, according to an analysis of search-engine results by Internet-Engine .
The results from the Retail Search Presence Study reveal that online-only retailers, such as Amazon.com, have a very strong presence in both paid and organic search listings, while brick-and-mortar retailers — despite a slight increase in search presence over the past three years — consistently have the weakest performance of every group, including manufacturers who do not sell directly to consumers, MarketingCharts writes .
The research suggests that traditional retailers might not be keeping up with changes in consumer behavior since they are relying on a brand-push marketing strategy while online retailers using search marketing present a consumer-pull strategy, said Internet-Engine.
"Online retailers have developed and maintained a dominant presence in search marketing," said Thom Disch, Internet-Engine’s CEO and the director of the study. "To put this in perspective, when a shopper does a search on the internet, he or she will find three listings from on-line retailers for every one listing from a traditional retailer. I find it very surprising that brick and mortar retailers have not invested more dollars in search marketing, since e-commerce sales have grown 28% since 2006 (according to comScore ) while total retail sales have grown by only 3% over the same time period."
Free vs. Paid Results Show More Dramatic Difference
The study also compared paid and free search results and finds that the free or organic listings of the traditional retailer websites have only a 2% share of the total listings. This is dramatically smaller than the share for free listings for eCommerce sites at 17%, shopping comparison sites at 11% and manufacturers’ websites at 10%.
"Not appearing in the free listings means that the brick-and-mortar retailers must spend more of their money on paid search listings which ultimately will have a negative impact on their overall profitability," said Disch. "Investing in search optimization techniques to increase the organic or free listings would help these traditional retailers by balancing their listing placements, reducing their overall costs and increasing their market presence."
About the study: Internet-Engine’s Retail Search Presence Study was conducted over the past three years during the holiday shopping season and included analysis of more than 6,000 web pages in 10 product areas. Product areas included digital cameras, power drills, gaming systems, MP3Players, snow blowers, strollers, treadmills, TVs, GPS systems, and watches. This study analyzed both paid and organic listings that were presented on the three major search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN Live.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,How To Get Found Online – Forbes Magazine Article
Posted by: | CommentsHow To Get Found Online – Forbes Magazine Article
Naomi Grossman 02.13.09, 5:01 PM ET
Grabbing customers’ attention is always challenging, particularly for small businesses with limited marketing and advertising budgets. Smart search engine optimization can level the playing field by allowing smaller shops to march up the search stacks on Google and Yahoo!. SEO consultant Rebecca Lieb–former editor-in-chief of the ClickZ Network, an interactive-marketing publication and author of The Truth About Search Engine Optimization–talked with bMighty about how small companies can take control of their search results.
bMighty: What opportunities are small and midsize businesses missing with search?
Lieb: Many of them simply aren’t paying any kind of attention to SEO, and they are doing themselves a disservice. Search really levels the playing field.
I was having lunch with some friends, and they were talking about a doctor they knew who was very specialized, and he has a Web page. They were saying, Why would he possibly have a Web site? The implication is, Why would he advertise to the world? The answer is, he’s not advertising to the world, he’s "narrowcasting." The Internet has billions of channels, and users can fine-tune those channels to what they need. It’s the marketing holy grail. It’s getting the right product to the right consumer. For this doctor, it’s ideal.
It’s also how I found an acupuncturist. He has a specific practice in a specific area. If he didn’t have a Web page, I never would have found him. He also had the right keywords in his page, and I was looking for the right combination of keywords and key phrases. Content matters.
Search engines read text on a Web page, and searchers type in text. It’s all about the text. One mistake that small and midsize businesses make is to put their logo on the Web site as an image. Search engines only know the name of the image file; they can only read text. Small and midsize businesses should make sure to include the name of their business and the address if they’re serving a local audience.
How important is search engine optimization to small and midsize businesses?
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Newspapers in Crisis: Migrating Online – eMarketer
Posted by: | CommentsThe outlook for newspaper publishers is grim. Their business model is broken and advertisers are bailing. Newspaper advertising revenues in the US declined 16.40in 2008 to $37.9 billion. By 2012, spending will slide to $28.4 billion. Is there hope for this proud medium?
Newspapers in Crisis: Migrating Online with Video
Written January 13, 2009 – 10:40 AM | by Grant Crowell at ReelSEO.com |
“Online is the new reality” for newspapers, says Carol Krol, Senior Analyst for the research agency eMarketer. ReelSEO’s Grant Crowell interviews Carol on her featured report, Newspapers in Crisis: Migrating Online. Carol shares on how newspaper publishers need to do a better job of promoting and monetizing their online video content, especially for the social media space. The following are some Q&A clips from our featured interview:
Grant: How does eMarketer come up with the report findings and estimates?
Carol: We’re a research company in a way, but we don’t do primary research. What we do is aggregate data from the marketing, media, and advertising industry across the board. We literally look at thousands of data resources, and what I do is look at the specific data sources for the newspaper industry. I look at the methodologies and how they came up with their own numbers.
Did you like this? If so, please bookmark it,Using Craigslist to Promote Your Business
Posted by: | Comments
Promoting Your Small Business – Using Craigslist to Advertise Your Business
By DeAnna Troupe
I’ve been using craigslist to market my virtual assistant business for a while now.
Promoting your business on Craigslist can be a tedious process sometimes. Lots of ads seem to struggle as entrepreneurs try to survive amongst the bigger businesses that are usually hard to compete with. There are many things that the small business owners can do to create a quality Craigslist posting that will make their ad stand out.
1.) Create an ad that has a simple headline that draws the Craigslist browser in. Use keywords that your customers will search for.
2.) Include an IMAGE in your ad. Your Craigslist posting will stand out if you use pictures. Images will make your ad look much different than the monotonous craigslist ads that are primarily text.
3.) Post every day, or every other day. Advertising on Craigslist can be extremely competitive.
4.) If you want to collect people’s email addresses for your list, post a link to your autoresponder in the ad. If you want to build a list, make it so that the only way they can contact you is by the website.
5.) Create a craigslist account if you want your postings to be easier to manage. This technique is often overlooked by many posters.
6.) Make sure that your ad is appropriate and that it falls in the right section of Craigslist. Otherwise it may be flagged by the people of Craigslist.
7.) Consider outsourcing your craigslist advertising. There are people that would be delighted to manage your craigslist campaign for a fee. I know this is supposed to be a free method of advertising, but you will save time if you outsource this project.
Advertising on craigslist can be a very effective way to promote your small business. Whether you outsource the project or do it yourself, if you use these tips, you will be well on your way to having a successful small business.
DeAnna Troupe is a virtual assistant. Claim your free ecourse on traffic generation today by going to http://www.deannaspencer.com/list.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=DeAnna_Troupe
http://EzineArticles.com/?Promoting-Your-Small-Business—Using-Craigslist-to-Advertise-Your-Business&id=1516699
