The rapidly expanding spectrum of available online marketing tactics can be overwhelming. The best way to determine the most appropriate methods for your marketing goals, aside from asking the experts, is to have a basic understanding of what each method is capable of achieving and what each can’t do efficiently.

What is Paid Search Marketing?

When you use a search engine, chances are you’re looking at paid search or pay-per-click (PPC) programs without even realizing it. The ads that show up to the right of the search result list in Google, for example, are the paid placements that appear based on the keywords typed into the search.

When we searched for “EMI filters” in Google, the top three organic searches are Wikipedia, EngineersEdge.com and EMIFitlerCompany.com. However, the sponsored links at the right are EESeal.com, DigiKey.com and CoilCraft.com. These companies have paid for their ad to appear on (ideally) the first page of search results even though the company might not be listed on the first page of the organic results.

Read the post Google Instant and You! for more info.

So how is this helpful? You have the ability to increase the public awareness of your website in search results directed towards specific searches (and therefore searchers) related to your products and services.

Read more…

Advertising, Articles, Online Marketing Advertising, Marketing, Paid Search, Web

There’s plenty of buzz – both positive and negative – about the new Google Instant (it launched September 8^th). To experience Google Instant, you have to go to www.google.com, not your browser’s tool bar, and perform a search.

For some time now, Google has “auto-completed” what we enter, provided it had some relevant search data pertinent to what we are typing. Well, Google Instant goes one step further and offers up complete search results, editorial and paid, as you type.

When we type an “a,” we get AOL, Amazon, Apple and Amtrak as immediate results. We typed “simon gro” and The Simon Group came up third in the search engine result page (SERP, as a search maven would say). Try it on yourself and see what happens.

We have two concerns with this regarding our clients’ online marketing programs – both for paid and organic search.

Read more…

Advertising, Articles, Online Marketing Advertising, Paid Search, Search, Web

So, it has happened…online BtoB advertising has recently surpassed print advertising in overall revenue dollars. Even in the high-tech and industrial markets, where there is an older engineering demographic that prefers print, online advertising still makes up a significant percentage of media spending.

But this shift isn’t necessarily bad news.  As media data has shown, most BtoB pubs have two sets of readers: those that go online and those that still like to flip pages, and the overlap is very minimal.  Online advertising not only provides the exposure to the segments of our target markets that tend not to read print magazines, but also can generate pretty heavy-duty leads, depending on the publication…an integral feature we use in our comprehensive media analysis.

So, just like in the good old days of bingo cards (any of you youngsters know what they are?), we can measure our return on investment for a given advertisement based on how many readers respond for information.

And the news keeps getting better – more publishers are taking advantage of advancing tracking technology to capture more detailed prospect information.

When banner ads started popping up on the Internet, measuring results was limited to the number of times an ad was viewed on a website (impressions), and the number of times someone clicked on the ad and went to the advertiser’s site (click-throughs).

When e-letters started making their appearance, we received similar information – how many recipients opened the e-letter, how many bounce backs occurred and how many recipients clicked through to the advertiser’s website.

Read more…

Advertising, Articles, Online Marketing Advertising, leads, Marketing, Measuring ROI, Web

Thought online advertising meant just web versions of print ads? Think again!

Although print advertising is still effective, it’s important to tap into the new world of online advertising, since this is the prime source of information for some market segments.  And, research from various sources (Nielson, MRI, eMedia Strategist, and our own analysis of media kits and publication data over the years) repeatedly shows there’s minimal overlap between people that get their information from the web and those that obtain it from print, so if you want to reach your entire target audience, you need to use both advertising channels.

Online advertising takes many forms – e-newsletters, banner ads, webinars, white papers, virtual trade shows, videos, podcasts, social media, pay per click…the list goes on.  With all the technology available, an advertisement can be much more than just words or an image.  Online ads can incorporate motion and sound—something a print magazine ad is incapable of doing.

Online Advantages
A major advantage to online advertising is accessibility.  Unlike print, where the ad reaches only a certain amount of people, online ads have virtually no limit and can reach anyone in the world around the clock. Long after the advertisement is posted it can continue to brand your product or company.

Online advertising also provides something print advertising could rarely deliver: information about the people who are actually responding…clicking on your ads, downloading your whitepapers and tuning in to your webinars. While print advertising can provide you with circulation data and readership details, it can’t provide the names and contact information for the last 10 people who really, actually viewed your information (though the amount of data provided varies by publication).

Read more…

Advertising, Articles, Online Marketing Advertising, Analytics, Facebook, leads, Marketing, Paid Search, Social Media, Twitter, Web

Advertising may seem expensive, but when done correctly, it’s a great way to broaden your company’s brand awareness and increase sales, especially in down economic times when your competition may be cutting back on their frequency or ad sizes!

As part of an integrated marcom program, advertising is a highly effective way to get your message seen by customers and potential customers. Because you specifically control the message and where it appears, it tends to be more expensive than other marcom tactics, like PR.

And it’s interesting to note that most publications carry separate circulations for their online readers and print readers. There is still a subset of people that rely on print to learn about emerging technologies and products, while others rely more heavily on websites and e-newsletters.

Determining where to advertise can be a bit tricky. Here are three helpful hints to make your advertising program more effective.

First, determine your target audience; who do you want to reach? Narrowing your target audience helps you identify what trade magazines and web sites fit your company best. Look past the raw number of people that receive the publication as well as the click-throughs and impression statistics typically found in a media kit and understand who is reading the magazine or visiting a web site. Pick a publication where the circulation is representative of your target audience – job title, industry or market segment, what products they specify or other relevant criteria. Independent third party audits, such as BPA or ABC statements, are a great source of data if they are available, but there are other ways to obtain this info, too!

Read more…

Advertising, Articles Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Media Analysis