Enhance Customer Relationships in Real-Time using Social Media Tools  Building Customer Loyalty

Online tools such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others can help provide businesses with opportunities to enhance customer relationships in real-time. Here are some ways to put social media to work to improve your brand loyalty so customers will want to promote your company in a positive way. Monitor Customer Comments - Most customers and first-time buyers make purchase decisions based on the online comments they read. Designate a person on your team to track and monitor all social media mentions for your organization / brand. Anticipate Needs - To be proactive about identifying customer needs, consider promoting a survey via social media. The survey can help with new product development, branding and positioning, and overall reputation monitoring. Address Complaints - Act quickly when you discover negative comments online, since bad news can spread rapidly. Determine what went wrong; resolve the customer's problem and then blog about how you took care of it. Engage Customers - Encourage customers to share feedback directly, via comments on blogs or a Facebook page, or via Twitter. These channels create exciting new opportunities to gain real-world insights into your customers' attitudes and needs. Encourage Satisfied Customers to Talk - Encourage satisfied customers to share their experiences on social media sites. If you have brand advocates who love your product or service, you may well be at the top of the list of recommended names. Social media makes it easier to understand your customers, track their needs and provide the product or service they want. These same applications can help you tell them that you have just what they need! WSI can help build strong sales campaigns that maximize the potential of social media marketing. Contact WSI 4 Web Business to learn how you can leverage social media for your company's sales process and demand generation initiatives.

Integrate Social Media with Your Sales Process and fill your Sales Funnel  Strengthen Relationships Using Social Media

Businesses are increasingly turning to social media to enhance brand visibility, increase sales and strengthen relationships with their customers. By engaging in a rich, ongoing dialogue with customers, companies can better understand their evolving needs, resolve service issues more effectively and gain true brand advocates. Driving Website Traffic Savvy companies are successfully using social media to drive sales and build traffic. What matters is how you decide to use all the tools of social media and how they’re integrated to work together. Play off of each other, complement each another, reinforce messages; and at the end of the day, effectively drive traffic and engage users. Cross-promote each account or profile. Look for your audience by searching for groups that are directly related to your product or service. Ask the question, "Have you tried our product yet? We would love to hear your feedback!" This simple call for client testimony can inspire a great conversation. Include a video on your site and publish it to YouTube to spread the knowledge. Plan an integrated campaign that utilizes chat software, direct mail, print ads, radio spots, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn ads, mobile initiatives and an interactive Twitter billboard. Post a weekly blog. Once that blog is published, have it set up so that it automatically posts to your Facebook page within a few hours. Craft tweets that are scheduled to go out once a day (at different hours on different days) with a link back to your blog. Also post articles of interest and company updates. Ultimately, everything should keep to the goal of pointing back to your website. The website must have conversion architecture, so visitors can easily be led into the buying cycle. Consistent contribution across all platforms is an absolute must for social media success! WSI can help build strong sales campaigns that maximize the potential of social media marketing. Contact WSI 4 Web Business to learn how you can leverage social media for your company's sales process and demand generation initiatives.

Accurately Target Your Prospects
Find the Right Place to Display Your Ads

An online advertising strategy must ensure that you are accurately targeting prospects. Here are some tips to consider.

• Avoid clutter. Don't advertise on a webpage that already has too many ads. Your message will be lost with so many others competing for audience attention.
• Placement. Specify the placement of the ad on the website. While home pages may get a majority of the traffic, ad placement on subject-specific pages can help hone in on your target.
• Ad exchange. Carefully review "free" online advertising offers. For example a "free" banner ad developer may want reciprocal links or ad placement on low quality websites.
• Accurate links. Ensure that the ad takes the user to the most appropriate page on your website (i.e. the page with relevant information rather than simply the home page).
• Self-serve advertising. An increasing number of ad companies/networks are offering self-service ad choices. Some options are Facebook, AdReady, AdBrite and Add It All.
• Contextual advertising. Some companies/ad networks will place your ads in search results pages and other relevant websites (using a network of partner sites). They typically allow you to bid on a set of keywords, and your ad is displayed until the budget limit is reached. Try Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, Microsoft adCenter or Ask.com.
• Product/service search engines. Special product search engines can be used to find specific products or services. Products are usually ranked according to how much the advertiser pays. However, the user can also sort the search results by price. Some popular search engines for this are www.shopzilla.com, www.nextag.com, www.shopping.com and www.tripadvisor.com.

Even though social media has stolen the limelight in recent years, display advertising spending continues to grow. Contact WSI 4 Web Business to manage your display advertising campaign - get leads, get results, get ROI.

Drive Traffic to Your Web Properties
Keep Your Ads Interesting and Relevant

The "first impression" is crucial. A display ad should draw curiosity, attract the immediate attention of Internet users/website passersby, and encourage them to click on it. Using the right mix of visuals, colors and copy, your ad can stand out among millions of others.

Tips to improve the conversion ratio of your display ads:

• Keep it simple. Multiple messages in a single ad are confusing. One or two main ideas along with a compelling offer will suffice.
• A clear and succinct call-to-action. Your call-to-action should be easy to see, strong and must coincide with your campaign goal. Put your call-to-action on a button. For example, "Click Here", "Buy Now", "Get Started" or "Search Now".
• Improve creative quality. Use videos or interactive ad units to grab attention. Good design should highlight the content in a visually appealing manner.
• Include keywords in your ad. One of the basic (but often overlooked) strategies is to include the keywords assigned to an ad in the title and description. So when someone searches for these keywords, your ad is most likely to show up.
• Avoid broken link(s). Check and re-check all links to make sure your display ads take users where you want them to go. A 404 error page not only creates a poor online user experience, it also damages your brand image.
• Professional designs yield better results. Even if your goal is not branding, your advertising should look sleek, professional and engaging. Get a professional designer rather than doing it yourself.
  

Online advertising means thinking out-of-the-box - viral marketing can bring great results! Freely downloadable e-books, attractive wall papers, animated banners, free samples and iPhone apps will provide cost-free brand promotion. Customers will spread your message further via their blogs, social networking pages and smart phones.

Part 3: 'Accurately Target Your Prospects' available on 18 April 2011

---

Drive Traffic to Your Web Properties
Keep Your Ads Interesting and Relevant

The "first impression" is crucial. A display ad should draw curiosity, attract the immediate attention of Internet users/website passersby, and encourage them to click on it. Using the right mix of visuals, colors and copy, your ad can stand out among millions of others.

Tips to improve the conversion ratio of your display ads:

• Keep it simple. Multiple messages in a single ad are confusing. One or two main ideas along with a compelling offer will suffice.
• A clear and succinct call-to-action. Your call-to-action should be easy to see, strong and must coincide with your campaign goal. Put your call-to-action on a button. For example, "Click Here", "Buy Now", "Get Started" or "Search Now".
• Improve creative quality. Use videos or interactive ad units to grab attention. Good design should highlight the content in a visually appealing manner.
• Include keywords in your ad. One of the basic (but often overlooked) strategies is to include the keywords assigned to an ad in the title and description. So when someone searches for these keywords, your ad is most likely to show up.
• Avoid broken link(s). Check and re-check all links to make sure your display ads take users where you want them to go. A 404 error page not only creates a poor online user experience, it also damages your brand image.
• Professional designs yield better results. Even if your goal is not branding, your advertising should look sleek, professional and engaging. Get a professional designer rather than doing it yourself.
  

Online advertising means thinking out-of-the-box - viral marketing can bring great results! Freely downloadable e-books, attractive wall papers, animated banners, free samples and iPhone apps will provide cost-free brand promotion. Customers will spread your message further via their blogs, social networking pages and smart phones.

Part 3: Accurately Target Your Prospects available on 18 April 2011

---

Drive Traffic to Your Web Properties
Keep Your Ads Interesting and Relevant

The "first impression" is crucial. A display ad should draw curiosity, attract the immediate attention of Internet users/website passersby, and encourage them to click on it. Using the right mix of visuals, colors and copy, your ad can stand out among millions of others.

Tips to improve the conversion ratio of your display ads:

• Keep it simple. Multiple messages in a single ad are confusing. One or two main ideas along with a compelling offer will suffice.
• A clear and succinct call-to-action. Your call-to-action should be easy to see, strong and must coincide with your campaign goal. Put your call-to-action on a button. For example, "Click Here", "Buy Now", "Get Started" or "Search Now".
• Improve creative quality. Use videos or interactive ad units to grab attention. Good design should highlight the content in a visually appealing manner.
• Include keywords in your ad. One of the basic (but often overlooked) strategies is to include the keywords assigned to an ad in the title and description. So when someone searches for these keywords, your ad is most likely to show up.
• Avoid broken link(s). Check and re-check all links to make sure your display ads take users where you want them to go. A 404 error page not only creates a poor online user experience, it also damages your brand image.
• Professional designs yield better results. Even if your goal is not branding, your advertising should look sleek, professional and engaging. Get a professional designer rather than doing it yourself.
  

Online advertising means thinking out-of-the-box - viral marketing can bring great results! Freely downloadable e-books, attractive wall papers, animated banners, free samples and iPhone apps will provide cost-free brand promotion. Customers will spread your message further via their blogs, social networking pages and smart phones.

Part 3: Accurately Target Your Prospects available on 18 April 2011

---

Display Advertising
Increase Your Online Advertising Effectiveness

Display advertising is graphical advertising on the Internet that appears adjacent to content on web pages, instant messaging applications, email, etc. These ads can include text, logos, pictures, or rich media like video. Even if potential customers don't click on your ad, they are still exposed to your message, logo and business image.

How does display advertising benefit your online marketing initiatives?

• Immediate results. Online display advertising is generally used to enhance brand reach, but it is equally effective at generating a direct response.
• Targeted advertising. You can utilize a full spectrum of behavioral and contextual algorithms, demographics, site based targeting or geographical locations; enabling higher conversion rates.
• Monitor your marketing. You can track the performance of your ad campaign daily to measure metrics such as impressions, clicks and conversions to calculate ROI.
• Cost effective advertising. You can reach a wide audience with a small advertising budget. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising campaigns require you to pay only when someone clicks on the link in your ad, not for the number of impressions.

Part 2: 'Drive Traffic to your Web Properties' will be available on 14th April 2011

---

Search Engines and Social Media Channels Compete ...but finding common ground can help customer engagement and conversion

With increased awareness about search engine optimisation (SEO) and easier access to information, business owners are more willing to invest in making their websites rank higher on search engines. Simultaneously, the explosive growth of social media is spurring businesses to consider making social media an integral part of their overall marketing efforts. This does pose somewhat of a dilemma because the objective of search engines and social media channels is quite the opposite of each other. While search engines aim to help consumers find the information they are looking for and direct them specifically to the most relevant (top ranking) websites, social channels facilitate online conversations on third-party forums like Facebook, Twitter, Mashable and so on. Savvy Internet marketers have realised that instead of making the difficult choice of one over the other, it is wise to find common ground between search and social and rake in the benefits of both. The biggest advantage of social media is that it generates consumer-speak - honest feedback about a product, service or brand. Social media users are already on a heightened level of "engagement" when they are discussing a product, service or issue. If your company launches a social media campaign, you can look for the prominent and frequently appearing keywords that users include in their social conversations. Using these keywords on your website can yield good results because they are likely to be relevant search terms that prospective customers will use when searching for your product or service on Google, Yahoo!, etc. You could be losing potential opportunities if you ran a social media campaign without a solid SEO strategy in place to support it. Your business needs the collaborative impact of search and social marketing.

An earlier blog post revealed that, in 2009, Internet ad spend in the UK had increased on the previous year and is predicted to carry on increasing, with a notable point made that last year (2009) the UK became the first major economy where advertisers spent more on Internet advertising than on television advertising¹.

One source for this information was a study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers. This report also analysed factors that maintain and help grow the market. Of these factors, the main catalysts were found to be¹:

• Greater advertiser confidence: Optimism is returning to UK marketing companies with marketers at 300 leading companies collectively offering the most positive financial outlook since the second quarter of 2005, when the question was first asked. Budgets are set to increase in 2010 despite the 9^th consecutive period of budget cuts in the final quarter of 2009.

• More people online: As another previous post discusses, Internet users in the UK are increasing year after year. For marketers, the more people there are online, the more people there are to advertise to.

• Faster broadband drives video advertising: The report claims that 92% of the UK with Internet access has broadband and 63% of these have access with speeds of over 2MB. As a result of this, Internet users can experience dynamic video and high quality media executions, which inspire the use of techniques such as viral marketing.

• Social media explosion: In the last few years, social media sites have been increasing in number and popularity. The report alleges that 20% of time spent online in the UK is spent on Facebook. Social media has caused online sessions to become more immersive and has given brands the ability to engage with their customers, allowing for more entertaining and appealing ads.

To find out more about Internet advertising and how you could exploit the above factors, or for other Internet marketing strategies, visit our home page.

Sources:

1. IAB Online Adspend Study for 2009

In 2009, the UK became the first major economy* where advertisers spent more on Internet advertising than on television advertising, with a record £1.75 billion online spend in the first six months of the year compared to a fall to £1.6 billion for TV advertising¹. This is according to the bi-annual Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) Online Adspend Study, conducted in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers, which details online advertising spend in the UK.

The report found that the overall online ad spend for the 2009 was £3,541 million, which was up 4.2% (on a like-for-like basis) on the previous year¹. Of the main Internet advertising formats, paid search advertising was up 9.5% and was worth £2,148 million, which was 60.7%, of the overall online advertising market¹. Display advertising was down 4.4% from the previous and was worth £709.3 million with a market share of 20%¹. Classified advertising was down 5.3% and worth £677m which accounted for 19.1% of the market¹.

According to a UK Online Advertising report from eMarketer in 2009, marketers will continue to shift advertising resources from traditional channels to the Internet. It also projects that the rebound in the economy will have a higher impact on increasing momentum and that the London Olympics will increase activity in 2012, bringing the percentage of spending growth into double digits².

To find out more about Internet advertising and general Internet marketing strategies visit our home page.

 

*Note: first major economy, Denmark was the first country where Internet ad spend has overtaken TV spend.

Sources:

1. IAB Online Adspend Study for 2009

2. WSI Internet Marketing Trend Report 2010