20 Things You Should Know About Online Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]
Online marketing has changed significantly in the last few years… Facebook is the most visited website in the world. Smartphones are changing the way we use the Internet. Google is the undisputed king of search.
Any business serious about succeeding in 2011 and beyond, must be aware of the changing landscape and position themselves to ride these new and exciting waves.
This infographic outlines 20 things Australian businesses should know about online marketing. Feel free to leave any thoughts you have in the comments section below…
Is LinkedIn Advertising Right For Your Business?
LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than 100 million members globally. It has the world’s largest audience of affluent and influential professionals. In April 2011 LinkedIn surpassed 2 million members in Australia.
LinkedIn allows you to advertise to these professionals, and it can work very well for some businesses and not at all for others. In this article you’ll learn whether LinkedIn advertising is right for your business or not, and how to make it profitable if it is.
Who should advertise on LinkedIn?
LinkedIn advertising is ideal for companies that operate in the B2B space, such as accountants, consultants and lawyers. LinkedIn advertising is also ideal for institutions that want to attract the attention of highly qualified business professionals, such as universities advertising MBA programs.
If your product or service is mostly sold to end consumers, LinkedIn is probably not the right platform for you.
Facebook Marketing 101
With nearly 50% of Australians using Facebook, many business owners are seriously considering taking the step of investing in a Facebook Marketing strategy. However, before taking that step it’s essential to understand the various elements of a Facebook Marketing strategy because the combined use of all elements is where success is achieved. So, let’s break it down…
1. Facebook Business Page
When setting up a presence on Facebook for your business you must setup a Facebook Business Page, which is different to a Personal Profile. Setting up a Facebook Business Page will provide you with the following benefits:
- Anyone can view your Facebook Business Page
- Facebook users can become a Fan of your business page
- You can view statistics about your business page through Facebook Insights
- You can run Facebook Ads directly to your business page
- You can send an update to all of your Facebook Fans
- You can stream your Facebook page directly through your website
- Facebook users can become Fans directly from your website
- You can get more than 5,000 Fans (personal profiles only allow up to 5,000 friends)
- It’s against Facebook’s terms to setup a personal profile for a business, and Facebook can take it down.
2. Facebook Fans
A Facebook Fan is somebody who has ‘Liked’ your Facebook Page. A Facebook Fan is similar to an email subscriber except that they have ‘subscribed’ to receive updates through Facebook rather by email. You can see all your fans by referring to the side navigation of your Facebook Business Page.
10 Lessons From Barack Obama’s Online Marketing Strategy
In 2008 Barack Obama won the presidency of the United States on the back of one of the most successful online marketing campaigns in history.
The time has now come again… with the upcoming U.S. elections in November, Barack Obama has re-launched his online marketing campaign with the hope of achieving similar, if not better, results than in 2008 (of course this time he has the benefit of already being the President).
In this article I’ll cover 10 areas of his 2011 strategy, as well as explaining how you might apply them in your business.
1. A High Performance Website Is Used To Drive Action
When you go to www.barackobama.com the first page you see is a landing page that is focused on one thing… to get your email address and zip code. The main call to action is red so it stands out. It is obvious what they want you to do. They also use the words “I’m In!” in the button to encourage people to follow through.
Barack Obama’s people know that the key to gaining maximum leverage from those who visit his site is to capture their details and stay in touch with them on a regular basis through email marketing… the entire website is geared to drive email subscriptions and donations.
Action: What is the main action that you want your visitors to take? Are you capturing the email addresses of people who visit your website? Think about the best free offer you can make and integrate that offer into your website to drive action.
Is Your Business ‘Checking-In’ With Social Media?
With more than 60% of new phones being smartphones there has been a huge increase in mobile Internet… I myself wonder how I found my way around before having an iPhone with Google maps! The growth in location-based smartphone applications (apps) has been massive and is continuing to grow at a rapid rate.
For bricks and mortar businesses, location-based social media strategies provide a great opportunity to increase exposure and drive sales, as customers can now ‘check-in’ or ‘rate and review’ the business through Facebook Places, FourSquare and Google Places.
What Is A ‘Check-In’?
A ‘check-in’ is very much in the hands of the social media community and it is where a social media user tells all of their friends, family and connections that they are at a particular location.
On a smartphone you can check the Facebook and FourSquare apps to see if your business is listed, although it is likely that your business will already have a listing created by users who have already ‘checked-in’. If you don’t have a listing, then you can simply add one. It will then appear whenever people in the surrounding area click on the ‘check-in’ button.
Once the listing has been created on a mobile device you, as the business owner, are able to claim and edit the place listing (upon providing the necessary verification). With Facebook you can integrate it with your business Facebook page, and with FourSquare you’re able to create check-in rewards and setup loyalty campaigns.
