Online marketing news and resources.

Rumours that Google is looking to go into broadcasting have been leaking through online over the last few months, with Autumn set for the first appearance of Google TV-powered devices. The exciting crossover opportunities for businesses of all sizes and how website design and online marketing will be transformed, lies tantalisingly just weeks ahead.

According to the world’s No.1 search engine, Google TV will be an “open platform”, aiming to unite search and browse capabilities, integrating web search results and TV content, side by side. Google TV will support Flash and make the “full internet” available through set-top boxes and “integrated” TV screens.

Formatting website accessibility for the new channel could be an issue – the TV browser is Chrome – although Google TV is intended to work with existing TV screens but either TV or the set-top box will require an HDMI input or output, respectively.

Google TV ( GTV) will be built and remote controlled on the Android platform, not Chrome OS, and will run Android apps. Users will not require a cable TV subscription, although they will need WiFi in their home to access GTV and for those who simply wish to use Google TV to get internet content and web video as an alternative to paying for a cable subscription.

The present arrangements for advertising from traditional TV sources or existing internet sources/publishers/networks will continue but the likelihood of new and specific GTV ad formats to eventually be produced.

According to Google, there will be the same privacy options and controls as available for Chrome online and an indication that there will be tracking and data collection.

Partner companies involved, in addition to Adobe, will include amongst others, Intel (chip), Sony (TV) and Logitech (set-top box), Logitech says its box will have a remote which also integrates a keyboard. Google have yet to give any indication of pricing.

As and when Google TV finally hits a viewing screen, and we enter the next era of integrated online and broadcast interactive content, the possibilities for marketing strategies and optimising brand identity presence across the new interchangeable platform could be very attractive indeed!

It’s been said before – online marketing tools complement, not compete with each other! Reports always announce that one or the other is in the ascendency but in fact, social marketing helps draw attention to a company profile or product, whereas sales are likely to be generated when information is received by email!

Another report – based on a survey of over 1,400 so-called ‘representative’ consumers, – has just announced that email still beats social networks when it comes to marketing for eCommerce. Apparently, over a third of consumers are not using a social networking site, and online brand identity ‘fans’ are still in the minority!

Depending on the market niche a business occupies, email marketing can definitely be the more important way to contact people over a longer period of time, because, as a rule, almost everyone reads email. Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, or LinkedIn will invariably update to an email account anyway!

As we  all should know by now, because a variety of media platforms are available, every user will adopt the channel they feel is best for them, even though, as the long established workhorse, email continues to be the desired channel for many types of commercial communication. (more…)

A ‘Third Screen’ wave is underway, transforming online marketing and offline interaction; mobile access is anywhere, anytime, when you want. But beyond the early adopters, will business be now savvy enough to recognise opportunity or wait too long to see if mobile apps can play a long term marketing role before investing?

The professional website design and marketing practitioners are often best placed to quickly evaluate the viability of emerging web technologies and software platforms. It is their job to inform and advise their clients how to formulate best practice marketing strategies to engage niche market audiences.

The rapid emergence of both mobile and tablet technologies is creating a new communication potential, but is also throwing up once again, a big challenge to business on working out how they can properly measure metrics, decipher analytics, understand new audience types and engagement methods.

The confusion lies in the fact in that to use mobile marketing for delivering basic text message alerts or customised, interactive content is to use mobile as an individual distribution channel, which can produce a variety of customer response patterns, positive or otherwise.

The key attraction for eCommerce business is that mobile devices are almost certainly now a constant ‘life’ companion with which we rely upon to carry out an ever increasing number of minute by minute ‘work, social and personal’ activities. This fact alone is unique to mobile and should shape the messages. To be effective they need to be seen as highly relevant or highly important that best serves both parties, rather than annoying and intrusive. (more…)

Last week’s announcement that Google has obtained a patent for technology software to help identify ‘inadequate content’ is a wake up call for businesses and their web design and marketing agencies to improve uploaded content quality and focus on niche long tail search phrases.

Increasing market segmentation is being driven by a combination of consumer led search behaviour, such as the use of highly specific channels, made possible through the emergence of mobile applications and the Twitter social media platform of 140 character messaging.

The launch of iPad and the tablet format, hot on the heels of iPhone and smartphone, and the push for users to access dedicated content download shops, all point to the ratcheting up of ‘quality’ niche market content provision within online marketing campaigns.

Business owners who have simply relied on a basic SEO approach to producing large quantities of low quality content or concentrate their budgets almost totally on PPC, and bidding on commonly used generic keywords will likely be most affected. Companies who sustain longterm ‘organic’ marketing strategies to drive specific long tail keyphrase traffic will most benefit.

A recent report revealed that social media traffic referral, specifically to blogs, had increased by a staggering 50 per cent. The study showed that Twitter/ Facebook /social network users were sharing quality long tail content, and this behaviour is predicted to increase, emphasising the importance of content’s ‘social journey’.

The link building of niche communities around long tail topics, identified by Google’s increasingly sophisticated algorithms, is intended to enhance a web user’s search experience in their specific long tail search term enquiries. Businesses will need to seriously address their site optimisation approach and invest in quality written content provision to keep visitor traffic interested in the long term.

Web product launches are rolled out almost daily, it seems, providing new platforms and opening up channels, which call upon everyone to keep up! The biggest area of concern is inevitably, website accessibility, and latest updates look at legal compliance for products like iPad.

The British Standards Institute (BSI) has just published revised guidelines regarding legal obligations for making web products accessible to the disabled and elderly. The standard is titled ‘BS 8878 Web Accessibility – Code of Practice’, scheduled to be finalised to replace the Disability and Discrimination Act later this year.

BS 8878 addresses ease of accessibility for web products on mobile phones, TVs, game consoles and other computer products, such as iPads – focusing on devices other than desktop computers, which can present access challenges for both developers and users. Developers face further difficulties when successful access on one product does not necessarily translate to all such products.

The guidelines will directly impact website design agencies and their clients, entailing action to be taken to bring sites into line and enable eases of access via the new mediums. The test for meeting the standard takes into account whether an adjustment is reasonable, based on a platform’s importance, popularity and likelihood for use by disabled or elderly users, although it may seem to business owners that it’s highly unlikely that senior citizens would be accessing the net via an iPad in large numbers! (more…)

Everyone seems to be talking up mobile internet these days whilst the launch of iPhone 4 is no doubt setting many an Apple lover’s pulse racing. Mobile is predicted to be the web access king within just 36 months.

Digital media and marketing pundits are, like those notorious World Cup ‘vuvuzelas’, trumpeting in loud unison that the mobile phone will overtake the traditional PC as the world’s most used web-access device by 2013. It‘s estimated that the combined number of smartphones and web browser phone devices will exceed 1.82 billion units, also by 2013, eclipsing the 1.78 billion total for PCs.

So where does this leave the many small business owners and medium sized companies desperately trying to adjust their online marketing campaigns to the relentless tide of web technology channels and platforms? (more…)

Predictions for mobile internet to overtake desktop internet use in just five years means it’s now time for businesses to begin online marketing campaigns that incorporate this channel. Using HTML5, mobile apps are taking off big time!

It is estimated that there are 326,000 mobile websites worldwide, compared to 148,000 iPhone apps and 24,000 Android apps. Early in 2010, a 600 percent growth in traffic to mobile websites over the past year was also reported, and just last week, a white paper predicted that web apps will soon become more practical than native apps.

So what does this mean for the business owner and his web design and marketing team, endeavouring to keep pace with the rapidly changing eCommerce landscape? The shifting focusing onto the mobile web means a company can deliver their message to all smartphone platforms, not just the one device, or even the deskbound PC, laptop or netbook.

Up to now, the mobile web has been preoccupied with the all pervasive iPhone, Android, and now even iPad apps. When looking at the mobile as a total system, marketing strategies should be built that work across all channels and devices from the very beginning. Apps, by definition, are not cross platform, but companies want to target audiences and establish their brand identity on multiple devices with minimal adaptation in a process similar to website accessibility. (more…)

The message is clear – website accessibility is more critical than ever before. Beyond common browser compatibility, eCommerce now needs to consider the ability of their sites to be readily accessed and search friendly for mobile platforms and the avalanche of tablet readers now entering the consumer marketplace.

It’s the year of the mobile app and many savvy companies would have already instructed their website design team to optimise the site pages as best as possible for user friendly mobile search. Not only that, web designers ought to be busy creating mobile apps for their client’s specific market niche, to be downloaded onto iPhone, enabling instant brand access by loyalty audiences at the touch of a stylus!

A website is now so much more than a simple online store. Users expect a rich, informative and entertaining experience. Social media content in the form of blogs, articles, news flashes, Twitter feeds and Facebook interactivity is only the beginning of a redefinition of online marketing presence for forward thinking companies.

Whether you believe that the launch of iPad heralds a real revolution in multi screen size platforms beyond laptop or netbook, may be superseded by the entry of the big global internet players like Dell with Streak, a range of tablet versions in different screen sizes, or Blackberry and HP getting into the act too. (more…)

The global success of YouTube, now celebrating its 5th year, reinforces video as a key online marketing tool. The rise of mobile internet and latest smart platforms, such as iPad and Streak, means a website without a video can be losing valuable traffic.

Incorporating video into website marketing strategies has become one of the most well known and best promotional methods you can adopt online. Well-executed videos with great content can grab attention faster than any other advertising medium.

Between February 2009 and February 2010, the number of videos being viewed online in the U.K. grew to a staggering 5.5 billion, up 37 percent from the previous year.

Most strikingly, is the shift away from the use of broadcast television to watching traditional programmes online instead.

The figures clearly show that video is established as a long term marketing medium for creating brand identity and with applied SEO, increased traffic can be driven by link building back to your site.

Comparison studies between video and display ads in eCommerce applications, have found that video generates the higher traffic with short corporate videos, not only effective in engaging with potential buyers, but also video product reviews on social networks are considered with higher levels of trust. (more…)

You’re all probably iSick to iDeath of hearing about iPhone, iPad, Google, Blackberry and Streak by now! A smartscreen volcano has also been erupting this year, spewing forth media phone / tablets of every size, ratio and interactive capability you can think of – just so we can always have instant access to Life, The Universe and Everything!

Here’s the thing (as they used to say!) – we’re all going to hear a lot more about mobile search, as it is recognised that we are now in the next stage of the internet revolution. The obvious ease of convenience of having all the ‘local’ information you can ever possibly need, whenever you need it, means mobile search is becoming big business! And business should be taking notice. It’s all change for online marketing and brand identity messaging!

With dedicated mobile applications now possible to be created for anything, the concept of consumer search is transformed forever!
Users search differently on their mobiles than they do on their desktop PCs. Hunting for products and services on the move means we need results with urgency when trying to locate or obtain directions to a restaurant, entertainment venue, retailer or trade counter. (more…)